For Kealoha Kaliko, a new School of Hawaiian Knowledge at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa is about more than strengthening intellectual prowess and earnings potential for students like himself — it's about ensuring that the Hawaiian way of thinking is perpetuated.

"We grew up here, and we look at our own selves from the outsiders' point of view," said Kaliko, 29, a native of Nanakuli. By applying the Hawaiian way of thinking, he said, "then we not only look Hawaiian, we not only speak the language, but we think Hawaiian because that's what is important."

Establishment of the school, which would merge the existing Kawaihuelani Hawaiian Program — now part of the Department of Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures — with the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, would be the next step for the two burgeoning programs.

This semester, both the Hawaiian language program and the Center for Hawaiian Studies began offering master's programs. There has been a master's track at the Hawaiian language program at the UH-Hilo campus, but this is the first such offering at Manoa.

Denise Eby Konan, interim chancellor at UH-Manoa, said the School of Hawaiian Knowledge could soon become a reality.

"An optimistic goal would be within a year, but depending on campus consultation and resource availability, it might take longer," Konan said. "We're talking about taking two programs out of existing units. That's going to impact those units, so they need to have discussion with all the interested parties (such as faculty and union officials)."

UH officials recognize there is "a kuleana, a responsibility, to honor the host culture," Konan said. "We're a research university. We host over 20,000 students every year, and at the heart of the university, we want to reflect a Hawaiian place of learning."

Merger of the two programs has long been the goal of Hawaiian studies chairman Jon Osorio and professor Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, Osorio's predecessor as head of the center, as well as their counterparts in Hawaiian language on the other side of campus.

"We have so many great ideas apart, and when we come together the synergy of that is so amazing," Kame'eleihiwa said, noting that she wants to stress curriculum development, such as producing more books for Hawaiian immersion and charter schools and possibly traditional public schools.

Emily Hawkins, an associate professor of Hawaiian who leads the master's program, said many who don't know any better will assume that Hawaiian studies and Hawaiian language components at UH-Manoa already are combined.

"People do not understand that we are separate," Hawkins said. "Everyone thinks that we teach at (the Hawaiian studies building)." In reality, the Hawaiian-language faculty is housed at the older Spalding Hall.

Osorio said he expects a draft proposal for the merger to be completed in the spring, at which point it will be reviewed by various stakeholders.

Naomi Losch, chairwoman of the Hawaiian language program, echoed Kaliko's sentiments about the plans. "I think the Western schools have divided everything into compartments," she said. "This is a more holistic way of looking at our studies and language."

While the linking of curriculum development may happen soon, the physical joining of the facilities likely will take longer.

UH officials have designated a lot next to the existing Hawaiian Studies building as the site of the new school. Kame'eleihiwa said the two programs are working with the University of Hawai'i Foundation to raise private funds for the structure.

"We're not asking the university for any money," she said, estimating that the whole process will take roughly four to five years.

Kaliko is one of 18 students enrolled in the first semester of the Hawaiian studies master's program. It offers five areas of concentration: "envisioning the nation," sometimes referred to as nation-building; native history and literature; land resource management; visual and performing arts; and comparative Polynesian and indigenous studies.

Mehanaokala Hind, another Hawaiian studies graduate student, said that before the launch of the Hawaiian studies master's program, she was prepared to get a graduate degree in political science.

"It just makes sense" to have a graduate path in Hawaiian studies, said Hind, 33, a Palolo Valley native. "We're here in Hawai'i, and the study of Hawaiian things has really never been taken seriously at that level here at the university before. There's so much to know, and many people need to know it."

Hawkins said the demand for a master's in Hawaiian has grown over the years. Those who have wanted to stay and teach at UH, however, have had no recourse but to get a graduate degree in something else, she said.

The master's program signed up six declared graduate students this semester.

The Hawaiian studies and Hawaiian language master's programs have developed independently, but in a manner that makes makes them a good fit for a merger, Osorio said.

"You can see the different kuleana - the responsibilities - what we've staked out for ourselves and what they've staked out for themselves," he said.

"They are different and yet so highly complementary."

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.