UH Manoa Chancellor Leaving Next Summer
The chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Manoa on Wednesday announced her plans to step down next summer, but she won’t be leaving the university.
Virginia Hinshaw’s five-year appointment expires in the summer of 2012, and she wanted to provide the university with ample opportunity to find her replacement, she wrote to the community. She plans to stay on staff at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, according to university officials.
“I most definitely intend to remain here,” Hinshaw wrote in her letter. “UH Manoa and Hawaii are very special to me and I plan to devote time and energy to both for many years to come.”
One of Hinshaw’s most significant accomplishments as chancellor was announced only a month ago: The campus which 12 years ago teetered on the verge of losing its accreditation, received reaccreditation this year for the maximum term possible under the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
She also led an initiative to improve student life on campus. Her letter lists a number of other what she calls “Manoa Moments,” and speaks in glowing terms of the university’s future.
“UH Manoa is truly an impressive university – ‘like no place else on earth’ – with many accomplishments yet to come,” she wrote. “I am confident that UH Manoa is moving forward in a very positive direction, but there is also much yet to do. So I am strongly dedicated to a smooth transition for the campus as the next chancellor is selected.”
Hinshaw’s departure comes at a critical time for the university as it struggles to establish its reputation as a world-class research university amid continued budget cuts — an effort that has been paying off, Civil Beat reported earlier this year, but still has a long way to go. Hinshaw brought to that effort her experience as vice chancellor for research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and executive vice chancellor at University of California, Davis.
