News Release from Marguerite Butler, Assoc Professor, Biology Department, UH Manoa

Friday August 28th, on Chancellor Tom Apple’s last official day as Chancellor of University of Hawai’i (UH) Manoa, faculty, students, and community members will gather to express their aloha for his service to the campus community. The rally is to be held at 1pm at the lawn in front of Hawai’i Hall.

During the week of July 21, 2014 Chancellor Apple received notice from the newly selected UH System President David Lassner that he would be “removed” from his position. The news hit most of the campus community by surprise, as Chancellor Apple had built an unprecedented amount of community support in his two year tenure. As the campus returned from summer break, campus community members asked President Lassner for explanations, then began to make public statements of support, engage in campus wide discussions, initiate petitions, and testify before the Board of Regents.

Although Chancellor Apple was tasked with very difficult challenges -- namely getting the UHM budget under control -- he was successful in building community support by involving people from all across campus in solving problems.  Many in the campus community felt for the first time that real progress was possible.

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