LIHUE — By their own accounts, Francis “Frank” Wiercinski and David Lassner were on different paths in life. Wiercinski, former commanding general of the U.S. Army Pacific, had retired last year as a lieutenant general after 34 years of service
LIHUE — By their own accounts, Francis “Frank” Wiercinski and David Lassner were on different paths in life.
Wiercinski, former commanding general of the U.S. Army Pacific, had retired last year as a lieutenant general after 34 years of service and was settling into a new chapter in his life.
Lassner, the University of Hawaii’s former chief information officer and information technology vice president, had just been appointed as the university’s interim president in September with 37 years of experience at UH under his belt.
Their paths, however, crossed about a week ago when both men were selected by UH’s Board of Regents as finalists for university president — a position that was vacated when M.R.C. Greenwood retired at the end of last August.
It was that same fate that brought both men to Kauai where they talked about their plans to guide the 107-year-old public institution into the future.
“I want to say, up front, this is not an election,” Wiercinski said on Thursday morning in front of nearly two dozen people in the Kauai Community College’s cafeteria. “I’m not out here stomping and neither is David (Lassner). These are two people who just want to serve, and we are different — we have different views, we grew up differently, and our leadership might be different, and that’s what this is about.”
A sight for ‘fresh, open eyes’
Wiercinski admits that he did not “grow up in academia” but “grew up learning how to work through complex organizations and how to lead.”
But what the West Point alumnus said he brings to the table is a perspective from outside the UH system.
“I don’t come in with a legacy of how things used to be and that’s why we’re doing it this way,” Wiercinski told about 25 audience members. “I come in with the question of why — why are we doing it this way?”
A key part of this, he said, is delegating authority to those who are cognizant of how their part of the university functions but fostering an open dialogue and “getting everybody in that same boat, rowing in the same direction.”
“My position would be to learn from you, the students, the administration and the staff and get out and understand what your issues are, what’s it’s going to take to get us to the next level — not stay stagnant, not stay with the status quo, but the next level — and what’s it’s going to take to redistribute resources to do that smartly, especially at a time of downward budgets,” Wiercinski said. “It’s a hard business but it can be done and it must be done in the next 10 years.”
By that time, Wiercinski said he would like to see the university as “the premier institution in the Asia/Pacific region.”
“I’d like to see the university’s research in the billion dollar range, I’d like to see 55 percent of our population graduated with either a two- or four-year degree, I’d like to see an increase in native Hawaiian graduation rates, and I’d like to see us being known as the jewel of the Pacific,” Wiercinski said.
A relenting challenge
If you ask Lassner why he wants to be the next UH president, he’ll probably tell you that the thought, or the phrase itself, never really crossed his mind.
In fact, Lassner will probably admit that the job he has as the university’s founding chief information officer is his dream job.
“As a technologist, I’m in charge of information technology for a statewide, public education institution in the state of Hawaii. I mean, it doesn’t get any better than that,” Lassner said.
So when he was asked by a university regent if he would apply for the permanent UH president position after Greenwood’s departure, his answer was: “Absolutely not.” What he opted to do, however, was apply for the interim position while the search continued for a permanent university president.
“I’ve watched a lot of presidents, in my time, at their job, and this is a really hard job,” Lassner said after spending eight months on the job to date. “It’s not a job that I really aspire to at all.”
But what Lassner said impelled him to accept a Board of Regents nomination for university president, is his drive to see the university system succeed.
“I honestly believe that we can be the best system of public higher education in this country,” Lassner said.
And the way to do that, he said, is to increase access to higher education throughout the state; become more cost-effective and strategic in the university’s distance learning options to meet the needs of the entire state; continually improve business practices; and proactively address and modernize the university’s infrastructure and maintenance needs.
Getting there, however, won’t be easy, Lassner said.
Drops in state funding for higher education, he noted, are among the highest in the nation, while the university’s tuition is increasing at one of the highest rates in the country.
“We don’t want to be in the position of extracting more money from taxpayers and we don’t want to be in the position of extracting a whole lot more money from our students and their families,” he said.
Lassner said UH officials have to change their business practices by finding more cost-effective ways to invest the school’s money while not sacrificing educational quality and tap into more revenue sources, such as capitalizing on the university’s intellectual property, attracting more foreign students and bolstering the school’s philanthropic support.
“The UH system can and should be the destination of choice for every student in Hawaii,” he said.
