The Hawaii Ethics Commission doesn’t like the University of Hawaii’s “friends” policy when it comes to handing out free tickets to sporting events.

The commission on Wednesday considered the process by which the university’s athletic department, chancellor’s office and regents get and give tickets under multiple policies.  

Ultimately, many tickets are given to donors, alumni and community leaders, but policy allows for them to be given to friends too. The commission is concerned this is simply a catch-all and university officials didn’t help their cause by not having a solid definition of who constitutes a friend.

The associate athletic director, Carl Clapp, joked that friends are people who just don’t know they’re going to be donors yet. 

The tickets are often used as ways for the university to schmooze folks who are either important to the school or might donate money to it, UH officials said.

Commission Chair Maria Sullivan said the tickets should only be issued for legitimate state purposes.

“I have a problem with ‘friends,’” she said. “It’s too vague.”

The commission’s staff plans to send further guidelines and feedback to UH. The commission may make a decision at its May meeting, but the chair said it would only be giving comments on the policy — not writing it.

UH general counsel Darolyn Hatsuko Lendio, visibly put off by a lot of the discussion, said the university wants to to do right thing. 

“There’s a lot of scrutiny right now,” she said. “We want to work within the law and accomplish our mission.”

Check out Ian Lind’s story for Civil Beat here for more of the back story on UH’s evolving ticket policy.

— Nathan Eagle