Sense and sensibility: U of Hawaii president Evan Dobelle says he sees no difference in non-profit and for-profit negotiation. It's all about common sense, receptivity, and something higher ed is not particularly good at: speed. (Negotiation)(Cover Story).

When Evan Dobelle replaced Kenneth Mortimer as University of Hawaii president in early July 2001, he arrived on the heels of a 13-day strike by Hawaiian public school educators and university professors. The higher ed share of that action was set in motion on April 5 of that year, under the auspices of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, or UHPA, which has been the exclusive bargaining agent for the faculties of UH and community colleges of Hawaii since 1974. (The organization has a direct affiliation with the NEA.) The strike action included such issues as: too many classes taught by adjunct faculty instead of tenured professors, heavy course loads, and inequities relating to pay. After the strike ended, UHPA professors were given across-the-board raises of $2,325, with a 6 percent hike promised for the following year.

Even with the increases, as of April 2002, UH Manoa professors rank in the bottom half of the wage scale for university professors across the nation. Professors at other UH campuses earn close to the median or higher. About 60 to 80 percent of U.S. professors still earn more money than professors at UH Manoa. But professors at UH campuses say they are anticipating merit raises this year--something that was more of a rarity under Mortimer's administration. Mortimer--in office from March 1993 to June 2001--was, however, instrumental in convincing legislators to grant more fiscal autonomy to UH, such as retaining monies raised from tuition and allowing UH to decide who receives tuition waivers. The university was authorized to retain tuition dollars, as opposed to turning the money over to the state general fund. It was also was exempted from provisions of the state procurement code, and was granted relief in statute from other state regulations. Eventually, in 2000, voters approved an amendment to the state constitution, granting the university the right to govern its own affairs, except for matters of "statewide concern."

Nevertheless, morale at the university was at an all-time low during 2001--the year of the strike, and the year of Dobelle's arrival on campus. Since Dobelle assumed the presidency, morale at the university has significantly improved, say onlookers, validating the reputation he had earned as an agent of dynamic change when he was president at Trinity College in Connecticut. Dobelle, in fact, is no stranger to working with non-profit employees: He has served as chancellor and president of the City College of San Francisco; president of Middlesex Community College in Lowell, MA; mayor of Pittsfield MA; and U.S. chief of protocol at the White House.

UNIVERSITY BUSINESS: Can you describe what you encountered at UH, when you arrived?

DOBELLE: I arrived on campus in March 2001, right after I was chosen for the post. Never in my 15 years as a college president had I seen a worse morale problem: The faculty was just about to go on strike. About a month later, they did walk out, and 13 days later, the strike was settled. I took over as president July 2.

The University of Hawaii faculty was not only paid at the 20th-percentile level of colleges on the mainland, but here we're dealing with the most expensive city in the country in which to live. Not only were faculty getting far less than their colleagues, but it costs them much more to live here.

My first impression of the situation was that people didn't feel any sense of inclusion. Now, there's not always `high energy' in academic institutions: Thought, conversation, and reflection can sometimes be mistaken for low morale. But this was clearly a situation in which people were angry. They were angry with their leadership. They wanted to vent. They had no sense of validation, and no sense of direction. It was an extraordinary situation that compelled the professors to strike. In a decade, there had been no movement [on the issues] at the university.

UB: How have you since set about to deal with the union (already angered once to the point of striking), and with the professors still not at the level of mainland pay?

DOBELLE: There's never been a union in the history of mankind that has been formed as a direct result of good management. But people can get very uptight about unions. I don't see them as unions; I see them as a group of people who represent individuals who are my employees. Given that, you understand that you must have a conversation. You must have respect; you must have the ability to sit across the table and say with interest-based conversations, `Let's figure out where we are, and where we want to be.'

Think about it: Why wouldn't you want your faculty to be paid at the highest possible level? If a president is not going to validate his own faculty--who, in turn, inspire the students--exactly what does a president do? The president's job is to make life easier for faculty and researchers, not complicate their lives.

So, my first job was to be very clear about my vision. And I made it plain that my top priority is to pay faculty. If a president lets his ego or his pride get in the way of that, if he starts thinking it's his money that's being given out, then he's going to have a real problem providing leadership. Employees must be compensated appropriately.

UB: Where, precisely, did the administration find the money for the faculty pay raises?

DOBELLE: It came from the general fund savings, and from special funds.

UB: When the union went on strike, what needed to be done immediately?

DOBELLE: We needed to set up conversations, and have people understand [my vision]. Although my record was clear, I had to restate it, I had to [express it] in symbolic terms, and I had to do it in tangible ways. For example, for whatever reason, professors weren't getting merit increases. They weren't allowed on timely sabbaticals. Those things changed in 24 hours, because there had to be a signal that the president's door was not only open, it was off the hinges. People needed to feel that Bachman Hall, the administrative office, is not a black hole where requests go in and never come out again. They needed to feel that the administration was on their side. I don't know how else to explain it.

UB: What was your negotiating strategy?

