David Lassner’s $375,000 annual salary is a lot of public money — but consider that on a good day, being university president fulfills the definition of being pecked to death by ducks, and on a bad day, it is more like living in a cage with a hundred weasels.
Here is what happened to the Lassner Ducks vs. Weasels Index in the last week.
Early on, the index was trending toward weasels.
On Tuesday, University of Hawaii-Manoa professors started mobilizing for a Faculty Senate no-confidence vote as a statement of protest over Lassner’s firing of Tom Apple as UH-Manoa chancellor.
As reported by Hawaii News Now, Catherine Fulford, a UH-Manoa Senate member and education technology professor, said: "How many administrators have we churned through, not just at the president level, but at the chancellor level? I mean, we’re not giving these people a chance."
Then driving the Lassner duck-to-weasel index level even higher was Ben Jay, the UH athletic director telling the UH Board of Regents that "there’s a very real possibility of (UH) football going away."
Back down to "ducks pecking you to death" level happened the next day when Jay issued a clarification saying his statements "were made in order to convey a sense of urgency regarding the need to address our current funding model."
On Thursday, the Lassner index was back up among the weasels as the UH Regents met to hear how even more people disapprove of Lassner’s performance.
"Words can’t express our disappointment over the blatant disregard of our voices. UH is broken," said Steven Nishihara, Associated Students of the University of Hawaii president.
The regents then guaranteed that the Lassner index would stay up at the weasel level as they approved new salaries for five UH chancellors, including Apple’s replacement, Robert Bley-Vroman.
The yearly bill for those five salaries is $1,127,016, a lot of money at a time when the state Legislature is mostly unhappy over UH spending plans and executive salaries.
To be sure, UH has some great stories as students start up the fall semester. Where else can you do your student internship setting up thermal cameras at the edge of the summit vent of a furiously churning active volcano?
Or take classes from Jason Leigh, a UH-Manoa computer science professor, lured away from the University of Illinois at Chicago because of his work with virtual reality data displays?
And everyone can say "Mahalo, UH" for the work done by the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program on climate change impacts across our state.
Lassner would do well to learn how to be at the front of the bus leading the cheering for UH in the face of the grim political realities.
Former Harvard professor and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is one of many who have noted: "Academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small."
Lassner is now learning that in Hawaii, be it football, ASUH, the Faculty Senate or the entire university, everyone has a stake in the game, and it isn’t small.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.
