Education briefs
Advertiser Staff and News Services
UH alumni get own building at Manoa
University of Hawai'i officials on Tuesday dedicated an alumni center that gives graduates more visibility and their first building on the Manoa campus.
Hale Makamaka, or House of Friends, opened its doors with a reception and a maile lei untying ceremony.
The building is on the mauka side of the UH administration's Bachman Hall and is designed as a meeting place for members of the University of Hawai'i Alumni Association.
"Our alumni body is growing in leaps and bounds," said UH President Kenneth Mortimer. "We at last have a place our alumni can call home."
The center will be used primarily to house the UH alumni relations staff, as a meeting place for O'ahu-based alumni chapters and as a business services center for out-of-town alumni who have traveled to Manoa, said Larry Cutwright, president of the UH Alumni Association.
It can also serve as a staging and planning center for alumni events.
Bachman Annex 6, where Hale Makamaka is, was built around 1928 and originally served as an armory before becoming office space.
Dean creates new English program
HILO, Hawai'i — A new dean at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo hopes to expand enrollment among foreign students by creating a program to be known as the English Language Institute.
The four-year campus hopes to expand enrollment to 5,000 students by 2007. Current enrollment is 2,648.
"My goals as the newest dean are to work to increase both enrollment and revenue for the university," said Margaret Haig, who was recently announced as the dean of the College of Continuing Education and Community Education.
She formerly was dean of student services at Honolulu Community College.
Through the continuing education program she wants to prepare students to enter degree programs at UHH.
This summer, the English Institute will work with students from South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Federated Republic of Micronesia.
The new program will teach English as a second language and oversee student orientation, language laboratories and tutoring.
Scientists to gather in Hilo
HILO, Hawai'i — The University of Hawai'i-Hilo will play host to a conference of 300 scientists from Japan and the Mainland in July.
The UH-Hilo Conference Center landed the joint gathering of the Society for Mathematical Biology and the Japan Association of Mathematical Biology thanks to family ties between Emmeline de Pillis, who teaches management at UH-Hilo, and her sister, Lisette, a scientist and math professor at Harvey Mudd College in California.
"(Lisette) de Pillis was captivated by the lush, unspoiled beauty of East Hawai'i and the people she met at UHH during her visits," said Judith Fox-Goldstein, who manages the conference center.
Hilo is regarded as an ideal meeting point between Japan and the Mainland and can offer meeting facilities at "a fraction of the cost associated with other resort areas," said Fox-Goldstein, who also serves as president of Destination Hilo.
Mathematical and theoretical biology is described as "an explosively growing field." Lisette de Pillis will be among the featured speakers at the conference, set for July 16-19. She will discuss mathematical modeling in the growth and treatment of cancers.
For more information or to register, call Mae Narimatsu at (808) 974-7555 or e-mail mnarimat@hawaii.edu.
