COMMENTARY
At 100, UH looks ahead
| • | UH centennial kicks off with protests, festivities |
By David McClain
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Nobel laureate Thomas Mann wrote, "Time has no divisions to mark its passage. Even when a new century begins, it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols."
Mortal we certainly are; when a person celebrates a 100th birthday, we say that they have lived an exceedingly long and splendid life.
When a university reaches 100 years, however, it is just beginning to hit its stride.
The College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts was chartered by Act 24 of the Territorial Legislature, signed by Gov. George Carter on March 25, 1907. It was a simpler time; the act in its entirety fit comfortably onto a single page. We enrolled five students in a small house on Young Street, four of whom graduated at our first commencement in 1912, held on what is now the Manoa campus. Our first football team, including two faculty players, defeated its opponent, McKinley High School, in 1909.
In the intervening century, more than 1 million students have followed their education dreams on one of our 10 campuses, which now comprise hundreds of buildings on thousands of acres. The University of Hawai'i is now home to 80,000 students, with 50,000 pursuing degrees for credit and another 30,000 engaged in noncredit work. Our athletic events attract nearly 700,000 admissions annually, while our performing arts venues draw nearly 130,000. Each year, more than half a million visit the Waikiki Aquarium, part of UH since 1919.
The dramatic physical and structural transformation of the university has been matched by the impact UH has had on the lives of our students, one by one and generation by generation. We have created educational and economic opportunities. More than any other institution in our state, UH has helped secure social justice for the people of Hawai'i. Most fundamentally, we have championed the hope that a better life is within the reach of everyone.
MUCH TO DO
Our founders, were they here today, would express great pride in our achievements — and would remind us that there is much yet left to do.
With apologies to T.S. Eliot, I'm pleased to report that our first century is ending not with a whimper but with a monumental bang. The Board of Regents recently named UH-Manoa's business school the Shidler College of Business to recognize the unprecedented generosity and vision of UH alumnus and entrepreneur Jay Shidler. This courageous philanthropic commitment of $25 million fast-tracks the college's goal of joining the nation's elite public business schools within the next seven years.
The Shidler gift has energized our campuses, and encourages us all to envision what the university can be for the state of Hawai'i, the nation, the region and the world.
I see us focusing our efforts and resources over the next several years in three major areas:
A HIGHER LEVEL
Achieving success in all three areas will require significant attention to the improvement of our facilities, and the selective creation of new ones. Healthy, resource-efficient, well-maintained and sustainable campus physical environments inspire student achievement, improve faculty retention and build pride among our community of alumni.
Given the population growth in the Kapolei area of O'ahu and the relative lack of UH facilities in this area, the time has come to build out UH-West O'ahu; we need to add facilities and programs as well on the west side of the Big Island and on the other Neighbor Islands.
I am honored to lead UH as we break into full stride for our second century of transforming students' lives, giving them some of the tools they need for success and preparing them to change the world.
As our centennial grows closer and we begin to ring our own bells in celebration, we invite you to join us as we re-engage our 200,000 living alumni (140,000 of whom live in Hawai'i), invigorate current relationships and attract new supporters to our cause.
We are proud to be Hawai'i's university because we know every life we touch empowers individuals to make a positive difference. We encourage you to join us in sharing that pride. With your counsel, involvement and support, we can take this university, and this state, to a higher level of excellence, and a better quality of life.
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CELEBRATING A CENTURY | UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I CENTENNIAL TIMELINE
1907 Territorial Gov. George Carter signs legislation establishing the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts as a U.S. land grant institution.
1908 John Gilmore, the first president, arrives. Five freshmen, five preparatory students and 13 faculty members begin regular classes in temporary quarters near Thomas Square.
1909 The first football team, with two faculty players, beats McKinley High School. A territorial championship over club and military teams comes 10 years later.
