Senate hearings on the University of Hawaii’s Stevie Wonder debacle are finally letting the public in on key information that UH leaders wrongfully sought to keep to themselves.
It’s a legitimate use of legislative power to force transparency that UH wouldn’t provide on its own.
But while putting UH brass on the hot seat, lawmakersglossed over the earlier misuse of power by some of their own that contributed to a costly piece of the mess involving former athletic director Jim Donovan.
UH President M.R.C. Greenwood testified that UH received intense pressure from legislators, including Senate President Shan Tsutsui and House Speaker Calvin Say, to let Donovan keep his job despite spotty performance and his department’s slipshod due diligence that caused $200,000 to disappear in the half-baked concert deal.
It seems clear that the make-work job Donovan got in the chancellor’s office, which will cost taxpayers $633,000 over three years, was at least partly an attempt to satisfy political demands that he be taken care of.
Donovan is an honorable man devoted to UH, but he’s been less than stellar as athletic director, and the decision by UH leaders to replace him wasn’t unreasonable.
Athletics are awash in red ink, attendance is disappointing and few teams have truly excelled.
Football was going nowhere under coach Greg McMackin, and Donovan displayed poor judgment in recommending that his inflated $1.1 million contract be extended.
Donovan was unhappy that UH leaders went over his head to hire new coach Norm Chow, but most reasonable people agree it was a good choice.
UH leadership lost confidence in Donovan’s ability to lead UH through the meltdown of the Western Athletic Conference, leaving Greenwood and Vice President Rockne Freitas to do the heavy lifting in getting UH into the Mountain West Conference in football and the Big West in other sports.
Again there was grousing about the departure from normal procedures, but there was agreement again among reasonable people that it was a very good result.
With athletics teetering financially and the AD on the wrong side of major arguments about the program’s future, it would have been surprising if UH wasn’t looking to make a change.
Which raises troubling questions about why top political leaders were so adamant about pressuring UH to keep Donovan on.
Senators clucked their tongues Monday when Donovan told about the outrageous micromanagement of athletics by former Board of Regents Chairman Howard Karr.
The micromanagement inherent in the legislative pressure to save Donovan was just as outrageous.
So when senators hold their next hearing on questions that went unanswered Monday, how about they put Shan Tsutsui and Calvin Say on the hot seat to explain where they got off trying to dictate who should be UH’s athletic director.
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Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.
