Tag Archives: University of Hawaii at Manoa

Questions remain on authority over UH athletics

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Now that the University of Hawaii has hired itself a new football coach, it’s time to go back and take another look at the issue of governance of its athletic program.

My initial interest was sparked by a statement by ASUH, the Manoa student government organization, protesting the makeup of the search committee named to pick the new coach. That led me to a letter from the chair of the Manoa Faculty Senate pointing out the Manoa campus had no representation on the committee.

The letter, interestingly enough, was addressed to UH President M.R.C. Greenwood, V-P Linda Johnsrud, and athletics director Jim Donovan, rather than to UH Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw.

That entry drew some feedback, including a copy of a draft report on athletic governance prepared for a required NCAA self-study completed earlier this year. The internal draft expressed “particular concern” over “the continued and growing involvement of system personnel in what is perceived to be campus level decision-making, management, and administration.”

None of this discussion survived into the final report to the NCAA, which simply stated that Hinshaw ““has clear and direct oversight of the athletics program.”

But the report did indicate the need to clarify the relations between the campus and system levels.

That oblique reference to the apparent clash over athletic authority brought a quick reminder from the NCAA that its rules require control of university athletics by the chancellor.

The NCAA Peer Review Team took note of the central role of the UH President’s office in negotiating the jump from the WAC to the Mountain West, and advised a move back to campus control “as soon as possible.”

The peer-review team was informed that the current arrangement of the university system head representing your institution at the Mountain West Conference was only temporary. The peer-review team recommends that your institution be represented by your campus head at all athletics conferences as soon as possible.

Indeed, the very first rule in the section of the NCAA Division I Manual on institutional governance provides:

President or Chancellor. A member institution’s president or chancellor has ultimate responsibility and final authority for the conduct of the intercollegiate athletics program and the actions of any board in control of that program. (Revised: 3/8/06)

In the case of a campus like Manoa, it is the chancellor, rather than the UH System’s president, who must retain ultimate and final authority.

And while the UH told the NCAA the chancellor is in charge, it’s hard to reconcile that with the absence of campus representation on the coach selection committee or in much recent athletic decision-making.

Several people have privately pointed to the key role played by UH Vice-President Rockne Freitas in athletic decisions.

The Star-Advertiser named Freitas one of its “10 who made a difference” for his central role in the move to the Mountain West Conference.

“All his life he has been blocking for others for the good of the team,” said UH President M.R.C. Greenwood. “He plays any role that we need him to play. For this assignment, he was my designated leader to frame and clear a path to make this happen.”

Freitas used his knowledge of intercollegiate athletics, UH background and ties with Nevada-Las Vegas President Neal Smatresk to assist in brokering a deal that will put the Warriors football team in the MWC in 2012 and most of its other teams in the Big West Conference.

Whatever else you can say, that certainly doesn’t sound like the ultimate authority was wielded by Chancellor Hinshaw, does it?

And when Freitas was named to the football coach search committee, questions were referred to Lynn Waters, associate v-p for the UH System, rather than to anyone representing the UH Manoa campus.

More on the Backpack Burglar

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[text]Yesterday’s entry about the backpack burglar on the University of Hawaii Manoa Campus was picked up by BulletproofCourier, a “citizen journalist” blog in Vancouver, B.C.

BulletproofCourier included this additional image which originally appeared on the UH Campus Security web site, and added an itemized list of the items found in the backpack

Then I heard from an engineer in Fort Wayne, Indiana, who said he read about the incident from “a web forum which I and some other engineers frequent.” He said they are trying to figure out what this burglar was up to.

Thus far, much of what we’ve been able to see looks like common parts of a burglary kit. The electronic device on the bottom looks like a common “Driveway Patrol” brand motion sensor with the speaker bypassed into an earphone which a burglar might use as an early warning device. The canister of electronics dusting gas combined with the variety of small screwdrivers may be used for the freezing and breaking of recessed locks (such as those found on filing cabinets and desk drawers.)

Based on our initial observations it would probably be in your best interests to check extensively for missing documents as well as perhaps electronic recording devices (which may be hidden inside of electrical or telephone fixtures or placed in-line with your telephone.)

In a follow-up email, he went further.

With some further thought, the items of the burglar wrestled from the perpetrator suggest very strongly that he intended to steal testing materials. For example, most desks and filing cabinets utilize low-security locks which have brass wafers instead of pins. With sufficient torque applied to the keyway, these wafers can be sheared allowing the lock to open without a key. The canister of duster gas with its nozzle removed suggests that he was using the gas to cool the wafers of these sorts of locks so that they could be easily broken by applying torque with a screwdriver.

Interesting speculation. It’s fascinating to see how the internet has created accessible spaces for these kinds of exchanges.

Manoa grad student chases sophisticated campus burglar

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A dramatic first-hand story of a UH Manoa grad student’s brush with a sophisticated campus burglar was circulating in the College of Social Sciences yesterday.

He returned to his office in the Geography Department on the 4th floor of Saunders Hall around 9:30 p.m. on Thursday night and chased a man seen coming out of his office.

Here’s his account as circulated by college officials (I’ve made some minor edits).

As I was entering my office, just after turning the key, a tall guy in blue (maybe 6 feet) pushed past me, saying “Excuse me.”

After my initial shock at there being anyone emerging from my locked office, I gave chase to the burglar. He ran down the hall in the direction of the department lounge, then turned left and took the stairwell down. I was yelling at him to stop, got close about a floor down, and grabbed his left sleeve. The sleeve ripped off, but this delayed him a little bit, so my next grab was for a backpack that he carried. I was worried it was mine. I again yelled at him to stop, but he got away. I have a few bruises and scrapes from the chase, but am otherwise okay.

