University of Hawaii at Manoa Chancellor Virginia S. Hinshaw will leave her job at the end of the school year, opening the door to debate about the need for a separate administrator to oversee UH’s flagship campus.

Hinshaw, 67, in a letter sent to faculty and staff on Wednesday, offered no explanation for stepping down.

She will depart at the end of her initial, five-year appointment that this year earned her $337,672. She could take a sabbatical with the option to return to a tenured faculty position in the College of Natural Sciences and John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Hinshaw, known for her collection of colorful cowboy hats, earned high praise for speeding up repairs and maintenance at the campus; earning Manoa the maximum 10-year accreditation from the Western Association of Schools & Colleges; overseeing rising enrollment and campuswide energy-saving initiatives; and easing community college students’ transition to Manoa, among other accomplishments.

"This is not welcome news," said Susan Hippensteele, a women’s studies associate professor and past president of the UH-Manoa Faculty Senate. "The environment on campus has been very positive, very collegial, with people coming together and working hard, and that’s a leadership issue."

Hinshaw arrived at Manoa in 2007 after serving as provost and executive vice-chancellor at the University of California-Davis, where she held joint appointments as a full professor in UC-Davis’ School of Medicine and in the UC-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

UH’s then-President David McClain urged regents to make an exception to their policy of three-year appointments — and give Hinshaw a five-year appointment — in order to "provide permanent leadership and direction for the University of Hawaii at Manoa," McClain wrote at the time.

Hinshaw had no contract, UH officials said on Wednesday.

Hinshaw’s collection of cowboy hats festooned with the UH logo and her habit of addressing crowds with "Aloha, y’all" initially was received as colorful by some and out-of-touch by others.

"The cowboy hat — what a disaster," said one person who worked closely with Hinshaw from the beginning and asked not to be identified because of ongoing employment with UH administrators and Hinshaw’s successor. "She had a tremendous amount of relationships to build, especially coming from the mainland. Truthfully, I don’t think she ever got over it."

Though Hinshaw’s letter to faculty and staff gave no explanation of why she was leaving, in an email response to the Star-Advertiser Wednesday she said:

"Since I became Chancellor in 2007, we’ve made much progress in strengthening UH-Manoa’s academic excellence, including improvement in facilities and prioritization of resource use during difficult financial times — UH-Manoa is now moving forward with a lot of momentum. These advances were exemplified by the recent granting of the 10-year maximum reaccreditation for UH-Manoa from WASC. Many upcoming projects will take five to 10 years to accomplish, so I believe UH-Manoa will benefit from having leadership stability and continuity during that time. Bringing in a new leader next year will enable the campus to build on the current progress and ensure a positive trajectory for the years to come."

State Rep. Mark Takai (D, Newtown-Pearl City), a former UH student body president and a member of the House Higher Education Committee, introduced unsuccessful resolutions last session urging the Board of Regents to consider eliminating the position of Manoa chancellor.

Regents reorganized Manoa’s administrative structure in 2001 to establish the job — with the understanding that the position would require no additional administrative costs, Takai said.

Instead, the chancellor’s office now has an annual operating budget of $14.7 million, Takai said.

Takai, who praised Hinshaw’s accomplishments, said the resolution "has nothing to do with Virginia. It was very apparent to me that we made a mistake in separating the two positions of chancellor and president. They had to create a huge team at the Manoa level to support the chancellor. Now we have an opportunity to take a look at bringing the two positions back together."

In an interview in her office at Bachman Hall Wednesday, UH President M.R.C. Greenwood said the university needs to maintain the chancellor’s office.

"Would we save a lot of money by combining the two? I don’t think so at all," Greenwood said. "There are two full-time jobs here."

The chancellor has to oversee a sprawling campus while complying with state, federal, NCAA and other regulations, Greenwood said.

"It’s a very, very busy job," she said. "Wherever we were a decade ago, we were not seen as one of the top research universities in the country and now we are. … I want to find someone who can follow in the important efforts that Chancellor Hinshaw has completed and initiated."

Representatives from Greenwood’s office and of the regents said the regents would not comment on Takai’s resolution.

People off the Manoa campus and unfamiliar with UH politics got their first impressions of Hinshaw when she had been on the job less than a year and head football coach June Jones resigned. Ultimately, coach Greg McMackin was given a contract worth $1.1 million annually, making him the state’s highest-paid employee.

Last November Hinshaw and Greenwood led an awkward news conference broadcast live to announce UH’s intention to leave the Western Athletic Conference and join the Big West and Mountain West conferences.

Asked about perceptions of a rift between herself and Greenwood and regents triggered by the WAC changes, Hinshaw said only that, "I was 100 percent committed to our leaving the WAC and joining the Big West and the Mountain West."

Hinshaw told Greenwood 10 days to two weeks ago of her decision to leave at the end of the school year, Greenwood said.

Asked whether there had ever been any bad blood between herself and Hinshaw, Greenwood said, "Never, never, never any bad blood. No, none at all."

UH NOW WILL begin a nationwide search for Hinshaw’s replacement, Greenwood said. After receiving recommendations from a search committee, Greenwood said she hopes that candidates can begin touring the campus next semester before Hinshaw’s departure.

UH will look for a replacement at a time when several high-profile universities — including Purdue and the University of Arizona — are also replacing top administrators, Greenwood said.

Hinshaw’s replacement does not have to come from Hawaii, said state Sen. Jill Tokuda (D, Kaneohe-Kailua), chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee.

But Hinshaw’s successor does need to understand the complexities of navigating through the 10-campus system while dealing with oversight from the president, regents and state lawmakers, Tokuda said.

"They have to understand our local culture," Tokuda said. "Where they’re from is less important than the need to embrace the vision and mission of the university. You’re going to need somebody who is an excellent communicator." 

In her email to the Star-Advertiser, Hinshaw said her successor "needs what I call a ‘Hawaiian heart’ —which means to be appreciative and respectful of Hawaii’s great diversity and particularly embrace Native Hawaiian culture and values — and that means being part of the Hawaii and Manoa ‘ohana."

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Star-Advertiser reporter Ferd Lewis contributed to this report.