Lois Manin will serve as acting athletic director at the University of Hawaii starting Dec. 2, but won’t pursue the job on a permanent basis, Manin said in a statement sent to media Wednesday.
Manin was a finalist for AD when Craig Angelos, who was fired by UH last week, got the position in May, 2023.
When the news broke Tuesday that Angelos had been let go, anonymous internet posters theorized that UH president David Lassner, who is retiring at the end of the calendar year, and some athletic department employees conspired against Angelos in favor of Manin.
“There has been a lot of chatter regarding my employment at UH Athletics,” Manin wrote. “I would like to set the record straight with facts and not conjecture.
“First of all, let me be very clear. I will not be applying for the permanent position.”
Manin added that she was “disappointed … but not surprised” when she did not get the AD job last year. When Angelos started, she continued her work in the No. 2 position in the department, a post she’d held with the previous AD, David Matlin.
“Within the first 30 seconds of meeting Craig, I told him that I wanted him to hear from me and not anyone else that I had applied for the job and that I was prepared to support him fully,” Manin wrote. “I remained in my current job as Associate Athletics Director for Internal Operations and supported Craig as best I could with what knowledge I gained in my 25 years in collegiate athletics administration at UH.”
UH’s incoming president, Wendy Hensel, will be tasked with finding a new permanent AD.
“I do not know the timeline and do not intend to apply for the job when it opens up,” Manin wrote. “I view my role as getting the department through the transition.”
Meanwhile, support continued for Angelos from student-athletes and others on social media and a petition at change.org. Many said they were surprised to learn that Angelos was let go.
UH said Angelos’ firing had to do with his performance in a statement Tuesday.
Angelos, who was working without a contract as an at-will employee, said he was “blindsided” and “shocked” when Lassner fired him last week, the AD said in a statement, also on Tuesday.
The UH Board of Regents, which approved Lassner’s hiring of Angelos last year with an 8-2 vote with one abstention, has its regular monthly meeting, today at 9 a.m. Angelos supporters said they plan to attend.
