Private donations covered UH athletic staff's expenses

By Rob Perez

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Oct 10, 2012

~~<p>In the nearly five years he headed the University of Hawaii athletic department, Jim Donovan and his staff spent more than $600,000 in private discretionary donations on a wide range of goods and services, including taking staff members to the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament, paying for dinners to entertain donors and corporate sponsors, and hiring a limousine service to ferry Norm Chow around town when he was introduced as UH's new football coach, according to expenditure records.</p>
<p>The documents, reviewed Tuesday by the Star-Advertiser as a result of a records request, showed that Donovan and others in his department were reimbursed from three UH Foundation accounts for items that school officials said were approved by UH and foundation officials and that Donovan defended as helping further the mission of the athletic department.</p>
~~

In the nearly five years he headed the University of Hawaii athletic department, Jim Donovan and his staff spent more than $600,000 in private discretionary donations on a wide range of goods and services, including taking staff members to the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament, paying for dinners to entertain donors and corporate sponsors, and hiring a limousine service to ferry Norm Chow around town when he was introduced as UH's new football coach, according to expenditure records.

The documents, reviewed Tuesday by the Star-Advertiser as a result of a records request, showed that Donovan and others in his department were reimbursed from three UH Foundation accounts for items that school officials said were approved by UH and foundation officials and that Donovan defended as helping further the mission of the athletic department. Login for more...