Despite being voted down by a five-member state Senate committee this week, University of Hawaii Board of Regents interim member and Chair Alapaki Nahale-a said Thursday that he has decided to continue seeking confirmation for a second term as a regent.
In his first news interview since the preliminary vote Tuesday, Nahale-a told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the contentious hearing before the Senate Higher Education Committee was personally painful, but a continuing outpouring of “dozens” of supportive calls, emails and comments since then from supporters and the public spurred his decision against withdrawing.
“What really struck me is the passion they had — that they have greater hopes for the university and for Hawaii than what they witnessed (in the hearing),” Nahale-a said. “The repeated message is, ‘Please don’t give up. Please don’t drop out. We wouldn’t blame you if you did. But please don’t.’”
Nahale-a said Gov. Josh Green’s office has told him that the governor continues to back Nahale-a’s nomination to a second five-year term on the UH Board of Regents.
When asked to confirm that support, Green’s office issued a statement Friday morning saying, “Governor Green nominated Alapaki Nahale-a because of his service, experience and commitment to higher education and to ensuring access to the University of Hawaii system. While we are disappointed with the committee vote, we understand Alapaki will be talking with other senators to see if he can persuade them to support him. The governor will continue conversations with Alapaki on next steps.”
Nahale-a, and first-time regents Lauren Akitake and former Gov. Neil Abercrombie, have been serving on the board on an interim basis since Green nominated them in May. The 11-member board elected Nahale-a as chair in July; he previously served as second vice chair and first vice chair.
Each of the three nominees needs at least 13 votes from the full 25-member Senate to be confirmed. No date for the full votes has been announced yet. The unpaid, volunteer UH Board of Regents sets policies and approves budgets, as well as hires and evaluates the system president, for the 10-campus public university.
All three nominees were questioned during sequential hearings spanning four hours Tuesday before the Senate Higher Education Committee, led by Chair Donna Mercado Kim (D, Kalihi-Fort Shafter-Red Hill).
The two hours devoted to pressing Nahale-a on his track record during his first term as a regent were the most confrontational, with senators pinning responsibility on him for numerous problems UH faces, including some crumbling student housing projects, and a need that the legislators see for stronger accountability by the UH administration on setting priorities and budgeting, even if some of the issues originated before Nahale-a’s tenure.
The senators and Nahale-a debated the university’s spending millions to expand the UH Manoa football field to stay qualified for Division I football after Aloha Stadium closed. Kim said UH could have sought a waiver from NCAA requirements for more seating so that the money could have been used on student housing or other urgent issues. Nahale-a said the only athletics program that brings in revenue and thus subsidizes UH’s other athletics programs shouldn’t be “living in the lurch.”
Senate Ways and Means Chair Donovan Dela Cruz dropped in to the hearing to push Nahale-a on why the regents aren’t more proactive in setting priorities for UH budgets and the regents’ agendas. “What I’m not quite sure is that the regents and the (UH) president know who’s the dog and who’s the tail,” Dela Cruz said.
Akitake received supportive votes from all five committee members, and Abercrombie got a 3-2 approval. But Nahale-a was voted down by Kim; Michelle Kidani (D, Mililani Town-Waipio Gentry-Royal Kunia), who is committee vice chair and Senate vice president; and committee members Troy Hashimoto, Kurt Fevella and Carol Fukunaga, the latter with reservations.
Nahale-a said Thursday that he felt that in the hearing his leadership style was “ridiculed, that my belief in collaboration and getting regents together to hold admin accountable as a collective, I felt, was literally just laughed at. And I was hurt not just for me, but for the people who taught me those values. I lead the way my family taught me to lead, and I lead the way that the leaders of my Hilo community lead, and it works. …
“Aloha matters, aloha works and I’m gonna take that case to every senator. And I’m happy to answer questions and to lay out my track record against those principles. … I already know, from the response I’m getting, it’s what our broader community wants.”
Should he receive confirmation, then working to build bridges and ease the years of tensions between UH and the Legislature will be a major part of the work ahead, Nahale-a said.
Christian Fern, executive director of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, praised Nahale-a’s decision to continue to seek confirmation despite what he called “personal attacks.”
“This demonstrates his commitment to public service and to the University of Hawaii community,” Fern said in a statement. “It’s disappointing to see these attacks on a Native Hawaiian regent chair who has demonstrated a collaborative leadership style as they work towards finalizing the selection criteria for the next UH president. One has to question the motives of these personal attacks since they’re certainly outside the scope of the advise and consent process.”
Nahale-a, who fills the Hawaii County seat on the UH Board of Regents, is its third chair of Native Hawaiian ancestry since the founding of UH in 1907, said Fern, who is also part Hawaiian. The others were Gladys Brandt, who was chair for four of the six years she was a regent in the 1980s; and Eric Martinson, who was a regent from 2009 to 2013 and chair from 2011 to 2013.
CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated with a new statement from the governor’s office. An earlier version of this story included the office’s initial statement saying that Green “transmitted the only name submitted by the public employee unions.” The governor’s office said Friday that the initial statement was sent to the Star-Advertiser in error.
