Posted on: Saturday, August 7, 2004

Dobelle poll tried to define 'haole'

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

Is the term "haole" an insult?

The question was part of a 2003 poll commissioned by University of Hawai'i president Evan Dobelle that also asked people to rate prominent Hawai'i politicians and their impressions about the university.

Pollsters asked: "When people use the term Haole to refer to people do you think it is a positive term, a negative or insulting term, or is it just a word with no positive or negative meaning?"

Nearly half of the people who responded thought the Hawaiian word now used to refer to white people had no positive or negative meaning, but nearly a third thought it was negative.

L. Richard Fried Jr., Dobelle's attorney, said the question was probably chosen by Opinion Dynamics Corp., a Cambridge, Mass., firm that conducted polls in 2001 and 2003 for Dobelle, who paid for the research with UH Foundation money.

"Evan doesn't know and I don't know," Fried said when asked why the question was part of the survey.

The polls were released Wednesday by the university after requests by the media and others for documents related to Dobelle's June firing by the UH Board of Regents. Dobelle and the regents have since reached a settlement that rescinded his firing. Dobelle will resign as president this month for a non-tenured faculty position.

Most of the poll questions were on issues related to education, such as breaking up the state Department of Education into seven districts, the value of charter schools, whether casino gambling should be legalized to raise money for education, and whether health and other benefits should go to domestic partners of government employees.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.