Manoa Faculty Congress Minutes of November 28, 2007
Architecture Auditorium

Chair David Chin called the meeting to order at 3:07 pm.

Minutes of April 04, 2007 UHM Faculty Congress Meeting: hearing no requests for corrections or changes, the minutes were adopted.

Chancellor Hinshaw’s Address to the Congress:

     The Chancellor expressed her appreciation for the faculty at UH Mänoa and noted that the campus is facing a period of great change. The faculty will hold a pivotal role in this process through consultation and collaboration. It is Mänoa’s goal to be the destination of choice for prospective students and to serve as a global leader in research.

We have entered into a period of succession planning for this campus. The first of the major tasks is the evaluation of the structure and leadership of Arts & Sciences. There have been substantial discussions about the reorganization and there will be a proposal submitted by the Chancellor at the end of the calendar year to initiate the process of consultation.

Concerns about the Systemwide Strategic Plan were raised from the floor. Many faculty members were uneasy that graduate education received little mention in the plan, yet we are aware that graduate education contributes greatly to local industry and the global economy. As our teaching and research assistant stipends are very low, it is difficult to be the destination of choice when salaries do not address the cost of living in this State. The Chancellor responded that there is an ongoing review of the current stipend schedule, time to degree, recruitment, and success of our students.

Faculty members also felt that we must do a better job at supporting the business process of research and technology transfer. A suggestion was made to move ORS from a systemwide unit to a Mänoa unit to make the system of processing grant dollars more effective.

Another area in which there have been efforts to improve is Facilities Management. The hiring of David Hafner as the new Director and the development of the Long-Range Development Plan will begin the process of responding to previous studies of the facilities management operations at UH Mänoa. The priority of the plan is to answer to the long overdue repairs and maintenance of campus facilities and better coordinate the response to requests for work by this unit.

Respectfully submitted,

Lei Wakayama

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