UH’s Apple responds to senator’s query

University of Hawaii at Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple attempted Thursday to clarify his testimony to a Senate panel last week when he said nearly all UH coaches thanked him after the removal of Jim Dono­van as athletic director.

State Sen. Donna Mercado Kim sent Apple a letter Monday asking him to clarify some of his testimony to the special Senate Committee on Accountability. During the Oct. 2 panel session, Apple said, "In the interest of transparency, I’ll say something. I received a couple of weeks later (after Dono­van’s removal) a letter from 43 of 44 coaches saying thank you for the leadership we have."

UH officials later acknowledged that he was referring to an Aug. 28 letter signed by all but one head coach, asking Apple to "consider immediately appointing (UH vice president for student affairs) Dr. Rockne Freitas as our athletic director." That letter made no mention of Dono­van in the three paragraphs preceding the signatures and did not thank him for his leadership. It touted only Frei­tas, who had been named interim athletic director earlier in the month.

In a written response to Kim, Apple said Thursday he interpreted the coaches’ letter "to mean that they appreciated the leadership of the person whom I had appointed to the Interim Athletic Director position, and that they were happy about his being there."

Kim (D, Kalihi Valley-Halawa) had asked him to "please, specifically, point out where the letter states that coaches remarked ‘thank you for the leadership we have.’"

In his reply, Apple said, "I may be wrong, but I thought I stated in my testimony before your committee that it was my opinion that the coaches who signed the letter wouldn’t have appeared so overwhelmingly supportive of the Interim AD if there had been significant support of the previous AD. As I was paraphrasing rather than quoting verbatim from the letter, I was relying on my recollection of it, and, therefore on the impression it had left on me."

Kim, citing apparently conflicting statements from Apple and UH President M.R.C. Greenwood, also asked Apple to clarify when he decided not to renew Dono­van’s contract, and when Dono­van was told he would not be retained.

Apple said his decision not to return Dono­van to his old job was made around July 9, after speaking to people about the workings of the athletic department following the Stevie Wonder concert debacle.

"Please note that this is not the same thing as the decision which had already been made not to accept the proposed extensions of his contract beyond March, 2013," Apple said.

"The best person to ask for clarification about President Greenwood’s letter regarding the extension of Mr. Dono­van’s contract as Athletic Director is President Greenwood. It was my understanding when I first arrived on campus, that requests for 3- and 5-year extensions of Mr. Dono­van’s contract had not been approved and that the decision of who would be AD moving forward from March 2013 was mine."

The Senate committee is investigating both the failed concert, which cost the UH $200,000, and UH administrators’ decisions after the alleged scam was discovered.

Chancellor Apple’s Response to Senator Kim’s October 6th Letter