President Dobelle's Internal and External Politicization of the University of Hawai'i; Role of Center for Hawaiian Studies



(c) Copyright 2002 Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D. All rights reserved


Most of the following essay is taken from an e-mail sent by Dr. Conklin on November 17, 2002 to the University of Hawai'i Board of Regents, to the officers of the faculty union, and to the president of the faculty senate.


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Evan Dobelle, President of the University of Hawai'i, has politicized the university in two ways -- externally and internally. The external politicization is easy for the public to see, and causes immediate revulsion -- like a huge wart on the tip of the nose. The internal politicization is hidden inside, and may be deadly while going unnoticed -- like colon cancer.

External politicization of a university inludes using it to influence government elections, or to influence broad governmental policy in areas that do not directly affect the university. Dobelle's attempt to use his position as President to influence the outcome of the gubernatorial election was spectacular, threatening the university's hard-won autonomy and its ability to get the support it needs from the new Lingle administration.

Internal politicization includes university administrators using their power inside the university to shape university policies and curriculum in accord with a larger political agenda driven by forces outside the university. For example, administrators might select for admission and financial aid those students who are of a favored race, or who hold favored political views. Administrators might use their power over the university's budget to give disproportional financial support to curriculum that will influence students to think and feel in favored ways about social and political issues; and administrators will reduce or eliminate curriculum that challenges favored political or social views. Internal politicization is a major violation of academic freedom for both professors and students: professors who hold disfavored views will find it difficult to express them or to keep their jobs, while students will be unlikely to get exposure to disfavored views. Dobelle has engaged in a constantly worsening internal politicization of UH throughout his 17-month tenure. He has continuously violated academic freedom for both faculty and students as he explicitly harnesses the university in service to a controversial political agenda of racial separatism and ethnic nationalism.

Let's explore Dobelle's external politicization of UH; then his internal politicization of UH; and finally let's explore what might be done to curb Dobelle and cure the problem he has caused.

EXTERNAL POLITICIZATION OF UH

Dobelle's cowboy mentality drew public comment and editorial cartoons soon after he started work on July 2, 2001. He proposed all sorts of dramatic new programs, while simultaneously pledging no increase in demands for taxpayer support. Just like a politician! At the time people were amused but also pleased to have a "big man" proposing big ideas. The bigness of the man had been confirmed by the bigness of his contract -- 10 years at a starting salary of $442,000 plus use of the Presidential mansion and other perks -- so big things were expected of him. The situation was reminiscent of a long-ago TV ad for cosmetics featuring actress Rula Lenska, who was famous only because she claimed to be famous. Sometimes artists of mediocre talent place big price-tags on their work in hope that snobbish and wealthy but artistically unsophisticated customers will be suckered into buying such "valuable masterpieces." So Dobelle demanded a high salary and an unheard-of ten year contract in return for promising big things, and the regents of a mediocre university with big dreams were eager to believe he could deliver.

Dobelle's strong "connections" in the Democrat Party may also have helped him get the job. On November 10, 2002 Honolulu Star-Bulletin investigative reporter Rob Perez stated that Dobelle had been treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, served as finance chairman for Jimmy Carter's re-election campaign and was a protocol official in the Carter White House. It would not be surprising if Senator Dan Inouye helped him get the job. Certainly Dobelle's Democrat connections would have helped him with the Board of Regents, who were all appointed by Democrat Governors and approved by Democrat Legislatures.

Dobelle's cowboy attitude was shown most dramatically in early November, 2002 when he endorsed Mazie Hirono for Governor in a televised political ad. The ad ran shortly before the election, when polls showed the contest was dead even. Dobelle was the only speaker. His well-known face filled the TV screen while he oozed sincerity and described himself as nonpartisan and independent, urging people to vote for Hirono as the best hope for Hawai'i's future.

Public outrage over Dobelle's ad was immediate and powerful. One wag suggested there should be an annual "Dobelle Prize" (sounds like "Nobel Prize") awarded to the administrator or politician who commits the biggest public relations blunder of the year. According to the Perez article of November 10, Dobelle told reporters "that no one approached him to make the commercial and that he did it of his own accord. Yet he has told faculty members privately that U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, an influential UH supporter who helps get millions in federal funds for the university annually, urged him to do the ad." Clearly Dobelle was operating as a politician, and he had flat-out lied to the people of Hawai'i when he stated in his ad that he is non-partisan and independent. He was abusing his position of trust as university President, creating the implication that the university's needs would be best served by electing Hirono. There was also an arrogant "father knows best" attitude projected in the ad -- I, Dobelle, am exceedingly intelligent, highly paid, President of the university, so you people of Hawai'i should listen to me and vote for Hirono.

