Donors Gift $76,000 to UH Information Tech Center

Celebrating donors who have made gifts to the UH Information Technology Center (left to right): UH Foundation President and CEO Donna Vuchinich, donor Becky Kam-Locascio, donor Anthony Locascio, UH President and donor David Lassner, donor Frances Yee, and UH Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer Garret Yoshimi. UH photo.

University of Hawai‘i President Dr. David Lassner gifted $76,000 to support the University of Hawai‘i System Information Technology Services.

The state-of-the-art UH ITC opened for business in February 2014, housing enterprise information and communications technology systems, and services that support modern teaching, administration and research for all 10 UH campuses statewide.

“We are most grateful to David for leading by example with this generous gift to help the Information Technology Center fulfill its mission and support necessary maintenance, refurbishment and equipment,” said Randy Moore, UH Board of Regents chair. “The 21st century facility supports the delivery of the 21st century education so critical to our students’ and faculty’s success, and provides critical safeguards our state needs during disaster.”

Building Highlights

• Disaster-hardened, 8,000-square-foot data center for enterprise servers, storage and communications, designed to withstand Category 3 hurricanes
• High-quality space for faculty to develop digital content
• Meeting and training rooms with teleconferencing capabilities
• An emergency situation room to support UH disaster response
• Energy efficient chilled beams for cooling in office areas and incorporates other “green” features
• Pursuing LEED Gold certification.

”When I arrived in Hawaiʻi with a one-year half-time contract, I never imagined that Iʻd be here 38 years later,” Lassner said. “But UH has given me an incredible opportunity to grow both personally and professionally, so it’s a real treat to now be in a position to give back to help strengthen this institution that is so important to the future of everyone in Hawaiʻi.”

Lassner was appointed UH president effective July 1, 2014. Before that appointment, he served as interim president since Sept. 1, 2013. He has worked at the university since 1977, and was most recently its vice president for information technology and chief information officer.

A UH alumnus, Lassner earned an BA in economics summa cum laude, an MS in computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Ph.D. in communication and information sciences from the University of Hawai‘i.

“David has been the epitome of loyalty to his alma mater,” said Donna Vuchinich, UH Foundation president and CEO. “His history of supporting UH goes back decades. He is a lifetime member of the UH Alumni Association and has been a regular donor to UH since 1981. With this generous new gift, David is building on his legacy by providing essential funding to help the Information Technology Center sustain its future.”

Lassner is also a member of the university’s cooperating graduate faculty and has taught both online and in-person in computer science, communications, business and education.

In his prior positions, Lassner played an active leadership role in a variety of local, national and international information and communications technology organizations. He served on the boards of Hawai‘i’s High Technology Development Corporation and Public Broadcasting Service affiliate and he chaired the state’s Broadband Task Force.

Lassner also served on the board of Internet2 and was a co-founder and board member of the Kuali Foundation, a founding steering committee member and past-chair of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education’s Cooperative for Educational Technologies cooperative and past-chair of the board of EDUCAUSE, the major professional association for information technology in higher education.

Lassner led a major statewide federally funded project that interconnected public schools, libraries and campuses on six islands with fiber optics and has received multiple awards from the National Science Foundation focused on research and education networking and cyberinfrastructure.

He is principal investigator for the Maui High Performance Computing Center and for the Pacific Disaster Center, major Department of Defense programs on Maui.

He has been recognized with Internet2’s Richard Rose Award, WCET’s Richard Jonsen Award and as a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Hawai’i.

To learn how you can support UH System Information Technology Services, go online or contact Terri Alvaro at [email protected] or (808) 956-8874.

___________________________________________________________________________
For more information about the University of Hawai‘i Foundation, go online.