University of Hawaii leaders will recombine the School of Travel Industry Management with the Shidler College of Business, a move that they say will open new opportunities for faculty and students.

Starting Sunday, TIM will become part of Shidler and will operate under its own identity in its current George Hall location as a “school-within-a-college,” with plans to upgrade the facility under a major fundraising campaign.

Next up, the university will launch a global search for a full-time executive leader, who will be the director of the TIM School and the associate dean of Shidler College.

V. Vance Roley, dean of Shidler College and interim dean of the TIM School, said he expects the change will help the TIM School attract strong candidates, especially because it comes with financial backing of Jay Shidler, an alumnus of Shidler College and its largest donor.

“It’s been quite a while since the glory years under Chuck Gee,” Roley said. “The TIM School separated from the business college in 1992 because of the leader Chuck Gee was, but over the last 20 years we’ve had a series of interim deans and only one permanent dean. People are longing for the glory years and there was some realization that something had to change.”

Gee, who died in May, was the co-founder and longest-serving dean of the TIM School, where he served as its top leader from 1976 until his retirement in 1999. At its peak under Gee, the TIM School was among the top three programs in the world.

“We are dedicated to building on Dean Gee’s legacy and strengthening the relationships that will position the TIM School for the future,” Roley said.

Michael Bruno, University of Hawaii provost, said university administration and the faculty of both colleges are committed to returning the TIM School to the status that it once enjoyed as a “core partner of our local and global tourism industry.”

They’ve already attracted a big supporter in Shidler, who said Wednesday that he has made an initial $1.55 million gift to help fund summer research support and provide matching funds for six new faculty endowments in the TIM School with more donations to come. Shidler’s donation already has spurred another $750,000 in matching funds from two TIM alumni in the Asia-Pacific region.

Shidler said his pledge to TIM furthers his support of Shidler College, which came about because of his desire to back Roley’s “vision and ability to create a strategy that could implement that tactically.”

Since 2006, Shidler has donated $288 million to Shidler College in cash and real estate ground leases, which will turn into full ownership of office buildings and land. The real estate donation is expected to yield a minimum of $7.2 billion during the life of the current lease.

Shidler, who is a hotel investor with $1 billion or so in hotel holdings, said he supports bolstering TIM by using Shidler College resources — a concept that worked for UH when the School of Accountancy was absorbed by Shidler. He said it also worked for Cornell University, when the nation’s top hospitality school merged into the Cornell College of Business, which had more fundraising ammunition.

“I’ll tell you today the hotel industry is as much about math and science as it is about service,” he said. “Dean Roley will do a very good job and make everybody proud, and we’ll all look back and say, ‘Why, of course, that made sense.’”

Recombining the schools has been heavily debated over the last decade as the university sought to bolster TIM’s graduate level program and its reputation, which in recent years had seen falling rankings. A 2011 attempt met with resistance from some at the campus and in the industry, who weren’t convinced that the change would benefit travel industry students.

The concept also was defeated on several other occasions when TIM school alumni and industry leaders opposed it. Proponents of an independent TIM School said the separation gave it the ability to respond more nimbly to industry needs, attract more attention and build long-term relationships, especially in Asia.

However this time around, Roley said some 80% of the TIM School faculty supported the change, which will allow TIM School for the first time to have professors, who are supported by endowments that pay their salaries and may provide financial assistance with research or travel.

Roley said some of the new opportunities being discussed for students include adding a hospitality track to Shidler’s distance- learning executive MBA program as well as augmenting TIM’s graduate level degrees with a professional MBA program and a Ph.D program.

“The TIM School is the only leading hospitality program in the country that doesn’t have a Ph.D. program,” he said.

TIM students also will be able to participate in Shidler’s study aboard and internship programs, Roley said.

Keith Vieira, principal of KV & Associates, Hospitality Consulting, and an executive-in-residence at Shidler, said he thinks the change is long overdue and will produce graduates who have a better grasp of core business competencies.

“I want to see more local leaders in our community running our hotels and in key visitor industry positions. Hotels and others in the industry are looking for solid business skills. Under Shidler College, there will be more opportunities for students to take curriculum that gives them the workforce development and training that they need,” Vieira said.

BENEFACTORS

The University of Hawaii Travel Industry Management School’s merge with Shidler College of Business has attracted strong financial support:

>> $1.55 million from Jay Shidler for two years of summer research support for all tenured and tenure-track TIM faculty and matching funds for six new faculty endowments.

>> $750,000 in matching funds from two TIM alumni, including $500,000 for a distinguished professorship fund and $250,000 for a faculty fellowship.