The new president of the University of Hawaii appears to be exactly the shot in the arm the state's higher education system needs. In his first public address since he took the job earlier this month, Evan Dobelle yesterday outlined an ambitious blueprint for the institution. More importantly, Dobelle reached out to business leaders, the faculty and its union, students, alumni, community groups, politicians, other educators and environmentalists, wisely emphasizing that all are stakeholders in the university's success. Dobelle aims high
with the universityThe issue: The enthusiastic
new president sets an ambitious
course for the UH system.He plans a revamped system in which all students, whether at a satellite college or the flagship Manoa campus, would receive the same status, and where each campus would have a different emphasis but with collaborative purposes.
Dobelle, in proposing a new four-year program on Maui, recognizes not only the need to serve that county's community, but also that the university is like a business and more students mean more customers. He would further extend the university's reach to the Pacific Rim and Asia, seeking students as well as the research and business resources the region can provide.
He also sees the university as a "convener" that would work with public and private school administrators to improve education at all levels and to examine solutions for environmental problems with the expertise of the university's faculty.
Dobelle prudently envisions wrapping Hawaii's geographic strengths around programs such as earth and ocean sciences and astronomy for research strategies that may prove lucrative. He seeks to project the business school beyond tourism, retail and defense-related industries to move the state toward a more diversified economy.
Knowing that such objectives will cost money, the new president also has sought a review of the university's finances, specifically pointed at the bureaucracy, asking, "Is it too big? Does it serve the needs of our faculty and students?"
Dobelle's ideas will seem to some as pie-in-the-sky notions that can never become reality. But his enthusiasm is just what is needed to propel the university from the holding pattern where it has been stuck for too many years.
"The time has come to stop bemoaning what is wrong and get about setting things right," he said in his speech. "And the time has come to say that at the University of Hawaii mediocrity is not acceptable and average not good enough."
No doubt Dobelle will face many obstacles as he works his way down Hawaii's political and bureaucratic roads. However, his track record has shown him to be a shrewd and savvy administrator. If his skills are as strong as his first public words, the university system may be on its way to achieving the excellence he envisions.
PUBLIC confidence in the FBI has sunk to lower depths after Attorney General John Ashcroft might have thought it already had reached its nadir. That was before disclosure that hundreds of FBI firearms and laptop computers are missing or have been stolen. The top priority of President Bush's choice to head the bureau should be to bring it under control. More Keystone Cops
behavior from FBIThe issue: Hundreds of firearms and
laptop computers are missing from the
FBI's inventory, worsening the public's
already low opinion of the bureau.An internal FBI inventory found that 449 firearms and 184 laptop computers are missing. Many of the firearms, which included pistols, revolvers, assault rifles, shotguns and even submachine guns, had been stolen from agents' cars or homes. Others apparently were lost when agents died or were fired. One that was stolen from an agent was later used in a homicide. Thirteen of the laptops, including one that contained classified information about two closed espionage cases, are believed to have been stolen.
FBI officials told a Senate committee that antiquated technology and security systems had resulted in the sloppy tracking of the guns and computers. Kenneth Senser, the bureau's deputy assistant director for internal security, assured senators that the FBI's security systems and protocols have been increased since the arrest of agent Robert Hanssen on espionage charges.
In his first speech at the FBI's Washington headquarters, Ashcroft told employees prior to the disclosure that they must work to restore public confidence. Four separate investigations, including the Hanssen case and the misplacement of documents in the case of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, have tarnished the bureau's image as it has tried to recover from the Waco and Ruby Ridge debacles. A recent poll showed that Americans have nearly twice as much confidence in their local police as they have in the FBI.
President Bush has nominated Robert Mueller, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco, to become FBI director. Mueller is a highly respected prosecutor who headed the Justice Department's criminal division during the first Bush administration in the early 1990s and is expected to win easy Senate confirmation. His most important task will be to improve managerial practices that will enable the bureau to lose its reputation as the gang that can't shoot straight.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, President
John Flanagan, publisher and editor in chief 529-4748; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.com The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (USPS 249460) is published daily by
Oahu Publications at 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813.
Periodicals postage paid at Honolulu, Hawaii. Postmaster: Send address changes to
Star-Bulletin, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802.
