The University of Hawaiʻi is thinking about splitting President Wendy Hensel’s job into two positions — similar to how it was a decade ago.
Hensel currently works as both the university system president and the chancellor of the Mānoa campus. The Board of Regents made a recommendation to the state Legislature to split the job into two separate roles.
The positions were last separate in 2017, when David Lassner was UH system president and Robert Bley-Vorman was chancellor of the Mānoa campus.
A study from the National Higher Education Management Systems reported that Hawaiʻi is the only state with the same person in both roles. Hensel responded to the survey’s findings at a meeting with the state House Committee on Higher Education.
“What I've seen as the president coming in is an absence of system-level coordination between, and among, the 10 campuses that lets us create the highest maximum efficiency and effectiveness,” Hensel said.
“So the confluence of those things means that what we have are 10 campuses that are pulling in 10 different directions, instead of focusing very narrowly on how we create an integrated strategy with an integrated infrastructure that drives that strategy and then is able to hold accountability across leadership.”
The UH system is starting a national search for a Mānoa chancellor and hopes to fill the role by the end of 2026.
