The announcement in September that David Lassner would retire at the end of 2024 launched the University of Hawaii’s first search for a new president in over a decade.

The process has entered a new phase this spring. A mainland search firm has been secured and has formalized its timeline. Public meetings to seek input on candidates are set to start this month and a handful of finalists could be named as early as September.

If all goes as planned, UH will seat its 16th president in January.

Still, the search has been marked by public upheaval and private criticism. It includes the firing of board chair Alapaki Nahale-a last month by the state Senate, where some senators have long taken an intense interest in probing the finances and operations of Hawaii’s only statewide system of higher learning.

Those same senators, led by Donna Mercado Kim, chair of the Higher Education Committee, are expected to consider Gov. Josh Green’s nomination to fill the vacancy on the 11-member board this month. Another vacancy comes in June, when the student regent will complete her term.

For now, that leaves the board with just 10 members and no one to break a tie, should a vote on the process come to that. That has led to speculation in academic and government circles that senators like Kim are trying to sway the outcome of the search — something Kim has repeatedly denied.

There has also been grumbling that the regents decided to name themselves as the search committee and not a separate entity. While the board did select a 12-member local advisory group and is relying heavily on Chicago-based search firm WittKieffer to conduct a national search, it will be the regents who make the ultimate call on who shall lead the university.

That decision could include the possibility of rejecting the recommendations of the advisory group and search firm. But Gabe Lee, the interim chair of the regents, said in interview that that was unlikely. He said the views of faculty, students, staff and the advisory group will be a definite factor in what the regents decide. The advisory group, he noted, reflected a diverse representation of key stakeholders.

“When it comes down to the search process, it’s about getting a good balance,” he said. “We’re going be looking for a good pool of qualified candidates and at the same time maintaining public awareness and trust in the search process.”

Lee, who stressed that he was speaking as an individual and not the board, also dismissed notions that the board is divided and that some regents are beholden to Kim.

“I’ve heard about that, and I think it’s more from people that read it in media,” he said. “I mean, I read it in media. For myself, there’s no influence. So, I don’t know where that’s coming from.”

After WittKieffer made its presentation to the board at a public meeting in Manoa March 21, Lee called the selection of the next president likely the single most important decision made by the board.

Randy Moore, who served four terms as chair and three as vice chair beginning in 2013 before stepping down last year, agreed.

“That’s the board’s role,” he said. “It’s role is to say, ‘OK, here’s where we want the university to go,’ which is the strategic plan that the board has adopted. And now we want somebody to execute.”

The Institution

UH has 10 campuses and seven educational centers across the state and on every populated island. It includes seven community colleges, two community universities — UH West Oahu and UH Hilo — and the flagship campus UH Manoa.

The system, which employees more than 9,000 people, has a budget of $1.2 billion. Almost half of that comes from state general funds appropriated by the Legislature — hence the Senate’s power over the university, even though it has autonomous governance.

It’s a big system: Enrollment in fall semester 2023 was nearly 49,000 students, of which about 5,000 were graduate students. The Manoa campus has the largest student body at just under 20,000.

UH offers over 700 degree programs ranging from certificate and vocational to baccalaureate, graduate and professional. Manoa in particular is recognized for research in astronomy, oceanography, linguistics, education, tropical agriculture, cancer, genetics, the Pacific Islands and Asian area studies.

The UH Strategic Plan 2023-2029 that Moore referenced seeks to have the university “grounded in traditional Hawaiian values, in aloha, to create a strong sense of place” while also serving as a forward-looking economic engine “driving hubs of innovation and research,” according to the plan.

Now, 18 months after the BOR approved it, officials are preparing to select an administrator to implement it.

The Board

The control of UH falls to the regents, as spelled out by the Hawaii Constitution and Hawaii Revised Statutes. The board, according to its website, “formulates policy and exercises control over the university” through its executive officer, the university president. “The board has exclusive jurisdiction over the internal structure, management and operation of the university.”

The regents are uncompensated volunteers nominated by an advisory council, appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. They serve staggered terms, and membership is intended to represent the state’s geographic subdivision.

The current crop of regents in July elected Nahale-a as chair and Lee and Ernest Wilson as vice chairs, but it was not without glitches. In the first round of voting for chair, Nahale-a received five votes, Lee four and Wilson two.

Although board bylaws do not say whether a majority of votes — six — is necessary to elect a chair, Nahale-a asked Wilson if he would be willing to remove his name from the running. Wilson agreed, and a second round saw seven votes cast for Nahale-a and four for Lee.

The vote was a secret ballot, however, and has never been released officially. But one source granted anonymity to discuss the vote says that the four for Lee were from Lee himself, Maui County regent Lauren Akitake (at the time an interim appointment), former Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie (also an interim appointment) and student regent Abigail Mawae.