I took the backpack to my office and immediately called UH campus security. Before campus security arrived, I searched the bag to see if the burglar had identification in it, or if he had any of my stuff. I did not see any ID or anything that belonged to me. I took some pictures of the items in the backpack before campus security came. They (campus security) were there in about 5 minutes. They took my statement, and then called HPD. HPD also inspected the scene of the crime and the contents of the backpack.

[text]In the backpack were an assortment of burglary tools – different kinds of pliers, 3 hacksaws, many, many different sizes of tiny screwdrivers (apparently for picking locks), rubber things to put on your fingers to avoid leaving fingerprints, gatorade and water, 2 or 3 spray canisters of liquids, and two electronic devices that all of us were curious about.

After HPD and campus security examined the devices (one of the attached pictures shows the two together), they figured that one of the devices had a photocell sensor that sends a signal to the other device. The other device, which apparently had a range of up to 100 feet, sounded an alarm when it got the signal from the device with the photo sensor, kinda like the sound that you hear when you enter some 7-11 stores or gas station convenience stores.

One of the campus security guys proposed that the photo sensor sent the signal anytime the lights were turned on in the room. Having thought about it a little bit, it seems to me more reasonable for a burglar to have the sensor trigger the signal anytime the lights were turned off. That way, if the burglar was nearby (say in the lounge or in the hall), they would know that the occupant of the office had just left. Anyway, that’s just my guess…I’m no expert on this stuff.

[text]The first device was fitted inside a casing that was a white electrical outlet box. The second device (the receiver) had earphones attached, presumably to muffle the alarm triggered by the signal from the other device.

Anyway, I just thought I’d warn everyone that we have some sophisticated burglars prowling Saunders. Please don’t leave your valuables in your office, and look out for extra devices that may appear in or around your office space. They might be planting these things in these offices and then waiting nearby for the moment that you step out. Just a thought.

Whew. Phony electrical outlets planted as burglar alarms in reverse! Are many off-campus burglars this sophisticated?

What’s at stake is the future of UH and the availability of higher education in Hawaii

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UH President M.R.C. Greenwood learned a lesson last week that’s familiar to any reporter–the lead sentence will often make or break your story.

In Greenwood’s case, the first sentence of the message she distributed following the faculty union’s rejection of the latest contract proposal has UH faculty steaming mad.

“The university”, Greenwood wrote, “is disappointed in the UHPA vote to reject our contract offer.”

The responses have come from many quarters.

Susan Webster Schultz quickly dissected Greenwood’s memo.

I was hardly alone in feeling a gut punch as I read this sentence. For what Pres. Greenwood has accomplished here is to create a neat (too neat) division between “the university” (here conceived as what? administrators? buildings?) and the faculty. If the faculty have rejected the proposal, they are no longer members of the institution. There’s violence in this sentence. As I will argue throughout this post, the violence is not directed only at the faculty.

I would encourage you to read Susan’s entry in its entirety on her Tinfish Editor’s Blog.

She clearly articulates that it is not primarily the size of the proposed salary cuts that led to the contract’s rejection.

What we are demanding is not a few percent more shekels, President Greenwood, but advocacy on behalf of the university as an important institution. We don’t mean lip service about its being the economic engine of the state, which we hear all the time, but real advocacy. What we are demanding from Gov. Lingle is a return to the social contract. We need to make it clear that public education is a moral right, not simply a convenience in good times, a line item, or liability, when times are bad.

Refusing the contract was one way to say this. That the vote is being interpreted as selfish intransigence is not a surprise, but “the university” (that’s UH faculty and students) must fight back. If the university is wrecked now, it won’t be rebuilt later, no matter how much the economy improves.

There’s a famous story about one of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s early experiences as president of Columbia University, a story which has been told and retold many times in academic circles but which is right on point.

According to one retelling:

At this first meeting with the faculty the new president told them about various plans to do good things for the “employees” of the university. At the end the Nobel Prizewinning physicist, I.I. Rabi, rose and said: “Mr. President there is just one point: we are not the employees of the university, we are the university.”

Criminologist and Professor of Women’s Studies, Meda Chesney-Lind, reminded faculty of this story and queried:

“Can some one explain this to Dr. Greenwood, please? “

More on faculty and student views can be gleaned from speeches made at last week’s rally on the Manoa campus, now available on YouTube. You’ll hear, in addition to reactions to the combined salary cuts, increased health insurance premiums, and payroll lag, concerns about administrative priorities, mismanagement, and the long-term impact on the state if short-term issues are allowed to cripple its primary source of higher education.

The question of priorities quickly gets to the issue of administrative bloat, which continues even after a the former UH president declared a fiscal emergency.

Here’s the latest: A “Dear Colleagues” email sent out by Joanne Clark, Associate Vice Chancellor at UH-Manoa. Here’s an excerpt:

Dear Colleagues,

We are in the process of kicking-off the search for a permanent assistant vice chancellor for international education, an existing executive position. Because international education touches so many areas of our campus, we want to be as inclusive as possible of all the stakeholders interested and involved in this important area. As one of the first steps in the search process, we ask your assistance in identifying the keys issues relating to international education on our campus and the type of individual needed to address those issues.

Recall the context here:

Since the 1990s, this university has seen an explosion in both the number of administrators and the salaries they receive. In 1994, there were 20,041 students at UHM, in 2008, 20,169, a percent increase of .6.

In 1994 there were 2,008 faculty and in ’08, 1,984, or a decease of .1%.

In 1994 the UH system and UHM administration had 62 positions, in 2008, it had 234 for an increase of 277%.

Clark’s email drew a visceral response from the chair of one Manoa program:

Are they out of their minds, hiring a “NEW” administrative position during this period of time? This is insane and an insult to everyone in the university community! Why isn’t there a freeze on admin positions like everywhere else?

And so it goes.