Realizing the Vision
President McClain’s remarks at the UH Centennial Campaign Public Phase Kickoff
Aug. 18, 2007, Diamond Head
Aloha! It’s my great pleasure to welcome you to an evening 100 years in the making, an evening full of promise.
Tonight we celebrate the public launch of our Centennial Campaign and the promise of transforming our university through private philanthropy.
We’ve chosen a special location for this "uniquely UH" celebration. This evening we are in the "before" photograph of the Culinary Institute of the Pacific. Much like the students who enter as freshmen at one of our campuses, we can see around us the raw potential on display here tonight.
Fast forward to a few years from now, sitting in this same location—in the "after" photo. With hard work, dedication and a lot of support, we will shape this raw site into a state-of-the-art advanced culinary education center and signature restaurant.
Two of Hawai‘i’s best known chefs—Roy Yamaguchi and Alan Wong—are with us tonight. Alan is one of UH’s own, receiving his degree in 1979. They are our honorary co-chairs for the Culinary Institute of the Pacific project.
The completion of this site, under the leadership of John Morton, our vice president for community colleges, and Leon Richards, our newly appointed chancellor of Kapiʻolani Community College, will increase opportunities for local students and reinforce Hawai‘i’s position as a destination of choice for advanced culinary training.
John Morton is also one of our own. He received his PhD from UH Manoa and served for 20 years as provost of Kapi‘olani Community College before becoming the head of our internationally recognized community college system. Leon Richards holds two masters degrees and a doctoral degree from UH Manoa. Leon is a recognized expert in international education.
About our first football game in 1909 (which we won) against McKinley High School.
I’ve spoken about the lives we’ve touched, one by one and generation by generation.
And I’ve recalled with pride the fact that in the last century UH has done more to advance social justice and economic self-reliance than any other institution in our state.
I know you are proud of those accomplishments too.
Tonight, I want to talk about the university’s future, about the Centennial Campaign and, in particular, about the power of philanthropy.
Thirty-five years later, after launching over 30 companies, four of which are currently publicly traded, Jay Shidler and his spouse Wallette made headlines with their transformational generosity directed toward his alma mater, our University of Hawai‘i.
As Jay put it then, he was simply following the Beach Boys’ dictum, "Be true to your school."
One year later, the Shidler gift continues to make headlines across our university and in our community, and it will in perpetuity.
Endowed faculty positions, endowed scholarships, a matching gift program and an investment in the business school’s facilities led Pacific Business News, after taking a tour of the Shidler College of Business, to declare, "Plants, pride and optimism seem to be growing everywhere."
In a nutshell, that is the power of philanthropy.
The sum of those gifts and how they are used can result in the difference between accomplishing dreams and merely dreaming.
The home of the Shidler College of Business is the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. Our founding campus, UH Manoa recently welcomed its new chancellor, Virginia Hinshaw.
Virginia joined us on July 1st from the University of California, Davis where she was the provost and executive vice chancellor. She is an internationally recognized scholar, an expert on the transmission of influenza. She’s an educator who sees the joy in learning and delighted her students each year by dressing up as rock star Tina Turner in order to illustrate a point in her microbiology class. And she’s an accomplished academic leader; on her watch UC Davis made significant strides in student success and research productivity.
When she joined us, Virginia described UH Manoa as "an institution of many accomplishments, but clearly with increasing aspirations for the future."
Speaking of aspirations and accomplishments, let me tell another story, about one of our most distinguished UH Manoa faculty.
He is a scientist who joined UH in 1978, has a love for motorcycles and has participated in more than 70 oceanographic investigations and more than 30 scientific diving expeditions around the world, from Hawai‘i to the Galapagos to Antarctica.
The author of nearly 300 scholarly articles, this scientist is an internationally known expert on the role the ocean plays in the environmental stability of our planet, and was elected to fellowship in the National Academy of Sciences last year.
In the last five years, he’s brought $25 million in federal funding to UH, including the Center for Microbial Oceanography.
