The University of Hawaii has launched a search to find a replacement for retiring University of Hawaii at Manoa Athletics Director David Matlin. But the effort — announced just days ago — reflects a flawed process to fill this key post. Among the school’s questionable steps:

>> The seven-member search committee is curiously lacking in the ethnic diversity the UH boasts of in its mission statement. As someone who’s been associated with the Warriors for years, and played with and coached rosters filled with so many talented Polynesian and Black athletes, it appears their numbers are largely missing from the committee. I know there are dozens of prominent former alumni-athletes who would be eager to devote their time and ideas to this endeavor.

>> Men’s volleyball coach Charlie Wade and Wahine basketball coach Laura Beeman are on the committee. Their athletic experience notwithstanding, why are two subordinates on a committee that will screen and recommend their next supervisor? If I were a UH coach, I would find it awkward and uncomfortable to be in a position of interviewing and recommending someone who will become my boss. Furthermore, selection committee members should be fully vetted to ensure there are no conflicts of interest.

>> The minimum qualification of three years’ collegiate athletics administration would disqualify many outstanding candidates with strong public or private sector credentials from consideration. Given this criterion, it’s doubtful if even the outgoing Matlin would have qualified.

It’s worth noting that the NCAA, the governing body for all collegiate athletics, just appointed former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker to lead the organization. Baker was a student-athlete in college but has no experience in sports administration.

The challenges facing UH athletics are tremendous. It’s a travesty that an NCAA Division I football team is playing in a hastily erected stadium more suitable for a high school or that the UH does not have a prominent seat at the table in the development of the new Aloha Stadium. It’s disheartening that exciting Warrior and Wahine basketball teams play to audiences well short of the Stan Sheriff Center’s capacity. It’s alarming that the changing landscape of money-driven college sports is not being met with more creative, aggressive, community-driven revenue-raising efforts here at home.

Given these challenges, the next AD must have the proven ability to raise private funds, coupled with the credibility to work within state government to ensure that the athletic program has the financial resources to excel.

UH urgently needs a creative leader at the helm of the athletics department. It behooves the UH administration, Board of Regents, and all of Hawaii for that matter, to find someone who can revitalize our sports program before it’s fallen too far to save. That means the selection committee composed by UH President David Lassner and AD Matlin should be dismantled and reconstituted to correct its shortcomings. Or the school should dispense with this shibai and just have the UH president name the next athletic director.

June Jones was the head football coach at the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 1999 to 2007.