1X
Kenneth P. Mortimer, president of the University of Hawaii, discussed the condition and future of the state's ten-campus higher education system in this 1994 interview, eighteen months into his tenure. He described the central challenge as balancing competing institutional missions—teaching access, research, and agricultural and economic development—at an institution with approximately fifty thousand students and high public expectations. Mortimer acknowledged that the Hawaii legislature exercised greater day-to-day oversight of university operations than legislatures in other states where he had previously worked, attributing this to the strong interest constituents took in specific decisions such as dormitory assignments and professional school admissions. On the fairness of admissions to the law and medical schools, he stated he was satisfied the process was free of undue influence, though he noted that qualified applicants were inevitably disappointed when places were scarce. He also described UH's role as central to Hawaii's competitive position in the Pacific economy. How the university should prioritise among its many missions, and how it could communicate those limits clearly to the public, were the recurring themes of the conversation.
Transcript
Read or download the full transcript (.txt). Speaker labels were assigned automatically and may contain errors.
Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
