The search for the next University of Hawaii president, now into its seventh month, is shifting to focus on finding a local candidate and possibly forgoing the hiring of an outside search firm.
And that candidate could be interim President David Lassner.
Just last fall the Board of Regents presidential selection committee argued that contracting with a search firm would be critical to recruiting the best candidates nationwide.
But three times since October the committee has deferred action on a search firm at its public meetings, following lengthy discussions of proposals behind closed doors.
At the same time, the committee has held more than two dozen public outreach meetings, at which it heard calls for UH to hire from within, according to a committee report on the top recurring comments.
Other feedback included opposition to the expense of a mainland search firm. UH has said in procurement documents that it expected to spend $75,000 to $125,000 on a headhunter.
"Having carefully listened to and considered stakeholders’ and the public’s input, the committee has focused on significantly narrowing the search to a local candidate or candidates and, as a result, has been weighing the necessity of spending public funds on a search firm," Regent Carl Carlson, the committee chairman, said in an emailed statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
"The committee is spending its time carefully evaluating and exploring alternative paths in moving forward in the best interests of the university. It is better for the committee to go through this process, albeit lengthy, than rushing into spending tens of thousands of dollars on a search firm," he said.
Carlson added that the committee is composed of volunteers "who’ve devoted tremendous time and effort, at no cost to the state, to ensuring this process is conducted properly and responsibly."
The committee met Friday morning at UH-Manoa, but its agenda no longer included selecting a search firm as its past four agendas have. Instead, the agenda had just one item, to be discussed in executive session: "Dialogue with interim President Lassner on the selection of the president for the University of Hawaii."
The committee will next meet Thursday night, when Carlson said a timeline will likely be developed. The agenda for that meeting includes a decision "on the search process and alternatives" and whether to hire a search firm.
At least one college dean has publicly asked the committee to consider appointing Lassner to the top post to give UH some stability.
Dr. Jerris Hedges, dean of Manoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine, testified at the committee’s Jan. 15 meeting that Lassner could help UH through its current "crisis mode."
The search was launched last summer when M.R.C. Greenwood announced she was retiring at the end of August to spend more time with family and deal with health problems. She had 23 months remaining on her contract.
The regents in July temporarily named Lassner, the university’s chief information officer and vice president for information technology, to ensure a smooth transition and to give them time to search for a permanent replacement.
Greenwood stepped down nearly a year after UH became embroiled in the so-called "Wonder Blunder" over a botched Stevie Wonder concert that shook public confidence in the university.
"We have a very capable individual, who has stepped up and accepted the interim president role, who is, I think, capable of being appointed today," Hedges told the committee of Lassner. "We have someone with many years of experience at multiple levels of the university, someone who is knowledgeable of Hawaii and her peoples, someone who’s honest, trustworthy, supportive of faculty and programs that we have built across the university system, who’s also able to communicate and, most importantly, is able to learn."
Hedges said divisions have begun to develop at campuses because of a "lack of clarity around the leadership." He added that the regents could launch a full-scale search in a few years, when UH’s needs and priorities evolve past stabilizing the university.
"The search we would do today is much different than a search we would do three years from now. And the person we would look for today in our crisis mode is much different than the person we would look for three years from now," Hedges said. "I think if we can stabilize our current situation, provide good strong leadership that allows us to address some of the concerns that permeate our system, we can then undertake a very formal, very all-inclusive search process that will get us all of the buy-in that we wish to get, when we have the luxury of time."
