A deeply divided state Senate voted 13-12 on Tuesday to deny University of Hawaii Board of Regents Interim Chair Alapaki Nahale-a a second five-year term on the board, as critics cited what they saw as his lapses in accountability and leadership on such crucial issues as the worsening disrepair of some Manoa campus housing.

State Senate Higher Education Committee Chair Donna Mercado Kim said during Senate floor remarks preceding the vote that her committee unanimously recommended against Nahale-a after reviewing his performance in his first term as a regent, from 2019 to 2023, and since becoming chair in July. The panel found that he “did not exercise his oversight responsibilities of accountability, nor has he been an advocate for the university students,” Kim said.

Nahale-a is one of three regents who had been serving in an interim capacity since being nominated in May by Gov. Josh Green. He informed Green’s office Tuesday evening that he was resigning from the 11-­­member, unpaid volunteer board effective immediately.

Nahale-a told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that while some officials’ interpretations of board rules suggested that he could continue to serve until June, “I think my staying in the seat would create a distraction. I believe the Senate vote … was that they do not have confidence in my ability to serve as a regent. I don’t agree with it. But I will honor it.”

The razor-thin voting margin disappointed many supporters of Nahale-a, including nearly 70 friends and family members who joined the Hilo native at the state Capitol, many dressed in red to represent Hawaii island. A petition supporting Nahale-a drew 16,500 signatures by Tuesday.

He and allies had been viewing the Senate vote as a de facto referendum on autonomy of the 10-campus public university, and managing it with kamaaina and Native Hawaiian principles such as aloha. The University of Hawaii Professional Assembly has accused some state senators of “abuse of power.”

Lauren Akitake, a private-­practice attorney and per diem District Court judge, was approved unanimously by the 25-member Senate for her first five-year term on the UH Board of Regents, representing Maui County. Former Gov. Neil Abercrombie was approved by a vote of 22-3 for his first term, filling a seat for Honolulu County. The board sets UH policies, approves budgets and selects the university president, among its duties.

Green’s office, asked for reaction to the vote on Nahale-a, provided a statement: “We are disappointed, but grateful for Alapaki Nahele-a’s service as chair and member of the UH Board of Regents, as well as his prior service in leadership roles at DHHL (state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands) and charter schools. We know he will continue to do great work in our community and we wish him well in his future endeavors.”

The governor’s office did not answer requests for other information, including timing and identity of his next nominee for the Hawaii County seat on the board.

‘Lacked specifics’

Kim (D, Kalihi-Fort Shafter-Red Hill) said in her remarks that Nahale-a’s responses at his Feb. 27 confirmation hearing “were general in nature and lacked specifics. He admitted not knowing or did not review the regents-­initiated reports on the (UH) Cancer Center, or even inquired about student housing and the seven-year shutdown of (student apartment complex) Hale Noelani.”

Kim said Nahale-a failed to put the student-housing issue on the regents’ meeting agendas in a timely manner, and she accused the regents of giving the UH administration too much control in setting the board’s agendas.

“The questions were not about whether he was responsible for all of the issues that is occurring at UH, but rather whether he was aware of them and whether he even attempted to bring it to the university administration’s attention to get them addressed,” she said.

Also among Kim’s criticisms were that Nahale-a has been absent from legislative hearings and briefings on important issues concerning UH, didn’t meet with senators leading up to his confirmation hearing and has not given a “plausible reason” for not appointing a regent to the Mauna Kea transition group.

Kim recalled that she had “wholeheartedly supported” Nahale-a’s confirmation when he first joined the board in 2019, so her down vote this time “is not as personal as the media reports, but based on his record and responses.”

Looking for fault

Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole (D, Kaneohe-Kailua), assistant majority whip, was among the senators who took the Senate chamber floor to speak in support of Nahale-a and against excessive legislative authority over the university.

Keohokalole said that after he watched some senators’ grilling of Nahale-a in his confirmation hearing, “what I’ve come to learn in this body is that when you go looking for fault, you can find it.”

What really matters, Keohokalole said, is how a leader responds. He said Nahale-a “admitted fault, acknowledged the issues and gave comprehensive and informed responses on how he thought those issues should be remedied and on the specific action that he desired to take. While doing so, he also articulated his vision and approach” for the Board of Regents.

Keohokalole added later, “I fear that the standard that we set for a volunteer statewide unpaid board, based off of the inquiry in the hearing, was not realistic.”

Sen. Les Ihara (D, Palolo-­Kaimuki-Moiliili) reminded senators that the 1978 Hawaii Constitutional Convention gave the university its own board, and past Legislatures gave the university autonomy.

“I still trust the university to be one of the leaders of the state in guiding our future, our economic future,” Ihara said. “And I know it’s difficult to watch some of the mistakes that are happening. But I believe we need to let them make their own mistakes and correct their own mistakes.”

In addition to Kim, senators who voted in the roll-call vote to reject confirmation of Nahale-a were Henry Aquino, Stanley Chang, Lynn DeCoite, Donovan Dela Cruz, Kurt Fevella, Troy Hashimoto, Michelle Kidani, Ron Kouchi, Chris Lee, Angus McKelvey, Sharon Moriwaki and Glenn Wakai.

UHPA, the union representing 13,000 UH faculty members, issued a letter to members Tuesday that credited members’ sharing their personal concerns with legislators with shifting votes from a potentially wide loss to a narrow one.

The vote “was not necessarily a defeat,” said the letter written by Executive Director Christian Fern and other union leaders. “Instead, UHPA members demonstrated that faculty will no longer condone and be silent as certain senators continue to wreak their damage on the academy and its members.”

Grateful for support

Nahale-a said immediately after the vote that he was grateful for his supporters and that he felt encouraged that the vote margin was so narrow. He said it suggests that many people, including some leaders, want a shift away from certain legislators’ “inappropriate control over our university.”

“I have reflected like, What if I had done better at the (confirmation) hearing? What if I had walked around and ‘kissed the rings’?” Nahale-a said. “I feel like I deserved to be a regent on the merits. Those merits are how I how I lead with aloha, bring folks together. But that never got a chance.”

Nahale-a said the hardest part of the process has been “holding the hurt that people are feeling” about his confirmation process as well as crises in the community, such as the housing shortage and the Maui wildfires. He rejected the idea some have posed that he could apply to become successor to retiring UH President David Lassner. He said he will huddle with family and supporters on next steps and work prospects, including with some nonprofit organizations.

Akitake was praised effusively by Kim during her committee report for being a “proactive leader” on the Board of Regents.

As chair of the regents’ Independent Audit Committee, Akitake has been “instrumental in raising concerns relating to the shameful neglect of the student housing and implementing quick corrective action to long pending audit topics,” Kim said, and has provided solutions “to improve student life while ensuring accountability of the university administration.”

Abercrombie’s nearly 40 years’ experience as an elected official at county and state levels has enabled him to spot problems with the UH budget and with the way regents set priorities, Kim said. “I’m convinced that his role as a regent will bring about a new level of transparency within both the university administration and the Board of Regents,” she said.

Kim added that her committee received 23 letters in opposition to Abercrombie, “noting that he has not been receptive to students issues, accompanied with long-winded rants. Dr. Abercrombie acknowledged that his response was intense and regrets the reception of his response, and will publicly address this at the next Board of Regents meeting.”