Transcript of live chat with UH President Evan Dobelle
Advertiser Staff
University of Hawai'i President Evan Dobelle participated in a live chat with users of honoluluadvertiser.com yesterday. Advertiser Education Writer Jennifer Hiller moderated the 45-minute session. Here is a transcript of the conversation.
Jennifer Hiller: Welcome everyone. President Dobelle will make a brief opening statement. I'll be happy to take your questions to pass along to him.
Dobelle: Thank you for giving the opportunity to citizens of Hawaii to ask questions of me directly. I think it is very important and I am excited to answer questions and I've been very pleased with the overwhelming enthusiasm that I've had given to my presence these past six weeks.
Hiller: Can you talk about your plans for UH-West Oahu. That has generated a lot of interest.
Dobelle: My interest in number one as I said in remarks that I had several weeks ago that we need to plan academically for UH West Oahu where in both new site and program we can serve that increasing population in Oahu while not taking from others and capturing a market with an exciting curriculum.
We need to deliver a high quality education in the liberal arts and professional studies to adult learners and build the very high ratings the faculty has gotten over the years from students in terms of their overall satisfaction with their educational experience.
Hiller: There's also been curiosity about how to fund the various campuses — West Oahu and Maui — that you 've talked about expanding. Will you go to the Legislature for more in the capital budget next year?
Dobelle: No. Not next year. We first need in West Oahu to find what the program will demand in costs and also to project what that might mean for a capital improvement program. I want to be able to work with the legislators and the Campbell Foundation to make sure we fully utlilize that property. We need, however, to present in 18 months, which is really 16 and a half months since I began a full picture to the Legislature and whomever the new governor is.
The four-year program at Maui is more programmatic than physical. I think perhaps in rented space in places like Lahaina and perhaps in the existing space now that the University of Hawaii will take over the management of the Supercomputer, that we may be able to offer course selections appropriate for now for a four-year degree. I've had conversaitons with our regent from Maui, Everett Dowling, and hope through him to meet in the next several weeks with the mayor and other elected officials and see how future physical development of a Maui cmapus may help develop overall economic development for the island.
I think it is important that any dollars that are used physically by the university are able to leverage other kinds of funding, including private, so that the taxpayers understand that their tax dollars are being used so as to increase the tax base.
Hiller: uhguy asks: Do you plan to talk to students. You've talked to the business community and faculty so far.
Dobelle: Well, I've talked to students through the student newspaper and next Sunday I will welcome four or five hundred students to the campus at Manoa and will start making time available on a weekly basis at the student union at Manoa during lunch every week so that people can approach me informally. I'm always happy to speak to students whether they are graduating like I did last Sunday or upon invitation.
It's important to realize that I in the new position as president need to make myself available to all 10 campuses throughout Hawaii and for people to realize that the individual who is in fact responsible for students, both academically and socially, is the chancellor or UH Manoa, Dean Neubauer.
Hiller: What about plans for the Manoa campus. As an expert in urban planning, many are expecting you to make some major changes to that campus.
Dobelle: I think it is an excellent question and it is a very important statement that we need to make. Education for all of our students need to be as transformational as it is transitional. And we need to have a vibrant college town that works hand and hand with our students, our faculty and the mayor's neighborhood advisory group to construct on campus and off campus coffee houses, art houses and dormitories. It will take a few years and a significant amount of private money but I believe we can make the campus at Manoa a destination for people not only to study in the classroom but also to learn and want to stay in an environment that doesn't exist today.
Hiller: kirkpatr asks: How migh tht equality of University campus life change with you on board?
Dobelle: I presume the question means how can we ghave an institution that has a celebration of academic rigor outside of the classroom, in the neighborhood and on campus and I look to Dean Neubauer and Karl Kim, the new interim academic dean at UH Manoa working with the faculty and students to present their ideas and I hope that experts on our faculty, particularly in my department of urban and regional planning will offer their guidance.
Hiller: QueenKap asks: you have indicated the faculty's role in your plans — what about the support staff?