The media reported that when Dobelle had created the ad, and before it was broadcast, he made a "courtesy call" to Linda Lingle to let her know about it. Clearly he was hoping to cut his losses in case she won the election. Lingle hung up on him, and later told the press that she doubted she would be eating lunch with him anytime soon. Some commentators said Lingle's peevishness was unbecoming for a Governor-elect (blame the victim!), and that as Governor, Lingle should not hold it against the university that its President had endorsed her opponent. Lingle herself pledged to get over it and to work constructively in the best interest of the university.

In a Honolulu Advertiser article on November 13, commentator David Shapiro said, "There's no question anymore that University of Hawai'i President Evan Dobelle made a foolish mistake by endorsing Mazie Hirono over Linda Lingle for governor. The only question left is whether his poor judgment will prove fatal to his presidency." Shapiro continued, "He can't have it both ways: Either UH is going to be autonomous or it's going to be run from the hip pocket of the political establishment. Dobelle says he's ready to work as a loyal member of Lingle's Cabinet, but weakens any chance of gaining her trust by saying in the next breath that he'd endorse Hirono again — all but putting Lingle on notice that he'll likely be campaigning against her once more in four years. His first bit of advice as a loyal member of Lingle's Cabinet was the insulting suggestion that she continue to employ Gov. Ben Cayetano's chief-of-staff, Sam Callejo, hinting that he'll hire Callejo if she doesn't. This sounds an awful lot like a threat to run a government-in-exile out of Manoa — a haven for Democratic patronage workers who lose their jobs to the new Republican administration. Dobelle moans that he doesn't understand Hawai'i politics or the furor he's caused. It's this simple: When he was hired, Dobelle demanded that Hawai'i make an expensive long-term commitment to him. It's infuriating that he's so recklessly undermined his ability to fulfill his end of that commitment. Our state university doesn't belong to any political party and is too important to our future for its leader to render himself a $442,000-a-year political eunuch." David Shapiro's prediction that Dobelle would hire Sam Callejo came true.

The problem is not merely that Dobelle has insulted Lingle, or has a bad relationship with the new Governor, or that his poor judgment might threaten the university's future budgets or influence. Hopefully the new Governor can rise above petty retaliation (as she has said she will do). The problem is that Dobelle is politicizing the university. Supporters of Hirono should be just as outraged as supporters of Lingle by Dobelle's endorsement of Hirono. Such cowboy abuse of the university is simply unacceptable.

On November 23 the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported: "Sam Callejo, Gov. Ben Cayetano's chief of staff, was hired yesterday by the University of Hawaii Board of Regents to run the university's construction program. At the same time, the regents unanimously approved the "loan" of UH law professor Randall Roth to Gov.-elect Linda Lingle to serve as her chief policy adviser after she takes office. Roth will be paid by the university rather than the Governor's Office." Thus Dobelle keeps in the good graces of Democrats by providing a patronage job to a crony of the outgoing governor, and also tries to repair his relationship with the incoming governor by paying the salary of her chief policy adviser who will undoubtedly advise her to be generous to UH.

INTERNAL POLITICIZATION OF UH

UH has long had an internal politicization on the issue of Hawaiian sovereignty. But President Dobelle took it to a whole new level.

The “politically correct” leftist view has always been that social justice requires racial entitlement programs for poor, downtrodden ethnic Hawaiians. They are portrayed as quintessential victims: the “indigenous people” of these islands, whose nation was overthrown by a U.S. invasion in support of selfish white businessmen, whose land was stolen by an illegal annexation, whose culture and language were suppressed, and who are therefore entitled to huge reparations, self-determination, and perhaps an independent nation.

The State of Hawai’i government agency “Office of Hawaiian Affairs,” hands out government benefits only to people who are racially Hawaiian. The State Department of Hawaiian Homelands awards one-dollar-per-year leases to “homesteaders” who have 50% Hawaiian blood quantum. Kamehameha school, with a multibillion dollar endowment, has admitted only one student without Hawaiian blood in the last several decades (and huge protests erupted over that “mistake”). Ethnic Hawaiians have a plethora of special programs just for them, and also get to participate in all the other government programs that other, less entitled citizens receive. OHA has cited in court documents a list of over 160 such racial entitlement programs. A major political effort is underway, financed with government and private funds, to defend and expand such racial entitlement programs by lobbying Congress to pass the Native Hawaiian Recognition bill.

