Tag Archives: University of Hawaii

Two view of UH, betting against The Rapture, and Cousin Arthur

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Did you notice yesterday’s dueling UH stories?

A Star-Bulletin story warned that the planned West Oahu campus faces a rapidly approaching funding hurdle. Ms. Meda is quoted regarding UH faculty concerns that this diversion funds for creation of a major new campus on Oahu comes as the Manoa campus, and the rest of the system, face hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance and other huge problems. At the same time, supporters of West Oahu seem most interested in its non-educational impact as a stimulus for surrounding development.

Meanwhile, over at the Honolulu Advertiser, there’s an op-ed by professor and former UH Manoa ombudsman, Neil Milner, describing his personal impression of the maintenance backlog on the system’s flagship campus, starting with the urinals in the bathroom of the floor where the political science department is located. He keenly expresses the UH experience.

Milner concludes his essay with a biting statement:

Instead of repairs or replacements, we get signs. People post unofficial sets of instructions. Some are detailed: “Press button. Count to five and release.” Others are terse: “Please flush!” short for “Hey, you got to flush another time. Why? Take a look.”

At UH, the old order is the most sustainable thing of all. Broken things stay broken for so long that no one considers them broken anymore. Inferior products? Don’t fix them or replace them. Put it on the user. No matter how the bathroom signs are worded, they all come down to mean one thing: “Hey, buddy boy, it’s your problem. Fix it. Good luck. Don’t bother to let us know how it turns out.”

Sadly, so very true. Things are just declared dead and left in place. Generations of students might experience one of these monuments to budget cuts before it is removed or replaced.

Did you happen to catch the Business Week story about a new service being offered to Christians who believe in the Rapture?

If they’re crazy enough to really believe in the Rapture, there’s an entrepreneur ready to offer Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, sort of Rapture-insurance for pet owners.

For a $110 fee, your pet will be cared for in the event that the Second Coming occurs within ten years and you’re wisked away to a better place.

Care will be provided by certified athiests who will certainly remain in the here and now.

The guy who came up with the idea was working on a book.

In it, he says many unkind things about the devout and confesses that “I’m trying to figure out how to cash in on this hysteria to supplement my income.”

What a great idea!

Back in this world, my sister spotted one of my mother’s cousins, Arthur Harris, in this Bishop Museum video about young Hawaiians who were dispatched to Pacific islands between 1935 and 1942.

This short video tells the unusual story of 130 young men from Hawai’i, most of them Native Hawaiian, sent to occupy small uninhabited atolls located in the middle of the Pacific between Hawaii and Australia, from 1935 to 1942. Travel back in time to the remote Pacific through photographs, archival footage, and interviews with the men and their families.

University faculty union director describes breakdown of contract negotiations

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The state and University of Hawaii have blown opportunities to reach a contract settlement with the faculty union several times since preliminary talks started nearly two years ago, according to the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, the faculty union.

In one glaring example, the union and the UH Board of Regents both agreed in late January 2009 to Governor Lingle’s proposal to extend the existing contract for two years without salary increases or other changes. But the deal fell apart several days later when Lingle backtracked and informed the union that her offer was “off the table” unless it involved a “global settlement” with all public employee unions.

This incident is described in a November 13 “open letter” to UH faculty from UH Professional Assembly Executive Director and Chief Negotiator J.N. Musto which was posted for “members only” on the union web site and mailed to union members this week. The letter is titled: “The history and status of bargaining Unit 7 negotiations.”

According to Musto’s account, negotiations have failed because of “the lack of cooperation on the part of the Governor”.

After failing to reach a contract agreement during ongoing negotiations with the assistance of a federal mediator, the UH administration presented what it described as its “Last, Best, Final Offer” on September 15. Musto says this was actually the university’s “first and only salary proposal presented to UHPA since bargaining began in May 2008.”