1912 The first degrees are conferred: two in science, one each in agriculture and engineering.
1912 The campus, renamed College of Hawaii, moves to Manoa Valley. Pig farms and kiawe groves give way to the first permanent building, Hawaii Hall.
1918 William Kwai Fong Yap, a bank cashier and father of 11, petitions to make the college a university. The Legislature acts two years later.
1919 The 15-year-old Waikiki Aquarium becomes part of the college.
1922 Ka Leo o Hawaii, the first student newspaper, is founded.
1924 The Dramatic Club presents "The Faithful," an English adaptation of the kabuki play "Chushingura."
1931 The Territorial Normal and Training School (now the College of Education) becomes part of the university, bringing with it the C.M. Dickey-designed Wist Hall.
1933 UH awards its first Ph.D. to J.S. Phillips, whose dissertation addresses control of ants in pineapple fields.
1934 The campus landmark Varney Circle Fountain is completed. It becomes a site for college pranks and lovers' pledges.
1935 Founding of the Oriental Institute, forerunner of the East-West Center, sets the agenda for UH's ever-growing prominence in Asia-Pacific studies.
1939 Hemenway Hall opens. The first student union building is financed by contributions from the university community.
1941 War intervenes. Classes are suspended for two months after the Dec. 7 Pearl Harbor attack.
1942 Students of Japanese ancestry form the Varsity Victory Volunteers to assist with civil defense; many later become part of the famous 100th Infantry Battalion. Gas masks become part of commencement apparel.
1947 UH Press begins with one part-time employee. With a reputation for publishing works about Asia and the Pacific, it remains one of the nation's top 20 university presses.
1948 Enrollment doubles to 5,000, fueled by students studying under the GI Bill.
1951 The University of Hawaii, Hilo Branch, is approved.
1951 Earle Ernst stages "The House of Sugawara," introducing kabuki drama to the west and founding a world- renowned Asian theater academic program.
1952 Frear Hall dormitory opens to house 144 women students.
1953 President Harry S. Truman receives an honorary degree at Andrews Outdoor Theatre. Lyon Arboretum becomes part of UH.
1956 Gregg M. Sinclair Library opens, dedicated to the retired president who oversaw a doubling of the library collection.
1960 UH integrates technology with education when the UH Statistical and Computing Center (in the basement of Keller Hall) acquired a monolithic IBM 650 Data Processing Machine.
1964 The UH Community Colleges system is established with Honolulu, Kapi'olani, Kaua'i and Maui campuses.
1966 Manoa establishes a School of Travel Industry Management, forerunner of the School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies and the John A. Burns School of Medicine.
1967 Construction begins on the first telescope atop Mauna Kea.
1968 Students stage a sit-in at Manoa's Bachman Hall to protest the Vietnam War and university governance issues.
1969 Leeward Community College opens in Pearl City after a year of holding classes in an elementary school.
1970 The first transfer of an electronic packet of data via radio, over ALOHAnet, became the model for network communications that underlie today's Internet.
1971 Leeward Community College opens the Wai'anae-Nanakuli Education Center.
1972 Windward becomes the sixth community college, housed in the former state hospital in Kane'ohe.
1973 Manoa's School of Law opens in temporary buildings on the lower campus. It moves to Dole Street buildings a decade later and assumes the name of the state's newly retired influential chief justice, William S. Richardson.
1974 The College of Agriculture is established at Hilo, later expanding the name to include Forestry and Natural Resource Management.
1976 West O'ahu College opens in improvised classrooms, later occupying temporary facilities on the Leeward campus.
1976 Kaua'i Community College moves to a Puhi site donated by Grove Farm.
1977 Gender equity comes to UH. Rainbow athletics appoints its first full-time director for women's sports, Donnis Thompson. Wahine basketball starts up the next year.
1980 The School of Architecture is established at Manoa, followed 8 years later by the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology.