For many years the UH Center for Hawaiian Studies has functioned as a propaganda factory for Hawaiian racial separatism and ethnic nationalism, as described above. For further information about the CHS party line, see
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/uhacafreechspartyline.html

Support for this ideology has become firmly entrenched in every other academic department or school which has relationships with CHS. Lucrative private grants, federal contracts, research projects, field activities, and academic tenure and advancement are at stake as individual professors and entire departments eagerly seek participation in collaborative projects focusing on the needs and demands of a favored racial group. The CHS octopus has spread its tentacles throughout UH.
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/uhacafreechsoctopus.html

This longstanding internal politicization of UH has been taken to a whole new level by President Dobelle.

On July 18, 2001, barely two weeks after starting work, President Dobelle told a Chamber of Commerce meeting "In addition, so not simply to have rhetoric without real commitment, I have directed a full-funding for the historic requests of the UH Hawaiian Studies department throughout the system over the next several years." Two weeks later the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported (September 5, 2001) that at another meeting on campus:

"Dobelle reaffirmed his commitment that 'if nothing else happens at this institution there will be a full funding for Hawaiian studies at this campus and at the neighbor island campuses.' The bill would likely be in the millions of dollars, Dobelle noted. Dobelle also said he was exploring whether the constitutional autonomy the university won in last year's election would allow UH to determine how to compensate Hawaiians for the university's use of ceded lands, rather than negotiating with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs over a percentage of the revenue. 'There is no question in my mind that some way -- either through increased resources or tuition waivers -- that the 20 percent level (for compensation for ceded lands' revenues can) be reached,' Dobelle said."

Thus, Dobelle was pledging a huge budget increase to support the political brainwashing of students at the Center for Hawaiian Studies, to recruit more students for CHS by offering them free tuition, and to support an increase in the output of CHS political propaganda.

In May, 2002 it was announced that Peter Englert had been hired to become the new Chancellor of the UH flagship Manoa campus, at a salary of $254,000. What makes Englert’s appointment to UH notable is his strong support from the Maori of New Zealand, who ceremonially handed him over to the ethnic Hawaiians upon his arrival to begin duty on Augist 1, 2002. The selection of Englert, and the manner of his arrival, leave no doubt that President Dobelle’s main priority is to support ethnic Hawaiian racial entitlement programs, affirmative action, and political power. The Star-Bulletin of August 2, 2002 reported: "Three hours of chanting, hula and warm embraces greeted the University of Hawaii-Manoa's new chancellor yesterday. Many said they hoped the ceremonial show of welcome will be a sign of stronger bonds between the university administration and the native Hawaiian community. "Our goal is to have more Hawaiians coming to this university," said Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, director of the UH-Manoa Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies yesterday at a ceremony celebrating Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert's official introduction to the flagship campus' faculty. Shona DeSain, associate dean of students at Victoria University ... and five other Victoria University senior faculty members attended the ceremony, which was both a welcome and a farewell to Englert. About 50 UH faculty and staff members also attended the gathering, which featured Hawaiian welcome and Maori farewell chants. "Never before have we had Polynesians bringing to us somebody who they've put their stamp of approval on," Kame'eleihiwa said.

On September 11, 2002 President Dobelle began his second year at UH by giving a major speech to the "first annual" convention of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. The CNHA is an umbrella organization of large, wealthy, racially exclusionary government and private organizations and influential individuals. What brings the members of CNHA together is their general desire for additional money and power, and their specific support for the Native Hawaiian Recognition bill in Congress.

In his speech to CNHA, as reported in the Honolulu Advertiser of September 12, 2002, President Dobelle enlisted the University of Hawai'i as a political force fighting for racial supremacy for ethnic Hawaiians. He pledged that UH will work as a strong partner to help Native Hawaiians "redress past injustices"; achieve "self-determination", "decolonization", and "social justice"; and that UH will help push the dream of a nation-state into a reality.

That last part is so important, and so radical, it needs a quote from Dobelle's speech to verify that he actually said it (Advertiser, September 12, 2002):

"It seems to me that those of you who are battling to define your people according to self-defined terms have a dual citizenship — of this state, and of a state yet to come into existence. Of Hawai'i and Ha-va-i'i," he said. "Ha-va-i'i, home of your ancestors, exists now as a state of mind — and with the university as your partner, the Hawaiian community will turn that into a state of being. ... "

And so we come full circle, back to external politicization. Not only is Dobelle strengthening the longstanding internal politicization of UH, he is now on record as pledging to harness UH as a weapon in support of the larger political struggle of ethnic Hawaiians to achieve nationhood. For citations and details of Dobelle's statements see:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/uhacafreedobelle.html

