More testimony sought on naming UH facilities
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer
Proposals to rename University of Hawai'i's landmarks after the state's Hall of Fame baseball coach, a former UH regent and a couple dedicated to education so far appear to be on a smooth course after the first public meeting on the issue yesterday.
With few students on campus and most professors gone for the summer, though, a committee looking at renaming the buildings said it will gather again Sept. 11 to ask for more testimony. And a suggestion brewing in the Hawaiian Studies department will encourage the university to drop the names of Marion and Allan Saunders and instead rename the Social Sciences Building after Queen Lili'uokalani.
UH President Evan Dobelle has proposed renaming the Center for Hawaiian Studies for former regent Gladys Kamakakualani Ainoa Brandt, Rainbow Stadium after Coach Les Murakami and either the Social Sciences Building, the Student Services Center of Hawai'i Hall after the Saunders. The proposal will go to the Board of Regents at its September meeting.
The changes would go against a standing policy that UH buildings be named after people only after they have been dead for at least five years. Dobelle will ask regents to waive the rule.
Allan Saunders played a key role in developing the Hawai'i Constitution and the state's Code of Ethics. He was dean of arts and sciences and founded the American Civil Liberties Union in Hawai'i and the League of Women Voters. His wife, Marion, was the director of Continuing Education for Women at UH, the precursor to the women's studies department, and was the coordinator of programs for Micronesian students in Hawai'i. As a school board member in 1974-81, she sought equal opportunity for girls.
Marion Saunders died in 1998. Allan Saunders' death meets the time requirement for naming a building.
"Marion and Allan Saunders formed a real partnership in life and work," said Pam Lichty, president of the Hawai'i Chapter of the ACLU. Few people contributed more to the founding of modern Hawai'i than the Saunders, she said.
While some Native Hawaiian students said another building could be named for the Saunders, they said the history of the Social Sciences Building demands that it be named after a Hawaiian.
The building was formerly named Porteus Hall after Stanley Porteus, a psychology professor at UH from 1922 to 1948. His 1926 book, "Temperament and Race," said Caucasians were superior to other ethnic groups in Hawai'i.
Regents changed the name of the building in 1998 after student and faculty protests.
Kapa Oliveira, a Hawaiian Studies graduate and a doctoral candidate in geography, suggested naming buildings after Queen Lili'uokalani and Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, noting that no UH-Manoa buildings are named after Hawaiian royalty.
"I just think we need to have more names for our ali'i, because as far as I know there aren't any," she said.
Brandt, 94, held the posts of superintendent of Kaua'i public schools, principal of Kamehameha School for Girls, UH regent and Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee. The Center for Hawaiian Studies has been unofficially named after Brandt since its opening in 1997. Her name even appears on stationery, and many students and professors call it the Kamakakualani Center. The name means "the upright eye of the heavens."
The only debate over changing the name of Rainbow Stadium seems to be whether to name it Les Murakami Stadium, Field or Park.
"Coach Les has earned his title as the father of Rainbow baseball," said outfielder Derek Honma, who spoke for his teammates in supporting the name change.
Murakami resigned from UH this year after suffering a stroke in November. During his 30 years at UH, Murakami's teams won six Western Athletic Conference titles and made 11 NCAA tournament appearances, including a national championship runner-up finish in 1980.
The next public meeting to discuss renaming the buildings will be 4 to 6 p.m. Sept. 11 at the Campus Center Ballroom.
Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
