Conforming to a Hawai'i Supreme Court ruling, Gov. Linda Lingle has nominated five people to serve on the University of Hawai'i Board of Regents, replacing existing regents whose terms expired at the end of June.

On Dec. 4, 2008, the court held that Lingle's efforts to hold over six outgoing regents violated state law and ordered the governor to name replacements within 30 days. After using all of the alotted time, Lingle provided names to the Senate for five vacancies, requesting additional time to fill a sixth at-large position.

The governor requested the extension because two of the nominees for the position withdrew, following the Supreme Court's decision, cutting the field of potential candidates down to one, said Chief of Media Relations for the Office of the Governor Russell Pang, adding that the governor expects the extension to be granted and the nominees to be confirmed. "The five nominees are immediately acting regents, replacing the holdover regents Lingle kept on the board after their terms expired," Pang said. "Once the Senate confirms the individuals, they will be fully vested regents." The governor and the state Legislature have disputed the nomination process for years, with Lingle losing recent battles to Senate Democrats, the Hawai'i state judiciary and the state's electorate. In 2006, voters approved a constitutional amendment creating an advisory council to recommend nominees to the Board of Regents. The following year, Lingle vetoed Act 56, the implementation legislation for the amendment, but her veto was overturned by state lawmakers, establishing the Regents Candidate Advisory Council. The council named 22 candidates for the governor to choose from, several of which were eventually confirmed. Six regents were not replaced by the time their terms expired, however, including Kitty Lagareta, a friend and former political adviser to the governor. Lingle argued that state law allowed the regents to remain members of the board until their replacements had been named, but the Supreme Court disagreed, mandating that the vetting process be expedited. Grant Teichman, a political science student, was nominated as the board's student regent, a seat that, while reserved for a UH students, carries all the same responsibilities as other regent positions. According to Teichman, the nominating process took more than a year, but was worth the wait. "It is an honor to be able to give back through service and ensure that future generations receive the same opportunities that I have," said Teichman, who served two consecutive terms as president of the Associated Students of the University of Hawai'i, from 2005 to 2007. More recently, the former student body president executed the role of Campus Center Board president-elect, a position Teichman held until his appointment to the Board of Regents. For Teichman, the difference between being a regent and spearheading a campus organization is to whom he will be accountable. "My past two roles at the University of Hawai'i have been in a student advocacy capacity," Teichman said. "My duty as a university regent will be to the institution as a whole, not just to students." Teichman didn't have much competition for the student regent position, though he said he was surprised by the appointment. According to Roy Takeyama, chairman of the Regents Candidate Advisory Council, Teichman was one of two candidates on the governor's list for consideration. "We didn't have many applicants this year," said Takeyama. "I was kind of disappointed." Originally, Lingle chose Joshua Wingstrom, a UH-Manoa graduate student, to fill the vacancy. Wingstrom's confirmation became doubtful, however, after Sen. Norman Sakamoto, chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, deferred his nomination after viewing incriminating information on Wingstrom's Myspace page, last May, including an image of the candidate with a girl dressed in a fig leaf bikini and quotes about favoring "naked parties" and "beer pong." Sakamoto listed a clerical error as his official reason for the deferral, but the governor immediately withdrew the nomination, leaving Teichman as the only remaining candidate. None of this bothers the future law school student, though, who plans to use his position, if confirmed, to make university governance more transparent. "I will work to bring together many different stakeholders, including students, to particpate in the shared governance of the University of Hawaii," said Teichman. "Everybody should have a seat at the table and creating mechanisms to be inclusive in university decision-making is something I am passionate about improving." Also nominated were Roman de la Pena, a UH emeritus professor; Mark Fukunaga, CEO of Servco Pacific; Chuck Gee, former dean of the UH School of Travel Industry Management; and Eric Martinson, managing director of Tradewind Capital Group.