Hawaii

UH Regents Hold Secret Interviews To Pick New University President

Published

1 year ago

October 17, 2024

UH Regents Hold Secret Interviews To Pick New University President

The University of Hawaii Board of Regents on Wednesday went behind closed doors to interview the finalists applying for UH’s top job, despite calls from the public to keep the process open. A decision on the selection is expected to be announced when the regents board meeting resumes on Thursday.

Board of Regents Chairman Gabe Lee defended the decision to hold the final interviews in private, saying that Hawaii’s Sunshine Law allows such closed door meetings when personnel privacy issues are involved.

Lee noted that both candidates – City University of New York Provost Wendy Hensel and Western Michigan University Provost Julian Vasquez Heilig – have spoken at multiple public forums, where they answered questions from the public.

The University of Hawaii Board of Regents convened on October 16th 2024, to discuss and hear Public Testimony on the choices available for the new President. Following the Public Testimony the BOR moved into Executive session. Ben Creps of the Public First Law Center testifies in favor of an open session discussing the candidates for the new UH Presidents position.(David Croxford/Civil Beat/2024) — Ben Creps of the Public First Law Center testified via video against the University of Hawaii Board of Regents going into executive session to interview the candidates vying to be UH’s next president. Board Chair Gabe Lee, seated center, said the law allows the closed-door session to protect privacy. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2024)

Critics called the move contrary to Hawaii law and the spirit of transparency.

Among those testifying against the regents’ unanimous decision to go behind closed doors was Ben Creps, a staff attorney with the Public First Law Center, which promotes government transparency. Creps testified that the Hawaii Supreme Court has made clear that public bodies can’t invoke an exemption to the Sunshine Law’s open meetings requirement simply because a personnel matter is being discussed.

“The UH community and general public have a legitimate interest in understanding why a particular candidate for UH President is selected,” Creps testified. “Given the clarity of the law and keen public interest, there is no good reason to hold these important discussions behind closed doors.”

Momi Bachiller, a student activist who also serves as a senator for the Associated Students of the University of Hawaii, said the decision to conduct interviews in private exemplifies a pattern of Native Hawaiian students “having outsiders imposed on us.”

“This decision exhibits a gross disregard for transparency,” she said.

The private interviews come after a flurry of reports about Hensel and her conflict with Tanya Washington, a Black law professor at Georgia State University, where Hensel was university provost before going to CUNY. A Civil Beat story on the allegations of discrimination and retaliation by Hensel against Washington prompted UH to change its original policy of prohibiting candidates from talking to the media and make the candidates available for media interviews.

Hensel insisted Washington’s complaints had only involved Georgia State’s interim law school dean, Leslie Wolf, and not Hensel. But Washington and her lawyer eventually came forward to say Hensel was lying and that Hensel had in fact been a subject of Washington’s complaints.

Testimony Shows No Consensus On Candidates

Whether all that will have any effect on the regents’ decision isn’t clear. Written testimony showed no clear consensus on either candidate.

Among those opposed to Hensel was UH’s Black Student Association. On Wednesday, it issued a “statement of non-support” for Hensel, citing the news reports about Hensel and expressing support for Washington.

“We stand with, believe, and support every Black woman in academia who has been forced to silence themselves for the sake of their survival at institutions of higher education,” the association said.

Others, like Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel, said they supported Hensel despite the reported conflict with Washington.

The important thing is for the regents to pick one of these two candidates and not drag out the process, said Rep. Amy Perruso. Both candidates are “accomplished leaders” who “have gone through a thorough vetting process,” Perruso said in written testimony.

“I urge you to conclude this process with a selection of one of these two fine candidates and allow the mechanisms that were put in place to function as intended,” she wrote.

Source link

Hawaii

Hawaii suffers first defeat of the season against Loyola Chicago | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Published

9 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Hawaii suffers first defeat of the season against Loyola Chicago | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

The second-ranked Hawaii men’s volleyball team expected a different Loyola Chicago team to show up Friday night in the rematch of Thursday’s 94-minute sweep by UH.

They were certainly correct in that assessment.

Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said flatly the Ramblers were better after No. 7 Loyola Chicago handed Hawaii its first home loss in January in two years in a 25-23, 25-22, 24-26, 29-27 win before a season-high crowd of 5,811 at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

Aleksandar Sosa put down a match-high 19 kills and setter Ryan McElligott set the tone with four of his five aces in the first set for Loyola Chicago (1-1), which out-served and out-blocked the Rainbow Warriors.

“I thought they touched a lot of balls on the block and those first two sets, the first set, we had three or four balls back on our side to score some points and we didn’t,” Wade said. “We kind of screwed it up. We weren’t quite as crisp and efficient and against a good team, we let them hang around and they come back and make some plays late.”

