The effort comes in the aftermath of the firing of former University of Hawai'i President Evan Dobelle, whose departure in mid-June was due in part to his use of discretionary, or protocol, funds provided by the foundation. Concerns arose that the uproar surrounding Dobelle would affect university donations.

While that blow never came, donors are being more careful, said UH Foundation president Donna Vuchinich.

"We're not seeing unrestricted gifts," said Vuchinich, noting that there were somewhat more funds in the past left to the university's discretion. "Donors are giving. They're just wanting to make sure it's restricted."

The foundation has launched the Discretionary Expenditure Task Force to review, revise and standardize policies, including those governing discretionary funds used by deans and directors throughout the system.

A second, smaller group is evaluating tightening use of protocol funds earmarked for fund-raising, travel and entertainment by the UH president.

"The president can expect there's going to be a lot of visibility around expenditures," said foundation chief financial officer Bill King. "And if there's an expenditure in the gray area, we talk about it and it doesn't happen again."

It's welcome news to the university, which is represented on the task force.

"We realize we need to do it better, so we're going to do it better," said Carolyn Tanaka, associate vice president for external affairs and a spokeswoman for the university.

"The purpose is to look at expenditures and the process of approvals and establish clear-cut guidelines so everyone knows what the rules are and everyone can follow them."

Patricia Lee, chairwoman of the Board of Regents, welcomes the joint UH/UH Foundation task force and said she is pleased the group "is responding to the concerns raised by the state auditor's report and the Deloitte & Touche analysis of the protocol fund.

"We think some valid issues were raised in these reports," Lee said, "and the board fully supports the efforts of this task force."

In its audit of the protocol fund, private auditors Deloitte & Touche called for much stricter accountability and control, including better clarity over who has authority to approve spending. Meanwhile, State Auditor Marion Higa called for continued oversight of the foundation's fund-raising activities by her office, along with stronger monitoring by the UH Board of Regents.

The foundation had been deeply entangled in issues over the former president's spending and poor record-keeping. With two auditors calling for major changes, the foundation also wants stronger controls and had begun putting them into effect.

"We're all very committed to being good stewards of the money invested for the benefit of the university," Vuchinich said.

At particular issue was the way the foundation approved the former president's spending, often without receipts. The unwieldy process, which changed several times during Dobelle's tenure, included reimbursing his travel and entertainment expenses without complete documentation, as well as long periods of time when the foundation carried his personal charges although they were eventually reimbursed by him.

King said when it comes to the UH president's discretionary fund — which the foundation has cut back to $150,000 from Dobelle's $200,000 — the smaller review group is considering requiring that quarterly reports of expenditures be given to the UH regents, as well as requiring the university's internal auditor to sign off on all expenditures.

Under Dobelle, the university's chief financial officer and the president's personal assistant — both hired by the president — were the ones designated to sign for his expenditures.

"We want the approver to be the next level up in the hierarchy," King said.

Vuchinich said it may be that someone in the Board of Regents' office will be designated to approve the president's expenses, probably in quarterly reports.

"It shouldn't be a clerk in our office," she said. "It's not up to our clerks to police every signature. Every account the university opens with us, the university has to take responsibility for how that money is spent. ... Administrators don't want to be making the wrong choices either. That's what the task force is about, to create standard spending policy."

Also under consideration are stricter controls of the entire protocol fund, with just one-quarter of the total available for use by the president each quarter.

Higa's office was particularly critical of some foundation operations, noting, in summary: "We found that the foundation authorized questionable, even abusive, expenditures from donated funds because of vague guidelines, poorly defined account purposes and lenient interpretations of the foundation's expenditure policies."

One troubling case involved a $25,000 donation from the New York Gruss Foundation for a lectureship in Jewish studies that, along with funding lectureships, was also used to pay some of Dobelle's travel and expenses after his office said it could be used at the former president's discretion. When paperwork was found showing that purpose was not included in the donor's intent, the funds were reinstated by the former president's office, Vuchinich said.

"Donors have a clear expectation of how their funds will be spent," said Higa in a section referring to gifts for cancer research.

But there's no such thing as a typical UH donor. Those who give checks, bequests and even estates to UH range all the way from retired professors to wealthy community leaders to alumni.

Over the past two years the average donation to the foundation from all donors was $372, according to Lori Abe, associate vice president for marketing and communications, while the average donation from alumni was $251. Over that same period, the typical UH donor was a Hawai'i resident, with 54 percent being UH alumni.

In the past four years there's also been a healthy increase in people reached by the Student Calling Center based on campus with 40,600 calls bringing in $700,000 in 2000 compared with 45,000 calls last year that raised $1.02 million.