4 finalists vie to fit into UH leadership

The first of four candidates to be the next chancellor of the University of Hawaii-Manoa arrives today with the firm belief that Manoa needs to retain the chancellor’s position to help drive Hawaii’s economy.

An effort at the state Legislature to ask UH regents to consider eliminating the UH-Manoa chancellor’s job remains stalled.

Candidate Carlo Montemagno, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Cincinnati, will meet with UH-Manoa students, faculty, staff and administrators Wednesday and Thursday.

The three other finalists for chancellor are expected to visit Manoa later this month. They are Robert C. Holub, chancellor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Tom Apple, provost and professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Dela­ware; and Kim A. Wilcox, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Michigan State University.

Montemagno said UH-Manoa needs to have a chancellor’s position that is separate from the UH president, who is responsible for the entire 10-campus system.

"Every university system, as far as I’m aware of, has a chief executive officer for each of their campuses," Montemagno told the Star-Advertiser on Monday. "Having the president of the system also be the chief executive officer for the flagship campus makes it difficult for the other universities — whether in perception or in reality — to be treated fairly and equitably."

He said UH-Manoa needs its own chancellor, in part, to help drive its research potential, which will help Hawaii’s overall economy.

"Major research universities like Manoa are the nucleating factor for long-term prosperity for all regions," Montemagno said. "If you get the right person, this position (of chancellor) is key to the long-term economic health of the state. Great universities enable a focused concentration of talent, which are used to help drive an economy."

State Rep. K. Mark Takai, a former UH-Manoa student body president and a member of the House Higher Education Committee, has led the effort to urge UH regents to consider eliminating the chancellor’s job, which was reinstated during the tenure of former UH President Evan Dobelle in 2002.

UH regents reinstated the chancellor’s job on the pledge that it would not cost UH any additional money, Takai said.

Instead, Takai said, the chancellor’s office had more than $14.6 million in expenses in 2011 that came directly from student tuition, which continues to rise.

The UH Board of Regents has made no comment on the Legislature’s stalled, nonbinding resolution asking the board to reconsider the chancellor’s position. UH President M.R.C. Greenwood has said there is plenty of work for the UH president and Manoa chancellor to accomplish.

In the past decade, UH-Manoa has "more than doubled the amount of research and extramural funding brought into the university, dramatically improved its reputation nationally and internationally, and recently received a highly positive accreditation report from (the Western Association of Schools and Colleges), complementing the growth and leadership of the campus," UH spokes­woman Lynne Waters said in an email Monday.

"Legislative resolutions proposing the study of combining these two offices have been floated before, more than once," Waters said. "Were it not for the timing of where we are in the search for the next UH-Manoa chancellor, we suspect this year’s might have gotten the same minimal coverage that previous ones have. But it would be a real shame if such speculation were to taint our search for the next excellent leader of our flagship campus."

Asked why he applied for the job of Manoa chancellor, Montemagno described himself as "personally driven" while also being "probably a little naive."

"I believe that people have a responsibility to give back to their communities and to society in general," he said. "I see an opportunity to use my talents to give back."

He and his wife, Pam, have visited the islands "many, many times," Montemagno said.

They have two grandchildren living in Indianapolis — Kalani, 3, and Carlo, 2 — whose mother is half Native Hawaiian, making their grandchildren one-fourth Hawaiian, Montemagno said.

If he gets the job of Manoa chancellor at the age of 54, Montemagno would move to Hono­lulu with his wife and mother.

"It’s an opportunity to have an impact," Montemagno said. "All of us should strive to make sure we leave fingerprints to make the society we live in better. This is the path that I’ve chosen for myself that I believe I have talent for."

Holub, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, will visit the campus April 16 and 17.

In an email to the Star-Advertiser on Monday, Holub said, "I don’t have enough information or knowledge about the system and the campus to know how serious the proposal is to join their administrations. My understanding was that they had been separated only about a decade ago, and that this sort of separation was viewed as advantageous to both the system and the campus. Since I have worked in three separate states (California, Tennessee and Massachusetts), each of which had a system president and a campus chancellor, I believe these positions function in a very different fashion. The elimination of the chancellor’s position would leave the flagship institution of the state without an exclusive and effective voice and advocate."

In response to questions about how his experience will help him deal with Manoa’s issues, Holub wrote: "I was a faculty member and administrator at UC Berkeley for 27 years, provost at the University of Tennessee for two years, and have now served for almost four years as the chancellor of the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts. I therefore have extensive experience on the land-grant, research, flagship campuses in three different states, and I would be able to bring this extensive experience and knowledge to Hawaii.

"I see Manoa campus as one with great potential: it has a diverse student population, which represents the future for many universities and for the United States in the coming decades; it is intimately involved in the Pacific Rim, which is where the action is politically, economically and scientifically in the 21st century; and it has a great foundation of cutting-edge research focusing on some of the big issues facing the state, the nation, and the world."

Apple, of the University of Dela­ware, said it would be inappropriate to comment before meeting with the UH-Manoa community. Apple’s Manoa visit is scheduled for next week.

Wilcox, from Michigan, did not respond to a Star-Advertiser email. He is scheduled to visit April 19 and 20.

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On the Net:

» All of the candidates’ biographies, CVs and other information related to the search for the next chancellor are available at www.manoa.hawaii.edu.executivesearch/chancellor.

FINALISTS

Carlo Montemagno
>> Current position: Dean, College of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Cincinnati
>> Background: Studied at Cornell University, then joined the Navy and served 10 years as a Civil Engineering Corps officer. Previous positions with California NanoSystems Institute and biomedical engineering departments at UCLA and Cornell.
>> Visits UH-Manoa: Wednesday and Thursday

Tom Apple
>> Current position: Provost, University of Delaware
>> Background: Has researched magnetic resonance of zeolite and polymeric materials. Served as reviewer and panelist for the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
>> Visits UH-Manoa: Monday and April 10

Robert C. Holub
>> Current position: Chancellor, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
>> Background: Has written 12 books and more than 100 articles and essays on topics from early 19th-century German realism to the postwar examination of the Holocaust
>> Visits UH-Manoa: April 16 and 17

Kim A. Wilcox
>> Current position: Provost and vice president for academic affairs, Michigan State University
>> Background: Has published extensively in area of developmental speech acoustics and has directed teaching, research and service projects funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education
>> Visits UH-Manoa: April 19 and 20