The University of Hawaii-Manoa Faculty Senate adopted a strongly-worded resolution last week criticizing Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw for bias and violations of university procedures and practices in the conduct of the search that led to the selection of a new director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii in 2009.
The draft resolution, which is available online, was amended before passage to request the Board of Regents to make sure future searches comply with established procedures.
Dr. Michael Carbone’s selection was approved by the Board of Regents in August 2009 despite a petition opposing the appointment signed by 24 members of the CRCH faculty, including the former director.
The controversy again took center stage at the Faculty Senate’s regularly scheduled meeting last week when the Committee on Professional Matters and Committee on Research joined in presenting a resolution strongly criticizing the selection process.
The resolution criticized Hinshaw for ignoring the CRCH faculty and failing to follow a written “succession policy” when she appointed Carbone as acting director, “providing him an unfair advantage” in the later search for a permanent head of the center.
The resolution then ticked off a series of alleged procedural violations.
• Members of the search committee were chosen in secret by Hinshaw’s office without approval of the senate’s Committee on Faculty Service.
• The committee was not allowed to vote on which finalists were considered qualified.
• Selection of search committee members “exhibited clear bias towards the selection of the in-house candidate….”
The resolution said Hinshaw “ignored the stated minimum qualification” of five-years administrative experience, did not get a vote of the selection committee to include Carbone among the finalists, and failed to allow “a full and open discussion of the finalists by the committee”.
Carbone, who had served for three years as faculty chair of a small academic unit at another university, lacked the minimum 5 years administrative experience required for the director’s job, according to the resolution.
The resolution concluded that “both the perception and the reality of a biased and pre-ordained search process have done irreparable damage to the reputation and the integrity of the University of Hawaii.”
The resolution, as amended, asks the Board of Regents to direct that existing university guidelines be followed in future searches.
In adopting the resolution, the Faculty Senate appeared to be offering support to faculty in CRCH, where resentment over Carbone’s appointment continues, as well as signaling their concern over the conduct of future executive/management searches.
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Rumor is that the wife of the Senate chair is on the faculty at the Cancer Center. This was not disclosed and might appear to be a conflict of interest. The resolution itself contains charges of conflict of interest, so presumably what is good for the goose is good for the gander?
my apologies, the Chair’s wife is not at the cancer center but at PBRC, the subject of another rather lurid resolution in the same Senate meeting. Strangely the resolution has gone 404
http://www.hawaii.edu/uhmfs/documents/resolutions/CPM_COR_PBRC_Kewalo_20100120.pdf
Here I think is the resolution, again note the charges of conflict of interest
Resolution: That the University of Hawaii at Manoa Faculty Senate opposes the
plan to close the Kewalo Marine Laboratory and asks that the Vice Chancellor for
Research and Graduate Education step down as Interim Director of the Pacific
Biosciences Research Center.
Whereas the UHM Chancellor plans close the Kewalo Marine Laboratory (KML) on the
advice of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education (VCRGE);
Whereas the Kewalo Marine Laboratory has 20 years remaining on its existing lease, and
has been in compliance with all lease conditions and requirements1;
Whereas the Kewalo Marine Laboratory faculty were specifically hired to work at this
facility with commitments to include associated seawater and laboratory facilities
essential to their research that are not available elsewhere or planned to be provided;
Whereas the VCRGE has been serving as the PBRC Interim Director, with direct
administrative oversight for the Kewalo Marine Laboratory, for the past 5 years, even
though he has several notable conflicts-of-interest and has acted as an antagonist rather
than advocate for the unit;
Whereas during his time as the appointed Interim Director of PBRC, the VCRGE took on
additional responsibilities for compensation as the Interim Dean of JABSOM, further
limiting any time he could devote to Kewalo Marine Laboratory issues;
Whereas some information presented by the VCRGE/Interim Director of PBRC in
support of the closure of the Kewalo Marine Laboratory is factually incorrect,
exaggerated or presented in a false light;2
Whereas the Kewalo Marine Laboratory is a multimillion dollar facility whose faculty
continues to be highly productive in the areas of research, teaching and service despite
being prevented from filling vacant positions and who are now required to get clearance
from the VCRGE prior to submitting new grant applications to use the KML facility, into
which they were hired, past a closing date in 2013 that has not been validated by the
University;3
Whereas the constraints on KML faculty submitting research grants to use the facility
into which they were hired constitutes an unacceptable burden, since as members of an
Organized Research Unit, the faculty are required to obtain extramural funding as a key
criterion for their evaluations. Furthermore, the stated intent to close the KML is
hampering the ability of faculty to recruit the highest quality graduate students and
postdoctoral researchers, further compromising the ability of faculty to do the work for
which they were hired.
1 Hawaii Co