UH-Hilo program seeks its share
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawaii — About 200 parents, students, faculty and supporters of Native Hawaiian language and studies at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo jammed the Board of Regents meeting room yesterday to demand more state money for Hawaiian language programs.
Kevin Dayton • The Honolulu Advertiser
Advocates said the programs in Hilo have struggled with limited and uncertain financing for too long, and reminded UH President Evan Dobelle of his promises to grant "full funding" for Hawaiian studies programs in Manoa and on the Neighbor Islands.
Demonstrators supporting more money for Hawaiian language programs at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo packed a hearing room at the UH-Hilo Campus Center yesterday.
"I think the theme for the meeting today is history is catching up to us," said Larry Kimura, assistant professor of Hawaiian language at UH-Hilo. "What we said we would do, now we have to come through with."
"We're talking big, and I know you're all educated people; you have big grand visions, and you join us, because we are moving over here," he said.
Demonstrators young and old packed a meeting room at the UH-Hilo Student Center that was meant to hold only 125 people. They chanted in Hawaiian and testified on the value of the language program and Nawahio-kalani'opu'u Laboratory School. The Hawaiian immersion school is supported by the staff and professors at the college.
Kalena Silva, director of the Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani College of Hawaiian Language at the Hilo campus, urged the regents to halt development of any new Hawaiian language programs at Manoa until the university system makes good on earlier commitments to fully finance similar programs at UH-Hilo.
In a report submitted to the regents yesterday, Silva took issue with Dobelle's approval of $1.5 million for planning new initiatives at Manoa without input from the UH-Hilo Hawaiian language college.
Silva said some of the Manoa proposals mimic initiatives the regents approved for Hilo but never fully financed, including an immersion teacher education program, master's and Ph.D. programs in Hawaiian language and Hawaiian language film and technology work.
Silva urged the regents to create new tenure track faculty and staff positions at Hilo's Hawaiian language college, and build a new facility large enough to bring together all of the college's faculty staff and students.
Silva also urged full financing of the master's and immersion teacher education programs, and creation and financing of the Ph.D. program.
The UH-Hilo program had 515 students enrolled last year and received state money of less than $570,000. The college was able to supplement that with federal money, one-time state grants and other sources to raise a total of about $1 million.
David McClain, university vice president for academic affairs, said Dobelle did make good this year on his promise to deliver $500,000 promised for the Hilo Hawaiian language programs, although the money is a one-time payment.
"I have to say that it's clear to me that this is the time, and the time is long overdue to begin committing permanent resources to this program over and above the resources that are already there," McClain said. "What we need to do is step up and provide more full-time equivalent faculty."
McClain said as of Wednesday the UH has "reprogrammed" another $250,000 a year in ongoing annual financing for the Hawaiian language college at UH-Hilo to provide permanent support for the program. That money will cover the cost of five new faculty positions as well as administrative support, he said.
The regents' committees on community colleges and academic affairs voted to require the university administration to report back with proposals to build a new building to house the Hawaiian language college, and to permanently fully finance the college.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
