For the University of Hawaii, "athletics are absolutely part and parcel of who we are," presidential finalist David Lassner said Monday.

Speaking to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Editorial Board, Lassner said, "universities are really complicated and interesting organizations and that’s why I’ve enjoyed my whole career so much."

Lassner said, "Clearly athletics is really important to the community. So, a pure academic — and I am not one — could easily say: Why do we have athletics at all, because it is not part of the core mission of education or service? But, in this state, and this university, it is absolutely an essential part of what we do and how we engage the community."

A graduate of the school, Lassner has served as interim president for the past eight months and has been employed at UH for more than 36 years, most recently as vice president for information technology and chief information officer.

Lassner said he was recently reminded of the hold athletics can have on the community. In the early 1980s, Lassner said, he shared a residence in Manoa where one of his roommates was Larry Sherrer, a medical student who was a 1971 All-America honoree as a running back for UH.

Sherrer, now an ophthalmologist in Lihue, attended one of Lassner’s recent public forums. "People said, ‘Is that Larry Sherrer? Do you know him?’ I mean, that’s huge."

Lassner said, "Part of it is we’re in a state with no professional athletics of any kind, right? So, UH fills a niche … so we fill that piece for the community. We present opportunities for our high school student-athletes to aspire to come to UH and get a college education. I mean, there are a lot of positive things. They learn leadership skills, they learn team skills. I mean I absolutely believe in athletics. The economics are hard."

Lassner said, "I think we have all recognized, this is from the governor (and) stadium authority on down, the stadium situation is a challenge. I don’t think there is any bad will by anyone. The stadium authority also has a hard job to manage a very old stadium that needs a lot of repair, that doesn’t generate as much revenue as it might, given what it is."