If the University of Hawaii comes back from its Oct. 12 football game at Nevada-Las Vegas with a victory, it will be a good sign.
If UH should somehow return from Vegas with a new president, it would be a great one.
The fact is that Hawaii will soon have an opening for a president and the assistance of another $109,000 search firm shouldn’t be required to see that UNLV just happens to have one, Neal Smatresk, who would fit nicely.
This is an unsolicited and, admittedly premature recommendation, but it is far from a minority opinion among those who knew Smatresk during his years (2003-07) as the Manoa Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and came to see him as someone who “gets it” on so many fronts.
Even as UNLV’s president, a position he has occupied for the last 31⁄2 years, Smatresk, 59, has managed to be of considerable service to UH. As chairman of the Mountain West Conference Board of Directors, Smatresk relentlessly drove UH’s bid for membership.
“A champion of our cause,” is how UH president M.R.C. Greenwood praised him at the time. “One of our own,” she said.
The hope is nobody will hold those testimonials against him.
When UH was admitted to the Mountain West, Smatresk was asked why he went the extra mile behind the scenes for the school. “Once you’ve been part of Hawaii, I think a little aloha stays with you,” said Smatresk, who has been known to give Hawaii folks personal tours of the UNLV campus.
Besides, Smatresk conceded, “When I hear that ‘Hawaii Five-O’ (song), it still gets the blood pumping.”
History tells us that Smatresk (pronounced Smaaaah-Tresk) knows a thing or two about UH and crisis. He had just started here when the Board of Regents dumped Evan Dobelle as president. And, he helped see the Manoa campus through the great flood of October 2004, earning respect for his leadership and willingness to roll up his pant legs and get to work.
But mostly people talk about his ability to work with disparate groups and find solutions. They talk about his vision and the kind of energy that has helped him raise scholarship funds and support in the community. Smatresk has also been behind “UNLV Now” a proposed $1 billion project that would bring the school on-campus student housing, a shopping center and mega sports-entertainment complex for college events and major Las Vegas Strip attractions.
At UNLV, Smatresk took over as president during a period of leadership tumult and then had to guide the school through rough economic times and cutbacks.
Through it all he has received high marks. An independent report commissioned by the Nevada System of Higher Education cites positive reviews from students, faculty, staff, legislators and the community, its author has said.
The one fear, of course, is that the former botany professor might be too smart to take on what awaits at UH.
But it can’t hurt UH to ask. Especially if accompanied by a chorus or two of “Hawaii Five-0.”
———
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
