Personality had big role in UH deal

By Jerry Burris
Advertiser Editorial Editor

Anyone who believes that politics isn't — ultimately — personal should take a close look at the recent settlement of the University of Hawai'i faculty strike.

For all the talk of money, strained budgets, faculty professionalism and university autonomy, the strike came down to personality.

There was the quite obvious personality conflict between Gov. Ben Cayetano and J.N. Musto, head of the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly — the faculty union.

What you have here is two guys who do not care for each other very much.

The most telling comment on their strained relationship came from Cayetano. "It's hard to negotiate with yours truly when somebody comes to the table who thinks you hate haoles."

This was in reference to Musto's suggestion that Cayetano has a deep-seated resentment toward the university's heavily Caucasian faculty.

And while it may not have anything to do with the fact that many UH faculty members are Caucasian, it is true that Cayetano has less than an abiding affection for some of those who work at Manoa.

Almost any conversation with the governor about the University of Hawai'i finds him muttering about light faculty workloads and a lack of commitment by gown toward town.

So there were negative personality vibes that stood in the way of a settlement.

But there were also positive personal relationships that, in the end, brought the strike to a close. This was the close friendship between Cayetano, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie and veteran lobbyist John Radcliffe, associate director of the UH Professional Assembly.

These three go back a long way. Abercrombie and Cayetano served together in the Legislature, at times as dissidents in the back benches. Radcliffe has long been a friend and political supporter of both men. The favor was returned when Radcliffe took a stab at elective politics himself in 1988 and ran for Congress.

Abercrombie, Cayetano and Radcliffe share certain personality traits as well, including a tough-talking, in-your-face combativeness. The years have made them comfortable with each other to a point that even when they disagree, they disagree as comrades rather than as enemies.

So as the dispute between the UH faculty and the state edged toward the crisis point, Abercrombie, Cayetano and Radcliffe began talking. A level of trust built through years of political wars made room for a degree of brutal frankness that would otherwise be impossible.

And consider this: There is a theory that the divide between the local political world and the university is due in part to local discomfort with the "Mainland-style" outspokenness of haole professors and their uppity airs.

That may be so. But it's a theory that falls apart in the face of the Cayetano-Abercrombie-Radcliffe friendship. Abercrombie and Radcliffe have been in the Islands for a long time, but their style is distinctly Mainland: brash, outspoken and when necessary, openly confrontational.

But that's Cayetano too, come to think of it.