On Campus
UH has role in building community
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
University of Hawai'i President Evan Dobelle threw out yet another challenge last week when he spoke passionately about how Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., had during his presidency championed revival of a surrounding neighborhood that had become a ghetto of crack houses and boarded-up buildings.
Trinity threw its weight behind community partnerships to build a "Learning Corridor" of schools and community centers for the impoverished area, known as Frog Hollow.
Dobelle believes community-building is the responsibility of nonprofit institutions, whether universities, hospitals or museums. And he wants to see the University of Hawai'i step up to the plate.
"I have always considered myself someone who utilizes the power of education to improve communities," Dobelle told an enthusiastic audience at the School of Architecture auditorium, as part of World Town Planning Day celebrations.
"It's one of the reasons I went to Trinity in the first place. This was an opportunity for Trinity to do something unprecedented, and I believed — as I still do — that the future vitality of the college itself depended on it.
"Using the position, influence, resources and reputation of Trinity — a small, elite, private liberal arts school — we transformed a Hartford ghetto into an inspiring urban space. More importantly, we helped to transform the people of that community."
Dobelle envisions a similar stimulus here, in areas adjacent to the University of Hawai'i campuses. Though the colleges don't sit in slums, there is certainly opportunity to increase the vibrancy of surrounding areas as "college towns" offering opportunities for both the student body and the community.
Dobelle was particularly excited about the West O'ahu campus relocation in Kapolei, which provides a downtown anchor and brings "the dynamism of a college community to O'ahu's second city."
Here are just a few of the ideas he tossed out:
• Increase faculty housing and student dorms — possibly leased from private contractors to save on front-end expenses.
• Create a statewide version of Americorps through the UH College of Education, to put students through a baccalaureate and integrated masters program in return for five years of service in the community.
"Why go it alone?" Dobelle said, citing community partnerships that were created in Hartford to build not only schools but an infrastructure to support neighborhood economic development. This included a job training site, social service agency and a Boys and Girls club.
Trinity used a relatively small amount of seed money to get things rolling — beginning with $600,000 to tear down four crack houses — but the college also had help from state government, businesses and the federal government in the form of Fannie Mae loans for residents to buy homes. These partners provided the bulk of the capital.
"Any leader, whether in education, business, government, is in the dream business," Dobelle said. "And it's not enough that you have the dream. Everyone must have the dream."
Dobelle took a slap at some of the nation's largest and most well-endowed private universities.
"Too many universities are sitting on giant, tax-free nest eggs and shirking the responsibility that comes with being urban brain trusts," he said.
"If the university won't assert moral authority, who will?"
