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UH-Manoa Economics: A Brief Modern History, 1962-2007
V : Will the Last Faculty/Student Turn Out the Lights? 1993-1999
  In 1970 when Boeing was laying off huge numbers of production workers at its Seattle plants, a billboard appeared on the I-5 freeway in South Seattle with the message: "Will the last person left in Seattle please turn out the lights!" At times in the 1990s, the atmosphere in then-Porteus (now Saunders) Hall had a similar gloomy mood. Death, retirement, resignation, cancer-causing antennas, long leaves of absence--and, yes, severe budget cuts--took their toll during this period. The unexpected early deaths of Ed Fujii and Dick Pollock shocked all, leaving the department short of dissertation advising, expertise in the fields of labor economics and public finance, and their personal dedication to the University community. The retirements of Lou Rose, Walter Miklius, and Mac Williams left the Department without their friendship, parties, quirky humor, and expertise in transportation economics, monetary economics, and urban economics.
Other career transitions also left the Department short-handed. Department Chair Seiji Naya took an 8-year leave in January 1995 to join the newly-elected Governor Cayetano's cabinet as the Director of the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (DBEDT). In sum, poor prospects for the University, low faculty pay, and the siren songs from potentially greener pastures left the Department with ten fewer associate and full professors.
At the same time, Hawaii's economy entered into a decade of decline and slow recovery. As Governor Cayetano prepared to take office in December 1994, the State and the University's future seemed bleak, with state finances in turmoil and leading industries in decline. In the mid-1990s, state support for the University collapsed. The University administration responded by cutting budgets. As professors hired during the 1950s and 1960s retired, faculty numbers fell rapidly, and Dean Richard Dubanoski authorized only three new assistant professors to be hired as replacements.
The decline in faculty numbers had big consequences. Numerous classes could not be offered on a regular basis. Faculty members were hard pressed to meet service obligations within the Department and the State. Long-standing "institutions" in the Department, such as the Friday afternoon seminar series and informal meetings with graduate students, began a painful decline. Rapidly shrinking student numbers at both the undergraduate and graduate levels proved unresponsive to quick fixes. A new master's program in applied economics had to be abandoned, just two years after its initiation. Faculty salaries, adjusted for inflation, declined. Student, faculty, and staff morale plummeted. Successive department chairs struggled with the burden of cutting already sparse budgets and learning to say "No" to any and all requests for research and teaching support.
To make matters worse, a major source of financial aid to graduate students entered into a rapid and somewhat unexpected decline. The 1994 midterm elections brought a new Republican majority to power in the U.S. Congress. Shortly thereafter, federal funding for the East-West Center was slashed. The EWC responded by laying off many of its young research staff and by drastically cutting EWC scholarships for UH-Manoa graduate students. Economics was severely affected on both counts. The EWC staff reductions decimated the EWC's economics group (Research Fellows Michael Plummer, Pearl Imada, Richard Garbaccio, Butch Montes, Janis Kea, and Bob McCleery would all leave), and EWC scholarships for economics graduate students declined sharply, with only a few new EWC scholarships granted in the 1994-1997 period.
The Department's critical condition was exacerbated by its inability to hire new faculty. A national search for a tenure-track faculty member specializing in macroeconomics failed badly in 1996. Candidates expressed displeasure at the low starting salaries for assistant professors and the poor support provided to new tenure-track hires, e.g. inadequate travel funds, no research seed money, no personnel policies regarding spousal and partner hires, and poorly defined University policies on research leaves. A low point had been reached.
With only 12.5 "full time equivalent" faculty on board in 1998, the Department was struggling to meet its obligations to students, the community, and the profession. Economics majors were at a 20-year low, EWC scholarships for M.A. and doctoral students had been drastically cut, real faculty salaries were in decline, two tenured associate professors resigned to seek new opportunities, and Sumner La Croix left in June 1998 for a two-year stint as a visitor at Barnard College, Columbia University. Faculty morale was at an all-time low and the future appeared to offer little hope of a substantial turn around.
VI : Rejuvenation, Revival, and Reflection: 1999-2006
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