honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, March 27, 2002

UH-Manoa on fix-it spree

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

Across the University of Hawai'i-Manoa campus the small things that never seem to get fixed are finally getting done, and with unfamiliar speed.

  • Repair the broken windows that have been covered with cardboard in Henke Hall.
  • Add more drinking fountains and benches — with backs — in the shade.
  • Repair the fountain at Varney Circle.

More than 60 suggestions have been pulled out for "fast-track" fixes at the Manoa campus, all of them ideas from students and the public that came out of the strategic planning process, and especially the daylong session Feb. 1 that brought 1,400 people together to talk about the future.

The fixes are as small as increasing the university shuttle service during rush hour and as big as adding sidewalks throughout campus, landscaping the campus entrances and establishing accountability for maintenance that isn't done.

Some fixes take care of problems that have existed for a decade or more.

"We can make change occur quickly if we just put our mind to it," said Karl Kim, interim vice chancellor of the Manoa campus. "Mainly we're trying to get rid of the 'can't do' attitude. There's this culture of complaint on campus, and nothing ever seems to change, so what we're trying to do is shake things up a bit."

By April 12 the chancellor's office expects action, and a timetable for each project.

"It doesn't require a strategic plan to say we should be doing these things," said Denise Konan, interim assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs at Manoa. "We can be more responsive to people's daily needs."

"What we've done is identify those initiatives and the office that would currently be in charge of making them happen," said Konan. "And we put out the list that these were the things that we wanted to have changed.

"We're asking for offices to respond to us about whether they can comply, and if not, why not? We're optimistic we can make a lot of progress in a short time."

Already this week dorm students are seeing a difference — with dorms being kept open over spring break for the first time in years thanks to a request from students. They were closed in the past for security reasons, said UH housing director Darryl Zehner. While the practice is fairly standard on college campuses, Zehner said it was relatively easy to maintain security for the week.

As she manned the front desk at Gateway Hall, 18-year-old freshman Keri Hill leafed through a textbook and gave a cheer when asked about the dorms staying open.

"We were told we'd have to stay in hotels over spring break," she said. "Then we found out we could stay here. Yeah!

"A lot of the students are from here and they go home on the weekend anyway, but it was kind of a pain for us from the Mainland."

Over in the Ilima dormitory lounge, 18-year-old volleyball player Matt Bender was slouched on a couch watching a blaring TV, talking with a friend and feeling eternally grateful.

"This is much better," said the lanky Bender, who couldn't go home to Tucson for spring break because of a hectic practice schedule with the team.

"People like it being open," said 21-year-old senior Genoa Keli'inoi. "They might not want to go home."

Konan knows the fast-track fixes can't all be done as quickly as the decision to keep dorms open, but the administration is moving forward with the expectation that the acting chancellor's office will have a timetable for each fix by mid-April.

"One of the things that came out of this listening project is people were not always asking for things that would take a lot of resources," she said. "Often it's just changing our attitudes. Or the way we do things. Or being more receptive.

"For instance, someone said cafeteria workers should wear hairnets and gloves. Now they do."

Already graduate student Keikilani Meyer is putting together a farmer's market for the campus, after requests were made that more fresh fruit and vegetables be available. The Graduate Student Organization she heads took responsibility for making the market happen and is shooting for an opening around mid-April.

Bruce Miller, director of the Sea Grant program, is overseeing a number of committees formed as part of the strategic planning process to develop environmental sustainability protocols for the campus. A series of ideas, including a charter on sustainability, are expected to be launched as part of Earth Day on April 22.

Meanwhile, over at Varney Circle in the center of campus, Kalvin Kashimoto, director of facilities, grounds and safety, has moved forward on the task of repairing the fountain so that it works again after a decade or more of disrepair.

"A lot of the maintenance stuff is hard to see," said Kim. "But one of the things they're going to be doing is painting the business school building, though there's some issue about the color. It's battleship gray now and the business school wants a nicer color. Maybe tan."

As the chancellor's office looked at the numerous requests for changes on campus, they realized that some were based on misinformation.

"Sell bus passes at the Campus Center — that came up on the list — and we already do that," said Konan. "You can get a bus pass there and all the schedules. There's a sign, but it's not very big, so we should make it huge."

Kim said that's part of the job, too: to educate the campus about what's already available, but not well known.

"We're trying to correct the misinformation out there," he said.

Konan noted how at one point during the strategic planning process people asked for the establishment of a peace center at UH.

No need, she said. The campus already has one.