The front room opens out to a spectacular beach and ocean panorama.

The bedroom offers an impressive mountain vista.

But on this morning not even the postcard-perfect scenery could contain Ben Jay in his new 21st-floor Ala Moana-area condominium rental.

Not when there was an eagerness to his step and manner to get started on the 14-minute drive to Manoa, where Jay’s first day as athletic director of the University of Hawaii awaited.

Jay, a Columbus, Ohio, native who spent the past six years as a senior associate AD at Ohio State, ignored the squawking GPS on his dash and negotiated his own, proudly new-found way to campus. He emerged from a gray Toyota Camry just before 8 a.m., toting a single cardboard box and a wide mandate for change in the tempest-tossed department.

Jay is UH’s first full-time AD since July 11, 2012, when the so-called Stevie Wonder Blunder began unfolding. Job One, according to the tone struck by the school administration, Jay said, "is that we have to bring respect back to the department. The department’s reputation was seriously injured by the Stevie Wonder concert, and I think there’s a lack of trust and a lack of faith in our department and I want to make sure that I’m sending a message loud and wide (that) you will trust us again."

He said fans, alums and people in the community he has met "are looking forward to changes. They don’t define what the changes are, but they all speak about looking forward to the changes (I am) going to make."

Jay said, "One thing that I certainly want to do is put the entire Stevie Wonder affair behind us. That’s history. That’s done. We’re moving on."

TEAR DOWN THE WALL

Notably absent from the empty-desk, almost barren office that greeted Jay on Monday was the familiar, 5-foot-high partition near the door.

It had blocked views into and out of the office and been a staple of the place for more than 20 years for a series of ADs.

Jay said almost immediately upon seeing it he had "ordered it taken down because (being behind a wall) is not the way that I operate."

Jay said, "I want my coaches and staff, when they walk by and see me, to say ‘hello.’ Communication is key. It really is. And they have to feel like they can stop by."

"Obviously there are going to be days when I have to close my door, but at other times I want them to be able to come in and sit down," Jay said. "I mean, people should know what is going on. If we’re trying to reach our goals of success, people need the information. And we shouldn’t operate in silence."

THE NAME GAME

When Jay began texting at UH events this past weekend he said he ran into a situation that raised immediate concerns: Is it Rainbows, Rainbow Wahine, Rainbow Warriors or Warriors?

"I’m trying to figure what the right thing is to call our teams?" Jay said. " We’re calling one team this (nickname) and another one that. We call ourselves by a number of different names and I think that is confusing. It is absolutely confusing to market (that way)," Jay said.

Jay said, "I understand history and tradition of those things, but when it comes to the branding effort, I can see it in the uniforms. I mean, I see different shades of green."

Jay said, "Consistency is what I’m looking for. That’s what’s important."

He pledged to review the situation with staff and said, "Branding is one of the first things that I want to take a look at."

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Glancing out the window of his ground floor office that looks out onto the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Complex with Les Murakami Stadium and the Duke Kahanamoku Pool in the background, Jay was asked what he sees from his new vantage point.

"I see a lot of opportunity," Jay said. "I think there are a lot of good and great things that we’re doing that we need to make sure that we’re continuing and building upon. I think there are certainly places where we can put some paint on. We can dress it up. But it is really what’s at the heart, what’s at the internal core of where are we as a department and how we are servicing our student athletes to make sure they succeed in life," Jay said.

Jay said, "I want them to have a great experience while they are here at UH. I want them to fondly remember their time here and what a great experience they had with their coaches, the staff and fans and be able to call themselves, like many other in the community that I have met recently, a proud alum. That, to me, is what it is about."