Chancellor to leave post, but not university, in 18 months

by John Burnett

Hawaii Tribune-Herald

University of Hawaii at Hilo Chancellor Rose Tseng will step down from the top post in December 2009 under an agreement struck Thursday with the UH Board of Regents in Honolulu.

“I will be returning, just not as chancellor,” Tseng told the Tribune-Herald Thursday night.

Tseng, who has been UHH chancellor since 1998, was given a “special salary adjustment” — an unspecified raise — retroactive to July 1, 2007 during the closed meeting. She was also granted a one-year “professional improvement” leave starting Jan. 1, 2010. In addition, Tseng had requested a waiver of return service obligation, which would have allowed her to retire from the university. She said the regents declined that request.

“Some people think that’s a special favor,” Tseng said. “The reason (UH President David McClain) and I requested that is because we believe that -people’s return is not always the best for the university — when high-level people return to teach or return to whatever when they are no longer chancellor.”

Tseng, who is in her mid-60s, is also a full professor at UHH and has a Ph.D. in nutritional science with minors in biochemistry and physiology from the University of California at Berkeley. She said it has not been decided in what capacity she will serve at the end of her sabbatical.

“It will probably be in some executive position,” Tseng said, but did not rule out a return to the classroom. “I was a very good teacher,” she said, adding, “I don’t mind returning. Later we will discuss what I will return to do.”

She made no bones about her original intention, however, stating, “I was going to retire, but they didn’t approve it.” Tseng says she does not know how much longer she must serve before she could retire with benefits.

“I was thinking it would be a clean cut, and it would be better for the university if the high-level executives (were to) just leave at the end. But the BOR for the faculty says ‘if you take a leave, you shall come back for service.’ So they wanted to apply that for the executives, too.

“That’s OK. It doesn’t hurt me.”

Tseng, born in Northern China and raised in Taiwan, has held the position longer than any other chancellor in the school’s history.

As of Oct. 29, 2007, her salary as both chancellor and a full professor at UHH was $266,448 a year, according to a list of UH executive and management salaries on the UH Professional Assembly’s Web site.

“It sounds like a lot of money, but the job is 24/7; it’s a lot of burden,” Tseng said. The same UHPA list indicated that the deans at UHH’s colleges make more at $322,656 a year.

During Tseng’s decade-long tenure as UHH’s chief executive, the school has experienced an unprecedented growth spurt. Between 1998 and 2007, enrollment increased 34 percent and grant funding grew from $3 million to $20 million a year. Federal financing in general grew by more than 500 percent. The $28 million ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii opened its doors in 2006, funded by grants from NASA and the National Science Foundation. Several new buildings were erected on campus, including the new University Classroom Building and the Marine Science Building.

The UHH College of Pharmacy has admitted its first two classes and will graduate its first class of doctors of pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree-holders. Other advanced degrees, all added during Tseng’s administration, include a Ph.D. and master’s in Hawaiian language and literature, a master of education, a master of arts in psychology and China-U.S. relations and a master of science in tropical conservation biology and environmental science.

“We have become a better university, a comprehensive university,” Tseng said. “When we advertise for openings, we attract top-notch professors and administrators.”

When the Western Association of Schools and Colleges extended UHH’s accreditation through 2014, its glowing report praised the school for “its bold vision of service to the Hawaiian community” and for its progress “to transform itself from a liberal arts college to a comprehensive university that serves the workforce needs of Hawaii.” It noted that the school’s Hawaiian language and literature program is recognized worldwide as “a model for the study of the culture of indigenous people.”

Tseng and her husband, Ray, have also been active in the community throughout her tenure.

“I believe we have a good relationship with the people in Hilo and the Big Island,” she said.