Among the University of Hawaiʻi’s significant achievements under the leadership of President David Lassner are rebuilding enrollment, record graduation rates and student outcomes, record extramural funding, high-performance in philanthropy, and a new real estate program, all while UH campuses are consistently rated among the most affordable in the country.
“President Lassner’s tireless work has strengthened the University of Hawaiʻi academically, culturally, and financially,” the UH Board of Regents wrote in a resolution presented to the 15th UH president, who will retire at the end of 2024.
Lassner navigated UH’s 10 campuses through the COVID-19 pandemic and controversy over Maunakea, while strengthening the university’s commitment as an Indigenous-serving and -inspired institution. As one of the lowest paid university presidents in the country, Lassner also brought together the separate roles as the head of both the 10-campus statewide system and Hawaiʻi’s flagship research university, UH Mānoa. Last year, Lassner personally pledged $1 million to the For UH • For Hawaiʻi $1 billion fundraising campaign he helped launch.
Before beginning service as president in 2013, David Lassner served UH for more than three and a half decades in roles that ranged from part-time contractor and entry-level computer specialist to UH’s first vice president for information technology and chief information officer. He was UH’s most prolific principal investigator and an active leader in local, national and international professional organizations as well as a student of hula and an avid hiker.
Lassner sat down for a wide-ranging interview with UH News less than three weeks before his retirement, covering his 47-year UH career. The following has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
How did you manage to keep tuition affordable, yet grow and improve the enterprise?
Early in my time as president we stopped increasing tuition other than one increase that we dedicated to improving our facilities when the state had not been funding what we needed. We’ve had to learn a different way of functioning, taking a lot more responsibility for everything we do.
The culture here was that if we wanted to start something new, we would go to the legislature and ask for it. I think we’ve shifted to a culture where we look to ourselves first. As we have learned to manage our resources better, we have been able to address some of our priorities without always expecting someone else to fund us. We have gotten better at shifting resources to support the highest priority needs of our students and the state. When positions are vacated now we look at where we need help the most, which is not necessarily where someone just retired. We’ve also improved our operating efficiency. Our structure with combined and hybrid leadership of Mānoa and the UH System function has saved money. A recent report indicated Hawaiʻi has the 2nd-lowest per capita cost of public higher education administration in the country.
What accomplishment was most meaningful to you?
There are so many things our team has accomplished. We’re stable, we’re healthy financially, we work together well as a system focused on the needs of Hawaiʻi. We’ve changed the game on fundraising. I have come to work at UH Mānoa more or less every day for 47 years and the campus has never looked better thanks to Vice President Jan Gouveia and her team. We have a new and positive alumni relations program and we are also now working with our retirees, an amazing group of people who have given their careers to UH and Hawaiʻi. Vice President Kalbert Young established a new Office of Strategic Development and Partnership under Michael Shibata that has been amazing; the work that we’re doing with real estate and public-private partnerships will change the face of the university. We have a very stable organization for the first time in a long time. And different parts of the system are working together really well to focus on strategic outcomes that are important to Hawaiʻi.
What else stands out?
We have an amazing stewardship program on Maunakea. The work that we’ve done to reorganize our program at UH Hilo under Greg Chun, executive director of the Center for Maunakea Stewardship, is remarkable. I can appreciate there are people who do not believe astronomy belongs on Hawaiʻi summits. But I spent a night on Maunakea in October and met some of our stewards and rangers. I got to Lake Waiau for my first time. Maunakea is truly awe inspiring, and I am incredibly proud of our stewardship today.
What shaped your leadership philosophy before you took the president job?
I don’t have a slogan for my philosophy. I have watched and learned from innumerable leaders as I have worked at UH and engaged with others locally and beyond. What I think many people donʻt appreciate is the importance of learning lessons regarding both what to emulate and what to avoid.
What was an example of what you thought worked well?
I thought David McClain really calmed UH after a period of turbulence. I thought MRC Greenwood inspired a lot of people to believe we could do more for Hawaiʻi after this period of calm following high drama. She really wanted to elevate us to the next level, and a leader has to speak inspirationally to make that happen.
How important is UH research to the future of Hawaiʻi’s economy?
It’s huge. UH is the biggest driver of our economy. Yesterday, we had a UH Foundation board meeting, and Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit (PCSU) Director Shaya Honarvar spoke to them. Most of the foundation trustees had never heard of PCSU or the work it does. Shaya talked about the hundreds of PCSU employees and the important work they do to restore and protect our environment. Our extraordinary and growing level of extramural funding—over $600 million last year and well on our way to $700 million—creates thousands of good jobs around the islands.
It’s not just about trying to create Google, Viagra or Gatorade. Those are great outcomes when universities can do that. But our research enterprise represents a massive economic driver—a $600–$700-million sector that’s comparable to agriculture in Hawaiʻi.
Importantly, we’re doing a much better job of focusing on areas strategic for Hawaiʻi, as laid out in our Strategic Plan. The sectors where we have capacity and a competitive advantage are important, but we also focus on the areas that are critical to Hawaiʻi. UH research improves the quality of life here every day. When we study Native Hawaiian health, climate change or conservation, we’re making Hawaiʻi a healthier place and changing the landscape for everyone while creating economic opportunities for the people who work in these sectors. And as we increase our focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, including through the new Walter Dods Jr. RISE Center, we are also developing students and graduates who will create businesses that create jobs.
What is the significant unfinished business that you have right now?
I would love to see more progress on improving campus infrastructure, especially addressing buildings left to decay for decades like Kuykendall Hall and student housing.
