The boosters at Westfield State University wanted to support their ambitious new president in his quest to make the former teachers college into an educational powerhouse. So the school’s private foundation gave Evan S. Dobelle a credit card to pay what were meant to be “generally small amounts” for fund-raising expenses, such as meals with donors.

Then, in the fall of 2008, they started getting Dobelle’s bills: $8,000 for a four-night stay at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Bangkok; $883 from the upscale clothing store Louis Boston; $10,000 for tickets to shows at Tanglewood; more than $4,000 for limousine rides. …

Some public officials in Hawaii say Westfield State should have known what they were getting when they hired Dobelle. University of Hawaii regents initially fired Dobelle in 2004, saying they had “lost trust” after years of clashes and high spending on everything from renovating the president’s mansion to travel. The board rescinded the firing when Dobelle threatened to sue, and Dobelle said it paid him $3.8 million to terminate his 10-year contract, but the ill will lingers.

“I can’t believe you guys hired him,” said Hawaii Senate president Donna Mercado Kim, a longtime Dobelle critic who asked for an audit of his spending after he took donors to a Janet Jackson concert. “You really have to do your homework. With the Internet and computers, there’s really no excuse. …”

Photo: Screen shot Aug. 19, 2013, from Westfield State University. (www.westfield.ma.edu)

—Chad Blair