Posted on: Tuesday, December 2, 2003

UH fund targets faculty in the arts, humanities

Advertiser Staff

About 300 University of Hawai'i faculty — chiefly in the arts and humanities — are expected to benefit from a new $300,000 fund that will be used to support scholarly research activities for those who receive minimal federal support but are still required to research and publish as part of promotion and tenure requirements.

The fund has been created jointly by UH President Evan Dobelle and Manoa chancellor Peter Englert from the Research and Training Revolving Fund, a federal reimbursement to the university for money spent on research and training.

Although faculty from throughout the 10-campus system will be eligible for the money, it is especially applicable to those who don't have access to federal funding as their peers in the sciences do.

"Through creation of this fund we are reinforcing the importance of scholarly achievement in the humanities and the arts," Dobelle said.

Englert said the fund recognizes how Hawai'i's location makes traveling for research purposes difficult and costly .

"This additional funding is critical to current faculty as well as those we seek to attract," Englert said.

Proposals will be chosen after review by a faculty subcommittee of the University Research Council.

The fund is expected to support such professional activities as out-of-state travel, shipping works of art for juried exhibitions and extended stays for individuals at libraries and archives for research purposes.

As well, it will help faculty take groups of students to perform in competitions on the Mainland and in Asia.