University of Hawaii President David Lassner made known he’ll retire at the end of 2024 in his usual low-key manner: an email to the Board of Regents.
“I have always been clear that when either the BOR or I decide it is time for me to step down, I want that to happen without acrimony, drama or lawyers,” he wrote.
It was typical of the class he’s displayed in presiding over UH for more than 10 years. He proudly noted he’s survived the longest in the pressure-cooker job since Gregg Sinclair headed what was then a single campus of 5,000 students from 1942 to 1955.
Lassner, 69, is a UH lifer, a 46-year employee who started in 1977 in an entry-level information technology job.
As president of what is now a 10-campus system vital to the state’s future, he provided sorely needed stability following the tumultuous tenure and ugly exit of M.R.C. Greenwood in the wake of the bogus Stevie Wonder concert scandal.
UH president is one of the toughest jobs in the state, with many diverse and competing constituencies to satisfy.
Lassner had to contend with culture wars over the Mauna Kea telescopes, a deadly pandemic and capricious budgeting by the Legislature. He endured calls to resign from power-tripping lawmakers and votes of no confidence from a know-it-all faculty.
Through it all, he conducted himself with humility and purpose, coolly focusing on serving student needs ahead of politics.
Lassner took the job for $100,000 less than Greenwood and declined several pay raises he was due. He worked without a long-term contract and didn’t demand the $5,000 monthly housing allowance or golden retirement parachute given his predecessor.
He saved UH some $500,000 in annual administrative costs by taking on the role of Manoa chancellor in addition to UH system president, without a salary bump.
Lassner meshed well with former regents chairman Randy Moore, a respected mind of similar integrity, in attempting to build a UH culture that kept performance up and the volume down.
The university’s future as an economic and cultural driver critical to our quality of life now lies largely with Gov. Josh Green and his newly appointed regents chairman, Alapaki Nahale-a.
They’ve yet to show their hand on whether they’ll fight to give UH the independence and resources needed to do right by its students and the community, or kowtow to legislators who see the university as their political playground.
Nahale-a credited Lassner with creating “a strong foundation upon which UH can continue to become the institution our state needs us to be.”
But when it came to replacing him, Nahale-a had little more than local officialese about “Hawaii values and who we truly are as a people” and UH being “solid on its own merits while understanding our obligation to be integrated into the collective community working for our future.”
While we wait to find out what the heck that means, we should appreciate David Lassner as the model of a style of public service that’s become far too rare.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
