'Creative Media' unit would link UH campuses
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
The Hollywood producer hired by the University of Hawai'i eight months ago to shape a film school believes that the creation of a new kind of systemwide endeavor called the "Academy for Creative Media" is the best and most logical way to embrace all 10 UH campuses and their students to offer them skills for a digitized and globalized future.
Advertiser library photo • Jan. 28, 2003
"It's an academy that includes and will complement traditional film and television but looks beyond the present to where technology is driving entertainment through computers and the Internet," Chris Lee, former president of Tri-Star Pictures, told the Board of Regents last week.
"Both the Konami and Sprite Animation companies are actively recruiting students from the university to work as animators here in Hawai'i," Chris Lee said.
Lee said he has a proposal from a leading video game company to move one of its facilities from Vancouver to Hawai'i to work in conjunction with the new Hawai'i program.
As well, he said, he has "received résumés from some of the leading researchers in game development to bring their expertise to the University of Hawai'i."
Lee sees offering curriculum that include digital animation, computer techniques, content creation, TV production and more.
There are classes on several campuses that could work into a systemwide academy, he said, including a television production program at Leeward Community College, with the hopes of a new digital curriculum in the fall; a program at Kapi'olani Community College in content creation; the Honolulu Community College's certification programs in the use of technology from CISCO, Intel and Microsoft; and the growing computer science major at Manoa, the fastest-growing program on that campus.
The students from all of those programs are highly sought after in the job market, he said, and some of the programs have a 100 percent employment placement record.
"Both the Konami and Sprite Animation companies are actively recruiting students from the university to work as animators here in Hawai'i," said Lee.
While he briefed the regents on his latest ideas, he also noted that the board has yet to approve any program to truly launch such an academy.
In other news at the board meeting, the regents:
- Granted a consolidated lease of more than 18 acres to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its Fruit Fly Production Facility at the Waimanalo Agricultural Experiment Station, expanding on its 6.98-acre site. The expansion will allow the USDA more space to build facilities and implement programs, which in turn will create more employment opportunities and possibilities for collaborative research.
- Authorized Windward Community College to enter a lease agreement with the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawai'i for classroom, office and kitchen training space at Kuhio Park Terrace to offer a culinary training program there.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