On the physical side of campus, I’d like to see the campus town concept at the current College of Education site (corner of University Avenue and Metcalf Street) after they move into the new building. That would change the life of everybody on campus to have somewhere to go afterward where you could walk across the street and have a cup of coffee or beer or browse in a shop. It would create a lot more life for this place.
We have to improve the ability of students to transfer within the university system, especially to start at a community college and move into a four-year degree. We have a lot to do in our partnerships with [the Hawaiʻi Department of Education] to figure out how to get more local kids who graduate from our public schools to go on for post-secondary education or training…to understand they need to do something after high school if they’re going to have a job that lets them live in Hawaiʻi.
We have to do a better job collectively at addressing workforce needs. The opportunity to do it as a [university] system is so powerful because if you take an area like nursing, you can go into healthcare with not very much education and then if we can find ways to continue to elevate them professionally—from [licensed practical nurse] to [registered nurse] to [a bachelorʻs of science in nursing] to masters to nurse practitioner—if we have the right programs that are oriented to adults, they can do it while they’re working.
The teacher shortage, it’s another one that doesn’t pay as well as nursing, but there’s still good jobs and we have got to figure out how to get local people into them to serve their communities because they’ll last longer.
All of the construction companies tell us they can’t find construction managers. It’s a really good paying job. We have to think about, “How do we create the opportunities for people who are already working, not just the 18 to 20 year olds?”
Our numbers can always get better, our graduation rates, our retention rates, things like that. That’s sort of a continuous effort. They’re all a lot better than they were 10 years ago and they could still be better yet.
I think the work that we’re doing to become Native Hawaiian place of learning—to help address our kuleana to Hawaiʻi and Hawaiians—we’re certainly farther along than we have ever been. There are lessons we can probably still learn from places like Aotearoa. But this is the only place in the country that has a freestanding School of Indigenous Knowledge at a research university. It’s the only place in the country that has a PhD program in Indigenous language revitalization.
From your professional knowledge, what’s the next big frontier with AI? What do you think the world is going to look like in 10 years?
I think we will all be using something called “AI” in our work lives and home lives. I think it will increasingly be like the Internet, which many people are using all the time without really thinking about it as the Internet. It will permeate what we are doing in education, commerce and civic engagement.
Do you think that will make society more factionalized or isolated?
I don’t think AI will inherently have that impact, but it’s going to be increasingly difficult for people who don’t have access to networks and technology to fully engage. That’s why the work that Vice President Garret Yoshimi has taken on to advance broadband connectivity and utilization for the state is so important.
In your bio, it says you led a major statewide project funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce that interconnected all public schools, libraries and campuses on six islands with fiber optics.
It was a federal stimulus project during the Obama Administration after the Great Recession funded by the Broadband Technology Opportunity Program. Hawaiʻi was the first state in the country to directly connect all these institutions with fiber. That’s why UH is leading Hawaiʻi’s major broadband infrastructure development now under the able guidance of our VP for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer Garret Yoshimi. UH took this on at the request of most of the legislature, the governor, and the congressional delegation, who recognized that UH was the best equipped to help lead the state’s broadband efforts.
What haven’t we covered in your career that you think is important for people to know?
Until 2013 my career was in technology, going back to before there were no PCs, cell phones or the Internet. It was an incredible time to be engaged in bringing those capabilities to bear on improving higher education and serving Hawaiʻi.
When I became president and talked with the board about separation, I told them all I wanted was to be given the title President Emeritus with an office in the IT Center so I can continue to work on IT projects out of the hair of the next president. Right now the three I am still involved with are the Maui High Performance Computing Center, the Pacific Disaster Center, and an NSF-sponsored project that connects research and education in Asia and the Pacific with high-speed fiber optic networks.
Earlier this week, you mentioned going on a cruise in retirement…
I’m looking forward to traveling more—without a laptop! I have a long list of places to which I want to travel, places I havenʻt seen. I signed up with National Geographic to cruise to Antarctica. My bucket list also includes Greece, Turkey, Tuscany, the Dolomites, Iceland, Portugal, Morocco, Machu Picchu, Patagonia, the Galapagos, Rapa Nui, Palau, Bora Bora … In the U.S., I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon.
I’d like to spend more time in the Pacific, so I’ll see if I can get myself back into shape and contribute to the Moananuiākea Voyage with Hōkūleʻa.
I also haven’t been hiking seriously since I took this job. I need to get back out and hike more and see if I can still backpack.
What’s one of your favorite Oʻahu hikes?
Poamoho in central Oʻahu. It’s a beautiful hike through native forest. The summit offers views of both sides of Oʻahu from the mountains. When I was younger, it was part of a regular backpacking route along the Koʻolau Summit Trail.
What hālau did you dance for?
I’ve had four different kumu. I started with Hoʻoulu Cambra here at UH in 1981. She brought a group of us—nine dancers and three musicians—to France to share hula for three weeks in folk festivals throughout the French countryside. This is the group that surprised me by reuniting at one of my recent retirement celebrations.
Then I danced for Aunty Maiki [Aiu Lake]. I was in her hālau when she passed. Then I studied with Ed Kalahiki, one of the kumu she had trained who taught with her. As I got busier at work, I was less engaged. When one of my hula brothers with whom I had started with Aunty Maiki became a kumu—Ab Valencia—I went back to hula. All four of my kumu have passed away, but I’m looking to go back to hula after I retire and have more time.
Why did you give $1 million to the UH Foundation?
Because I could, and I believe UH is the most important institution in the state for Hawaiʻi’s future.
