UH

PRESIDENT SETS RECORD STRAIGHT ON FIDELL

As my wife Wendie and I were reading last Sunday's Advertiser over breakfast at College Hill, we were surprised to learn in Jay Fidell's Think Tech column that we had already moved out of — you guessed it — College Hill.

Permit me to set the record straight.

The magnificent 107-year-old College Hill structure does need some repairs, and the Board of Regents approved a program to this end at its Dec. 18 meeting. To facilitate the process, later this semester we will be moving to our home in Kailua.

Mr. Fidell is also off the mark in suggesting that the Board of Regents will not meet in January (the BOR met Jan. 14), and that at UH-Manoa "except for the Shidler College of Business, nothing memorable has been built or renewed in a while." What about the new Frear Hall, the first new student dormitory built in three decades?

And he is certainly mistaken in stating that I have been controlled by the interests of politicians to the detriment of the interests of faculty, students and alumni, and the university's autonomy and fundraising.

Since 2004, faculty salaries have risen significantly (25 percent in the last three years alone); a new student life center for students at UH-Hilo has been built; my leadership team and I reached our Centennial Campaign's fundraising goal of $250 million seven months ahead of schedule; alumni association membership doubled and the online alumni community quadrupled to 80,000; we cleared up a host of accreditation problems left over from the Dobelle administration; and I have sought with some success to expand the university's autonomy in bond financing.

Many of these achievements have been made possible with the support of our elected officials, from both sides of the political aisle. In my experience, it's about collaboration, not control.

OBAMA

CHANGE CAN START WITH APOLOGY FOR DEMOCRATS

Barack Obama said the buck stops with him. I hope a humble Obama will restore the confidence of the nation. It will take a lot of courage, but he can confess that the Democrats are responsible for the global economic meltdown and the credit crunch.

He can eloquently say that Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.) introduced the Community Reinvestment Act that was signed into law in 1977 by President Carter. The CRA encouraged banks to make home loans to the poor and minorities. However, banks were reluctant to make those loans. Radical ACORN, which has ties to Obama, clamored to force banks to make those risky loans. By 1993, President Clinton and cohort modified and expanded CRA's affordable-lending requirements. This mandate made it easier for ACORN to intimidate banks to make subprime loans.

Millions of subprime loans started the housing boom. In 2003 President Bush tried to overhaul and reform the financial industry, and in 2005 Sen. John McCain sponsored bill S. 190 to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but was stymied by the Democrats.

Obama's philosophy is to resolve issues quickly. He can put the well-being of the nation first by stop blaming Bush's eight years of "failed policy" and apologize to the American people for the divisive tactics of the Democrats. He can stop the foreclosures he helped to create. I have hope that Obama will change for the good.

MULTIFACETED HERITAGE JUST WHAT WORLD NEEDS

I feel a strong sense of pride in celebrating the first president of the United States from the state of Hawai'i. After all, aren't Obama's belief in inclusiveness, his sense of calm, his basic happy nature all part of the aloha spirit? Then I think of how proud his fellow Illinois citizens must feel in having one of their own ascend to the highest office. Cannot they take credit for his political savvy, for his success in community organization, both at the heart of democracy and in the heartland of America?

But what about his fellow Harvard and Columbia alumni? Weren't Obama's academic gifts, his intellectual acumen and curiosity nurtured by the strong East Coast tradition of higher education?

Then again, I hear that Indonesians claim him as well. Does not his international perspective come from the fact that he spent part of his childhood with an Indonesian stepfather in Asia? Kenyans also take great pride in one of its native descendants becoming the leader of the free world.

Finally, with the middle name of "Hussein," Obama manages to connect with the Middle East. In short, Obama is well poised to bring the world together to solve its common problems. More than that, Obama's multifaceted background can remind us that as citizens of the world we are all connected, and therefore have a stake in each others' welfare.

BUSH

HOW LONG WILL 'BLAME GEORGE' HABIT LAST?

My parents' generation had an expression, "Let George do it." It meant, pass the buck, let someone else take responsibility.

Now it's fashionable to "Blame George Bush."

You don't like your standard of living — blame George. Feeling lousy — blame George. Don't like the weather — blame George.

It's high time America wakes up and looks to the root causes of our various debacles, to find resolutions to our problems and to prevent future reoccurrences. After all, George will be just a private citizen, like us, in less than a week.

COUNTRIES SHOULD ACT ON EXCUSE FOR FAILURE

Let us hope that the pathetic explanation given by President Bush (Jan. 11) will be treated as an excuse for poor leadership.

I wait for some country to have the guts to charge him with war crimes, even in absentia. Because he has done more to hurt America than anyone ever has.

PETITION

CAMPAIGN AGAINST MAYOR, RAIL IS ABSURD

I am perplexed with the blatant and offensive tone of the people responsible for the proposed impeachment of Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

The democratic process is based on allowing the voters to decide what the majority supports and we did so in convincing fashion to re-elect the mayor as well as support the rail project. It is absurd for anyone to sign this petition and I certainly will not.