Wendy Hensel, executive vice chancellor and university provost for The City University of New York, will take over the University of Hawaii system in January — earning an annual salary of $675,000 — after UH regents unanimously selected her Thursday.
Hensel, 54, follows President David Lassner, who will retire at the end of the year, and will become the 16th president of the 10-campus system.
Hensel acknowledged the disappointment of people who testified in writing and in person — including some regents on Thursday — that no local candidate made it as a finalist.
After her selection was announced, Hensel pledged at a news conference that she will take over UH with a “heart open wide.”
Following forums at UH campuses across four counties, Hensel said she will begin her tenure by visiting all seven community college and three four-year universities to hear more from students, faculty, staff and other UH employees.
“I’m here to be a partner,” she said.
To parents and potential UH students considering their options, Hensel plans to preach the message that “there is an excellent education to be had at the university” at low or no cost to local students.
“The future is nothing but bright here,” she said.
One of her adult children is now interested in attending UH, Hensel told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Despite concerns expressed by some regents Thursday of the lack of a finalist with deeper Hawaii roots, former Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who serves as a regent, said that ultimately, “This is a big day for everybody.”
Several of the 11 regents had plenty of praise for the other finalist, Julian Vasquez Heilig, 49, provost and vice president of academic affairs at Western Michigan University, but ultimately voted for Hensel.
She will earn $675,000 for each of three years, with an option for two more years, with the approval of regents. She also will receive a $7,000 monthly housing allowance and up to $60,000 in moving expenses.
College Hill, the Manoa mansion formerly occupied by earlier UH presidents, continues to be used for UH functions. Lassner lives in Palolo.
During a reception Thursday at UH Manoa’s Bachman Hall for Hensel and her husband, Kenton Dudley, Lassner told the Star-Advertiser that he met Hensel for the first time Thursday and presented her with a lei.
“I liked her a lot,” Lassner said. “Obviously, she’s qualified for the job, and the regents really did their job. I think she’s got a personality and a style that will work well here.”
Lassner offered to schedule a meeting with Hensel every week through their transition and even into January after he retires and said that Hensel “was grateful.”
Lassner said Hansel is going to be UH president, “and I’m going to be someone who supports her success.”
The terms of Hensel’s contract — a Harvard Law school graduate, former U.S. Supreme Court intern and former dean of the Georgia State University Law School — include a “fall back” position as tenured faculty at UH’s William S. Richardson School of Law if she steps down as UH president.
“I don’t have any reservations” about Hensel, said Student Regent Joshua Faumuina, who studies at the UH law school.
Like other regents, Abercrombie also praised Vasquez Heilig and the future for his academic career.
“Dr. Vasquez Heilig’s day is coming,” Abercrombie said.
Vice Chair Laurie Tochiki, a law school graduate and parent of a UH Manoa graduate, called Vasquez Heilig “an up-and-comer in so many ways.”
But she ultimately preferred Hensel for, among other qualities, “demonstrating grace under fire.”
In a statement, Vasquez Heilig said, “Although I was not selected for the presidency, I remain deeply appreciative of the overwhelming community support from student groups, faculty, the Native Hawaiian Puko‘a council, and many other stakeholders. I was incredibly floored by the heartfelt endorsements and testimony that came from so many, and it has left a lasting impression on me — being in community was a joyful experience for me. … Wishing the University of Hawai‘i community nothing but the best on its continued journey.”
Hensel will follow the legacy of Lassner, who spent 47 years at UH, including his last 14 as president.
She will take over in January just at the start of the next legislative session, where Lassner and other UH administrators have faced increasingly intense, sometimes sarcastic questioning, particularly from state Sens. Donna Mercado Kim, Michelle Kidani — chair and vice chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee — and Donovan Dela Cruz, who chairs the powerful Ways and Means finance committee.
How Hensel will be received defending UH’s budget request and other oper- ations remains to be seen.
Dela Cruz, Kim and Kidani have not responded to previous requests for comment regarding how they plan to deal with the next UH president.
Hawaii voters granted UH “autonomy” in 2000, but UH officials every year have to seek state funding because tuition, donations, endowments and other revenue sources aren’t enough to keep the UH system running on a budget of over $1 billion. UH employs nearly 8,000 people while educating 46,000 students.
Asked whether she’s prepared for whatever confronts her at the state Capitol, Hensel told the Star-Advertiser last week, “No one has ever said that New York politics is gentle. But I begin with the premise that it is absolutely legitimate for the government to have oversight. We have to be partners because we have the same mission: to take good care of the people in your care. So I remain an eternal optimist.”
She and Vasquez Heilig separately met with the regents in executive session at the end of the board’s Wednesday special session to select the next president and again Thursday morning when the meeting resumed.
During public testimony in writing and in person, Vasquez Heilig received a majority of support, but Hensel also received endorsements for her work at Georgia State and CUNY.
At CUNY, according to UH, Hensel “oversees every aspect of the student and faculty experience across the 25 campus system.”
In a op-ed column published in the Star-Advertiser’s opinion section this week, Hensel wrote, “I have purposely spent my career at two of the most diverse public universities in the country. I am an employment discrimination lawyer by training, and I have spent my 25-year career in higher education fighting for civil rights in my teaching and scholarship. I have a demonstrable record of creating highly diverse teams and equitable environments as an administrator at both institutions I have served. I care deeply about this work — it is fundamental to who I am both personally and professionally.”
“As I have said repeatedly in the open forums, the kuleana of the next President of the University of Hawai‘i is enormous. The community rightly has an interest in the outcome of this search, and candidates should be fully vetted on their records and vision.”
Hensel and her husband are both fans of sports teams in Georgia and New York.
While Hensel roots for “a Subway Series” between the New York Mets and New York Yankees in this season’s World Series, she told the Star-Advertiser on Thursday that she and her husband also look forward to embracing UH teams.
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Wendy F. Hensel
16th president of the University of Hawaii
>> Age: 54
>> Compensation: $675,000 for each of three years, with an option for two more years, in addition to a $7,000 monthly housing allowance and up to $60,000 in moving expenses.
>> Background: Hensel was dean of the College of Law and provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at Georgia State University and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School. She earned a bachelor’s degree “with highest honors” from Michigan State University, where she was a Harry S. Truman Scholar and an intern at the U.S. Supreme Court.
>> Personal: Hensel and her husband, Kenton Dudley, also 54, have four adult children, one of whom is now considering UH. Three years ago Hensel and Dudley bought a two-bedroom townhome along the Kohala Coast on Hawaii island.
