It’s one of those crunch times at the State Capitol as the legislature moves towards its first major deadline, First Decking, on Friday, March 6. By the end of that day, all bills must be filed, or decked, in the House or Senate for a required 48-hour period of review. Bills then have to pass the originating body, House or Senate, by the first crossover deadline, March 12.

The budget is on a slightly different schedule, with a budget decking deadline of March 16.

In the meantime, a mandatory 5-day legislative recess starts tomorrow.

You can follow along on the legislative calendar, which is available on the Capitol web site.

UH Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw has dropped her attempt to push through an internal administrative “reorganization” of the Arts and Sciences in the face of widespread faculty opposition that triggered a draft resolution of “no confidence” that was being circulated within the Faculty Senate.

The reorganization proposal has gotten little attention off the campus but has been a hot topic in Manoa for some time.

Faculty opposition focused on what was seen as Hinshaw’s failure to consult with faculty on academic plans and programs, a key part of the university’s “shared governance” policy.

A list of problems was laid out in a memo circulated by the Faculty Senate’s Committee on Academic Policy and Planning, which cited several issues, including the reorganization.

In sum, many among the faculty are concerned that the current administration has failed to comply with not only the spirit but the letter of principles of shared governance. To wit, search(es) for a permanent VCAA have appeared tainted as faculty calls for prompt resolution and transparency remain unmet, attempts to reorganize A&S and SPAS have failed to follow established BOR policy that would ensure meaningful consultation with faculty and other affected constituencies, and recent and pending strategic planning exercises for the campus are emerging as non-inclusive, top-down exercises that merely nod toward meaningful faculty and campus participation. In short, the faculty has observed multiple instances of decision-making by administrative fiat while ostensibly inclusive consultative and decision-making processes have been ongoing, through the Manoa Faculty Senate Executive Committee. The faculty has provided advice and recommendations to administration aimed at restoring true transparency of decision-making processes, yet transparent and effective decision-making at Manoa remains elusive.

In other news…There are two new or relatiely new blogs worth watching. Retired PR exec Jim Loomis, who spent a lot of time in the political trenches, now writes his Smatters of Opinion blog from his home on Maui.

And former Hawaii County Board of Ethics chairman Wayne Joseph is now online with “Wayne Joseph’s Blog“.

Back several decades, Joseph was in several of Meda’s classes while she was teaching at Honolulu Community College. He was one of HCC’s success stories, going on to earn a degree in education and eventually ending up back on the Big Island.

And I missed the news of economist Paul Brewbaker’s departure from Bank of Hawaii, reported last week by Pacific Business News.

And your moment of calm, a bit of yesterday’s early morning on the beach in Kaaawa. As always, just click for a larger version of the photo.