Quotes from the local papers

About his involvement in the coaching search, McClain said:
"I'll certainly be involved," . But we have a very experienced academic leader in Virginia Hinshaw and she's on the case totally and I have a lot of confidence in her. But it's fair to say I'll be paying close attention. It's important to the state and certainly important to the university." (HSB)

About how they will hire a coach first, then an AD, McClain said:
"We're just focusing all our energies right now in getting the football coach search up and running and we'll go on to the AD search, but we're already working on it." (HSB)

HSB Note: "McClain said the search committee was close to being finalized and will be co-chaired by Hinshaw and acting athletic director Carl Clapp. The committee will begin the process of reviewing applications on Tuesday with an eye on the approaching signing date for incoming recruits."

About trying to make a coaching decision quickly, McClain said:
"We'll see how quickly we can go. We certainly understand the recruiting deadlines. So there's lot to do in a very short space of time and we're stepping up to do that." (HSB)

About how they will have to be flexible with things to hire a coach quickly, McClain said:
"Five years ago there was this grand design that would be half donations and half with general funds and athletic department revolving funds. Now because we want to move quickly it's going to be a much more flexible mix. Of course, we welcome donations to the program for the purpose of supporting the coach's salary, but we're not going to be hung up on any particular proportion." (HSB)


About their endorsement of GM, Na Koa VP Ben Yee said:
"We needed to be more active. We needed to make a stand (on the selection of Jones' successor)." (HA)

HA Note: "McMackin declined further comment on his interest, but did add that Jones needs to know soon if he will be joining him at SMU. Jones offered his entire UH staff positions at SMU. Sources close to the situation said quarterbacks coach Dan Morrison and running backs coach Wes Suan will join Jones and that offensive line coach Dennis McKnight is considering the same. Jones has yet to announced who will be joining him at SMU. He did not return messages left on his cell phone. McMackin has received endorsements from fellow assistants and UH players. Also, the UH booster club, Na Koa, endorsed McMackin."

About the rumors that he would take the head coach or AD spots at UH, Dick Tomey didn't really deny his interest:
"My wife, Nanci, and I have a home in Hawai'i; it is a special place for us. I have said all along that Hawai'i is the only place we would consider relocating to and at some point in our future, we will." (HA)

About how he did not apply, St. Louis alum Brian Cabral, who just completed his 19th year as an assistant at Colorado, said:
"Although I would like to someday return to Hawai'i to coach, I will not be pursing." (HA)

About the audit of UH Athletics, UH President David McClain said:
"As I've looked at (the report), clearly the athletic department has made strides, as our auditors noted, in improving the balance between revenues and expenditures. But, as we know in intercollegiate athletics, it's always a struggle. Very few programs are self-sustaining. Three-quarters of college athletics programs need some help from the institutions that they serve." (HA)

HA Note: "As in most athletic departments, the football program generated the most revenue for UH, clearing $403,773 after expenses. The report only provided individual financial information for the football, men's basketball (-$660,867) and women's basketball (-$785,117) programs. All other sports programs were combined for a loss of $3,941,716."

HA Note: "McClain said he hopes to have a replacement for football head coach June Jones by next week, which would allow the program to host recruits as early as next weekend. Jones resigned Monday to become Southern Methodist head coach. To expedite the process, McClain said UH will scrap the rigid formula of funding the new coach's salary with a 50-50 split of public and private monies in favor of "an indeterminate mix of university general funds, athletic department revolving funds, and private donations." McClain acknowledged the new coach will likely be hired before the BOR has a chance to finalize Frazier's termination and the appointment of Carl Clapp as acting athletic director."


Upset that they weren't shown JJ's list of requests to get an idea of what needs to be done at UH, Sen. Donna Mercado Kim said:
"This is very frustrating. We want to see what was promised to him (Jones) and agreed to. ... You would think they would be ready to give us the information. It's a disgrace that the leadership of the university isn't saying, 'The coach wants this and it's a priority.' " (HA)

HA Note: "Four state senators from the powerful Ways and Means Committee toured the University of Hawai'i's athletic department yesterday and saw worn carpets, exposed wiring, peeling wallpaper, bald fields and empty shells of coaches' offices that were built but never completed. Some of the senators were frustrated by what they did not see, specifically a list of projects from former football coach June Jones, who cited the conditions of UH's athletic fields and training facilities as one reason for his leaving to take the head coaching job at Southern Methodist University in Dallas."

About how nobody will tell the state senators what the budget and other information is that they asked for, Kim said:
"Everybody's mum. Nobody knows. Certainly we have the scapegoat, which was Frazier. Whether it was Frazier, in fact, I think not. I tend to think it's a whole bunch of bureaucracy." (HA)

HA Note: "Kim repeatedly asked UH officials for budgetary and other athletic department information and was told it needed to come from either the president's office, the chancellor's office or may lie in the office of fired Athletics Director Herman Frazier."

HA Note: "For instance, Kim could not get an answer about how UH officials decide which projects take priority and end up before the Legislature to be considered for funding."