By contrast, when Randy Moore was reelected in July 2022, he ran unopposed and was approved unanimously. The July 6 meeting was also the first for Akitake and Abercrombie.

In Lee’s recollection, right after Nahale-a was named chair the board quickly embraced his leadership and worked well together as a team.

And yet, just eight months later Nahale-a was rejected to serve a new board term by the Senate 13-12. He resigned that day and was replaced by Lee in an interim capacity. At the same time, Akitake was confirmed unanimously while Abercrombie was confirmed 22-3. Lee remains interim chair until July, when the board selects new officers.

Then, on March 27, Green nominated Hawaii County businessman Michael Miyahira to fill the board vacancy. The administration said he has spent more than 24 years with one of Hawaii’s largest commercial banks “and spent the bulk of his banking career as a senior credit officer and manager of several of the bank’s business.”

Miyahira is described as respected and qualified though he is not widely known.

In the meantime, the board’s Candidate Advisory Council has recommended three candidates to Green to replace Mawae: Aaron Conyers, Joshua Faumuina and Janani Lakshmanan. All three are UH Manoa students, and the term would begin July 1.

There has been a lot of talk privately that a local candidate for the presidency is being pushed by powerful state senators: Brennon Morioka, dean of the College of Engineering at the UH Manoa.

Morioka’s previous work includes stints as the former director for the state Department of Transportation and the deputy executive director for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation. He was also an executive with engineering company CH2M HILL and Shioi Construction.

Morioka is currently chair of the Stadium Authority, and he previously served as chair of the Hawaii Republican Party — an interesting background item, as Hawaii is dominated by Democrats.

Morioka did not return calls for comment.

The Search

Lassner is a longtime UH information technology executive who became the 15th president in July 2013 on an interim basis and officially took the reins in July 2014. His elevation to president was also a bit bumpy and came at a time of heightened legislative criticism of UH.

Lassner replaced M.R.C. Greenwood, who resigned that summer a year before her contract was set to expire and was on unpaid leave from her School of Medicine faculty position. Her tenure was marred with controversy, including the notorious “Wonder Blunder” scandal (it involved a scam over a Stevie Wonder fundraising concert at UH that never existed) and tensions with the Legislature, most notably with Kim.

It took 11 months for the regents, who then numbered 15, to pick Lassner. There were just two finalists, Lassner and retired Lt. Gen. Frank Wiercinski, after other mainland finalists dropped out because they wanted their candidacies to remain confidential.

Lassner was chosen 11-2 with two abstentions after a tense, two-hour discussion, Civil Beat reported, during which regents debated the integrity of the selection process and the two candidates’ qualifications. Kim, then Senate president, also called for the regents to reopen their search.

Earlier this year the regents hired WittKieffer to assist in the search to succeed Lassner. Thirteen firms were reviewed before selecting WittKieffer, which was founded in 1969.

It has worked with UC Berkeley, Syracuse University and other institutions. Locally, its work includes a search for a dean at Chaminade University of Honolulu’s School of Nursing and Health Professions.

The regents this year also approved 12 people nominated to serve on the Presidential Search Advisory Group, or PSAG. They include Duane K. Kurisu, a former regent who heads the publishing company aio; Jerris Hedges, UH Manoa John A. Burns School of Medicine dean emeritus; Noe Noe Wong-Wilson, the Hawaiian Civic Club of Hilo president and Aina Aloha Economic Development Futures Initiative founding co-author; and Dominique Bonifacio, Leeward Community College student government senator.

The regents will decide on the group’s exact responsibilities soon, but it is expected to hold its first meeting this month after completing ethics, financial disclosures and confidentiality agreements.

On March 21 at a public meeting in Manoa, WhitKieffer briefed the regents on the search process. The timeline, according to UH, includes public forums in each county, creating a leadership profile and recruiting candidates through August. Regents hope to name finalists in September and announce a new president in October.

At the same meeting the regents also heard from faculty and students about their concerns for the search. Several expressed the desire that the next president respect and understand the Indigenous culture, and that it run an administration that listens to and heeds a multitude of voices.

Christian Fern, executive director of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, said the selection of WittKieffer and its presentation had instilled some confidence in the search.

“You know, the process is moving forward,” he said in an interview this week. “At least there’ll be a review of qualified candidates. I mean, it took six months to come to this place.”

Fern did worry that the search process that has played out in the public might scare away some potential candidates. But he remained hopeful that many qualified candidates would come forward.

Nahale-a, the former chair, expressed the same sentiment. He described the board’s work not just as its most important job “but one of the most important decisions that’s going to be made for Hawaii.”

“This leadership position is critical to Hawaii’s future,” he said. “So the process that regents use from the variety of stakeholders throughout the state that matters, is important.”