Dobelle: Absolutely. I had a wonderful conversation with several hundreds of our support staff, secretaries, clerical workers and many others, who are technicians helping our research faculty and all of us must be included. No one has ownership of all the good ideas and we want to have a process for everyone who works and attends schools and the immediate neighborhood to work in concert to be able to have this kind of exciting colleg e town atmosphere. The very best cities rated by many magazines in the country are all college towns, places like Boston or Madison, Wisc. or Austin, Texas, and in Honolulu, which after all is the 11th-largest city in the country, seems that we should be able with community and environment respect, create along University Avenue a very exciting, dynamic place.
Hiller: UH student5 asks: How do you propose getting to those who are pro status quo?
Dobelle: Well, sometimes people are pro status quo because they fear the future or they fear change. To accept what we have now, I don't think realisticcally is acceptable by anyone. What we need to do is reach out and assure people that change can be graduated without being incremental and can be respectful of job security and also allow for creative ideas. We are in an institution that if anything should be able new ideas. So for an academic institution, the status quo is never sufficient.
Hiller: A major complaint of UH students is that they can't get the classes they need to graduate on time. Is your suggestion of a trimester system a solution to that?
Dobelle: That's possible. I've suggested that it is important to look at a trimester system such as Dartmouth College has; it is important to look at a quarter system, but also imprtant that on during the evenings and weekends and particularly during the summer that we offer a full a curriculum that they can get through in four years or less and that would include offering classes on all campuses, either in person or by distant learning that would articulate for at Manoa.
Hiller: kcc123 asks: "College towns for Manoa would be great — but what about the community colleges?
Dobelle: Having spent my 75 percent of my career in community colleges, I fully understand the question and I don't want two-year institutions limited in the future. I consdier them all to be part of the UH, many of them being able to offer four-year degrees now after two-years on their campuses. Some like Kapiolani are more complicated to create college towns because of impact by residential neighborhoods. But I would like to work with the students and faculty and administrators to do the best we can given physical limitations. But I hope to be able to see one univeristy of Hawaii with all campuses not restrictged to two year degrees or experiences they may not be in the future. Every student at the UH whether they are at Windward or Kauai or Kapiolani are the same as if they are at Manoa.
Hiller: UHstudent5 asks: you have many resources on your side, but what about the general public? Do they support you, if not, how do you go about gaining support?
Dobelle: Well, I've only been here six weeks and it would be presumptuous of me to suggest I have specific support on specific ideas . But I think it important to help set an agenda for conversation and what I've found is overwhelming enthusaism for new ideas and I'm glad of that. When you have a vote of autonomy that carries the state by 72 percent, you know there are strong feelings for UH. What we need to do is channel that enthusiasm into a strategic plan that is affordable
Hiller: Going to a fuller schedule on nights and weekends sounds like a bigger workload for faculty. Do you anticipate problems with the faculty union on that issue?
Dobelle: I anticipate no problems with faculty unions. I would hope that they would want to do as much as they can with appropriate pay to not only fulfill all they can for students but have schedules that are more flexible for their own personal lives. I don't ever look in life for problems with anybody; we need to have common interests to get from one place to another and if it is indeed important to engage all parties on these matters.
Hiller: Many community college students talk about the lack of transfer credits to Manoa. While their classes often transfer, they don't count as prerequisites for other Manoa courses. Will there be more streamlining of UH curriculum?
Dobelle: What there will be is a very strong overview of this and analysis of this led by Dean Neubauer working with the chancellor at the UH West Oahu and two-year institutions around the islands and the state. Every student should know clearly whether a course they take will be accepted for credit or as a prerequisite before they sit the first day in the classroom and we need to make sure that the academic and curriculum committees of all our two and four year institutions have a conversation that makes this happen. It is a historic problem and one that needs to be addressed as a priority.
Hiller: UHstudent5 asks: How do you go about selecting your "committee of workers?"
Dobelle: I believe the question probably means how do various task force and committees get formed. And my answer would be that you would reach out to the various constituencies and students and support staff and administrators and unions and community leaders and neighborhood members and have them suggest names for specific committees, but my life has always been one that guided by 10 heads are better than one. And you really can't be a leader if you aren't prepared to listen to people who don't agree with you. And have that placed in whatever equation that comes out of these deliberations.
