The dean of science at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona has been recommmended to succeed Rose Tseng as University of Hawai'i-Hilo chancellor, the Hawai'i Tribune-Herald reported.

UH President M.R.C. Greenwood is recommending that the UH Board of Regents approve the appointment of Donald O. Straney, who is also a professor of biology at the California school.

Tseng, UH-Hilo's chancellor since 1998, is retiring.

The regents are set to act on Straney's appointment at a meeting Thursday.

Straney, one of five finalists for the position who visited UH-Hilo last month, would receive a three-year contract starting July 1 with an annual salary of $306,504. The amount is adjusted to $285,072 this year because of temporary UH salary cuts.

Straney, an evolutionary biologist, has been at Cal Poly Pomona since August 2002. Before that, he spent 23 years at Michigan State University, serving as chairman of the department of zoology from 1986 to 1995, and as assistant to the provost for faculty development from 1995 to 2002. He received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of California at Berkeley, after earning both his B.S. and M.S. degrees in zoology from Michigan State.