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Some donors lose faith in UH after concert debacle

Dan Nakaso

The people responsible for soliciting contributions for the University of Hawaii insist that no one has opted to stop donating in the aftermath of the Stevie Wonder concert fiasco, but some individuals say otherwise.

Longtime donor Joyce Cassen already regrets the $5,000 she gave to the school this year for football, volleyball and basketball tickets.

"I’m burned up," said Cassen, an ophthalmologist from Hawaii Kai.

And Cassen has heard from several of her patients who are turning their outrage at UH’s handling of the bogus concert by "voting with their checkbooks."

The FBI continues to hunt down $200,000 the school lost in the incident.

University officials further outraged donors such as Cassen by reassigning UH athletic director Jim Donovan to an unspecified job worth $211,200 per year while beginning a search for Donovan’s successor.

UH’s Hamilton Library has a "minimuseum" named in honor of William Kwai Fong Yap, but several of Yap’s heirs vowed to cut off their UH donations during a family gathering last week, said Yap’s grandson, Donald Yap.

"They said they’re not going to give anything to the UH because of all this disappearing dollars, disappearing funds," Yap said. "Who knows where all their money goes?"

In the fiscal year that ended June 30, the private, nonprofit UH Foundation raised $66.9 million — a 43 percent jump over the previous year — to benefit students, faculty, research and programs across the 10-campus UH system.

"UH is like our family," Cassen said, "and the way they’re dealing with it is like finding out your spouse is cheating on you. No one’s accountable. Where does the buck stop? They’re trying to give us answers that don’t truly answer the questions."

Since the fallout from the bogus Wonder concert began in July, the foundation has received only three phone calls from "expressed supporters of Jim Donovan (who) just expressed disappointment," said Greg Willems, the foundation’s vice president for development.

No one has said he or she will stop donating, Willems said.

The foundation’s student calling center has "received no negative feedback or discussions about these programs," Willems said, adding, "That’s been very positive. Things continue to go well."

Others have heard more negative talk.

"I have been told personally by a handful of people that they’re deciding not to continue to donate and be a member of Na Koa because of what happened," said Ben Yee, one of four founders of the Na Koa football boosters club that sends its donations to the UH Foundation. "I try to tell them, ‘Stick around and things will be better.’ But how do you convince people? You have to be worried about what’s going to happen next week, what’s going to happen tomorrow. Nobody seems to know."

Murphy’s Bar and Grill on Merchant Street last month raised $90,000 during its 16th Pigskin Pigout fundraiser for UH’s football program — about $10,000 more than last year, said owner Don Murphy.

Murphy said that longtime contributors who are threatening to cut off their UH donations are just "blowing off steam."

"There’s probably a few people out there on the fence who are looking for a reason not to spend money, and that’s understandable, and now they think they have a valid reason," he said.

Holding back donations will only "torture or hurt the student athletes," Murphy said. "They’re the ones that are going to suffer."

He added, "It’s just a bump in the road we have to get over."

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