Posted on: Friday, August 20, 2004

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Classes start Monday and already the tension is rising at the University of Hawai'i Academy for Creative Media.

Earlier this month, students of the university's new film school were surprised to learn that their professor and adviser Peter Britos would not be kept on the ACM staff.

The students are upset that they still don't know what happened.

Last week, a group of ACM students e-mailed university officials asking for answers. When they didn't get a response, the students started a petition, which they delivered to 18 administration offices, including each regent. The students wrote:

"Fortunately, UH has supplied enough of an education for us to understand the nature of the system we operate in. We will be using this system to find answers, and if we cannot get them from you, we will find them elsewhere."

They set up an e-mail account, supportprofessorbritos@hotmail.com, to gather responses.

On Tuesday, they heard back from Neal Smatresk, vice chancellor for academic affairs, who wrote, in part:

"In brief, Peter Britos was not renewed in ACM because of a management decision made by its Chair, Chris Lee. Since I was not a part of the evaluation process, and because it is a personnel issue, it would be inappropriate for me to discuss it further."

Lee won't speak publicly about what happened and he doesn't want to respond via e-mail to the students' collective account, but he says he's willing to talk to any student who has questions.

"It's a personnel matter, and personnel matters are by their very nature confidential and they're inappropriate to discuss," Lee said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Lee says that the courses Britos was slated to teach this fall semester will all be covered by other people. "We're teaching everything that we were going to teach," he said. "Everything that's in the course catalog, everything that's listed online."

Professor Tom Brislin of the communications department will "come in to take care of the academic side of things," Lee says. Brislin won't be teaching in the ACM, but has been meeting with and advising students.

Britos could not be reached for comment, but he apparently will stay on the university faculty in the communications department, which is in the same building as the ACM.

The students emphasize that their efforts are FOR Britos, not BY him. Britos didn't ask them to start a petition. They also feel that, though Britos may not be reinstated at the ACM, they'd like to clear his name by making the cause public. They wrote:

"We are not forgetting the professor who provided an educational environment of the highest caliber, and who demonstrated a resolute dedication to the students."

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.