Today, while the union has offered to accept the 5% temporary pay cut sought by the state, it has asked for other non-salary changes that will make the agreement at least equal to the terms of the expired contract.

Those terms remain in force under a so-call “Evergreen Clause”, which extends the previous contract’s terms until a new contract is approved. The faculty gave up the right to strike and the university can’t lock-out the faculty during the extension period, the letter reports.

A key remaining money issue involves premiums for health insurance provided through the Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund, which could increase faculty out-of-pocket cost by $2,400 per year if the state implements a plan to cap the employers’ share of the payments.

According to Musto, former UH President David McClain played an active role in negotiations and personally took part in negotiating sessions as long as he was in office. Since McClain stepped down, the UH has been represented in contract talks by John Morton, UH vice-president for community colleges.

Although not stated directly, the letter leaves the impression that potential progress in negotiations has been slowed due to the lack of top-level participation since McClain’s departure.

Musto also cites several issues raised by faculty during a recent system-wide faculty forum. For example, faculty see millions of dollars in tax incentives going to new private industry and investors, while the state wants “to pay less for a public industry–in this case the University–that does more for the state both in real growth and future potential than any single private company.”

Failure to provide adequate support for the university, even in today’s economic circumstances, will cause “the likely decline in overall quality” and “a downward spiral that will only exacerbate the State’s conomic woes; a self-fulfilling prophecy of economic disaster,” the letter says, describing comments during the faculty forum.

Musto chides UH President M.R.C. Greewood for telling the Honolulu Advertiser that she had requested a private meeting, without mentioning that Musto had quickly responded.

Musto says he advised Greenwood in writing that an initial meeting involving the 7-member UHPA executive committee would be “the best way to start to build the trust necessary for any settlement”, but also stated a willingness to meet privately if she still still wished to do so despite his reservations.

Musto reported that at the time his letter was written, he had not received a reply.

Musto’s open letter ends on a somber note with a prediction that the university is likely to try to unilaterally impose the terms its amended “last, best, final” offer, which will undoubtedly trigger a contentious legal battle.

UH Board of Regents may have violated Sunshine Law in secret discussion of financial exigency

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The University of Hawaii Board of Regents may have violated the state’s Sunshine Law by secretly discussing and approving then-President David McClain’s plan to declare that the university is facing a financial emergency. The board’s action reportly took place during an executive session which excluded the public.

McClain’s declaration of fiscal exigency, issued July 28, is seen as a technical prerequisite to layoffs of faculty, a process referred to as “retrenchment”. Layoffs of tenured faculty are rare in U.S. universities, and could jeopardize the University of Hawaii’s academic standing and ability to recruit or retain top quality faculty.

Questions about the legality of the move and whether McClain would have the authority to make his declaration without BOR approval were aired during an open Faculty Congress session and a Faculty Senate meeting which followed yesterday afternoon on the Manoa Campus.

Senate president David Ross told the Faculty Congress that McClain’s action was unexpected.

“It took us by suprise,” Ross said.

Administration officials said the move had been authorized by the Board of Regents, according to Ross.

Ross said he was told, in response to further questions, that the regents’ action came during the closed executive session at their July meeting as part of a discussion of collective bargaining.

Hawaii’s Sunshine Law allows executive sessions that are closed to the public, but only if the matters to be discussed are identified in advance and fall among a limited list of exemptions from strict open meeting requirements.

In addition, the Sunshine Law requires that exemptions, such as those allowing for executive session, must be “strictly construed against closed meetings.”

The Office of Information Practices, in a 2006 legal opinion, held that an agenda must “describe the matter that the board intends to consider with sufficient detail to allow a member of the public to understand what the board intends to consider at the meeting and to decide whether or not to participate in the meeting.” [Opinion No. 06-05]

In the case of an executive session, “OIP advises that the agenda should specify the items to be considered generally, but in as much detail as possible to allow a third party to determine the applicability of the claimed executive meeting purpose without defeating the lawful purpose for which the meeting is being held.”

