Dobelle: ‘I have
never been failed
by faculty’
The UH chief wants a
faculty-picked chancellor
'to be their advocate'
By Treena Shapiro
Star-Bulletin
University of Hawaii presidential appointee Evan Dobelle says one thing he plans to do when he begins his job is to listen.
While current President Kenneth Mortimer has been criticized by faculty and students for being inaccessible, Dobelle wants to open his doors, and his ears.
"You can't come from the outside and presume you have all the answers because you don't even have all the questions," Dobelle said at a news conference following his unanimous appointment by the UH Board of Regents yesterday.
Dobelle likens his accessibility to a retail store. "I don't like to be wholesaled," he said.
Dobelle, 55, president of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., will replace Mortimer when he retires June 30. The job comes with the president's house and car, plus a $442,000 salary, the highest in the UH system, topping even the $400,000 reportedly earned by football coach June Jones. Mortimer made $167,184.
With the change in salary comes a change in job description, notably separating the positions of the president for the 10-campus system and the chancellor of the Manoa campus, a dual duty performed by Mortimer. One of Dobelle's first responsibilities will be to select a chancellor.
The announcement came one week before the faculty union begins taking a strike vote because of an impasse with the state over contract negotiations.
Carrying signs reading "Save Our Semester" and "Wanted: Regents strong enough (at long last) to support faculty," University of Hawaii Professional Assembly members crowded the Bachman Hall foyer for yesterday's announcement.
They laughed derisively at Vice Chairman Allan Iwakawa's claim that "things are looking up for the university" in the final months of Mortimer's tenure.
But after being locked out of the search for a new university president, the faculty greeted with applause Dobelle's intention to have a faculty-only advisory committee select the finalists for chancellor of the Manoa campus.
"It would be my preference that five finalists be brought to this campus to speak to students, to speak to faculty and staff and community, all of whom I would encourage to comment to me, and that I would make that selection in consensus with the faculty-only search committee," he said.
Mortimer said Dobelle's speech was very impressive. "He spoke to the right people at the university, particularly his emphasis on working with the faculty and his high emphasis on what matters is what matters to the students. Those are very positive things."
Student Regent Sat Khalsa, a member of the selection committee, counted Dobelle's plans to interact with students and his commitment to educating the people of Hawaii among the presidential-appointee's strengths. "From the student perspective, we made the right choice," he said.
Undergraduate student body President Chris Garnier, also a member of the presidential search committee, echoed Khalsa's confidence in Dobelle.
"He definitely is the leader for the students of the university," he said. Dobelle was "extremely receptive to questions and suggestions" from the three student search-committee members.
Associate art professor Debra Drexler said Dobelle left her with a good first impression, but doesn't feel confident after just one speech, adding that problems at the university -- particularly the faculty-union contract -- need to be settled before Dobelle comes in. "I think morale is at an all-time low," she said.
Dobelle called the faculty the university's most valuable professionals, which is why he would like them to select the chancellor.
"I have never been failed by faculty that has been validated and empowered and I want that chancellor to be their advocate and champion," he said.
