After his first two weeks on the job, University of Hawaii-Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple used a football analogy to describe the bumpy start.

Apple’s baptism coincided with an embarrassing week in which UH athletics director Jim Donovan and the Stan Sheriff arena manager were placed on indefinite paid leave because of a bogus Stevie Wonder concert that cost the university $200,000.

By the end of last week, Apple was quoting former NFL All-Pro lineman Rockne Freitas, who was selected as the interim replacement for Donovan on Wednesday.

"Rockne said … ‘You don’t feel into the game until you take your first shot,’" Apple said. "And now I’m in the game."

Even so, the concert debacle has again raised issues about the lines of authority at Manoa.

Faculty members and others who care about UH wonder who is running the flagship Manoa campus — the new Manoa chancellor or the president of the UH system who oversees all 10 campuses.

"It’s not clear at all," said Bob Cooney, the outgoing chairman of the UH-Manoa Faculty Senate who has met with Apple three times already and likes him.

Dan Boylan, a political commentator and UH-West Oahu history professor emeritus, said the events of last week will quickly teach Apple about the difficulties of trying to lead the Manoa campus while working under the UH president.

"He’s learning what he’s going to have to do to earn his pay," Boylan said. "Coming out of this, there certainly will have to be some clear lines drawn about who is responsible."

Apple’s salary is $439,008.

Donovan stood alone Tuesday in a room at the Stan Sheriff Center to make the embarrassing announcement that the Stevie Wonder concert to raise money for UH’s financially strapped athletic department would not happen.

Twenty-four hours later, Apple joined his boss, UH President M.R.C. Greenwood, at a news conference to announce that Donovan and arena Manager Rich Sheriff had been placed on indefinite, paid leave while the FBI and an outside investigator look into how the blunder began.

"It shows less of a nuanced effort to distance themselves from Donovan and more incompetence on the part of the president and chancellor," said Neal Milner, the former UH-Manoa ombudsman and a retired UH political science professor. "This is a sign that they’re letting Donovan take this one alone. But you can’t distance yourself from this problem. It’s another example of bad crisis PR. They did really bad work all the way around."

Asked by the Star-Advertiser who is in charge of UH athletics and the Manoa campus, Apple said: "There’s no question there. The athletic director, Rockne, reports to me. I report directly to President Greenwood. I go to her for guidance. It’s a very clear structure that the athletics department will be run by Rockne, who reports to me, definitely not the president."

Apple said it was his decision to place Donovan and Sheriff on leave.

"I made the decision and it was the only rational decision, given that we had not yet done an investigation," Apple said.

But Greenwood’s appearance at Wednesday’s news conference was appropriate, Apple said, because of the seriousness of the issue.

"If his schedule had allowed, we might have even seen the chairman of the Board (of Regents, Eric Martinson) there," Apple said. "When something is this serious, we want to show the community that our entire leadership is involved in trying to find solutions."

Apple did not appear with Donovan the day before, however. "I’m not sure I knew that we had a press conference. I am on kind of my learning tour here. If you saw my schedule, I … literally have days that last from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 at night."

Apple’s absence on Tuesday — and his joint appearance with Greenwood the following day — did little to define him as a clear, independent leader in charge of UH athletics and the Manoa campus, Cooney said.

"It didn’t send a good message," Cooney said.

Greenwood "seemed to almost want to answer for him in a few instances," Cooney said. "I hate to judge it after a week. But I hope he will become independent. Obviously he can’t ignore the system and the president. But I hope that he will stand up if there’s a situation where he believes differently from the president or the board. We’ll just have to wait and see."

At their joint news conference, Greenwood told reporters, "We have great confidence in Chancellor Apple and I’m sorry for him that this has to be his introduction to some of our programs and to some of his responsibilities."

Apple arrived at his new office in Hawaii Hall in late June, when he considered himself the "chancellor-elect in training wheels."

When the training wheels came off, the Stevie Wonder concert fiasco began to unravel, giving UH embarrassing news coverage around the country.

"You’ve got a crisis on your hands," Milner said. "You’ve got an athletic department that made a big blunder, you’ve got a chancellor who’s brand new and you’ve got an established decision-making system that’s taking this out of the hands of Manoa. Short term, I don’t think the question is about Apple’s involvement. Long term the question of who runs Manoa should be raised again."

UH regents created the position of chancellor of the Manoa campus 11 years ago.

Apple inherited an office with an annual operating budget of $14.7 million, according to state Rep. K. Mark Takai, (D, Newtown, Waiau, Pearl City), a former UH student body president and current member of the House Higher Education Committee.

Takai has repeatedly tried to get a nonbinding resolution passed that would ask UH regents to consider returning the duties of the chancellor’s office to the president of the UH system.

In January 2001, when the responsibilities of UH-Manoa chancellor lay with the president, regents promised that the chancellor job would incur no additional costs, said Takai, who was chairman of the House Higher Education Committee at the time.

The idea was to shift administrative tasks and positions from the president’s office to the chancellor’s office to focus on issues specific to the Manoa campus, Takai said.

Instead, the expenses for the chancellor’s office mushroomed under former UH President Evan Dobelle and have continued to grow, Takai said.

In addition to the annual $14.7 million annual operating costs, Takai said the chancellor’s office continues to spend an extra $6.4 million every year in duplicated administrative costs.

So Takai agrees with others critical of a separate Manoa chancellor’s office that last week’s two high-profile news conferences represented "a missed opportunity for Apple."

"It was a chance for him to show us why a position of chancellor is important," Takai said. "But what happened this past week doesn’t surprise me because it’s been going on for years now. This is another reason why the Board of Regents should study consolidating the two offices."

While NCAA regulations require UH athletics to be run by the head of the Manoa campus, Milner said Greenwood has been front and center in most high-profile UH athletic developments.

"M.R.C. Greenwood has gotten much more active in UH athletic events," Milner said. "Whether it’s right or wrong, it creates problems. If the president isn’t very, very active in Manoa affairs the president of the system doesn’t have that much to do. If the president is active in Manoa affairs, then the chancellor’s job is truncated. That’s an inherent tension."

Milner said the events of last week are "not a good start in the relationship" between Apple and Greenwood.

But Apple said he believes he and Greenwood showed committed leadership working together.

"I value the tremendous wisdom and contacts that President Greenwood brings to the table," he said. "We’re a team here. I’m part of a system that can work together as a team."