In a town-hall style meeting last night at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, the longtime chancellor of University of California-Santa Cruz was introduced as one of the top two candidates to replace current UH President David McClain.

The meeting is the first of five scheduled this week with M.R.C. Greenwood at UH campuses on O'ahu, Kaua'i, Maui and the Big Island. Similar meetings will be held next week for a second candidate, Robert J. Jones, the senior vice president for system administration for the University of Minnesota.

A third candidate was in consideration but withdrew his name, expressing concerns about taking part in a public selection process, said Donna Tanoue, vice chairwoman of Bank of Hawaii and chairwoman of UH's selection advisory committee.

After a nationwide search effort that began last fall and examined more than 500 potentially qualified higher education officials, Greenwood and Jones have emerged the top contenders to become the permanent president of UH's 10-campus system. The position will be vacated by McClain when his term ends on July 30.

"At this juncture, we have two highly qualified candidates whom we are excited about. They are obviously ready to go and we are introducing them to the community," Tanoue said.

Greenwood, an expert on obesity and diabetes, is currently director of the Foods for Health Initiative at the University of California-Davis.

She was chancellor at UC-Santa Cruz from 1996 to 2004, before being appointed to provost of the UC system, the second highest position in the university.

PRAISES UH AS MODEL

Several dozen faculty members met with Greenwood last night in a public forum on the UH-Manoa campus where she answered questions about how she would deal with the higher education system's current budget crunch, what role she would play as the administrator of 10 campuses and how she would describe her leadership style.

Greenwood said that she was interested in coming to Hawai'i because she felt UH has the potential to be a "model of national change."

"You have a system that I believe many in the Mainland ... could learn from," Greenwood said.

Greenwood also explained why she resigned from her position as the UC system provost amid questions that she promoted a friend and business partner to a high paying job.

At the time, Greenwood said that the UC system was under scrutiny from the press over the high salaries and bonuses for administrators. With an annual salary of $301,840, Greenwood said she became a target of media scrutiny.

"A reporter thought that she had found a piece of property that I owned with this particular person who became the hired employee," she said.

'WASN'T A CONFLICT'

Greenwood said the property was sold and the business partnership annulled when she was promoted to her position as provost of the UC system.

"It wasn't a conflict of interest at Santa Cruz because she didn't report to me. ... Unfortunately, the business partnership (termination) that we had thought we had done — selling the house, distributing the partnership — was incorrectly recorded in the county's recording office," Greenwood said.

Greenwood said she resigned from her position as provost in 2005 not because of the accusations but because she "could no longer support the president."

UC investigators later said she should have recused herself from her involvement with the hiring of her friend.

"It certainly was a mistake. If I had it to do over again, I would have been more careful," she said.