5 tapped Five candidates nominated to lead the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus through a transition in leadership this summer will sit on a panel before the faculty senate this afternoon.
for UH-Manoa
chancellorship
The interim post will be
Manoa's advocate during
changes at UHBy Treena Shapiro
Star-BulletinThe appointment of an interim chancellor of the Manoa campus marks a shift in the organizational structure of the UH administration. The flagship campus has not had a separate leader since 1985, when the job was merged with that of the president of the 10-campus system, the position Kenneth Mortimer holds now.
But when president-designate Evan Dobelle succeeds Mortimer on July 2, the leadership of the Manoa campus will be given over to a Manoa faculty member during a national search for a permanent chancellor.
Barry Baker, president of the faculty senate and chair of the executive committee that whittled down the short list of candidates, said that the senate has for years fought for a separate chancellor, passing several resolutions "so we could have an advocate, a separate person from the president."
Baker said the nominees are five tenured full professors with demonstrated leadership, institutional memory and a record of scholarship: Rosanne Harrigan, dean of the school of nursing and dental hygiene, Charles Hayes, interim dean of the college of natural science, Randy Hitz, dean of the college of education, Deane Neubauer, professor of political science and director of the globalization research center, and Alan Teramura, dean of the graduate division and senior vice president of research.
The candidates will be interviewed by Dobelle after he arrives in Honolulu on May 24.
Four of the nominees reached yesterday all said they were willing to serve in the position, but without a clear job description or concept of Dobelle's vision for the university, none was sure that he or she was the best candidate for the position.
And, as Hitz pointed out, "one of the qualifications for seeking the interim job is that you're not seeking it (as a permanent position)."
"I don't see this as a high-powered competition of sorts. I see myself working with my colleagues, including the other four people, to see what's best for the campus," he said.
Although there is uncertainty about what the position will entail, there is a consensus that the interim chancellor should help bring clarity to Manoa's mission.
Neubauer, who has been at the campus for 30 years, said "Manoa has always been an uneasy place," faced with rapid growth in the 1960s, then plagued by budget crises in each of the following decades.
Working with Dobelle, the interim chancellor provides the opportunity to help define Manoa for the present and create a vision for what Manoa wants to be in the future, he said.
According to Harrigan, this definition is critical, but along with that, the interim chancellor will be tasked with "implementing some general direction for the university that the new president will provide."
The position becomes more appealing if it is shaped by the person who assumes it, Hayes said.
But overall, "the main activity of the chancellor is going to be to serve as the leader in a major transition in organization of the university taking place at Manoa," he said.
"This change will not only involve offices and people, but it also will involve the very basic idea of how governance occurs."
Teramura was not available for comment. The panel discussion will take place during the faculty senate meeting at 3 p.m. in the School of Architecture auditorium.
Ka Leo O Hawaii
University of Hawaii