The scholar in my story is David Karl, who was not able to join us tonight. He is one of the many highly productive, globally respected UH researchers who discover new knowledge and educate and inspire students every day.
Dave has spent his entire career at UH Manoa. At most universities, a researcher of Dave’s reputation would be in an endowed faculty position. Endowing his position—and several other research positions in the Institute for Astronomy (ranked #2 in the world), in the School of Ocean, Earth Sciences and Technology (one of the very best schools of its kind worldwide) and the John A. Burns School of Medicine’is one of the goals of this campaign.
Our work in ocean sciences, astronomy and myriad other areas is a source of pride for UH Manoa and the people of Hawai‘i. In our increasingly competitive environment, we must be able to keep our best and brightest faculty here. Great senior faculty are like magnets—they attract junior faculty and students and they attract research funding.
Perhaps most importantly, great faculty help us believe that anything is possible.
I have one more story for you.
During the early years of the University of Hawai‘i, Charles Reed Hemenway as chair of the Board of Regents would often share the stage on graduation day with the smiling new graduates.
It was his custom to congratulate every graduate with his right hand extended in a warm and hearty handshake. But he also quietly offered an envelope in his left hand to a few talented students who needed financial help. Inside the envelope were copies of their student loans stamped with big red letters "PAID IN FULL".
Today, we are expanding our efforts to attract Hawai‘i’s best and brightest high school students; we are expanding our already-considerable efforts to insure that students with limited means have access to UH, and that once admitted they can succeed; and we are expanding our efforts to provide a life-changing educational experience for all.
This year, 400 high-achieving students will receive Centennial Scholarships, which are funded by the university. Another of the Centennial Campaign priorities is the creation of privately funded scholarships that will enhance the university’s investment, creating full tuition scholarships.
The quality of student life on each campus is central to the educational experience we offer. I want our students to feel a sense of pride in their campus. I want them to have access to well-equipped labs, classrooms, dorms and libraries, situated on attractive and well-maintained grounds.
That’s why we’re building new Frear Hall on the Manoa campus, which will open at this time next year.
And that’s why soon students will be able to attend college at UH West O‘ahu on its new campus in Kapolei.
Our leader in this effort is Chancellor Gene Awakuni. Gene is also one of ours, starting out at Leeward Community College, then receiving his bachelor’s and masters’ degrees from UH Manoa before going on to Harvard for his doctorate.
Gene has served as vice provost for student affairs at Stanford University and as vice president for student services at Columbia. In 2005 he returned to Hawai‘i to share his expertise. In view of all he’s achieved, it’s a bit hard to believe that the young Gene Awakuni was something of a mischief-maker, who preferred racing his ‘55 Chevy to doing his homework. Gene, thanks for your dedication to making the UH West O‘ahu campus a reality.
Our vision through this 10 campus system is to provide access to higher education, success in achieving timely graduation, all in a setting of excellence.
We aspire to grow the state’s workforce.
We aspire to diversify the state’s economy.
And we aspire to increase opportunities for underrepresented groups, particularly the Native Hawaiians whose values of community, respect and malama ‘aina are at the core of our strategic plan.
Our ‘ohana has room for all.
In times of old, the ahupua‘a sustained the people of Hawai‘i, from mountain summits through the fertile valleys to the oceans. The ahupua‘a was a treasured resource, revered and managed for the benefit of all.
The University of Hawai‘i is also a treasured resource, the public university in America’s only island state. As our world becomes increasingly more globalized and complex, a vibrant UH is offering solutions for Hawai‘i and for "island Earth"—on issues cultural, societal, scientific, environmental and economic.
I invite you to join me in our second century voyage of discovery, education and inspiration. Mahalo nui loa for your steadfast and continuing support of our university—the University of Hawai‘i!
In the just-completed leadership phase of the Centennial Campaign, more than $180 million has been raised in support of the University of Hawai‘i toward the campaign’s goal of $250 million. The campaign concludes in June 2009.