Wipeout in Hawaii

Biography: Evan S. Dobelle Timeline: Steps toward an exit Printer friendly E-mail article Subscribe Order reprints

As president of the University of Hawaii System, Evan S. Dobelle kept in his office here a bucket of plastic crabs tipped on its side, a few fake crustaceans scattered across the floor. The scene was meant to send a message about his mission in Hawaii, a place where Mr. Dobelle says people had clawed and pulled each other into a trap of sustained mediocrity.

Calling himself a "change agent," he blew into town three years ago, donned a flower-print shirt, and set about upsetting the bucket. Arriving from the mainland's establishment East Coast, where he had earned national attention for his transformation of Trinity College, in Connecticut, he vowed to help the university system and the state to "think big."

Mr. Dobelle received a warm aloha when he arrived in Hawaii. It didn't last. He was fired last month "for cause" -- a rare circumstance in academe. He left having alienated Hawaii's Board of Regents, state lawmakers, and faculty and staff members. The split has been ugly, marred by public recriminations. Mr. Dobelle has threatened to sue, and both sides and their lawyers have begun mediation over the terms of his departure. The regents were scheduled to meet last week to discuss a settlement.

Rarely do such situations lend themselves to neat explanations. His critics, though, say the president's downfall was born of his lack of accountability to the board and his arrogance. The regents say they had legitimate concerns about his spending and lack of communication with the board. In the aftermath of Mr. Dobelle's exit from the University of Hawaii, even the institution's accreditors have called the relationship dysfunctional.

Mr. Dobelle chalks his problems up to micromanagement by regents who were resistant to change. "It's time for them to come off the plantation," says Mr. Dobelle, who characterizes his firing not as a squabble between a board and a president but "a battle for the soul of Hawaii."

Higher-education experts say there are good reasons for presidential restraint. "If you offer yourself as the savior," says Patrick M. Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, "you sure as hell better deliver."

Great Expectations

When he arrived, Mr. Dobelle, a tall, balding man with a wide, toothy smile and a background in politics and academe, seemed primed for success. He had begun his career in politics in his late 20s, when he was elected mayor of Pittsfield, Mass. He went on to high-profile positions in the Democratic party, serving as U.S. chief of protocol for the White House during the Carter administration and then treasurer of the Democratic National Committee.

After leaving politics, he spent several years earning a doctorate in education and reinvented himself as a college leader. He landed a job as president of Middlesex Community College, in Massachusetts, followed by a stint at City College of San Francisco. He then moved on to Trinity, a four-year, private institution in Connecticut, although it is unusual for a community-college president to become a leader of a four-year institution. At Trinity he earned national attention for helping the college revitalize the blighted Hartford neighborhood near the campus.

In taking the job at Hawaii, Mr. Dobelle made another nontraditional career move. Higher-education experts say it is rare for college presidents to switch from a private institution to a public college, where the political pressures are greater.

Indeed, Trinity is a small, liberal-arts college with about 2,200 students. The Hawaii system, at the time of Mr. Dobelle's arrival, had about 50,000 students and had been roiled for several years by faculty unrest and tight budgets. Moreover, Hawaii is known for its insular politics, with only 1.2 million people scattered across several islands.

Between 1993 and 2001, when Mr. Dobelle was named president, state support for the university system had fallen by $35-million, or 11 percent -- the largest percentage loss for any state-university system during that period. The system -- made up of a research university, two four-year universities, and seven community colleges -- had a $167-million backlog in maintenance. In 1999 the Manoa campus's accreditor, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, had warned that the system needed to fix its financial problems to maintain accreditation. And just three months before Mr. Dobelle's arrival in July 2001, the university had settled a faculty strike after professors had worked two years without a contract.

Mr. Dobelle was selected by a search-advisory committee made up of regents, faculty and staff members, students, and local business people. The regents approved his hiring and agreed to pay Mr. Dobelle $599,500 annually, including a retention bonus if he stayed for seven years. His base salary was $442,000 -- more than any previous president of the university had earned -- making him one of the highest-paid public-university presidents in the country.

Faculty members say Mr. Dobelle's compensation didn't bother them at first because they had high expectations for his presidency. "Everybody was charmed," says Daniel B. Boylan, a history professor on the university's West Oahu campus who served on the presidential-search committee. "There was big talk about how he was going to raise money and how he was a change agent."

But the professors eventually grew disillusioned. "He talked big, but didn't produce," Mr. Boylan says.

Kem Lowry, a professor and chairman of Manoa's department of urban and regional planning where Mr. Dobelle will work if he chooses to exercise his tenure rights, says the president missed an important point about Hawaii's Asian-influenced ways: "The island culture is self-effacing, and his style couldn't be more different."

Signs of Trouble

Mr. Dobelle, 59, is quick to point out his accomplishments, saying he has turned the university system around. "I accomplished everything I set out to do," he says, seated on the verandah of the presidential house on a green hillside near Waikiki Beach. "I launched a new era."

