Key state senators call for University of Hawaii President Lassner to resign

After almost a decade with University of Hawaii President David Lassner at the helm of the state’s 10-campus public university system — a time marked by frequent frustration and a power struggle between UH and some state senators — at least three key senators say they think it’s time for him to step down.

Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, chair of the Senate Ways and Means committee, and Sens. Donna Mercado Kim and Michelle Kidani, who are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the Senate Higher Education Committee, said in separate Honolulu Star-Advertiser interviews that there has not been one particular trigger that has led them to feel Lassner should resign, but a pattern they perceive of too-slow progress by the university to meet the needs of students and the state.

However, Lassner over the weekend gave no indication that he plans to step away in the near future. And expressions of support for Lassner and/or the university also have emerged in response from diverse sectors, including all four members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation, the executive director of the UH faculty union and the head of the state House Higher Education and Technology Committee.

Dela Cruz (D, Mililani-Wahiawa-Whitmore Village) said he believes Lassner “has run his course. He’s been there 10 years; that’s kind of long already. We need somebody who’s going to take Hawaii to the next level, that wants excellence, that wants us to be globally competitive, that understands the state’s needs a lot better. I feel like the university focuses on, ‘What research money can we get, and that’s what we’ll work on.’”

Workforce training and more efficient use of facilities with the advent of online learning are among the areas UH must better emphasize in order to keep up with student and state needs, he added.

Kim (D, Kalihi-Fort Shafter-­Red Hill) in a separate interview said it is “troubling” that Lassner hasn’t acted quickly enough to address concerns raised repeatedly by her committee, including putting a higher priority on the needs of undergraduates and building more dorms.

She said UH needs a more assertive leader because Lassner “is lacking the vision and the confidence of the university as far as moving forward.”

Kidani (D, Mililani Town-Waipio Gentry-Royal Kunia) said she wishes the UH Board of Regents “would start looking for someone else. … I think it’s time for new ideas and someone to lead us in a little bit different direction.”

Neither state nor federal lawmakers have direct say in any hiring or firing of a UH president. That is the purview of the UH Board of Regents, an 11-member volunteer board appointed by the governor.

But with 44 days of the current 60-day state legislative session still ahead, the state senators’ position on Lassner could cast a pall over UH’s efforts to get its budget requests and priorities through. It also could complicate the university’s alignments with business, philanthropic and research entities, and have a chilling effect when the time eventually comes to recruit candidates to be the next university president.

The three state senators expressed frustration over a lengthy list of concerns, also including numerous complaints they say they received in confidence about UH and Lassner from students, parents and university employees; persistent disagreements over whether all professors are teaching enough classroom hours to fulfill their contractual obligations; uneven faculty morale, student enrollment and facilities use; and objections to the way UH carried out the expansion of the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Complex to meet NCAA requirements.

The senators and Lassner also have had showdowns in the past over spending, construction and other issues, including former UH head football coach Todd Graham. A tense Senate hearing led by Kim and Dela Cruz in January 2022, where accusations flew about Graham’s treatment of players, led Lassner to say testimony was “cherry picked” and positive testimony was unfairly disallowed.

State Sen. Kurt Fevella at the time called for a petition to have Lassner, Graham and athletic director David Matlin removed. Graham resigned a few days later. Matlin last month announced his intention to retire in June.

Lassner, 68, has served as UH president for nearly nine and a half years, counting the time served as interim president starting in September 2013 before becoming president in June 2014. The national average tenure for a university president keeps declining, according to the American Council on Education; currently it is 6.5 years.

Lassner serves at the will of the UH Board of Regents, which conducts annual evaluations. His next evaluation is expected to begin in late spring.

His salary is $409,704, according to UH data. When it was $398,916 in 2021, the Chronicle of Higher Education ranked his pay 159th among 196 chief executives at public doctoral universities and systems.

Supporters say Lassner generally has brought an extended period of stability and growth to UH, listing a relatively smooth shift in operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, high rankings for UH in some surveys, and new records in research funding and philanthropic support among UH’s achievements under his leadership.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz strongly backed Lassner in an email Saturday, citing a strong working relationship and saying that “UH has solidified its position as a world-class university and as Hawaii’s leading research institution. … I remain confident in David’s leadership, and look forward to continue working with him and the university to support Hawaii.”

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono said she has been “proud to work with (Lassner) to deliver federal funding for UH priorities including cancer research, national security initiatives, projects to support Native Hawaiian communities and more. I appreciate his partnership and continue to support his leadership of UH.”

U.S. Rep. Ed Case added via email that Lassner and his team “have been great partners in obtaining record federal support for UH, strengthening core federally-supported areas, and expanding UH’s expertise and reach in the Indo-Pacific.”

U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda called Lassner “a thoughtful and steady leader, guiding and lifting up our university through unprecedented times and challenges. … As someone that listens, focuses on building trust and relationships, and isn’t afraid to tell it like it is, David is the kind of leader we need at UH, and he has my full confidence and support. …”

Lassner said in a statement emailed to the Star-­Advertiser late Friday that he is proud of “the amazing body of accomplishments of our team over these past years: achieving financial stability, restoring our campus facilities, continuously improving our measures of student success, increasing public trust and confidence, and growing our research portfolio by addressing the challenges and opportunities that face Hawai‘i and the world. We have done all this while holding our tuition rates firm and increasing our transparency and accountability. And we continued this progress through the pandemic, thriving as well as any large complex organization in Hawaii … .

He called it “disappointing to face harsh criticism, but that is part of leadership,” adding the university’s many stakeholders are “never in full alignment, but I always try to listen carefully to those who disagree with me to learn how I can improve. So I welcome ideas on how we can do even better, ideally together, for this great university and the people of Hawaii we are all charged to serve.”

Randolph Moore, chair of the UH Board of Regents, said Friday that he would not comment on the board’s next steps because it would not be appropriate without a board discussion first.

Christian Fern, executive director of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, the union representing 3,200 faculty, said Lassner deserves credit for working with the union to ease pandemic-related challenges. Fern also criticized what he said was the senators’ “lack of respect” for Lassner.

“I think (UH) is serving its purpose as a land grant institution, and I think it’s meeting as many of the needs as possible for the state. I feel personally like the attacks on the university harm the public perception of the university,” Fern said.

State Rep. Amy Perruso (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore Village-Mokuleia) said comparable tension does not exist in the state House, where she chairs the Committee on Higher Education and Technology. She also said the state over decades has been “starving the whole university system” by forcing it to operate less on general funds and more on tuition revenue.

“Lassner didn’t create it,” she said of the budget struggle, “he’s just been saddled with it.”