UH president search was deeply flawed

A recent commentary congratulated David Lassner on his selection by the University of Hawaii Board of Regents to be UH president, with its last line urging the community to "come together" in support ("Let’s make University of Hawaii the best it can be," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, June 18).

However, before we leave the 2014 UH presidential selection process to the history books, we — two former state attorneys general — cannot remain silent about the unfair selection process that resulted in Lassner’s appointment to the top job in the UH system.

This selection process was rushed and obviously slanted in favor of a sitting interim president who should not have even been considered for the permanent job in the first place. In fact, when he was first appointed interim president, Lassner publicly stated that he absolutely did not want to serve as permanent president and actually wanted to return to his "dream job" as the head of UH’s information technology services.

And yet, on July 1, he will become the 15th UH president. This is largely due to the influences of Board of Regents Chairman John Holzman, who wanted to anoint a new president before his term as a regent ends on June 30.

This farce of a selection process was aided and abetted by nefarious players. On March 6, 2014, 15 UH deans and directors signed a letter addressed to Holzman — not to BOR member Carl Carlson who chaired the presidential selection committee — asking Holzman to directly appoint Lassner to the permanent post "as soon as possible," thereby skipping the formal search process.

The words "nomination" or "nominate" do not appear anywhere in this letter. However, Holzman touted this document on several occasions as being the "nomination" letter that elevated Lassner from someone who was not interested in applying for the UH president’s job to being one of the two finalists.

During the week of May 6, Hawaii News Now interviewed well-respected Linda Johnsrud, former UH executive vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer, who had toiled 25 years at UH-Manoa before relocating to the University of Texas in Austin.

Johnsrud said that after former UH President M.R.C. Greenwood announced plans to step down last year, she was told by Holzman that whoever became interim UH president would not be considered for the permanent position.

"It was made clear that if I were the interim, I couldn’t be a candidate for the permanent position, and so I declined the interim," Johnsrud said.

Also at that time, significantly, the regents said allowing the interim president to be in the running for the permanent post would be seen as giving that person an "unfair" advantage.

The bottom line? The job of permanent UH president was given to a person who did not seek the job, did not apply for the job, and was given preferential treatment by the Board of Regents.

The board selected a candidate who promised change, yet will have difficulty cleaning house because he has worked at UH for more than 30 years. His own department was involved in several high-profile problems, in terms of being responsible for data and security breaches.

The Beatles song "Come Together" aptly describes what the majority of regents voted for, led by Holzman. They came together to appoint someone who will be a seat-filler until the next time this spectacle known as the UH presidential search is launched.

Just how long into the future that is will be very interesting to see.