1984 Kapi'olani Community College moves to the slopes of Diamond Head. Manoa sets a collegiate standard in opening Rainbow Stadium; it is renamed for Les Murakami in 2002.
1985 Windward Community College opens a Center for Aerospace Education.
1986 The university library collection tops 2 million volumes.
1987 The law school inaugurates its jurist-in-residence program, which brings U.S. Supreme Court justices to campus every other year.
1989 West O'ahu College becomes UH-West O'ahu.
1990 A year before its 50th anniversary, Hawai'i Community College separates from UH-Hilo to become the seventh UH community college.
1990 UH delivered its first statewide distance-learning course via interactive television, reaching Kaua'i via the longest over-water microwave connection in the world.
1991 UH scientists use submersibles to collect information on Lo'ihi, Hawai'i's undersea volcano.
1994 Manoa opens the award-winning, 10,000-seat Special Events Arena, later named for its most ardent advocate, athletic director Stan Sheriff. It is the first major addition to Manoa athletic facilities since completion of the aquatic complex in 1986.
1995 A record-setting $9.6 million gift from the foundation of the late Ed Pauley allows purchase of Coconut Island and construction of a marine biology research lab.
1995 Delayed by damage from Hurricane Iniki, the 560-seat Performing Arts Center opens on Kaua'i.
1997 UH-Hilo begins offering the nation's first master's degree in an indigenous language and establishes Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani College of Hawaiian Language.
1997 Windward's historic Hale Kuhina reopens; the first major campus renovation in 25 years is followed by a new Imaginarium and Center for Arts and Humanities, with gallery and theatre.
1998 UH announces the first reproducible cloning of a mammal, a mouse named Cumulina. The Honolulu technique later contributes to the first male clone and production of transgenic mice that glow green.
1999 Still in temporary quarters, UH-West O'ahu extends distance-learning programs to West Hawai'i, Moloka'i and Lana'i.
2000 Maui Community College opens Moloka'i Education Center. Voters overwhelmingly support constitutional autonomy for UH, giving the institution more control over its resources.
2000 Manoa adopts the "jagged H" as its new athletic mark. Leeward stages its first Taste of the Stars, and Kapi'olani takes the lead in the system-wide Culinary Institute of the Pacific.
2001 Classes and performances are closed by a 13-day faculty strike. UH wins a contract worth potentially $181 million to manage the Maui Supercomputing Center.
2001 Manoa's College of Business Administration launches an MBA program in Hanoi, Vietnam.
2002 The twin-hull Kilo Moana joins the UH research fleet, and a UH submersible discovers a Japanese mini-sub sunk during the Pearl Harbor attack. UH joins the state Department of Education and Good Beginnings Alliance in the Hawai'i P-20 Initiative.
2003 Maui becomes the first UH community college to offer a bachelor's degree. Kapi'olani students staff an on-campus travel agency. Honolulu partners with the Polynesian Voyaging Society to teach canoe preparation and maintenance.
2003 Manoa dedicates the Legacy Path; Windward also offers recognition bricks.
2004 A flood inundates Hamilton Library and damages other buildings. Classes are canceled for two days, 35 buildings go without power, and volunteers help salvage soaked materials.
2004 Hilo establishes a doctoral program in Hawaiian and indigenous language and culture revitalization, and pursues plans for a School of Pharmacy.
2005 The Academy for Creative Media is established as a system-wide program for film and new media. The medical school moves into new facilities in Kaka'ako, and UH establishes a new center on bioterrorism and emerging infectious disease.
2005 The Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair recognizes a famous alumnus — the first Japanese- American to serve in Congress. Honolulu Community College installs a 9/11 Memorial, with a remnant of the World Trade Center, near its piece of the Berlin Wall.
2006 The 'Imiloa Astronomy Center opens with exhibits on Hawaiian tradition and astronomical research. Construction continues on Maui's 400-bed student housing project.
2006 UH-West O'ahu offers early-childhood education and forensic anthropology.
