2 previous UH presidents remain in academic posts

Question: Whatever happened to Evan Dobelle and David McClain, the immediate predecessors to University of Hawaii President M.R.C. Greenwood, who announced last week that she will retire in September?

Answer: After Dobelle’s contentious departure in 2004 after serving three years as UH president, he went on to serve as president of the New England Board of Higher Education in Boston for three years and has been president of Westfield State University in Westfield, Mass., for the past six years.

Dobelle is also a tenured political science professor

at Westfield State and was recently elected to the membership committee of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, he told the Star-Advertiser via email.

Dobelle was hired under a seven-year contract in 2001 to replace then-President Kenneth Mortimer, who was leaving after serving eight years as UH president and chancellor of UH-Manoa. Dobelle fell from the Board of Regents’ graces in November 2002 when he appeared in television commercials endorsing Democratic Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono for governor.

In March 2003, the state auditor criticized UH for mismanagement of its special funds accounts, and state lawmakers followed up a few months later by submitting an opinion essay published in the Star-Bulletin critical of Dobelle’s spending practices and leadership at UH.

In June 2004, the Board of Regents voted unanimously to fire him. The board and Dobelle later agreed to a settlement in which Dobelle

resigned, received a $3.4 million settlement package and was allowed to stay with the university as a nontenured UH researcher for two years. His presidency of the New England Board of Higher Education, however, began later that year.

Dobelle’s successor, McClain, had worked under Dobelle as vice president for academic affairs. Upon Dobelle’s departure, McClain became acting president immediately and was named interim president in October 2004.

In November 2005, McClain announced that he did not intend to actively seek the UH presidency because he could commit to serving for only an additional three years, rather than the seven to 10 years served by the three presidents who preceded Dobelle. The Board

of Regents voted in March 2006 to hire McClain anyway and gave him a three-year contract.

McClain stepped down in 2009 at the end of his contract. After a one-year sabbatical he returned to the university as a professor with the UH Shidler College of Business — a position he still holds.

Greenwood took the reins from McClain as the university’s first female president in August 2009. Her contract was extended in 2011 and was set to expire in July 2015, but she announced last week she intends to retire in September to spend more time with family and take care of her health. She said she was not leaving because of the Stevie Wonder concert fiasco and the subsequent fallout from state legislators.

Greenwood has said she will likely assume a tenured faculty position at the John A. Burns School of Medicine after taking a year of unpaid leave.

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This update was written by Sarah Zoellick. Suggest a topic for “Whatever Happened To…” by writing Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210, Honolulu 96813; call 529-4747; or email cityeditors@staradvertiser.com.