A state Senate committee Tuesday voted against recommending confirmation of University of Hawaii Board of Regents interim member and Chair Alapaki Nahale-a for a second term as a regent. The vote followed hours of pointed questioning on UH spending and accountability issues, including why a Manoa student housing complex in disrepair has sat closed for nearly seven years.
Nahale-a, asked Tuesday night about whether he will continue the quest for another five-year term as a UH regent, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “I’m going to spend time with my family tonight and consider the options. I want to do what’s best for the University of Hawaii, and Hawaii.”
The vote was the latest chapter in ongoing tensions between certain legislators and leaders of the 10-campus public university, as Nahale-a and fellow interim regents Lauren Akitake and former Gov. Neil Abercrombie underwent confirmation hearings as a precursor to confirmation voting by the full 25-member state Senate.
The confirmation process has been expected to be strained, after Nahale-a and others said in December that certain legislators have tried to influence some regents as they conduct a search for the successor to outgoing UH President David Lassner.
After Nahale-a was questioned by the state Senate Higher Education Committee for more than two hours, committee Chair Donna Mercado Kim (D, Kalihi-Fort Shafter-Red Hill) recommended “to not advise and consent” for another term. Three other committee members — Vice Chair Michelle Kidani, Kurt Fevella and Troy Hashimoto — sided with Kim’s recommendation, and Sen. Carol Fukunaga voted in agreement with reservations.
Christian Fern, executive director of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, who testified in support of Nahale-a, said after the vote against Nahale-a that he believes that the senators “are doing a huge disservice to the university and the state when they recommend against the advise and consent of qualified individuals from volunteering to serve on these state boards and commissions.”
Fern added that he felt that “it is sad that the committee chose to recommend against advise and consent of Alapaki, a Native Hawaiian serving as chair of an Indigenous-serving institution, who has gone through extraordinary lengths to bring some unity to the Board of Regents.”
Mixed feedback
Akitake, a private-practice attorney and per diem District Court judge whom several senators praised for leading recent efforts to audit and improve the UH student housing system, received overwhelmingly positive written and oral testimony, and unanimous votes of support from committee members.
Abercrombie received criticism from some testifiers for what they felt was harsh treatment toward members of the university community who have come before the regents with concerns. “Instead of being met with somebody who is open and welcoming, we are met with somebody who is rather demeaning and meets our concerns with disparaging remarks,” UH Manoa student Kyson James-Foree, a student senator for the UH College of Arts and Sciences, told the committee.
Kidani and Fevella voted against Abercrombie’s confirmation, but Kim and Hashimoto voted in his support, and Fukunaga broke the tie by voting in his support with reservations.
Nahale-a, Akitake and Abercrombie have been serving on the board as interim regents since they were announced in May as Gov. Josh Green’s picks for five-year terms starting July 1.
Abercrombie and Akitake are first-time regent candidates. Nahale-a — who served his first term as a 2019 regent appointee of then-Gov. David Ige and worked as a vice chair and second vice chair before being nominated by Green for a second term — was elected chair of the UH Board of Regents in July. The volunteer board sets policies, approves state budget requests and selects and reviews the university president among its responsibilities.
Complex in disrepair
Nahale-a began his Tuesday appearance before the Senate committee with a statement that he was honored to have served on the board the past five years but that it was also “an incredible challenge.”
“I had to think long and hard before going through the process again … because I know the sacrifices that have to be made to take these positions, and what’s at stake for Hawaii and what the university needs to be for our future,” Nahale-a said. “I really do love the university. I believe in it. I think we do a lot of things really well. And we have so much more we could be. So I’m committed to helping lift up the university.”
But in the contentious questioning that followed, Nahale-a was pressed to answer for the regents’ decisions and actions on a plethora of issues, including some that predate his tenure as chair, such as the closing of the 500-bed Hale Noelani student apartment complex, which has never been renovated since being built in 1978. The nearby 656-bed Hale Wainani apartment complex is considered the next at risk to close because of plumbing issues and other problems.
Kim and others said they still don’t understand how the university has prioritized pouring millions into other projects, such as expanding the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex.
“How come nothing was done at the Board of Regents level when there was a vacant dorm there?” Hashimoto said, referring to Hale Noelani. “You know housing is such a crisis in our community, and the regents didn’t do anything until this year.”
Nahale-a said he was not fully aware of the magnitude of the student housing problems until 2023, and that of all the issues before the regents, “housing at Manoa is probably the one I’m most disappointed, in terms of me not being on top of that issue. I could sit here and make a lot of excuses as to why and what things I prioritized, but … the severity of the issue missed my radar. …
“It’s certainly a priority for me now,” he continued. “And I’m committed to making sure that we don’t just fix facilities that are vacant, or we don’t just address the conditions that are currently there — that we create a housing process and system (so) that we don’t ever get into this state again.”
Pushback lagging
Senate Ways and Means Chair Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Mililani-Wahiawa-Whitmore Village) dropped in to the hearing to ask Nahale-a why the regents aren’t more proactive in setting priorities for and questioning the budget requests created by the UH administration. He accused the regents of “rubber stamping” whatever the administration gives them.
“I’m pretty hard on myself. So I wouldn’t say that we rubber-stamp it,” Nahale-a said, “but I certainly agree there hasn’t been a wealth of debate or pushback on the Board of Regents budget for the years I’ve been there, including from me. I may have been one of the more vocal questioners, but that hasn’t been a culture of the regents since I’ve been there.”
Dela Cruz also criticized Nahale-a and other regents for not conducting more site visits at and better supporting the seven UH community colleges, despite the fact that over 50% of high school students do not go on to attend four-year campuses.
Nahale-a said he considers himself a “champion for the community colleges” but that it has not been a popular position on the board. He said his main work as chair so far has been in reorganizing the board to improve accountability.
“This is probably the first time since I’ve been there that every regent has a critical role — they’re chairing a committee or a liaison post.” he said. “I think my example is the example to get things done in the long run.”
