RESOLUTION ON THE PROPOSED REORGANIZATION OF THE OFFICE OF THE SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE VICE CHANCELLOR AND THE OFFICE OF THE SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH AND DEAN OF THE GRADUATE DIVISION

WHEREAS the Faculty Senate, some twenty years ago, initiated the task force on The Future of Manoa and

WHEREAS one of the recommendations of the task force was to recognize the increasing role of research at the Manoa campus, the inseparability of research and graduate education in a university setting, and the need to have both activities represented at the highest levels; and

WHEREAS Dr. David Morrison was subsequently appointed acting Vice Chancellor for. Research and Graduate Education, thereby implementing the task force recommendations by establishing a new office at the Chancellor's level; and

WHEREAS the concept that research and graduate education should be represented at the highest levels of the University was substantiated during the course of a major reorganization that occurred early in the presidency of Dr. Albert J. Simone, through the appointment of Dr. David Yount as Vice President for Research and Graduate Education; and

WHEREAS the concept that research and graduate education should be represented at the highest levels of the University was further substantiated early in the presidency of Dr. Kenneth P. Mortimer, by renaming the office and by subsequently appointing Dr. Dean Smith as Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate Division; and

WHEREAS a recent reorganization proposal would "unify the academic reporting lines at the University of Hawaii at Manoa" by transferring authority for the following units from the Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate Division to the Senior Vice President and Executive Vice Chancellor;

School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources
Industrial Relations Center
Institute for Astronomy
Curriculum Research and Development Group
Cancer Research Center of Hawaii
Pacific Biomedical Research Center
John A. Burns School of Medicine
Social Science Research Institute
Water Resources Research Center

AND WHEREAS the proposed reorganization would gut the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate Division, thereby defeating its purpose and reversing the progress that has been made in integrating and enhancing research and graduate education on the Manoa campus during the last twenty years; and

WHEREAS the proposed reorganization would simultaneously increase the number of units reporting to the Senior Vice President and Executive Vice Chancellor to an unmanageable total of twenty-eight, thereby calling into question the ability of that office to function responsibly and represent any of its units effectively; and

WHEREAS the proposed reorganization would violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the recent autonomy legislation embodied in Act 115 by combining instruction and research under a single academic administrator, thereby further centralizing the University of Hawaii administration;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Manoa Faculty Senate does not support the proposal to reorganize the Office of the Senior Vice President and Executive Vice Chancellor and the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate Division.

passed October 21, 1998 22 yes, 8 no, 6 abstentions