UH presidential selection looks flawed, but there it is

Today is expected to be the beginning of a new future for the University of Hawaii, as the most significant educational institution in the state and one of the centers of knowledge in the Pacific gets down to picking a new leader.

Still, for many observers, the cry is not "It’s about time," but "Is that all there is?"

The two candidates, David Lassner, the interim president, and Frank Wiercinski, a former three-star Army general who commanded all Army forces in the Pacific, are the result of a year-long search by the UH regents.

The recruiting and search was particularly odd because the regents shunned the more traditional search methods, did not hire a recruiting firm and spent much time appearing at community gatherings and neighborhood board meetings.

While the board had said there would be a minimum of five candidates for the final winnowing, it wound up being just two.

Last year, the UH-Manoa Faculty Senate grumbled about "disheartening missteps by the UH administration that have cast a pall over the repute of the university with the larger community of the state. It will take a talented new UH president, working collegially with other UH executives and the faculty as a whole, to disperse this cloud and restore community confidence once more in this great state institution."

At the same time everyone was admonishing the regents not to allow the search to become a political football, the issue was not one that elected and want-to-be elected leaders could resist grabbing.

Three of the four major candidates for governor urged that the regents reopen the search.

In reports on Hawaii News Now, Gov. Neil Abercrombie called for more digging.

"Perhaps the process should be reopened," Abercrombie said.

"The regents need to examine what they have done at this point and come to a conclusion as to whether or not the public confidence is sufficiently established."

In the same TV report, Abercrombie’s Democratic primary opponent, state Sen. David Ige, called for the process to reopen with a professional search team.

"Has this process resulted in the candidate pool that we think the University of Hawaii and the people of Hawaii deserve? I think not," Ige said.

Mufi Hannemann, the former Honolulu mayor and independent candidate for governor, said while he thought Lassner and Wiercinski were good candidates, the regents should have a larger field of candidates.

Former GOP Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona didn’t comment, saying instead the selection process should remain apart from politics.

But, Senate President Donna Mercado Kim, a frequent critic of UH, said the pool of two candidates was just too small, and was the first to call for the search to be reopened.

The regents rejected all that, explaining that, to them, a new search would not help "because a renewed public effort at that late date was unlikely to garner equal or better candidates."

There are still many questions.

The UH-Manoa Graduate Students Organization recently approved a vote of no confidence in the regents’ selection committee, saying both finalists had serious faults.

Still, according to today’s agenda, both Lassner and Wiercinski will publicly interview for the job, and then the regents will go into executive session to discuss. The formal vote is set for June 2.

If anything, regents should instead recall the fumbles made with ousted UH President Evan Dobelle and then M.R.C. Greenwood, who left under a cloud. The political fallout in both cases was bitter and is still reverberating.

Another fumble will diminish both the university and the state.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.