Hiller: QueenKap asks: Your plan seems very ambitious — how do you proceed in completing these tasks?
Dobelle: Well, I would believe that people would want the leader of the UH to be ambitious because I am being ambitious for the family of the UH and the taxpayers of the state. One needs to first listen, take counsel, form strategic plans that have dollars and time schedules set that we will hopefully accomplished in the initiatives we have begun ove rthe next 18 months. It is important for all of us to have a destinatin and have a timeline on how to get there. But these are not necessarily my plans. A lot of what I've talked about have been plans that have been frustrated by inertia perhaps or lack of energy or some other reason for many years like the university of West Oahu, like a new film school, like articulation agreements that don't frustrate.
Hiller: kirkpatr asks: Will you work the notion of service into the undergraduate BA/BS in any formal way?
Dobelle: Our two-year students when they transfer to Manoa. I've like the faculty to give that serious consideration. It's something that in many ways can have an academic rigor to it that can be accredited in perhaps less class hours than formal teaching.
It strikes me that the generation today that is coming today have an absolute commitment to society that I haven't seen in 30 years or more. And I think it is important that we support that kind of energy. And we can do that by taking a hard and wise and thoughtful look at the way we could give credit for students who are doing psychological and sociological and economic work in youth centers, in hospices, and in homes for the aged, as an example.
Hiller: Jerry asks: Any chance of refurbishing the UH entrance signs on Maile Way and East-West Road to reflect a more Hawaiian theme?
Dobelle: I think that's a very good question and one that I hope will be addressed over the next 18 months by the various committees that will be formed and sunseted so that we can address how Manoa looks for the person who goes there everyday and those who go there for the first time. And I think that first impression should be a powerful impression that is rootful fo the land grand tradition and respectful of our traditions. And I think those we engage in professionally need to underline those themes.
Hiller: Ustanov asks: What do you feel is the state government's current attitude towards the university and higher education?
Dobelle: I have felt only an aloha from the elected officials from the state. Obviously, there are individuals who have strong views and it is important for me to listen to them as well as everyone else in the community, but I'd like to think as far as I have seen that they have a postive attitude towards the university and they are frustrated that it hasn't reached a higher position. We are quick to criticize, but not so quick to serve ourselves. And I honor those who do so. And respect their opinions, although at the end of the day I must put forward what I think best with our regents what we think is best for our students our faculty and our support staff.
Hiller: UHstudent5 asks: There are so many needs. How do you prioritize?
Dobelle: Well, it is always a problem, because one person's priority isn't another's. So that is why I think we need a strategic plan and that's what we haven't had before and you have a situation where everything is ia one off and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't work. And it is not the way to go about doing business.
So for me we need one priority and that is the betterment of the university, to take all these priorities and put them in a timeline and begins to get the job done.
My highest priority would be to increase the salaries of our faculty and support staff because with that kind of validation, they can help make this university even better. But people in many ways have been worn out by the past several years and what excites me is seeing the big green light I put up generate email and phone calls and ideas from all parts of our academic community. But you can't be a leader and simply say our faculty is terrific, you have to pay them. And whether you are head of a hospital, or Marine Corps, you have to pay your folks. And the hard part is to do it without an increase in tuition. A significant part of my job is to raise money outside of public tax dollars, which for many years at the UH was not done.
Hiller: UHstudent5 asks: Where do you see UH and yourself in the next year?
Dobelle: Well, traveling hopefully towards a conclusion that can be brought forward for public conversation and politically adopted by the Legislature and new governor. I hope it is a time of excitement and energy and that ideas come fast and furious and that we can put them together in a way that builds on the foundatio n of UH into an institution with a worldwide reputation. And we can do that.
Why we haven't, sometime becomes anecdotal and uninteresting to me. What I want to do is move the agenda ahead without politics and personalities.
My closing statement is we are having technical problems and I will be closing off and I hope to be invited back perhaps in a few monthjs for an update and I thank The Advertiser for this opportunity and I hope that those who couldn't get there can email me at evan.dobelle@hawaii.edu.
Hiller: Mahalo to everyone who joined us, and to President Dobelle for answering these questions.
