Posted on: Thursday, June 24, 2004

Dobelle firing won't end UH troubles, agency says

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By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

The firing of Evan Dobelle as president of the University of Hawai'i is not a solution to all the problems outlined in a report that threatens UH accreditation, says a representative of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, which accredits four-year colleges in the west.

"The report covered a number of topics, not only the relationship (between Dobelle and the Board of Regents who fired him,)" said Ralph Wolff, executive director of WASC, by phone from California.

"We're going to keep hammering at it," said Wolff. "Only if it's not properly addressed do we move to a sanction.

"We expect institutions like UH to take the accrediting status seriously. We don't go to the endgame. We're calling attention to the issues. These are important issues. Pay attention and clean it up ... There's a lot at stake here."

The WASC report said four critical areas "threaten the continued accreditation of the senior college campuses." Two of the four involved the "nonproductive" relationship between Dobelle and the board. A third involves the Board of Regents' management style.

The report notes the regents were not focused on "policy-making and oversight of management." Instead, it said, they were preoccupied with the president, and their focus was on "detailed management of campus issues, conflict of interest issues and is generally underdeveloped in addressing the impact of different campus missions."

In moving to return some controls to the office of the president under acting president David McClain, the regents appear to be looking to address that key problem cited.

A plan is under way to return certain authorities to the president's office, according to McClain, and action is expected at next month's regents meeting.

McClain said the university and the board are addressing the fourth key point — completion of the reorganization of the Manoa campus under chancellor Peter Englert. McClain said that will come up for board attention soon.

"The UH-Manoa campus is currently unable neither to enact the organizational plans of the chancellor nor to resolve second-level problems emerging from the system reorganization," said the WASC report. "This hamstrings UH-Manoa's ability to manage its affairs."

Dobelle, meanwhile, said he has still not heard from the board about "cause" for his dismissal, and the board's chief UH counsel did not return an Advertiser call. Dobelle said he's working on planning the curriculum for a class he could teach in the fall on urban planning. His contract makes him a tenured professor at UH, a standard element of contracts of university presidents.

"I'm trying to get into myself and have something to focus on that has a degree of pleasure in it," he said. "It's emotionally better for me to do that."

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