Dean picked to lead UH West Oahu

The dean of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is being recommended for the chancellor position at UH West Oahu.

Maenette Ah Nee Benham, who was named inaugural dean of the Hawaiinuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge in 2008, was one of three finalists named in September by a search advisory committee. She was recommended over finalists Larry Buckley, interim vice president for educational services at West Hills College in California, and Franklin Kudo, a business executive and accounting professor at UH West Oahu.

A former schoolteacher, Benham holds a doctorate in educational administration from UH Manoa. She began her teaching career in 1978 and has taught in Hawaii, California and Texas. Locally, Benham previously taught at her alma mater Kamehameha Schools, Kaiser High School and Chaminade University before joining the College of Education faculty at Michigan State University, where she spent 16 years.

UH President David Lassner said in a statement that one of Benham’s “true gifts is her commitment to collaboration, inclusiveness and partnership, which is extremely important as UH West is poised to develop its identity in a time of growth. I am confident she will provide inspirational leadership to the campus and the community.”

In the community, Benham sits on several boards including for the Waianae Community Redevelopment Corp. (MA‘O Farms), Manoa Heritage Center, The Queen’s Health Systems and North Hawaii Community Hospital.

Friends and colleagues describe Benham as a collaborative leader who embodies a sense of aloha and compassion for students.

Edward Shultz, who worked closely with Benham when he was dean of Manoa’s School of Pacific and Asian Studies, said the West Oahu campus stands to benefit from a leader who “really understands what it is to have Hawaiian values in our places of learning.”

“Having taught at both Manoa and West Oahu, at West Oahu the focus is on the undergraduates, making their experience as rich as possible, and I think Maenette will resonate very well with the student body and the faculty,” said Shultz, who retired from UH two years ago. “I think she’ll do very, very well at West Oahu because she understands the system, she understands the community and, most importantly, she understands students. That’s the bottom line: It’s our students. We need to make them successful, and I think she’ll do that well.”

Neil Hannahs, who was the longtime land assets director for Kamehameha Schools before retiring last year, said he believes Benham’s promotion to lead the West Oahu campus will help attract more Native Hawaiian students to pursue higher education.

“It’s not just a promotion, and it’s not just any campus; it’s West Oahu — West Oahu, which has got such a high concentration of Native Hawaiians. She comes from the Hawaiinuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge and can relate to that population that we really want to get into the university system and through the university system at a higher rate of success,” said Hannahs, who has served with Benham on various nonprofit boards.

“She’s eminently qualified,” he added. “The things that pop out to me … is she’s really a compassionate educator. She cares for kids. She just has that sense of aloha that is at the heart of and inspires her work.”

Benham’s appointment, along with a recommended salary of $235,008, is subject to approval by the UH Board of Regents at its Nov. 17 meeting.

Retired university executive Doris Ching has been leading the West Oahu campus on an interim basis since late last year, following the retirement of Rockne Freitas.

“I am honored to be given this opportunity and promise to build on the great work of my predecessors as I work collaboratively with the amazing faculty, staff, and students of UH West Oahu,” Benham said in a prepared statement. “The next voyage of UH-West Oahu’s history will be a critical one as our sail plan will include expanding our campus and developing signature programs to serve the central and west Oahu region and the entire state.”

UH West Oahu serves approximately 2,900 students at its Kapolei campus, which opened in 2012. (Established in 1976, the college previously operated out of portables next to Leeward Community College.) At full capacity the university’s strategic plan calls for eventually accommodating 20,000 students.

UH last fall moved ahead with plans to lease more than 160 acres of vacant land next to the campus for mixed-use development to help support the growing university, where enrollment has increased annually.