Chalk one up for the power of the people and questioning authority.

Granted, that may seem a strange notion to some when the mayor of Honolulu is among the signers of a petition that quickly gained serious traction with leadership at the University of Hawaii.

Also, several others of the signatures are from stars who would be in a Who’s Who of all-time Hawaii sports greats. Fans would pay for some of those autographs.

The pressure that forced UH to rethink the composition of the committee to find its next athletic director was applied forcefully and directly by some heavy hitters, but it was also done as diplomatically as possible.

Most importantly, it is for the right reasons: 1) To ensure that key stakeholders in the future — maybe even survival — of UH sports have real representation in the selection of the next AD, and 2) that an embarrassing display of selective diversity be corrected immediately.

The committee doesn’t need to be demolished and rebuilt (like Aloha Stadium hopefully will be, one of these decades). It would be hypocritical and just plain wrong to remove women and other minorities to add men of color.

But the committee clearly needs some additions. UH admitted in its response that there are “gaps” in the demographics of the seven-member committee that includes no Blacks and no Samoans.

And there is very little representation of the engine that pulls the train financially: football.

“(The committee) should include someone with a solid football background,” texted Mayor Rick Blangiardi, who was a UH football player, coach and broadcaster. “And also expand the cultural diversity of the committee to include former Black or Polynesian athletes, preferably UH alums …”

Only a few are saying that any of the original committee members don’t belong on it. Although, yes, it would be awkward if an athletic director might have to consider firing a coach who helped get that new AD hired.

One way to mitigate this would be to allow anyone who would be supervised by the AD to serve in only an “advisory” capacity — which is what the committee is supposed to be anyway, right? That would mean if the committee votes on a candidate to recommend to UH president David Lassner — who is the one officially making the choice — any current UH coaches on the committee would not vote.

>> RELATED: Former Hawaii athletes say AD search panel lacks diversity

“I would NOT have signed the petition if it denigrated or asked for removal of anyone currently on the selection committee, because they are all high quality people,” Blangiardi also said via text. “Add to that, some will question having two current head coaches on the committee but Laura Beeman and Charlie Wade are not only exceptional coaches, but I believe people of the highest integrity. They should be able to provide excellent insight to the current state of affairs of the athletic department to any ‘outside’ candidate who might apply for the position.”

As I wrote in Wednesday’s column, if coaches are on the committee, the head football coach should be among them. Timmy Chang is also part Native Hawaiian, and a former UH student-athlete. Actually — since this, again, is an advisory committee — the head coach of every sport should be involved.

UH responded quickly in recognizing the petition is of merit, that it “accurately notes certain demographic gaps,” in a statement released Friday, the same day the petition was hand-delivered to Lassner’s office, and to that of the Board of Regents.

One question is why the university — an institution that prides itself on inclusion and diversity — didn’t realize this while forming the committee.

“The University will be reviewing the gaps identified in the petition with consideration of a modest expansion of membership,” according to the school’s response statement.

That’s good, except for one word: “modest.” For the cynical among us — and I’m paid to be cynical when appropriate — “modest” in this context can sound a lot like “token.”

Of course there are reasons for keeping committees small (and we can question the need for such committees at all, but that’s for another day).

In 1993, an 18-member committee deliberated and recommended Hugh Yoshida as the replacement for Stan Sheriff, who died while he was AD. Yoshida, who had been associate athletic director at UH for two years, served for nine years (a long time at this job that chews people up), and is remembered for two football coach hirings: Fred vonAppen and June Jones.

At the very least, three members should be added to this committee, bringing it to 10. Two should be former UH coaches and athletes from football and men’s basketball, and people of color. I also wondered why Wahine volleyball — one of the school’s most prominent programs — was not represented on the committee.

There is an endless number of qualified candidates willing to serve. I would start by asking Artie Wilson, who was the driving force behind the petition. Since his basketball and baseball playing days in the 1970s, Wilson has remained active with UH in many capacities.

Also near the top of my list to help find a great AD would be Tita Ahuna, Rod Aldridge, Darrick Branch, Anthony Carter, Deitre Collins-Parker, David Kawika Hallums, Mike Iosua, Mike Lafaele, Sam Moku, Jesse Sapolu and LeeAnn Satele.

Another thing the petition pointed out is this may be the most crucial hire in the history of UH athletics.

That is sort of like when coaches talk about the next game always being the most important.

But this is no exaggeration. If the right people don’t have a seat at the table when important decisions must be made there may not be much of a table to worry about for much longer.

University of Hawaii AD sea… by Honolulu Star-Advertiser