Posted on: Thursday, July 15, 2004

ISLAND VOICES
Who needs UH success story?

By Josh Reppun
Social studies teacher at La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls

Upon my return from a trip outside the U.S.A., I was delighted to learn of the firing of UH President Evan Dobelle. I agree absolutely with the Board of Regents' decision, and recent opinions offered in letters by Meda Chesney-Lind and Thomas Stuart.

Indeed, we need to run "clowns" like Dobelle out of town. We should have fired him a year ago, as one of our House members suggested. I mean, who needs a clown who can cut through committee work and red tape to quickly get the regents to waive policy and name UH buildings after Marion Saunders and Gladys Brandt and the baseball stadium after Hawai'i's beloved Les Murakami?

People who can step up and understand immediately that these are common-sense decisions should be fired!

People who step up at the Mayor's Sustainability Conference and read off a massive list of outstanding UH faculty who are doing the good work of helping Hawai'i learn to think and act like the island it is should be fired. (I have no patience with UH presidents who believe the concept of sustainability should be housed in its own office.)

Individuals who believe it makes sense to have one integrated system for all UH campuses in terms of records and admissions should be fired.

Clowns who believe UH needs a strategic plan that will draw it into the 21st century, a plan based on sustainability and respect for the Hawaiian host culture, should be fired.

Jokers who understand that Hawai'i's public schools and UH campuses must work together to create a seamless organizational structure that allows kids in Hawai'i an opportunity to go to college should be fired.

We don't need clowns who cut grant-making red tape, create film schools (without telling the board first, granted), hire an Olympic star as athletic director, fly to Penn State to cheer our men's volleyball team, increase enrollment dramatically, hire serious people for serious positions within school administration (folks with a vision of UH as a 21st-century Asia-Pacific powerhouse), increase UH's bond ratings, push ahead to build a new medical school (including getting federal funding), create what appeared to be a pretty positive negotiation atmosphere for faculty salaries, and, worst of all, gained new positive WASC ratings for UH.

I mean, who hired this guy? We need to hold the search team accountable.

Surely we don't need clowns who understand that the day all UH campuses will become great (and attractive to Mainland kids) will be when the folks who live around these campuses take ownership of, and become partners with, these campuses (in other words, change rental properties to ownership possibilities).

A person who believes "student life" and student access to information is critical to marketing? Fire the fool!

We don't need guys who hire women like Doris Ching, VP for student services (surely not a "white man" if her name is both Doris and Ching).

I could go on and on, listing the negative attributes of this "clown," Evan Dobelle, but who cares now? He has been fired for "just cause," and that is all that matters. Three cheers, Hawai'i! We only just avoided looking like pathetic clowns ourselves!