Public deserves more openness on Apple’s status

Once again, the reputation of the University of Hawaii’s flagship Manoa campus, already in a precarious condition, is being undermined by a top- level administration shakeup occurring in greater secrecy than should exist at a public institution.

Tom Apple, only two years into a five-year appointment as UH-Manoa chancellor, seems to be on rocky ground, with reports circulating that his ouster is imminent.

If that’s so, the public deserves more justification and disclosure on the issue than the little that’s come so far from Bachman Hall. There, David Lassner, newly installed in the UH president’s office, has sequestered himself behind the usual wall of press releases on the subject, leaving taxpayers wondering why UH even bothers with its high-profile and costly searches for new administrators.

Whatever happens here — and nobody’s yet made a persuasive case publicly why Apple needs to go — Lassner and his team must step forward promptly to explain what has happened, and a plan for the way forward.

Officials have underscored that Apple, who was hired at a particularly awkward juncture for the Manoa campus, is not on a contract. He was appointed "for a period of five years, subject each year to successful annual performance evaluations at the level of satisfactory or above," according to the memorandum from former President M.R.C. Greenwood to the Board of Regents.

There is no buyout clause as such. But Apple was hired at an annual salary of $439,008, and it’s hard to imagine termination happening without a financial fallout of some kind. For example, the memorandum stipulates that Apple receives tenure as "a full professor in an appropriate department" (he chaired the Department of Chemistry before becoming dean, vice provost then provost at the University of Delaware).

Costly comings-and-goings of UH administrators have become maddeningly common over the past several years — Greenwood’s own abrupt departure figuring as Exhibit A.

Apple arrived at UH and was thrust into the midst of the firestorm over the Stevie Wonder concert scam that cost the university hundreds of thousands of dollars. There was also the attendant upheaval in the UH athletics department and then — most consequentially — the leadership fight at the UH Cancer Center.

Apple took heavy fire for his two failed attempts to fire the center’s controversial director, Dr. Michele Carbone, and despite some fulsome praise from influential lawmakers, that clash may have proved fatal to Apple.

There have been necessary, if contentious, efforts to curb UH-Manoa spending. Apple recently released a two-year plan to avoid tuition hikes by balancing the budget with $10 million in savings, accomplished through freezing hiring and implementing a 3 percent budget cut across the board.

The chancellor created a campus-wide budget committee charged to find other ways to reduce spending, while Apple himself asked departments to review their tuition waivers and other spending elements.

There seems to be little there that’s disconnected from economic reality at Manoa. Among his fans at the state Capitol — not known as a fan base for UH administrators — state Rep. Isaac Choy, who chairs the House Higher Education Committee, called Apple a "mover and a shaker" who is changing the thinking of the university.

This entire episode simply adds to the pile of evidence weighing against anyone reputable being eager to replace Apple, should he be dismissed. Bob Cooney, vice chairman of the UHM Faculty Senate and part of the search panel that found Apple, wondered openly about the prospects.

"Who in their right mind would come into this situation right now?" Cooney said.

Who, indeed?