REPORT FROM RCAC – The Regents Candidate Advisory Council (RCAC) has presented a list of candidates to Governor Neil Abercrombie to fill three seats on the University of Hawai’i Board of Regents for terms beginning July 1, 2013. The outgoing regents whose terms will end on June 30, are Artemio Baxa (Maui County) and Barry Mizuno (Hawai‘i County). The third seat was formerly filled by Regent Michael Dahilig whose term would have ended on June 30th but resigned on January 2, 2013.
The RCAC was created after the passage of the Hawai‘i Board of Regents Candidates Act, a 2006 legislatively‐referred constitutional amendment. Hawai‘i voters overwhelmingly cast their votes to require the Governor to select Board of Regents candidates from a pool of qualified candidates screened and proposed by the RCAC.
Approximately seven years have lapsed since the passage of the constitutional amendment and the creation of the RCAC. All 15 members currently serving on the UH Board of Regents were selected by the Governor from lists provided by the RCAC.
The RCAC selection process is completely transparent; all candidate lists are compiled only after the RCAC completes its comprehensive review and selection process, which is solely and exclusively merit-based. The triggering of the need for a list of regent candidates as well as the submittal of the Council candidate lists, strictly follow prescribed processes and procedures set forth in either state statutes or the Council’s administrative rules.
As part of the Council recruitment process, members actively solicited input from the following: