Posted on: Friday, July 12, 2002

Kamehameha Schools admits non-Hawaiian

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By Timothy Hurley and Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writers

A non-Hawaiian applicant has been offered admission to a Kamehameha Schools campus for the first time since 1962.

The offer to a student to attend the Maui campus in the 2002-03 school year does not reflect a change in Kamehameha Schools admissions policy, Hamilton McCubbin, chief executive officer of Kamehameha Schools, said yesterday.

The school, he said, gives preference to Hawaiians, but that when all the accepted applicants of Hawaiian ancestry meeting the admissions criteria have been exhausted, qualified non-Hawaiian applicants may be considered for admittance on a space-available basis.

The decision touched off a flurry of mixed reaction last night.

The admission of a non-Hawaiian to the schools is "a momentous, monumental move," and one which will generate "probably a mixture of feelings from Hawaiians, ranging from disagreement to agreement and everything in between," said Haunani Apoliona, a trustee of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Some may see it as an opening of floodgates to non-Hawaiian children just because they may perform better on admissions tests than Hawaiians, and others may see it as a prudent, cautious step to prevent legal action to overturn the admissions policy or take away the schools' tax-exempt status, she said.

Former trustee Oswald Stender was critical of the move and said he was hearing complaints from alumni and parents whose children of Hawaiian ancestry have been denied admission. But the news was welcomed by Hawai'i residents who have fought against special preference for Hawaiians in government and tax-supported or tax-exempted institutions.

Kamehameha Schools, a multibillion-dollar charitable trust formerly known as Bishop Estate and Hawai'i's largest private landowner, was established by the 1884 will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. The trust was swept up in bitter controversy that erupted in 1997 after a protest march by students, parents and alumni over how the schools were being managed. Investigations were conducted by the state attorney general's office and Internal Revenue Service, and the trustees were ultimately replaced.

The flagship campus is at Kapalama Heights, and the Maui campus opened in 1999 after being at a temporary site for three years.

"Each year ... (Kamehameha) has had more Hawaiian applicants who meet the criteria for the K-12 campus programs than there were spaces available," McCubbin said. "This year that was not the case on the Maui campus, where available spaces doubled in all grades, K-9. After admitting all of the Hawaiian applicants who met the criteria, there was a space available, and admission was offered to a non-Hawaiian applicant."

Stender, now a trustee for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and one of the leaders of the reform that led to the ouster of four of his fellow Bishop Estate trustees in 1999 and his own resignation, said he could not believe "that they could not find another Hawaiian who could be admitted to the new campus."

"I have two nieces on Maui who just got turned down for admission to that campus — how can they say qualified applicants of Hawaiian ancestry have been exhausted?" he said.

Stender accused the new trustees of acting secretly and without consulting the advisory and "'ohana" groups that they set up in a supposed effort to generate input and support for their policies.

"They are doing exactly what the other trustees did — giving lip service to including the 'ohana and then acting on their own," he said.

Freddy Rice, the Big Island rancher whose landmark lawsuit led to a U. S. Supreme Court decision overturning the Hawaiians-only voting in Office of Hawaiian Affairs elections, said the admission of a non-Hawaiian to Kamehameha Schools is a "good development."

But the "major breakthrough" at the schools came several months ago, Rice said, when trustees indicated they were prepared to help pay for public charter schools in predominantly Hawaiian areas even if those schools are also attended by non-Hawaiians.

McCubbin said the Kamehameha Schools selects only applicants who demonstrate a potential for success in a rigorous program. Kamehameha Schools gives preference in admissions to Hawaiians "to the extent permitted by law and the rules governing tax-exempt organizations,'' he said.

Apoliona said she was sure the trustees took what they felt was the most prudent step. But if the schools couldn't find enough qualified Hawaiians to fill their new campus, she said, perhaps they should re-examine where they are putting new campuses.

Kamehameha Schools spokes-man Kekoa Paulsen said school officials would not be identifying the child, nor giving the age or gender. He said they don't want the student to face the possibility of being singled out.

Given the rainbow of part-Hawaiians who attend the school, it's possible the student might never be identified — unless the family comes forward, Paulsen said.

Until 1962, Kamehameha Schools allowed admission to non-Hawaiian students who were children of faculty members, and there were non-Hawaiian students attending as early as the 1920s and earlier, Paulsen said.

Stender said he had had "a flood of calls" from parents and alumni within minutes of the news being broadcast yesterday. "Alumni are very upset — these are people whose own children couldn't get into Kamehameha because they turned them down."

Stender said the move raises fundamental questions about the schools' academic criteria for admissions.