Posted on: Friday, May 23, 2003

Chancellor's decisions under fire

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

At least two faculty groups at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa campus are expressing concerns that Manoa chancellor Peter Englert is making changes without consulting faculty or deans.

Professor Sumner La Croix, chairman of the Economics Department, drafted a letter yesterday from about 10 other chairs representing most of the Social Sciences departments, that will go to Englert today asking for a meeting to discuss concerns, especially regarding division of money on campus.

A petition is making the rounds on the Manoa campus, listing a number of supposed actions taken by Englert without faculty consultation and asking for signatures "to express our lack of confidence" in the chancellor. It's unclear if anyone has signed the petition, and who is circulating it.

Last night Englert declined comment, saying he had not seen the petition.

"I know about it, but have not received anything," said Englert, who will complete his first year as chancellor at the beginning of July. "I don't have any comment until I've had a chance to really look at that."

But La Croix said that the deans and chairs in Social Sciences have "deep concerns about the process of decision-making."

"We're very concerned about the lack of an explicit principle regarding the allocation of summer tuition revenues traditionally shared with the departments," he said. "This year (these are last summer's revenues) they were grabbed by the administration without much explanation. None of the tuition came back to the departments."

La Croix said that the $18,000 that was expected to be returned to his department was going to be used to hire an instructor in the fall to teach two courses critical to the graduate program. Now that won't be possible, he said.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.