Hawaii looked done for the night trailing 20-13 when it mounted a furious comeback in the third set to avoid a sweep.

Loyola Chicago had five match points in the fourth set and finally put the contest away with a double block of Ofeck Hazan to complete the upset.

“I think they served way better and we really struggled passing their serve,” said Hazan, who started in place of Trevell Jordan in the middle. “They were more creative out of system. (Thursday) they just hit into our block and today they just found the touches or just played better.”

Louis Sakanoko led Hawaii with 18 kills and set a career high with 12 digs, and Kristian Titriyski added 16 kills before sitting out the fourth set. UH hit .254 for the match and had six aces to the Ramblers’ eight. Loyola Chicago hd 15.5 blocks to Hawaii’s 10.5.

“We weren’t clicking on all cylinders and I’m not trying to use this as an excuse, but (setter) Tread (Rosenthal) didn’t practice all week. He had a back that tightened up,” Wade said. “Trevell’s back tightened up and I thought Ofeck played pretty well and he gave us a nice spark, but you’re just a little off rhythm there. Kristian was kind of grabbing his back late and obviously we made the decision to go with Kainoa (Wade) to give us a spark and he gave us that.”

Kainoa Wade and Sakanoko each served three straight points for UH in the third set after it fell behind 20-13 and Finn Kearney came off the bench to serve the final two points that ended in blocks to get UH back in the game.

Hawaii hit just .171 in the fourth and made eight service errors. It had 20 serving errors for the match and served in at less than 80%.

“Obviously it’s a work in progress. We’re in game four of the year,” Kainoa Wade said. “We got a lot of work to do, but we’ve got to trust what we know. We’ve served a lot of balls in our lives, all of us, so we know we can go on runs and make plays.”

The Ramblers gave Hawaii a taste of its own medicine in the opening set with McElligott building a strong poker hand of aces during an 8-0 run during which Charlie Wade used both timeouts.

McElligott had three aces after Jake Read’s kill put him behind the service line, and despite two Hawaii timeouts and the media timeout, he poured it on until UH caught a break with a Loyola Chicago net violation on an overpass that almost certainly would have been a Ramblers point.

Sakanoko followed with back-to-back kills, including a deep tip into the far corner over a triple block that prompted Loyola Chicago to call timeout leading 17-14.

Hawaii extended the run to 5-0 after Titriyski put down a kill following a long rally to pull UH within a point.

The Rainbow Warriors got back to even at 22-all on Kainoa Wade’s ace as a serving sub. The set was tied once more until a Rosenthal service error and a McElligott ace for his fourth of the set handed UH its first set loss of the season.

Rosenthal wasn’t able to spin serve all night due to the back injury.

Neither team separated by more than a point in the second set until Justin Todd had two aces during a 4-0 UH run to put the ‘Bows ahead 13-10.

Hawaii led 21-19 when the Ramblers scored six of the next seven points to go up two sets to none.

UH’s only point during the final 6-1 run came on a Loyola Chicago service error. The Ramblers scored three of their points on errors by UH and another on their sixth ace of the match.

The Rainbow Warriors will have four days off before playing four matches in three days next week.

Hawaii has doubleheaders against Roberts Wesleyan and Rockhurst in reverse order on Wednesday and Friday.

Source link

Hawaii

2026 Sony Open field is announced. See who’s playing in Hawaii

Published

21 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

2026 Sony Open field is announced. See who’s playing in Hawaii

The Sony Open in Hawaii has the honors of being the kickoff event to the 2026 PGA Tour season after the cancellation of The Sentry at Kapalua this season.

Instead of Maui, the Tour debuts in Honolulu on the island of Oahu, Jan. 15-18, at the Seth Raynor-designed Waialae Country Club, where Nick Taylor prevailed in a playoff over Nico Echavarria last year.

Among the changes this season is the field size, which was reduced from 144 to 120, and, there is no longer is a Monday qualifier offering four spots. Will that help with pace of play? Stay tuned.

The field includes the following notables in addition to Taylor and Echavarria: Daniel Berger, Keegan Bradley, Michael Brennan, Corey Conners, Tony Finau, Chris Gotterup, Brian Harman, Russell Henley, Billy Horschel, Robert MacIntyre, Collin Morikawa, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth, Sahith Theegala, Gary Woodland and 62-year-old Vijay Singh.

Here’s the full field for the Sony Open, which will be live on Golf Channel all four days as well as NBC with early-round coverage on Saturday and Sunday.

This year’s Sony purse is $9.1 million and the winner also will receive 500 FedEx Cup points.

Source link