Next UH president's fresh approach wins admirers
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Staff Writer
The next president of the University of Hawai'i system has raised eyebrows along with expectations since he arrived in Honolulu two Mondays ago.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
First it was the $442,000 annual salary. Then came the statements he dropped here and there: He might move his office out of Bachman Hall at the Manoa campus, where UH presidents have traditionally had their seat of power; he wants to teach a class in public policy, but may do it at a community college; he plans to stay in Hawai'i until he dies.
Evan Dobelle, who will assume the UH presidency in July, emphasizes that he intends to be accessible to everyone.
Yesterday, on his final day in Hawai'i, Evan Dobelle visited with Gov. Ben Cayetano for the second time, and they talked for an hour about the future of the university and the threat of a faculty strike in early April.
Although the state and faculty union have reached an impasse over wage and benefit issues, "the governor told me he felt this matter could be resolved," Dobelle said. A former politician and a player in the national Democratic Party, Dobelle revealed little else about the discussion.
Dobelle, current president of the private, elite Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., is already doing things differently.
For starters, he arrived with an advance man — Jim King, the former head of the National Transportation Safety Board and a fellow at Trinity University, who helped organize his public appearances. When Dobelle returns in April for more protocol visits, he may bring in consultants to look at the UH system and ask tough questions about its finances.
At Trinity College, Dobelle worked to revitalize the inner-city neighborhood around the school. When he headed City College of San Francisco, he cut the administration in half and hired 118 tenure-track faculty members. His plans for Hawai'i are less clear, although budget problems and the need for a morale boost are evident.
Dobelle says his priority will be to make sure the university's budget is no secret to the public. In his appearances at colleges across the 10-campus system, he has dropped other clues about how his administration will work.
He talks about about having "flat" administration that would make him available to students, faculty and the public. He wants to pace the UH campuses like a retail manager working his store. Any problem or issue that comes to his office's attention will have a 72-hour rule: Someone has to solve it in 72 hours or explain to him why it can't be fixed.
"I want to make sure you know I am accessible, and I don't need you to go through someone who has to go through someone to talk to me," he tells students and professors.
Dobelle secretly visited every University of Hawai'i campus last fall while he was being courted for the job. It took him 20 minutes of walking around Leeward Community College asking questions before he found UH-West O'ahu, which is tucked into the campus.
He wants the school, which has languished in portable buildings and temporary locations for the last 25 years, to have its permanent campus built quickly and all at one time. "I am time-urgent," he tells a crowd at West O'ahu. "It doesn't have to take long to figure this out."
He has made impromptu visits to state legislators at the Capitol, and has phoned local military leaders as well as the head of the University of California system to see if the two universities can find projects to work on together. "Come on," he says as he tours Honolulu Community College. "We can do better than this."
After his visit with the governor yesterday, Dobelle's final protocol stop before an 11 p.m. flight was with the members of the UH-Manoa Faculty Senate, a group he has asked to help select the new chancellor of that campus. Professors who worried they would be cut out of the process have expressed relief.
On his campus tour last week, Dobelle appeared equal parts university president and motivational speaker. He told faculty they shouldn't have to ask for pay raises. He stopped to talk to students around campus, he expressed astonishment and admiration when he learned that one woman teaches English as a second language to deaf students, he remembered one faculty member whom he and his family met at a Waikiki hotel. "Is it true that you were a Miss Hawai'i?" he asked.
To students at the community colleges, Dobelle talked about not receiving his bachelor's degree until he was 38 years old. "I understand what it's like to work and get a degree under difficult circumstances," he said. "I'm proud of you."
With a schedule that includes visits to two television morning shows and five college campuses, he gains energy as the day lengthens.
Donna Lynch, an academic adviser in business education at Kapi'olani Community College, met Dobelle in the cafeteria. "He gave me a firm handshake," she said. "He looked me in the eye. He said, 'I'm here to help you,'" she said. Then she pumps her fist in the air. "Yes!"
Other faculty members hand him letters, while students ask about specific projects. Larina Johnson, a pre-nursing student at Honolulu Community College, told Dobelle about the need for the completion of the day-care center on campus. "I hope the things he says he stands for will come through," she said.
Denise Lord, a student at West O'ahu studying psychology and substance abuse, complains that there are no African-American students represented in UH ads or posters other than those promoting sports. Dobelle promises to fix the problem on July 2, his first day in the office, and takes her business card so he can get back in touch with her.
And the immaculately dressed man in the suit repeatedly answered the most pressing question that has faced UH presidents in recent years: Does he have aloha shirts?
When he returns, he'll have them.
He promises.