He did oversee a major reorganization of the university system and developed strategic plans for all of the campuses, establishing a new senior administrative structure and making the community colleges independent campuses with their own chancellors. The Manoa campus, which had run into problems with its accreditor in 1999, was given a generally good report in 2003 that extended its accreditation. The university also signed a six-year contract that year with the faculty union.

But Mr. Dobelle had barely settled into office before he ran into trouble. Some state lawmakers and faculty members questioned his spending on travel and the refurbishment of the presidential house. They also doubted his ability to deliver as a fund raiser. And they accused him of cronyism after he hired several of his friends from the mainland for top administrative positions, paying them twice what their predecessors had received.

"While it looks like it's just been a one-year situation of difficulty, it's been a three-year situation," says Patricia Y. Lee, a regent who has been on the board for three years and chairwoman for the past year. "At his first-year review, he stalked out of the room and said, 'You can't fire me.' So you can see it's not a comfortable relationship."

Board members say they became frustrated by the president's habit of circumventing their authority. Mr. Dobelle "would go out to the press and make announcements about what he was doing, on matters that were subject to board approval," says Ms. Lee. "We'd learn about things in the news."

On one occasion, Mr. Dobelle publicly announced plans for a film school before regents had heard anything about the idea or considered how to finance it, Ms. Lee says. Asked about it now, Mr. Dobelle appears stunned at the suggestion that his actions might have been inappropriate. "The point is, wouldn't you want a president who went out there with a vision?" he says.

Impolitic Ways

Meanwhile, Mr. Dobelle's spending was getting more attention from lawmakers and faculty members. The chairman of the State Senate's Ways and Means Committee, Brian T. Taniguchi, a Democrat, called for an audit of the University of Hawaii Foundation less than a year into Mr. Dobelle's presidency. At issue was Mr. Dobelle's spending of money from a discretionary fund to take two dozen staff members and donors to a Janet Jackson concert at Aloha Stadium.

Mr. Dobelle continued to draw criticism. At the invitation of a former Secretary of the Navy who was an old acquaintance, the president was a judge at the Miss America contest, despite protests from some faculty members who said that doing so was sexist and inappropriate for a college president. Mr. Dobelle defended his actions at the time, saying the pageant had changed over the years and was a scholarship event.

Two months later, in November 2002, Mr. Dobelle became embroiled in a heated gubernatorial campaign, endorsing the Democratic lieutenant governor, Mazie K. Hirono, over her Republican opponent, Linda Lingle, who won the election.

The president's political activism upset regents, including one who resigned over Mr. Dobelle's endorsement. Mr. Dobelle defends his action, saying he believed Ms. Hirono was the best candidate for the university's needs. He says that public-university presidents are too timid and afraid of their boards, and should be able to speak their opinions and even endorse political candidates. "You take a stand, and what I think we need to do is have more politics in public education, not less, because what's happening is a total disinvestment in public education."

Richard Novak, director of a center for public-university trustees at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, says most college presidents avoid political endorsements for good reason. "You can't be viewed as partisan at all because you have to work with all parties, and you have to be an honest broker," he says.

Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, a professor of Hawaiian studies on the Manoa campus, believes Mr. Dobelle's endorsement of Ms. Hirono led regents appointed by Governor Lingle to seek his ouster. Mr. Dobelle won the professor's support after he gave $1.5-million from a discretionary fund for a new Hawaiian-studies center. "Evan Dobelle to me represented our champion," she says. "I was extremely saddened that he should be fired." But other faculty members, regents, lawmakers, and even Mr. Dobelle himself say that tensions with the board and questions about his spending existed before his endorsement.

Credibility Gap

As criticism mounted, state legislators and regents began questioning his fund-raising abilities. The legislature had agreed in 2001 to finance the construction of a new medical school with $150-million in revenue bonds, with the understanding that the president would match that by raising $150-million for a cancer center and for remodeling an older building.

To date, only about $16-million has been raised from donors. Mr. Dobelle now says that his plan was to first land federal money for the school, and use that as a start for a campaign to raise private donations.

The regents say he spent lavishly on international travel and failed to keep them apprised of what he did on those trips, as large private gifts failed to materialize. The university raised less than $65-million in private donations during his presidency, about $32-million less than during the three years preceding his arrival, when the university was engaged in a capital campaign.

He says he was doing university business when he traveled, and did communicate that to the board. As for the fund raising, he says it was in the cultivation stage.

By July 2003, K. Mark Takai, a Democrat who is chairman of the Higher Education Committee in the Hawaii House of Representatives, along with another legislator, a retired professor, and a university administrator, wrote "Dangerous Equations," an essay published in a local newspaper, which was highly critical of Mr. Dobelle. The president's administration "now faces an internal crisis of confidence and a credibility gap between what he promised he would do and what he actually has done," it said.

The board gave Mr. Dobelle a negative evaluation last fall, which he hotly disputed. The board also raised questions about his spending after a financial review found problems in his use of a fund for reimbursements, travel, credit-card charges, and personal expenses. Mr. Dobelle responded by reimbursing the university in some instances and changing procedures to standardize reimbursement policies in others. As the tensions grew, Mr. Dobelle was frequently absent from board meetings, says David S. McClain, who as vice president of academic affairs attended those meetings in Mr. Dobelle's stead.

