The second of two final candidates for the position of University of Hawaii president emphasized respect for Hawaiian culture during a forum Tuesday at UH-Hilo.

Julian Vasquez Heilig is one of two finalists vying to replace outgoing UH President David Lassner, who will retire by the end of the year. Heilig is the provost and vice president at Western Michigan University, and was dean at the University of Kentucky’s College of Education, Human Development and Sports Sciences between 2019 and 2023.

As did fellow finalist Wendy Hensel last week, Heilig is visiting four UH campuses this week to lay out his vision for the university at a series of question- and-answer sessions.

Heilig was repeatedly deferential to the Native Hawaiian community during Tuesday’s forum, emphasizing the need to respect Hawaii’s past and the legacy of its people. He said the university’s responsibility is to “ensure … the knowledge and traditions of this place are passed on … for generations to come.”

At the same time, Heilig said, UH requires a different touch than mainland universities.

“We need to create a system that’s grounded in indigeneity, community-facing and fully aligned with the values of this land,” Heilig said.

The university needs to acknowledge the colonial history of the state, and “think about our commitment to justice.” He said students from underrepresented groups tend to have lower graduation rates, student retention rates and worse job prospects out of college, which he would work to address as president.

The question of the Thirty Meter Telescope and the protection of Mauna Kea arose at the forum, but Heilig noted the future of that project is out of the UH president’s hands at this point.

“If asked by the regents, I would provide good input … as best that I can,” Heilig said.

Heilig said he has a history as a civil rights leader — he served as the education chair for the California and Hawaii state conferences of the NAACP — and those perspectives would influence how he interprets the president’s role to seek equity within the university.

On that subject, Heilig said students recently camped on the WMU campus in protest against Israel’s military actions in Gaza, and added that the event did not get significant media attention because he knew the university had to handle the matter with a delicate touch.

Heilig said his top priority if selected as president is to meet with UH chancellors, provosts and faculty to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the UH system, and devise pilot programs to begin to make improvements where needed.

This was a recurring theme in Heilig’s answers. A question about how to boost enrollment by members of marginalized communities led to Heilig recommending reaching out to those communities directly to learn what they want and how to provide it.

He was nonspecific about what some of those improvements might be, however. He later said he was uncomfortable answering a question about how to improve class availability or staffing shortages without looking at the data.

Heilig did make at least one concrete policy suggestion: “a Netflix approach to textbooks.”

He said that in order to counter the high cost of college textbooks, WMU has considered a model whereby students instead pay a per-semester subscription and have access to whatever books they need for that semester.

With Heilig’s forums completed, UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said the Board of Regents will consider attendee feedback before convening a special meeting on Oct. 16, where the board will individually interview both candidates. That meeting will be held under executive session, meaning it will not be publicly viewable.

After that meeting, the board will make a decision and likely will announce the new president by the last week of this month, Meisenzahl said.