Ex-school CEO in running for UH job
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
Hamilton I. McCubbin, who resigned abruptly in May as chief executive officer of Kamehameha Schools, is on the short list of candidates for the top academic post at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa campus.
McCubbin was one of four people selected yesterday by a 17-member committee of faculty, students and community members as final candidates for the position of vice chancellor for academic affairs.
There was "lively debate" in the committee over McCubbin's inclusion in the final list sent to chancellor Peter Englert, and the vote for him was not unanimous, said committee chairman Michael Forman, associate professor of linguistics.
The person who holds the position serves as the chief academic officer for the largest campus in the state university's system, where enrollment is expected to top 19,000 this fall.
McCubbin, credited with bringing stability to Kamehameha Schools as its first chief executive officer, had been hired as an agent of change to revitalize the school and its image following controversy over charges of mismanagement that led to the removal of former trustees. He resigned saying he was leaving to spend more time with his family on the Mainland and possibly return to teaching at the university level. But the departure came as a surprise, particularly since he had signed a new three-year contract with Kamehameha in February.
Two days ago, McCubbin filed a lawsuit against John C. Dowling, a senior legal counsel for the University of Wisconsin-Madison over statements Dowling made in May regarding a sexual harassment complaint filed against McCubbin there in 1998. McCubbin had previously worked in Wisconsin, and the case involved an assistant professor McCubbin supervised who filed the complaint five months after she was denied tenure. After an investigation, the university recommended no action be taken and said McCubbin had broken no rules.
McCubbin's complaint against Dowling accuses him of making false statements to The Advertiser about the circumstances surrounding McCubbin's resignation from Wisconsin. Reached yesterday in Madison, Wisc., Dowling said McCubbin left the university voluntarily to take the position at Kamehameha.
"His resignation as a professor was not part of any settlement whatever," Dowling said. "He did that totally voluntarily."
In addition to being a professor in the School of Human Ecology, McCubbin was dean. Asked whether McCubbin was forced to give up any higher position as part of the settlement of the case, Dowling would not comment.
Under McCubbin's leadership, Kamehameha Schools opened a Maui campus in Pukulani and a Big Island campus at Kea'au; announced plans to expand its preschool reach to 11,000 children within five years and all 30,000 Native Hawaiian children in 15 years; developed a strategic plan to refocus on education and expand its reach to more children; and established the first fund-raising entity in the history of Kamehameha Schools.
A 1959 graduate of Kamehameha, McCubbin returned as CEO in 2000 as a widely respected academic and national authority in child and family studies, his body of work chronicled in more than 100 articles in professional journals and books.
As one of the four finalists for the position of vice chancellor for academic affairs at Manoa — second in command to Chancellor Peter Englert — McCubbin has been invited to give a presentation and meet with Manoa personnel. His open presentation is scheduled from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Sept. 2 in the Architecture Auditorium, Room 205 in the School of Architecture.
The complete list of finalists for the position include:
• Liahna Armstrong, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and professor of English at Central Washington University since 1996. She received both her master's and doctorate's degrees in English from UCLA and has held teaching and administrative positions at Montana State University, Grinnell College, the University of Oregon and Oregon State University. She will give a presentation from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sept. 12.
• Cristina Gonzalez, senior adviser to the chancellor at the University of California-Davis and professor of Spanish. She received both her master's and doctorate's from Indiana University. She has also served as chairwoman of the University of California System Council of Graduate Deans, chairwoman of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and graduate-program director at Purdue University. She will address the Manoa campus from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Sept. 9.
• Neal J. Smatresk, Dean of the College of Science at the University of Texas, Arlington since 1998. He received his master's in biology at the State University of New York in Buffalo and his doctorate's in zoology at the University of Texas, Austin. He has been in teaching and administrative positions at the University of Texas, Austin since 1982, serving four years as chairman of the Biology Department before being named dean of the College of Science. Before that he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania. He will speak on campus from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Sept. 11.
• McCubbin received his doctorate's, master's and bachelor's degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and did postdoctoral work at Stanford, where he was a Mellon Fellow; Yale University; and the University of Minnesota where he was a Bush Fellow. Before serving as CEO of Kamehameha, he spent 14 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as dean and professor in the School of Human Ecology. Before that he was department head and professor of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota.
Manoa spokesman Jim Manke said after the presentations on campus Englert will invite comments from the campus and community before he makes a final decision.
The vice chancellor's salary will be arrived at through negotiations, Manke said. The interim vice chancellor for academic affairs, Karl Kim, is paid $148,944.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
