Q&A with new UH President Wendy Hensel after January 2025 BOR meeting

Following the conclusion of a four-hour long University of Hawai’i Board of Regents meeting at UH-West Oahu Thursday afternoon, new UH system President Wendy Hensel took some time to speak with members of the media.

Majority of the questions asked relate to the search process of the new athletics director for UH-Manoa.

Q: First off, I know it’s been two weeks on the job, how’s it been going so far?

Hensel: “It’s been great. I’ve had such a great time visiting campuses, talking to people, listening about what they’re excited about with UH, what we need to work on and how we can put a vision forward together, so it’s been intense, but it’s been wonderful.”

Q: What do you think you have learned as far as what needs to be worked on?

Hensel: “Well I think in general, we need to think more like a system, to think how we can leverage our 10 campuses to be more effective together and reach places that we can’t reach as individual campuses. But in terms of the specifics, it’s really important for me to listen first — and take that first 90 days and take all that information and then think about where we need to go next.”

Q: Obviously, the big topic is the new athletics director. Talk about what you’ve heard and you said that you understood the importance of this position. Talk a little bit about that.

Hensel: “Well, there certainly is not a topic I get more email about it, so I think that’s one indicator of the significance for the community, but athletics are the front door of the university. You know, they’re what we get excited about, they bring in people from the outside. Student athletes are retained at higher levels and they graduate at higher levels than even our basic student bodies, so it is not a side issue to have a strong, an engaged athletic community. Obviously with the stadium, not being built at the moment and the athletic director search landing in on me at the beginning here and a new president, all in the same breath, understand there’s some anxiety out there and and certainly recognize the importance of the work that is to come.”

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the process? How do you want this to take place? You know, you mentioned search firms. contract, stuff like that, what what can you tell us?

Hensel: “I really appreciated that the regents saw the value in a contract, you know, given the circumstances that we’re in, it would be difficult to recruit somebody if we couldn’t provide some type of guaranteed employment for a period of time while that person then has the chance to show what they’re made of. So I was really pleased to hear that advice today and I think a search firm is the right way to go. Again on the order that there are some challenges facing University of Hawaii and we need to get the best possible person that we can for that job. So having a national recruiting market, having people who live in this space, that’s what they do. They know who’s in, who’s listening and who’s interested and will bring them forward — I think will really help us get the very best possible person.”

Q: We’ve seen you at a lot of sporting events of basketball, men’s volleyball. What were your takeaways from the student athltes and the fans and just kind of overall your first thoughts from going to these events?

Hensel: “My first thought is I love it. I love being there, I love the excitement, the energy is palpable, particularly, where I’m sitting when the ball is coming straight for my face. So I’m paying really close attention to those games, but you know, I just love interacting with the students. I love interacting with the community that’s so vested in our success and actually met with the  all of the athletic staff last week and told them, ‘I’m not interested just in coming to the marquee sports.’ I’m going to show up at, water polo, sailing this weekend. It’s really important to be present and support all of our student athletes, so I’m happy to do that.”

Q: In your president’s report, you mentioned the student experience and that’s fun for you, right, talking to them. With the AD search, in the last Board of Regents in November, a lot of student athletes came forward to kind of give testimony. how much are the student athletes going be involved and how do you plan to be getting their feedback?

Hensel: “I’m facing forward at this point, right? We’ve have some controversy and now we can face forward and really just move into the future. So we’re talking about the fact we need stakeholders. We need transparent engagement, and the community really needs to know how we do this and who’s involved. So that is my commitment to the university and our students faculty and staff and certainly the greater community that our fans out there.”

Q: Timeframe?

Hensel: “We’re gonna get started, you know, obviously, the sooner we can create some stability, the better for everybody. So yeah, we’re gonna move forward as expeditiously as we can while still making sure we get that full community engagement and we take our time to get it right.”

Q: Can you can you say, like, what qualifications is this person gonna have? Like, what are you looking for for the next athletic director?

Hensel: “More than anything, somebody who puts our student athletes first. That health, safety and wellness to me is not a negotiable. Beyond that, I trust my experts in telling me what we need and and who needs to come in based on what we’ve had and where the gaps are and what is currently on our staff. Obviously someone who’s experienced, somebody who knows Hawai’i is better than somebody who doesn’t, but given that I’m standing here, I obviously believe to that it’s possible to learn that and be a great supporter of our teams.”

Q: Last question. Community input, you know, constituents, boosters, you know, supporters. How much is their input gonna be taken into account?

Hensel: “Oh, I think we should absolutely listen. I don’t think we could stop them if we wanted to, which is good, you know, as I always say that passion is so great. The worst is indifference, if nobody cared about what we were doing, but everybody’s vested and so it’s important to us to listen to their thoughts and then, of course, make the best interests, make the best judgment that we can based on all that input.”