By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Staff Writer
University of Hawai‘i regents today are expected to create a chancellorship for Manoa, giving the flagship campus its own dedicated leadership for the first time since the 1980s.
Members of the Board of Regents’ Committee of Finance and Facilities approved the position unanimously and with little discussion yesterday.
The proposal will go to the full board for final approval this morning.
UH President Kenneth Mortimer said he will start talking to members of the Manoa Faculty Senate next week about how the chancellor search should be conducted.
If it begins soon, a nationwide search for a chancellor would mean someone could come into the position next fall, he said.
Mortimer serves both as the president of the UH system and as chancellor of the Manoa campus, as former UH President Al Simone did before him.
Historically, the university has vacillated between combining and dividing the responsibilities of president and chancellor.
But detaching the next university president from the responsibility of chancellor should placate faculty members, who have long complained about the lack of a strong advocate for the Manoa campus.
In 1999, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution recommending a national search for a Manoa chancellor.
They cited low faculty morale, administrative neglect and a leadership vacuum at Manoa as some of the reasons for a change in leadership structure.
Mortimer, who is resigning effective this summer, also suggested the change, and the regents agreed.
The search for Mortimer’s replacement has made clear that the new UH president will not also have responsibility for the Manoa campus.
Under the plan approved yesterday, 10 administrative positions will be eliminated at the UH system level and seven new positions will be created under the new chancellor.
Dean Smith, executive vice chancellor for the Manoa campus, said the administrative structure at the campus will remain the same for now.
The new chancellor will have broad authority to reorganize the administration and decide the authority of vice chancellors and who deans will report to.
But that reorganization won’t happen until next fall, Smith said.
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