A new era at the University of Hawaii will dawn with the new year, now that Wendy Hensel has been selected as the UH system’s 16th president. In January, Hensel succeeds David Lassner, who’ll retire after 11-plus successful years at the helm. Hopes are high, as Hensel goes after the high hurdles achieved under Lassner — and residents will certainly be watching to ensure that she’s worth every single dollar of a bumped-up presidential salary.

Hensel comes to UH under a 3-year contract that includes a $675,000 annual salary, a $7,000 monthly housing allowance, $60,000 for moving expenses and a fallback tenure position at the UH-Manoa law school; there’s also a two-year extension subject to UH Board of Regents approval. In comparison, Lassner’s annual salary is about $410,000, and he several times declined pay raises he was due.

So naturally, there are high expectations for Hensel to deliver for UH.

A glance at more comparisons: Since 2022, Hensel has been executive vice chancellor and university provost at the City University of New York (CUNY), a 25-campus system with 235,000 students. That’s significantly larger than UH’s 10-campus system, which has 50,000-plus students. CUNY has one of the most diverse student bodies in the U.S., so familiarity with multiculturalism would seem to bode well for understanding UH’s diverse campuses.

It’s also encouraging to see that Hensel has worked with New York City and key employers to forge new public-private partnerships — embedding in-demand skills into CUNY’s curriculum, and working to align academic programs with emerging areas of workforce demand. These are key strategic areas for UH to advance, especially in an island state that must keep its homegrown talent here.

CUNY says Hensel helped draft its 2023-2030 strategic plan in collaboration with faculty and staff, and led implementation of a systemwide transfer plan to allow students, for the first-time, to transition within a major between CUNY’s community and senior colleges. That echoes a similarly positive path that Lassner and team have staked out, speeding time to graduation, reducing student debt and meeting workforce needs.

Prior to her short time at CUNY, Hensel was provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at Georgia State University, where she reportedly led implementation of academic plans during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure uninterrupted instruction for GSU’s 53,000 students.

As new starts go, Hensel is fortunate to be coming to UH at a time of relative calm. Major issues that could have been thorny for a new president are, for now, settled, including:

>> A newly ratified contract with the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, which represents 3,300 faculty members statewide. The two-year contract through June 2027 has a 3.5% wage hike in the first year, a 3.79% raise in the second year. (CUNY’s system employs 6,700 unionized full-time faculty and 10,000-plus adjunct faculty.)

>> On the athletics front, much uncertainty was dispelled this month when it was announced that most UH teams would be joining the Mountain West Conference (MWC), effective July 2026. That provides welcome relief for athletics stability and improved financial terms; however, since the MWC does not have some sports that UH does, such as men’s volleyball, lingering issues need to be resolved.

>> Steady improvements at UH stoked enough confidence that its competitive research grants achieved a record this year: $616 million in fiscal 2024, up 19% from the previous year’s $516 million. Further, the nonprofit UH Foundation, which raises private funds to support UH, for the fourth consecutive year has exceeded $100 million in annual contributions.

>> As for students’ education, overall graduation and retention rates have increased under Lassner’s administration.

Of course, all this doesn’t overlook the many tough challenges ahead for Hensel:

>> Retaining robust enrollment as tuition rates increase, and holding the line of affordability. In the 2025 and 2026 school years, local students will see 2% increases for UH’s 4-year campuses.

>> Addressing a major facilities repair and maintenance backlog. In 2022, UH’s systemwide deferred maintenance backlog was $863 million, and rising. Last year, UH got only $384 million of its requested $558 million for repairs over a two-year span.

>> Working with the state on the new Aloha Stadium, which affects UH football’s NCAA Division I standing.

>> Keeping astronomy robust, as oversight of Mauna Kea transitions from UH to a new stewardship authority that’s still getting its bearings.

>> And not least of all, dealing with state legislators over UH budget and autonomy, a political minefield of egos and punitive tendencies.

Ultimately, what’s good for UH will be good not only for the students and faculty of its 10 campuses, but also for the vitality and future of Hawaii. From UH’s lofty and lucrative research work, to essential education for residents to expand skill sets to meet workforce needs, much is at stake. Hensel must apply all the considerable skills she possesses — and learn many new ones — if she is to do right by UH and this unique island state.