The agenda for the board’s July 23, 2009 meeting makes no mention of a discussion of financial exigency or a financial emergency.

VIII.
Executive Session (closed to the public): Personnel Actions Related to the Following Positions: (To discuss the following personnel matters
pursuant to HRS §92-5(a)(2))
a. Approval of Tenure for M.R.C. Greenwood
b. Approval of Emeritus Titles
c. Approval of Reappointment of Patricia Bergin to the Mauna Kea Management Board
d. Update on Executive Searches

e. Executive Evaluations
Legal and Real Estate Matters: (To consult with attorneys on powers, immunities, and liabilities pursuant to HRS §92-5(a)(4); To consider negotiations concerning acquisition of public property pursuant to HRS §92-5(a)(3)

f. Negotiations Regarding Acquisition of Real Property, Conduct Assessment Studies on Property Condition, Preparation of Environmental Assessment and Related Due Diligence Efforts, UH Hilo

g. Update by the Public/Private Task Group on the Cancer Research Center of Hawai‘i Research Facility

h. Approval of Service Order to RCUH for Development of the Cancer Research Center of HI i. Status Report on Campus Developments (information only)

Collective Bargaining: (To discuss authority of persons conducting labor negotiations and conducting negotiations pursuant to HRS §92-5(a)(3))
j. Collective Bargaining

Private Donations: (To consider matters relating to the solicitation and acceptance of private donations, pursuant to HRS §92-5(7))

k. Acceptance of Gift and Naming Approval for Donor Recognition at the College of Pharmacy, UH Hilo: J.M. Long Pavilion

In addition, minutes of the meeting do not reflect any discussion or decision regarding fiscal exigency.

Duane Stevens, professor of meteorology and UHPA president, said the faculty union sent a letter to the Board of Regents seeking to further information about the board’s action, noting that financial exigency was not identified as a matter to be discussed at the July meeting.

As of yesterday afternoon, no response received, Stevens said.

The Faculty Senate responded by passing a resolution calling on the university to follow guidelines established by the American Association of University Professors relating to financial exigency and retrenchment.

The resolution also warned that the university risks censure by AAUP if it moves forward without following these widely recognized procedures.

A draft of the resolution is available on the Manoa Faculty Senate web site. It passed with minor edits.

Finally, against a background of persistent questions about continuing growth in administrative ranks and specific concerns about this position, Reed Dasenbrock, vice-chancellor for academic affairs, announced that a search for a permanent associate vice-chancellor for international education has been abandoned, saying he had been advised the search would likely be unsuccessful.

More on that UH administrative growth

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Here are a few more bits of data concerning what is increasingly seen as administrative “bloat” at the University of Hawaii.

First, keep in mind that the number of faculty hasn’t grown since the early 1990s.

In 1994, according to one count, there were 20,041 students at UHM. This grew to 20,169 in 2008, a percent increase of .6. In 1994 there were 2,008 faculty and in ’08, 1,984, or a decease of .1%.

But here’s a list of positions in the UH System offices, and the Manoa Chancellor’s office, which used to be combined. They have grown considerably since the chancellor’s office was spun off as a separate entity.

The left hand column indicates positions that existed in 1994, while the next column shows the positions today. Salaries are slowly being added in the third column.

A better idea of current administrative salaries can be gleaned from the UH annual salary report to the legislature. The 2009 report can be found here.

Remember that salaries of full-time UH faculty, range from an average of around $50,000 to just over $110,000, depending on rank, length of service, and academic output.

No surprise that faculty have their eyes on those administrative positions as a source of savings, especially since hiring continues even while there’s talk of laying off tenured faculty, seen by all as an extreme measure.

And yesterday I again heard someone comment, with complete authority, the mistaken view that UH faculty have rejected a 5% pay cut. The local media needs to correct that perception by stating the straight forward fact that the faculty union includes a 5% pay cut in its own current offer to the university.