UH Manoa Chancellor to Leave Post at End of Term

By Wendy Osher

Virginia Hinshaw. Courtesy photo UH.

The Chancellor of the University of Hawaiʻi’s flagship Mānoa campus has announced that she will leave her post at the end of her five-year term.

Virginia Hinshaw was named to the post in 2007 after a nationwide search.

She became widely known for wearing her signature hats decorated with school memorabilia during UH athletic events.  During her term, Hinshaw celebrated the football team’s WAC Championship and first trip to a major post-season bowl game in New Orleans on January 1, 2008.

Hinshaw also celebrated the school’s achievement in helping to secure a renewed 10-year accreditation from the WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) last month.

She was credited with playing a leadership role in the development of new facilities such as C-MORE Hale, the home of UH’s Center for Microbial Oceanography, and the new home of the UH Cancer Center in Kakaʻako, which will be completed in the fall of 2012.

“Chancellor Hinshaw will complete five years of extraordinary service to the university and will be tough to replace. She will leave the campus in good shape to attract the best candidate to fill her shoes,” said Board of Regents Chair Eric Martinson.

During her service, the campus also experienced difficult financial challenges due to state budget cuts.

UH System President M.R.C. Greenwood said she was grateful for all Hinshaw had accomplished at the university and said a nationwide search to fill the post would begin soon.

Hinshaw will continue to serve as chancellor through the end of her term ends in June of 2012.

“To serve as chancellor of our flagship campus is an extraordinarily challenging job, and I respect her decision that completing her five-year commitment is an important milestone in her administrative career. I wish Chancellor Hinshaw the very best and I look forward to the further contributions she will make to our faculty and programs after a well-earned professional leave,” Greenwood said.