Settlement draws
mixed reviews
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Some students and faculty members criticized the settlement between University of Hawaii regents and former President Evan Dobelle, while others said he should have received more.
"It seems excessive," said Justin Shyba, a senior in business, referring to the $1.05 million payment to Dobelle. "It definitely sounds like he doesn't care about UH. He came and took and took, and now he's leaving with a lot of money."
"That money should be used for the school," said graduate student Susan Bynum.
But Tom Schroeder, chairman of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, noted: "The settlement was a classic compromise.
"We're just glad it's over and we can look forward to moving on."
Some said Dobelle deserved more.
"I'm surprise that he settled for this amount," said Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, professor at the UH Center of Hawaiian Studies and a Dobelle supporter.
Kame'eleihiwa said the regents should honor Dobelle's contract, which would have gave him $2.26 million in severance pay. She said with Dobelle settling for less, it gives the message to potential presidents that "contracts aren't worth very much."
"I just really prefer that they kept him as president," she said.
Ruby Ulep, a senior in sociology, noted that Dobelle "should get what he deserves, and that's his whole pay."
In the settlement, Dobelle will become a nontenured professor and reap the pay raises that the faculty won in a new contract in March.
"That annoys me," said Mary Tiles, president of the UH Professional Assembly, the faculty bargaining unit. "If he's faculty rank, he gets what we bargained for, and we'll have to take his dues."
In the past, administrators have been placed back into a faculty position and are paid much more than anyone else in the department without having to go through normal procedures like other faculty members, said Tiles.
"The regents are using the faculty position and title for their convenience. This debases the concept of the faculty," she said.
Dobelle will work on a research project to be determined by him and Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert, but he could have taught in the department of urban and regional planning, where he is a tenured professor at UH-Manoa.
"It would be nice to have him," said associate professor Peter Flachsbart, who works in that department.
Ulep said if Dobelle taught a course at UH, she would be interested in taking it. "Everyone that loves him, including me, would want to see how he is as a professor," she said.
Dobelle, who is attending the Democratic National Convention in Boston, was not at the meeting yesterday.
"It's weird how the world revolves around him and he's not even here to be a part of it," said Justin Shizumura, a recent graduate student. "He just sits back and lets his lawyers do the work."
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