UH to Discuss Reassignment of Donovan Next Week

Former UH athletic director Jim Donovan and Mayor Alan Arakawa during the UH-Nebraska women’s volleyball exhibition last spring at War Memorial Gym. Photo by Rodney S. Yap.

By Rodney S. Yap

The University of Hawaii Board of Regents plans to discuss the reassignment of former athletic director Jim Donovan at its Aug. 22 meeting, the school announced Wednesday.

Donovan’s situation and the return of Rich Sheriff, manager of the Stan Sheriff Center, are listed on the agenda for the executive session meeting at Windward Community College.

According to UH officials the meeting is “closed to the public.”

Donovan was reinstated Sunday, but not as athletic director. Instead he will be assigned to an as-yet-unnamed position in the Manoa chancellor’s office. Sheriff returned to managing the arena Monday.

The two were placed on paid indefinite administrative leave July 11, pending the completion of an external investigation into the Stevie Wonder concert debacle.

Both were found not to be involved in wrongdoing, according to UH.

Tom Apple, the chancellor, said Monday that UH will conduct a national search for Donovan’s replacement.

Meanwhile, the Star Advertiser reports Thursday that Rockne Freitas, the University of Hawaii’s acting athletic director, said he will not be a candidate for the permanent position.

“I’m not going to apply,” Freitas told the Honolulu newspaper. “Definitely not.”

Freitas, UH vice president for student affairs and university and community relations, has been serving as acting AD since July 11 when Donovan was placed on indefinite paid administrative leave.

Freitas said, “the (AD) job is a challenging position and I like challenges, but I’m a vice president. I want to (remain) a vice president.”

Freitas, a former All-Pro NFL lineman, had sought the AD job in 2008. He served as an associate AD at UH in the 1980s.