HA Note: "The senators came prepared with their own list of items officially requested by UH in its supplemental budget request, which included only two athletic department projects. The supplemental budget list did not match another list of 32 athletic department requests the senators received yesterday on the tour."

About how UH has never asked the Legislature about the things that need to be fixed, Kim said:
"Fingers have been pointed at the Legislature that we haven't stepped up. But we've never seen requests for these projects." (HA)

HA Note: "The senators were visibly bothered by the empty shell of two coaches' offices that have sat empty and unfinished for three years because of lack of financing. The senators of the Ways and Means Committee said they had not been asked to provide money to finish the project."

Shocked about the unfinished coaches' offices, Kim said:
"UH never said that this is a priority." (HA)

About the unfinished coaches' offices, Sen. Rosalyn Baker, chairwoman of the Ways and Mens Committee, said:
"To have that sit there as a shell, unfinished for three years is appalling." (MSNBC)

HA Note: "Before the fire alarms went off, UH-Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw spoke to the senators and struggled to answer reporters' questions about why deteriorating UH dormitories — which have seen lax security, break-ins and a sexual assault this school year — were not included in the senators' tour. At first Hinshaw said that dormitory upgrades are not part of legislative capital improvement projects but was corrected by some of the senators, who had their own documentation."

After her excuse about not showing the legislators the dorms was shown to be false, Hinshaw gave this excuse for not showing the dorms:
"It was just the amount of time we had available." (HA)

Hinshaw told the senators:
"it is Manoa's moment. Facilities are an issue that cut across what we're trying to meet." (HA)

About how there isn't going to be enough government money to fix the problems at UH, Baker said:
"We can't undo what's happened in the past. It's clear that we should be able to ride the Warrior pride that we have here. But we have to realize there's never going to be enough public money to go around. We're hoping there's going to be a greater dialogue between the Senate Ways and Means Committee, the Legislature, the Board of Regents, the chancellor's office and the line departments." (HA)

About their need for facility repairs, Hinshaw said:
"We need to bring everything possible to bear that we can about these facilities. In fact, we need to rebuild our campus here at Manoa." (MSNBC)

MSNBC Note: "The University of Hawaii Manoa campus' chancellor on Thursday told the Board of Regents that it would cost $400 million to fix the current backlog of repairs."

MSNBC Note: "Some state senators toured both educational and athletic facilities. They said they were stunned by what they saw. They saw the football coaches' offices, which is one empty room that has not been finished for lack of funds. It is something former coach June Jones was frustrated about. Leaking air-conditioners and popping out ceiling tiles are common signs along the tour. There are 4,600 work orders outstanding. Twenty-six Manoa campus buildings have leaking roofs. Senators saw Hamilton Library. There buckets sit where books used to be. On campus, water damage can be found nearly everywhere and there are termite holes by the millions."

About looking at the facility needs, Kim said:
"We want to see what the bottom cost is and to see if we can come up with a plan on who we are going to deal with over a short period of time." (MSNBC)

HSB Note: "After seeing a sample of needed repairs and maintenance at the flagship University of Hawaii-Manoa campus -- work estimated at between $200 million and $400 million -- key state senators suggested yesterday that classrooms would likely take priority over athletics in this year's budget."

About how private donors and alumni have to come up with the money to fix the facilities, Kim said:
"If government has to do all of what is needed, we will never get it done." (HSB)

HSB Note: "Senators were appalled at unfinished football coaches' offices and aging athletic facilities. But they also saw a lab at Gartley Hall that was recently flooded by toilet water from the men's bathroom above it, and classrooms and offices at the University Lab School that only meet electrical and safety codes from the 1940s, the last time any major construction was done in the wooden building."

Noting that they need an overhaul and that 37 buildings have roofs that leak, Hinshaw said:
"Unless there is a major change in the way we do business, we will continue to have great moments of brilliance that dim quickly. We need to rebuild our campus at Manoa. Keeping us even is not a good strategy." (HSB)

About how UH cannot afford new bulidings until they fix their current ones, Kim said:
"I think new buildings might have to take a back seat." (HSB)

HSB Note: "Based on the age and size of the campus, the university estimates repair and maintenance needs are between $200 million and $400 million. At the same time, UH-Manoa wants to build new classrooms and new lab space, expand the law school, build a new performing arts facility and parking structures, and expand the campus center."

HSB Note: "The athletic department showed off a conference room built by a donor and an academic study lounge funded by another donor. They also pointed out another computer room by the men's locker room funded by a donor that is unused because there is not enough staff to man it. But lawmakers also saw classrooms and other facilities on the upper campus in need of major upgrades. Gov. Linda Lingle's budget provides for only $48.5 million for repair and maintenance, to be split among the 10 UH campuses, not just UH-Manoa. It is an amount Baker called "inadequate." "

About criticism that her budget request for UH-Manoa is inadequate, Gov. Lingle pointed out that the Honolulu Symphony raised $450k from private donors, saying:
"There's a lot more grass-roots support for the Warrior football team right now than there is the symphony, so I believe they could raise millions of dollars just from people who want to support the program coming forward." (HSB)