By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai‘i — A 25-year rift between Big Island leaders and the Manoa-based Institute for Astronomy began to heal yesterday with the dedication of an $11 million operations center at the University of Hawai‘i-Hilo.
UH President Kenneth Mortimer set the tone when he said the 35,000-square-foot building is evidence "we have kept the faith."
Business people and politicians regularly have complained the university was taking more from the Big Island than it was giving back. Former Mayor Herbert Matayoshi spoke for many in the community when he called the observatories atop Mauna Kea "pimples on the mountain" in a dispute 25 years ago with John Jeffries, then-director of the Institute for Astronomy.
The new center at the UH-Hilo Research and Technology Park supports UH and NASA observatories on Mauna Kea, research and technology development, teaching and outreach programs. Forty percent of the institute’s staff at UH-Manoa will be moved to the split-level facility that features a large courtyard with a backdrop of native ‘¯hi‘a. The operations center expects to have 70 employees eventually.
The building also houses the UH-Hilo Office of Research Corp., which has generated $22 million in grants in less than two years, and the college’s astronomy faculty. The Hilo university’s bachelor’s degree program in astronomy, which began two years ago, is the only one in the state.
Other speakers at yesterday’s dedication spoke warmly of the Order of Kamehameha, whose members attended in black dress uniform. That group and others, including the Sierra Club, forced establishment last year of the Mauna Kea Advisory Committee to weigh cultural issues in determining use of the mountain.
The committee’s office will be in the new center, along with UH-Hilo’s College of Hawaiian Language, which offers the only master’s degree program in a native language in the United States.
UH Board of Regents member Billy Bergin of Waimea said putting the advisory committee in the facility ensures recognition of Native Hawaiian interests on Mauna Kea.
He also praised the two men who planted the seeds for international skygazing: Mitsuo Akiyama, retired executive of the Hawai‘i Island Chamber of Commerce, and retired researcher Howard Ellis. Both attended the dedication.
Others focused on the global aspect of Mauna Kea that today sustains 12 international observatories, with another under construction, and represents an investment estimated at $1 billion.
Though the ceremony focused on healing, Mayor Harry Kim reminded scientists that for many Hawaiians, the snowy mountaintop is not a viewing platform for astronomy research.
"It’s part of their soul. Please don’t ever forget that," he said.
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