My UH

My first and only academic position after completing my medical training in Pediatrics and Neonatology was at the University of Hawaii (UH). Now 37 years later as an Emeritus Professor, I am still working part time in an important role assisting with the vision and creation of local and federal, small and large, interdisciplinary and focused research grant applications.  I am also engaged in my most satisfying part-time role – faculty mentoring.

I cannot remember a time during these nearly four decades that UH has turned as contentious in the eyes of the public as presently appears to be the case. To be sure, UH has been challenged before over the controversial performance of top UH administrators, but not to this extent.  It is more worrisome as the contagion involves more and more administrators.

Understandably, the public is mostly unified in their feeling of discontent, disappointment and even disgust. What is tragic is how this situation may adversely affect the University in the short and long term.

UH is Hawaii’s University!  There are strengths and weaknesses.  Nevertheless, a good portion of our college bound youth receives their college education at one of the ten campuses at UH. There are many elite faculty members who are outstanding teachers, researchers, and productive community members.  These groups have little to no interaction with top UH administrators.  We work within a UH bureaucracy that is conservative, super-regulated, burdensome, bordering on oppressive.  Very little gets through the multiple layers of review and oversight. I only partially joke with other faculty members that it is easier to get a grant funded than to utilize the funds once they reach UH.  Anyone reading this commentary who has managed a grant at UH will appreciate and agree with this sentiment. 

While the Star Advertiser provides the pulpit for the extended discussion on UH leadership, students and faculty members stand to lose the most if the Board of Regents or the Hawaii legislature acts reactively to deal with the isolated events involved rather than the systemic problems facing UH.  This worries me greatly, for in the end, the community will lose out.  

Ironically, UH has never been stronger.  In an economic environment that is challenging, UH professors continue to excel in teaching and research, and competing successfully for research grants that are increasingly competitive. New faculty members continue to be recruited from prestigious universities, while student enrollment continues to increase.  Deans and Directors are doing their part and the majority of them have untarnished reputations and do their work effectively and with distinction.  This is where the focus of public attention should be, not with the continuing saga that dots the Star Advertiser every few days with yet another tale of wicked missteps.