Regents appoint new leader for flagship Manoa campus

Tom Apple, provost of the University of Dela­ware, was unanimously selected as the next chancellor of the University of Hawaii’s flagship Manoa campus Thursday after two UH regents said their initial dissenting views were changed during private discussions among the regents.

Regents voted 13-0 to approve Apple.

Apple was granted a five-year "appointment" instead of a contract, and his performance will be evaluated annually, said his new boss, UH President M.R.C. Greenwood, who oversees the 10-campus system.

She said he will serve "at the pleasure of the president with the consent of the board."

Apple will earn $439,008 a year — or $36,584 per month. He will not receive a housing allowance, Greenwood said.

Apple assumes his new duties June 18, replacing Virginia Hin­shaw, who earns $337,672.

Apple, a University of Dela­ware alumnus, has served as a dean and as provost at the university since 2005. He was named dean of the College of Arts and Sciences effective July 1, 2005, and was named provost effective July 1, 2009.

Apple will oversee 23,000 students, 8,000 to 10,000 employees, more than 330 acres of property and "roughly a billion-dollar operation," Greenwood said.

"This is the chancellor of our flagship campus," Greenwood said. "We need to attract the very best candidates we can."

Hinshaw will help Apple with his new job until her contract ends June 30, UH spokes­woman Lynne Waters said.

A video conference with Apple is scheduled for this morning with the media.

After her contract ends, Hinshaw will be paid nearly $300,000 for a 10-month sabbatical. She may then assume a tenured faculty position in the College of Natural Sciences and the John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Thursday afternoon the regents spent nearly three hours behind closed doors discussing Apple’s appointment, along with other personnel, legal, real estate and collective bargaining issues.

When they emerged, regents Chuck Gee and Dennis Hirota said they had come to the meeting prepared to vote against Apple’s selection, in part because his salary will be $102,000 more than Hin­shaw’s.

Gee and Hirota said their minds were changed during the regents’ discussions in executive session.

Gee noted that the higher pay "comes at a time when the state is still going through great economic difficulties," but that in the end the price tag does not matter if Apple "is able to do what we envision for the university."

After he voiced his public support for Greenwood’s choice, Gee said he was "pretty much convinced that Tom Apple will be the right person to take us to the next step forward."

Greenwood defended Apple’s salary and said it is between 50 and 60 percent of the national median salary for equivalent university administrators, about the same level as Hin­shaw’s salary when she was appointed.

At the University of Dela­ware, Apple earns in the "mid-$400,000s," she said.

"Had he stayed, he would make more money next year (at Dela­ware) than we offered," Greenwood said. "Frankly, he’s making what amounts to a lateral move.

"I do think he’s worth every penny we’re paying."

Asked why regents held a private discussion about Apple in executive session before conducting further discussions in public, board Chairman Eric Martinson said all personnel issues are handled in executive session.

"It’s our practice to discuss all personnel matters in private, in executive session," Martinson said. "The law allows for that."

He said only Gee and Hirota had planned to originally vote against Apple’s appointment. The eventual vote was 13-0, with two regents absent.

J.N. Musto, executive director of the UH faculty union, submitted testimony "to not allocate $100,000 more in salary currently being paid to that position."

Musto said that maintaining separate administrative structures for the president’s and chancellor’s offices — a departure from prior UH eras — "has caused the duplication of services and positions without showing any noticeable gain to the flagship public university of our state. The hope by some that a chancellor would somehow bring more to the Manoa campus than it otherwise would have received under the direct authority of the president is a failed promise. What emerged is a new level of competition between the system administration and that of the chancellor’s office."

Apple was one of four mainland educators who were invited to tour the Manoa campus last month as part of the search for chancellor and won Greenwood’s recommendation.

Regents on Thursday also approved the appointment of Erika Lacro as chancellor of Hono­lulu Community College. Lacro will be paid $146,328 a year and be given a three-year term.