The state auditor began another review of the foundation's finances last November, amid continued questioning of the president's travel and spending from a presidential discretionary fund. In a May report, the auditor found "questionable, even abusive, expenditures from donated funds."

Last December the board voted not to renew the contract of the university's chief financial officer, J.R.W. (Wick) Sloane, one of Mr. Dobelle's acquaintances whom he had hired. Three months later, Mr. Sloane's wife, Elizabeth D. Sloane, who had been hired by Mr. Dobelle to lead the foundation, resigned.

Meanwhile, Mr. Takai filed a complaint with the state's Ethics Commission, accusing Mr. Dobelle of inappropriately accepting flights and hotel rooms from local business groups without reporting them to the state as gifts. The commission has not yet issued a decision, and Mr. Dobelle denies any wrongdoing.

Finding Cause

For Mr. Dobelle's evaluation this spring, the regents brought in an outside consultant, Robert H. Atwell, a former president of the American Council on Education, to help interview people on the campus about Mr. Dobelle and advise the board. The regents also had the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche review the presidential discretionary fund in the foundation. The results have not been made public.

Drafts of the report, leaked to local newspapers, showed the foundation had paid $46,499 in personal charges for Mr. Dobelle between July 2001 and February 2004, which he later reimbursed, although in some cases it took him up to two years to do so. Mr. Dobelle blamed "messy" accounting and told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, "Nobody intended to do anything wrong."

After a 12-hour meeting in June, the board unanimously voted to fire Mr. Dobelle "for cause," making him ineligible for $2.3-million in severance pay that otherwise would have been provided. So far, the regents have declined to say what the "cause" is, and Kitty Lagareta, the board's vice chairwoman, says that settlement negotiations may mean that the reason for his termination will never be released.

Mr. Dobelle decries his treatment by the regents, especially their handling of his firing. "It was all about trying to spin the story to try to be harmful to a president who was being very successful, and people aren't used to success in Hawaii," he says.

He also says he had difficulty building relationships with the board because its members are only appointed to four-year terms, and he had three different board chairmen in three years, plus another one who hired him before he arrived at the university. He acknowledges he sometimes forged ahead without the regents.

"I understood what the local people needed," he says. "It's the local political culture that I chose to ignore."

Ms. Lagareta disputes his accusations. "This is not some backward community out in the middle of the Pacific," she says. "Frankly, the issues that led to this have nothing to do with not liking change or being provincial. These are issues that any board would have had to deal with."

She says the university's acting president, Mr. McClain, may serve for "an extended period of time" before Hawaii thinks about hiring another permanent leader. "This institution needs to catch its breath."

• M.Ed. in education, 1970, and Ed.D. in education and public policy, 1987, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
• Master's in public administration, 1984, Harvard University.

• President of the University of Hawaii System, 2001-4.
• President of Trinity College (Conn.), 1995-2001.
• Chancellor of City College of San Francisco, 1990-95.
• President of Middlesex Community College (Mass.), 1987-90.

• Deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, 1980-81; treasurer, 1978-79.
• U.S. chief of protocol for the White House, 1977-78.
• Commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management, 1976-77.
• Mayor of Pittsfield, Mass., 1973-76.
• Executive assistant to U.S. Sen. Edward W. Brooke III, a Massachusetts Republican, 1971-73.

• Married, with one teenage son.

JULY 2001

Evan S. Dobelle becomes president of the University of Hawaii System.

FEBRUARY 2002

Mr. Dobelle takes 25 donors and staff members to a Janet Jackson concert, paying for the tickets through a presidential discretionary fund of the University of Hawaii Foundation, the system's private fund-raising arm. His action prompts public outcry, and by April a state legislator calls for a state audit of whether foundation money is being used appropriately.

SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER 2002

The president judges the Miss America pageant in September, despite criticism from some faculty members who say doing so is sexist and inappropriate for a college leader. In November Mr. Dobelle endorses the Democratic candidate for governor in a television commercial, and a member of the university's Board of Regents resigns in protest.

MARCH 2003

A state audit of the university's foundation finds "a number of questionable foundation expenditures made under the guise of fund raising."

OCTOBER 2003

Amid increasing criticism from lawmakers and some faculty and staff members over his spending, particularly on travel, Mr. Dobelle receives a negative performance review from the regents, which he hotly disputes, both for its content and for the board's procedure in evaluating him. The review accuses him of a lack of accountability to the board, including murky reporting on finances.

APRIL-MAY 2004

A second state audit of the foundation again finds "questionable, even abusive, expenditures from donated funds." The state legislature passes a bill requiring the foundation to disclose more financial records to lawmakers.

JUNE 2004

After an evaluation that includes an outside consultant and a financial review of the president's spending of foundation money, the regents unanimously vote to fire Mr. Dobelle "for cause," but they decline to disclose what the "cause" is. He threatens to sue, and the two sides and their lawyers begin mediation. The university's accreditors criticize the board and the university for their poor relationship.