HONOLULU -- A highly-critical evaluation by the University of Hawaii Regents of UH President Evan Dobelle’s job performance was released Friday. Dobelle immediately attacked the report’s credibility, calling it an “unprofessional review.”

The regents evaluated Dobelle’s performance in his second year as U.H. president by conducting secret interviews with about 20 regents, professors, students, union leaders and others who’ve worked with him.

The evaluation accuses Dobelle of financial mismanagement, cronyism, lavish spending, not telling the truth and politicizing the university.

Here are some of the evaluation’s findings, followed by Dobelle’s responses.

'Politicizing' University Of Hawaii

Dobelle told people a top U.H. official had given him permission to endorse unsuccessful Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mazie Hirono in 2002.

The evaluation said, “Frankly, this was not corroborated. What is more disconcerting is the fact that you had told a Regent that you were not endorsing any political candidate even up to the day before the televised endorsement … Your contradictory statements were circulating as to whether you acted independently or at the request of Hawaii’s Senior Senator [Daniel Inouye (D)]. This has tested the Board’s trust in its President and has given rise to widespread doubt throughout the University and the community, particularly in our faculty, as to whether they could actually count on your experience as an ‘seasoned politician’ to serve their best interests.”

Dobelle responds that he did properly inform the U.H. Regents of his plans to endorse Hirono. “I did everything I was supposed to,” he said.

High Salaries For Friends

The regents found that “inconsistent treatment of salaries has created internal and public concerns over equity, fiscal responsibility and priorities of the University. Salaries of your CFO [Chief Financial Officer Wick Sloane] and VP for External Affairs [Paul Costello] exceeded that of the former UH President, and both the internal as well as external communities are questioning the justification for such salaries for less experienced staff … Hiring your former contacts is widely viewed as ‘cronyism’ by the public and by the internal community.”

Dobelle’s response: “Several statements are made in the Evaluation referring to ‘cronies.’ I do not feel that it is a service to the University to deman the talents of a few individuals who came from elsewhere … [and] have worked tirelessly, with many long standing employees, to establish a framework which will enable change to evolve … I am proud that two of these ‘cronies’ are successfully continuing their careers at Stanford and Harvard.”

'Unkept' Promises To Students

The evaluation found “Students have expressed disappointment in the fact that you have not kept your promises to them. They have become quick to realize that you often make ‘off the cuff promises with no clue as to whether you will make good on those commitments.’ You had announced that you would be visible to students and yet only when confronted by the Student Caucus did you agree to meet periodically with them.”

Dobelle said that is not true. "There is no president who is tighter with his faculty and his students than this president. And that comment has absolutely no legs. There's not a quote in there. There's nobody who's saying any of those things," he said.

'Lack Of Attention' To Academics

The evaluation concluded that “students and faculty feel that you have given very little attention to the academic side of the house, seeming to spend most of your time on what they perceive as ‘deal-making.’”

"Take a look at the numbers in US News and World Report. If we haven't been paying attention to academics, how come all the graduate schools are up,” Dobelle responded, referring to a national news magazine’s surveys in which U.H.’s rankings have increased this year.

Dobelle Criticizes Evaluation

Dobelle calls the tone of the evaluation “somewhat unprofessional. It's certainly not a tone I would ever use with somebody I would evaluate. But my concern is that there is an enormous amount of misinformation, misstatements, mischaracterizations."

He told reporters he believes the Regents “tried to break my momentum and break my spirit.”

Board of Regents Chair Patricia Lee said the panel was just doing its fiduciary responsibility by “holding the President accountable.”

"He came to the community with a lot of vision, lots of novel ideas, and I think the Board has very much wanted a lot of follow-up," Lee said.

In the evaluation, the Board of Regents also complained:

It can never get straight answers on finances.

About “lavish spending” on travel expenses, including first-class air travel.

There is a “growing skepticism about your leadership throughout the state.”

Our corporate leaders have expressed a reluctance to make further donations to the University under your administration.

Dobelle is in the middle of a seven-year contract that expires in June of 2008. He’s paid $442,000 a year and his contract says he can get raises based on his evaluation. But Lee says the Regents did not offer him a raise last fall, when they completed the evaluation.

KITV 4 News and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin first requested a copy of the evaluation last December. Last week, the state Office of Information Practices ruled the evaluation needed to be released.