Posted on: Thursday, July 3, 2003
Wai'anae educator's supporters refuse to accept transfer
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Leeward O'ahu Writer
Despite suffering two setbacks this week, Leeward residents fighting to retain the head of Leeward Community College's satellite campus in Wai'anae won't give up.
On Monday, Lucy Gay worked her last day as head of LCC's Wai'anae campus.
On Tuesday, LCC Chancellor Mark Silliman told a crowd at a meeting of the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board that the decision to transfer Gay would not be rescinded.
"This is not the end at all," Maralyn Kurshals, who chairs the neighborhood board's education committee, said yesterday. "To me, this is only the beginning."
News of the LCCW leadership change in mid-June touched off a storm of controversy among folks who say that Gay, 58, was responsive to the community's needs and that she dramatically transformed LCCW for the better in only 11 months.
They consider Gay's job change a demotion, and are offended by LCC's refusal to consider their concerns.
Silliman stressed at Tuesday's meeting that LCC would remain committed to the Wai'anae community.
"You always mention the community," responded resident James Manaku. "Well, this is the community. If you want community input, this is it — we want Lucy to stay."
Silliman was roundly rebuffed when he made similar statements at a gathering of Wai'anae residents and students that had traveled to the LCC campus on June 23 to protest Gay's transfer to her old job as an LCC counselor.
Before Tuesday's meeting Silliman said he expected a more favorable reaction because the neighborhood board meeting, which was broadcast on 'Olelo, would address a broader audience.
What he got was more of the same.
"Dr. Silliman, why is it that when we have something good here in Wai'anae, it's always taken away?" asked board member Neddie Waiamau-Nunuha.
"We're troubled about losing someone who's been instrumental to our educational system out here," said former board chair Albert Silva. "Let Lucy stay. ... We've been shorted changed too long."
"What way can we keep her?" Karen Awana said. "Or, is there no way?"
Silliman has repeatedly said that the decision not to renew Gay's contract is an internal decision and nothing more.
"Generally, these decisions ... are never taken to the community," he said at the earlier meeting. "(They) are made ... collegially and through a process of shared governance. That process is more internal than external."
Silliman said the plan for award-winning educator Jean Hara to take over as head of LCCW is contingent on Hara's acceptance of the position. In the meantime, the satellite campus is being headed by interim coordinator Dean Garrett.
None of which seemed to placate many at the meeting.
For nearly an hour Silliman was implored, questioned, challenged, chastised, cajoled and, once, even sworn at. But he didn't budge. He said Gay had been hired to chair LCCW under a one-year special assignment contract, and that she understood that.
The decision not to renew her contract was not a demotion or a suggestion that Gay had done anything wrong, he said. Gay had done a laudable job, Silliman said, but LCC has a shortage of counselors and Gay is needed in that capacity.
Gay sat quietly through the meeting.
Afterward a group called The Friends of Lucy Gay vowed to continue its efforts to have Gay reinstated.
Lilette Subedi said the group's attempts to reach University of Hawai'i president Evan Dobelle have gone unanswered. She said the group hopes to meet with UH vice president of academic affairs David McClain and appear before the UH Board of Regents on July 10.
"We'd like to know why Lucy's contract wasn't renewed and why she was moved back to LCC as a counselor," Subedi said. "And we would like to know why the community's wishes have been ignored."
