If you subscribe to the Star-Advertiser, you may have seen the interview by Ferd Lewis with University of Hawaii President MRC Greenwood about UH athletics. It appeared in Monday’s edition.
Greenwood was in Dallas earlier in the week as one of 16 chief executives from member schools to sign off on the plan that will dissolve the Mountain West and Conference USA and create a new 18-to-24-team conference in its place beginning July 1, 2013.
“We’re hoping this conference will help provide a little less volatility,” Greenwood said, adding that it should be, “an opportunity to be able to build our team with the confidence that we know a good deal about what schedule our team will be playing over an extended period of time.”
In a recent teleconference with the Star-Advertiser, Greenwood discussed some aspects of the move and commented on other current UH issues.
No one reading this interview would come away with the feeling that Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw is firmly in charge and wielding ultimate authority over athletic issues.
And yet just last year, UH told the NCAA Hinshaw “has clear and direct oversight of the athletics program.”
Here’s the assertion made about athletic governance in the university’s required report to the NCAA:
Specific to the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Board of Regents policy states that the intercollegiate athletic program shall be administered by the Director of Athletics under the direction of the Chancellor.
Aha. That’s what the BOR policy says, even if it doesn’t really work that way.
This interview, along with other recent high-level actions, including the search for and selection of a new football coach, demonstrate it’s been UH President Greenwood and not Chancellor Hinshaw firmly in charge.
I don’t know whether the NCAA will respond to questions about their rules regarding governance, but I contacted their public and media relations office this morning about the situation. Now we’ll see if they respond.
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BOR policy doesn’t necessarily have any connection to what UH actually does.
E.g., for many years, their housing office has been ignoring BOR policy.
Say more….in what way is housing ignoring BOR policy? Tips, please!
It’s been a few years since I looked into this, so things may have changed……
When I last looked into this, BOR policy on student housing was still what the Student Housing policy was back when I was in school– priority for dorm space went to Neighbor Island kids first, then rural O’ahu, then Honolulu, then out of state students. The athletic dept got to cut in line by putting their old dorm (Hale Anuenue) into the mix, although it was the least desired dorm and thus was filled with out of state students and those who turned in their housing applications too late to get into the better dorms.
Student Housing policy, however, gave priority to “traditional” freshmen, i.e., those who had just graduated. This meant that out of state “traditional” freshman got priority over kids that, by BOR policy, should have had priority, in-state kids other than “traditional” freshmen.
This really sucked for neighbor island kids who weren’t “traditional” freshmen, especially a few years ago when there wasn’t enough dorm space to accommodate all applicants.
That problem was exacerbated by Student Housing not notifying applicants of their assignments, or lack thereof, until just before the semester started. This led to anecdotes like neighbor island kids going home and skipping semesters for lack of housing.
A quick look at the Student Housing website shows it still is prioritizing “traditional” freshmen, although it no longer uses that term. I didn’t check BOR policy to see if it’s changed.
IMO, since State resources went into the building and refurbishing of the dorms, BOR policy doesn’t go far enough– in-state students should have lower housing prices than out of state students, just as they pay lower tuition.
well, Hinshaw will retire at the end of June, correct? If so, she is a lame duck chancellor and should not be in charge of decisions.
Good luck, Ian. I suspect you would have better luck asking the Pope at the Vatican for a response. I have actively engaged NCAA in verbal and written combat from three states over more than 50 years and never and the courtesy of a single reply. Even Washington in 1960s was snubbed by this arrogant quasi-govenment group that answers to no one.
You may have touched on this in earlier posts on this subject, but I wonder if UH’s behavior is all that different from other universities (putting aside, of course, whether those universities also flout NCAA rules). For example, I have to think that decisions about the University of Texas football program are made by that University’s president and BOR, not by the lowly Chancellor of the Austin campus. Of course, this would just be further proof that the NCAA is a joke and aptly nicknamed “No Clue At All.” My own experience with them regarding the application of certain recruiting and eligibility rules to one of my children clearly justifies that nickname.
I think the board of regents policy says “administer”, I interpret this as the day to day running of the program. However, choosing what conference to be a member of is a strategic decision with enoumous ramifications, both financial and otherwise, and is far beyond the responsibility of the “administrator”. In fact, it seems a decision that the chancellor, president and BOR should all be involved with.
MRC in her heart of hearts wants to run a national university (alma mater), not a statewide system of higher learning with community colleges, four year colleges and one solitary research u, riven by politics instead of academics. The whole California system rolled into one.
So when she can get her hands on a football team or a national academy of science David Karl new building or the cancer center, even though they are clearly just plain Manoa responsibilities, who is to blame her?
Like the red queen she got rid of the Manoa Chancellor, but if she doesn’t hire a competent new one, Madame LaFarge will set herself aknitting.
And the Leg is over their honey moon with her, her buildings go up in flames. The union looks askance. Can an inspired choice of football coach keep the jackals at bay? To be continued. . .