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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, May 14, 2003

HPU grad adds more master's to his name

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

Going fishing made Victor Agmata Jr. seasick. Golf gave him headaches. Hanging out with other retirees at Ala Moana Center grew boring.

"I always believe education is one of the better investments," Victor Agmata Jr. said.
So the retired lawyer went back to school. Nine years ago. And today he will graduate from Hawai'i Pacific University with yet two more master's degrees, one in management and one in human resources.

That brings to five each his number of master's and bachelor's degrees.

He'll be one of more than 600 graduates receiving degrees at 6:30 p.m. in ceremonies at the Waikiki Shell.

"I started with a bachelor's program to see if I could still handle it," said Agmata of his return to school when he was 59 and trying out retirement from a law career. "When I found out I could still do it, I then completed the bachelor's and went into a master's. I've got the time and I always enjoyed going to school."

A couple of years ago Agmata was simultaneously taking degree programs at three different institutions — HPU, Chaminade and the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. The only problem he has encountered is a Manoa rule that prevents students from taking two bachelor's degrees in the same college, although it is possible at UH-West O'ahu.

"They said it's against the policy (at Manoa) for any undergraduate to get two B.A.'s or B.S.'s," Agmata said. "If you work on five B.A. programs, you'll only get one. They don't stop you from taking the courses, but they don't give you the degree.

HPU graduation

• What: Hawai'i Pacific University will confer degrees on more than 600 students at its 54th commencement

• When: 6:30 p.m. today

• Where: Waikiki Shell.

"I intend to challenge that, but right now I have other fish to fry."

"Students may obtain more than one bachelor's degree from the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, but they aren't encouraged," according to Val Mori, an academic adviser in the College of Arts and Sciences. "Second degrees are not rare," Mori said. However, the practice is discouraged, she said.

Agmata's hope is to teach college someday soon, along with continuing to practice law in a semi-retired, part-time way — after he gets a few doctoral degrees.

"If you go to several schools you can do them simultaneously," he said.

But first he plans to pick up two more bachelor's and two more master's degrees. He's only a few credits short in a master's in both communications and organizational change, and bachelor's in both sociology and anthropology, one at West O'ahu and one at Manoa. That's where he figures he may have a legal battle.

"They're telling me it's against the policy at UH," Agmata said. "I said I'd pay. And I don't need financial aid.

"It's a burning issue in my mind. There's going to be a lot of nontraditional, mature students going back to school who 40 years ago got a B.A. in sociology and now want to go back and get a B.A. in philosophy or something."

Pay he has. Constantly. A few years ago Agmata put his three children through Punahou, then Ivy League colleges and then his two daughters through law school. (His son is a chemist in the wine industry.) The college tuition was around $35,000 a year. Per child. All of his own master's and bachelor's degrees have cost much less — about $82,000, he estimates.

Nonetheless, Agmata is happy.

"I always believe education is one of the better investments," he said. "If you invest in a building you have to pay taxes or they can put a lien on it. But with a college degree, it's mine."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.

Correction: Students may obtain more than one bachelor's degree from the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, but they aren't encouraged, according to Val Mori, an academic adviser in the College of Arts and Sciences. An earlier version of this story quoted a spokesman saying that UH-Manoa does not allow double degrees in the same college. "Second degrees are not rare," Mori said. However, the practice is discouraged, she said.