For many years the party line of the Center for Hawaiian Studies has been so firmly entrenched at UH that students and professors who disagree with it have faced harassment and open hostility. Perhaps the harassment began in 1990 when Professor Haunani-Kay Trask, head of CHS, published an outrageously racist harrangue in the student newspaper, directed at a white male philosophy undergraduate who had dared to object to the way she used the word "haole." The student newspaper has done a great service by re-publishing the letter on November 15, 2002, in the age of the internet where we can now all have access to the Trask letter. For the letters by student Joey Carter and Professor Trask, see:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/joeycartertrask1990.html
and for some of Professor Trask's speeches and commentary in year 2002, see:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/trask.html

The failure of the university to take action against Trask in 1990 encouraged further erosion of civility of discourse, and established a precedent that it's OK at UH for ethnic Hawaiians to bash white people. As time went by there was intimidation and property damage to professors who expressed disagreement with the CHS party line. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/uhacafreemorebads.html

Most recently there were repeated threats of violence from August through October, 2002 against the director and students of a small UH program called "The Academy for Lifelong Learning" when the director arranged for an opponent of race-based Hawaiian sovereignty to give a series of lectures at the invitation of a group of its elderly students. The course was initially cancelled because of the intimidation and because none of the administrators lifted a finger to assure the director and students that their safety and academic freedom would be protected. President Dobelle, Chancellor Englert, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Karl Kim, and Dean of Social Sciences Richard Dubanoski all either passed the buck or closed their eyes to the problem. For details see:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/uhacafreemedia.html

UH is a very hostile work environment for anyone who dares to disagree with the party line of the Center for Hawaiian Studies. Academic freedom is non-existent for both professors and students regarding Hawaiian sovereignty issues. President Dobelle's dramatic increase in support for CHS, and his pledge to harness UH as a political weapon in service to the establishment of race-based Hawaiian nationhood, is clearly a contributing factor to this hostile work environment.

Making a TV ad endorsing Hirono for Governor was bad. It produced public outrage, even though in the ad Dobelle spoke as an individual, not explicitly pledging the support of the University for Hirono. But in this speech to the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, Dobelle pledges to make the university itself into a partner in a statewide (indeed, nationwide) struggle to achieve a political agenda of racial supremacy. Surely that pledge is the worst sort of politicization of the university, and deserves the strongest condemnation. The Soviet Union used universities as tools for achieving a Communist ideological agenda. In Germany of the 1930s and 1940s, universities served as propaganda factories for racism; and academic departments like biology, history, art, and music were ordered to produce pseudo-scholarly "research" and publications supporting the racist agenda. Dobelle's external politicization of the university in his TV ad supporting Hirono was mild by comparison with the Soviet Union and Germany, but is the first step down a path leading in that direction. Dobelle's speech to the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement took the university a long way down that dangerous path.

WHAT SHOULD THE BOARD OF REGENTS DO?

The Board of Regents should fire Dobelle. But they might not be able to do that. If the BOR were to fire Dobelle, they might have to pay him the remaining eight years on his contract, at $442,000 per year, for a total of more than three and a half million dollars! And since they were the ones who hired him, they might not want to admit such a colossal mistake.

There is probably a clause in Dobelle's contract that he can be fired for insubordination or moral turpitude. But in this case, since he did not disobey an order from the Regents and is not accused of having sex with his secretary or stealing the university's paperclips, he is probably safe.

The solution is for the Board of Regents to issue a written order commanding Dobelle to do the right thing. Then, if he deviates from the order, he can be fired for insubordination, with no payment. Stop making public endorsements of political candidates. Cease and desist from pledging to use UH as a political tool in service to a racist agenda. Order Dobelle to make important changes at the Center for Hawaiian Studies, including the hiring of faculty who will offer a more balanced view of Hawaiian history and who will challenge the CHS party line on sovereignty. Censure him publicly, and monitor him closely.

A decision must be made by the Board of Regents regarding the future of the Center for Hawaiian Studies. There are four possibilities: (1) allow it to continue as a political propaganda factory, with free tuition for all ethnic Hawaiians; (2) make it a place for celebrating the virtues (and ignoring the vices) of Hawaiian culture and for teaching people of all races how to dance hula, cultivate kalo, renovate and operate fishponds, write Hawaiian music, speak Hawaiian language, etc.; (3) shut it down; (4) make it a genuine academic center for the scholarly study and robust debate of the history and culture of the kanaka maoli, and of the pros and cons of various forms of sovereignty. Choice #1 is unacceptable. Choice #2 is probably not appropriate for an academic department in a first-rate university, although it might be workable for a program in the Outreach College. Choice #3 is a real possibility, although it seems unwise because Hawaiian history and culture are the core of what makes Hawai'i a special place. Choice #4 seems best.


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Email: ken_conklin@yahoo.com