One of the busiest times of the week for a newspaper is on Friday around 5 p.m. This is the witching hour in the business world, the one where the announcements come that somebody has been let go, shown the door or asked to bring his playbook.
It gives the boss time to do the old skedaddle for the weekend, leaving inquiring minds wondering why good, old Joe Friday has been cut like a run-on sentence. You can set your watch by it.
So, many of us in the newsroom on Friday afternoon wondered aloud why the University of Hawaii would wait until that time of day to name a new athletic director. After many months of negative publicity for the botched Stevie Wonder concert, you would have thought this was a chance to give newly hired Ben Jay of Ohio State a proper welcome, complete with press conference and photo ops.
Instead, the news came out of the Columbus Dispatch newspaper after a local reporter spotted Jay at a Buckeyes event and asked him if he was the new athletic director in the faraway land of the Rainbow Warriors.
His reply? Yes.
THAT’S NOT EXACTLY how a public relations department would want the news to be released. If it was, then Hawaii needs a new public relations department, one that has enough influence on the powers that be to convince them that this is a pivotal hire, one that needs to meet public scrutiny front and center, not by a single reporter 4,000 miles away.
Granted, Star-Advertiser reporter Ferd Lewis broke the news earlier in the week that Jay was the leading contender, but that’s not enough confirmation for a local community still stunned by the stupidity of people who were hired to be anything but.
Yes, former Hawaii athletic director Jim Donovan was reassigned over the Wonder Blunder. And yes, UH President M.R.C. Greenwood looked like a befuddled Aunt Bee from Mayberry at State Senate and Board of Regents meetings when asked to explain how things could get so out of hand under her watch.
The hiring of Jay was an opportunity to offer up a little of that transparency so many people have talked about the last few months, not some Soviet-like announcement after the candidate himself let the Buckeye out of the bag. Greenwood should have approved the hire and had a contract ready for Jay to sign on the dotted line right before a press conference.
It begs the question of who thought this was a good way to approach it and another even bigger question as to why a public relations person wouldn’t do any and everything in his or her power to change said approach.
It also leaves the unanswered question about what happened to Rockne Freitas in this equation? He was Greenwood’s go-to guy when UH needed someone to lead them to the promised land of the Mountain West Conference. And most of the coaches thought he should have the interim part of his title removed as part of a permanent solution.
Obviously, UH Chancellor Tom Apple thought otherwise, and Freitas gave him the out by not applying. Wow, you wonder why Jay would want to get involved with such a dysfunctional family. And how he will avoid a more typical Friday afternoon announcement somewhere down the road.
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Paul Arnett can be reached at 529-4786 or parnett@staradvertiser.com.