DOBELLE: The strategy was to not have a strategy. Strategies are not heartfelt. I believe in faculty teaching, it's what we do. We're about teaching, and we're about research. And students are about learning. We're about not administrating. We're about making it easy for people to teach and research, and for students to learn. The only strategy was to bring our faculty and researchers to the 80th percentile [in pay] over the next seven years, to the level of faculty on the mainland.

UB: How did this compare to your experience at Trinity?

DOBELLE: It was similar, though not as vocal. At private universities, the faculty is tenured, they don't have unions. But they still have faculty senates. People at Trinity were also underpaid. When I arrived there, I made a commitment that of the 11 colleges in our comparative world, Trinity would be in the top four in salaries. At the time, for professor and associate professor positions, we were ranked eighth and ninth. When I left Trinity, we were third and fourth. It took five years to elevate the Trinity salaries, and Trinity tuition was raised 7 percent a year for five straight years in order to meet those faculty pay increases.

The point is this: The resources that I raised--or resources that came from students' tuition--were earmarked towards faculty salaries as the first priority. When we did that, it was amazing how many faculty members responded, for instance, to the commitments I was asking them to make to the community. They responded not because [of the additional dollars], but because they felt that somebody, finally, in more than simply `symbolic' ways, told them that they were an important part of the future of America. People need to be told they're important. You can say it, but the way to do it tangibly is to pay them. That's what everyone wants; I've never quite understood why people question educators wanting more money. I've never quite understood the curious attitude that educators are supposed to volunteer their efforts.

UB: Whom do you rely on for guidance when relations with faculty or other non-profit employees are strained? Do you have a business `guru'?

DOBELLE: I don't follow a particular business guru. The most effective management tool is to Listen to people who work for you, and to hire people who are willing and able to critique you. You have to be strong enough to take criticism in a positive way, not personally.

I try to hire people based upon two main requisites: One, you have to be imaginative. Two, you must have speed. And if you can't dream, and you don't move the agenda with a sense of urgency, you can't work for me. If you can't [do those things], then you should not be at this university in an administrative role. Those who work for me are here at UH to quickly see opportunities, seize them, and present them to faculty and students, to affect change. We're moving an agenda on a $1 billion enterprise, with 10 campuses, 45,000 credit and 45,000 non-credit students, employment training programs teaching people how to be welders and manicurists, [and professional programs] training people to be lawyers and doctors. This is a huge enterprise, and it's a public enterprise with an appointed board, and extensive sunshine laws that give total transparency to what we do. [It's an] exciting challenge and you need to move quickly. You just want to be sure you don't go off the rails.

UB: How does that `sense of urgency' translate to actual timelines you may need for negotiating leverage, or to deliver what you've promised?

DOBELLE: A college president should always have a timeline. Everyone can be involved in a decision, but that decision must be made in six months. You can't spend too much time not deciding. Forever may be fine for a faculty member, but not for a student [who, in the end, is the recipient of most decisions], because a student is only at the university for a couple of years. If you don't change things, then your current students don't get anything different in their education than the students who came before them. And the world is changing too quickly for us to allow that to happen.

As for negotiating timelines, the best time to negotiate was yesterday. Begin negotiations early, and whatever you do, don't wait. The worst kind of timeline is one of procrastination on negotiations.

UB: You spoke of your vision for UH, but what is your vision for forging your relationship with non-profit employees?

DOBELLE: The faculty is more important than I am. They're the most important people at this university. But when you pay them, you [must] pay everybody; everyone has to be compensated. This university is very much a family--an ohana, which means `extended family.' Everyone is connected, and you don't separate people. I'm paid well, so I want everyone else to be paid well.

UB: What are the biggest differences between negotiating with non-profit employees and for-profit employees?

DOBELLE: There are no differences, except that with for-profit employees, [you've got tools] such as stock options.

UB: The UH system has announced plans to expand enrollment by about 10,000 students. Does this initiative add pressure to the institution's relationship with its employees?

DOBELLE: First of all, we haven't made any plans to do that. We have, however, projected that it's possible for the university to grow by as many as 10,000 students--students from the mainland, who are, in a sense, permanent tourists with disposable incomes that can help the economy throughout the islands. Those 10,000 students, and the money that they pay, will more than compensate for the expenses that will be necessary to accommodate them. And not just at Manoa, which is the main research campus, but throughout Oahu and the other islands.

UB: Are there lessons other administrators could draw from your experience negotiating with the union?

DOBELLE: It's presumptuous of me to say, because in many ways, if you've seen one college, you've seen one college; they all have different cultures. But if there's a lesson to be Learned, it is that [senior administrators] have a responsibility, not just a privilege, to be a leader. After all, if you're not going to lead, why do you want to be in a position of leadership? If you want to lead, then you have to understand it's fundamental that leadership is not about domination, it's about empowerment. Now, empowerment is a word that has become tiresome because it's been used so much. But it's a term for which I have never lost enthusiasm.

I am here to empower faculty and staff, who are here, hopefully, to do the same for students.

George Furukawa is a freelance journalist based in Hawaii. His articles have appeared in Community College Times, U.S. News & World Report, IT Recruiter, Credit Union Times, and Nature Conservancy, among other media.