Campus News
- Kapiʻolani: Culinary medal
- Leeward: WorldQuest win
- Maui: Humanitarian award | First graduates
- Windward: Criminal justice degree
- West Oʻahu: Sustainable design
- Hilo: Student Life Centers | Hilo BBA
- Mānoa: Campus cartoon | Disaster planning | Hawaiian college | Jazz ensemble | Medical clinics | Distance learning honor | White House commmission | Social norms grant
- System: Emergency system | Restaurant planned | Regents’ medals
Students win culinary medal
Kapiʻolani Coommunity College’s culinary team received the silver medal in the American Culinary Federation’s 2007 Western Regional Competition.
See the Kapiʻolani Culinary Arts Program website for more information.
topStudents win top WorldQuest honors
Two Leeward Community College student teams took top college honors in the WorldQuest competition sponsored by the Pacific Asian Affairs Council.
The competition tested participants’ knowledge of current events, famous women in history, geography of Africa and other topics.
More on WorldQuest at the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council website.
topStudent earns national humanitarian honor
Maui Community College journalism student Jessica "Mira" Allen was one of five students in the nation awarded the Howard R. Swearer Student Humanitarian Award from Campus Compact in June 2007.
News editor of the campus newspaper Hoʻoulu and vice president of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, Allen undertook a language learning exchange and other service learning projects and helped fellow students secure scholarships.
Learn more about Campus Compact and service learning.
topMaui awards first bachelor’s degrees
Maui Community College’s Applied Business and Information Technology program celebrated two milestones in May. The program was awarded full accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, and it awarded its first bachelor of applied science degrees.
Earning their bachelor’s in ABIT were husband and wife Ryan and Krissy Garcia and Sunny Cabello. The Garcias, who met while earning their associate degrees at Maui, plan to use the business plan they developed as part of ABIT program to expand their computer repair business. Cabello, who gave birth during her first year of studies, is pursuing a master’s degree in educational technology through the UH Center on Maui, which is located at the community college campus.
Learn more about the Applied Business and Information Technology program.
topCampus launches collaborative criminal justice degree
Windward Community College launched a bachelor of science program in criminal justice in fall 2007.
The program is offered through a partnership with Chaminade University.
Read the news release or visit the program website.
topGrant will help West Oʻahu pursue sustainable design
The University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu is going green with a $100,000 grant from The Kresge Foundation to incorporate environmentally sustainable features in design of the new campus at Kapolei.
Meanwhile, campus officials have secured space for evening classes at Island Pacific Academy to accommodate the fall 2007 addition of freshmen and sophomore students. The new campus is expected to open in fall 2009.
topStudent Life Center gets green twist, new building underway
The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo’s Student Life Center is slated to open in 2008 with fitness facilities, a juice bar and an Olympic-size pool.
It also features design elements aimed at earning gold certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The building design takes advantage of natural light while deflecting heat from the sun’s rays and uses energy-saving dehumidifiers and light controls. Builders are recycling to divert most leftover construction materials from the waste stream.
In other campus building project, construction has begun for a new Physical Science Building. The 16,500-square-foot facility will house physics, astronomy and chemistry programs with classrooms, labs, faculty offices and a 130-seat auditorium.
topHilo to offer bachelor in business in accounting
The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo will offer a BBA in accounting beginning in fall 2008.
The program, part of the university’s College of Business and Economics, is working with UH community colleges to provide a degree pipeline that will help accounting students prepare for the Certified Public Accountant exam.
Read the news release.
topCampus days revived in Ka Leo cartoons book
"Slab O’Life" comic strip by Deb Aoki
It’s a college reunion for Ka Leo o Hawaiʻi cartoonists Deb Aoki and Jon Murakami. Their joint compilation from Bento Box Press revives campus life circa 1987–93.
The cartoons feature a cast of student characters that include a veggie hippie chick grad student, mystified mainlander and happy-go-lucky plate-lunch grinder (Aoki’s "Slice o’ Life") and tolerant liberal arts major, nerdy genius inventor and roommate from hell (Murakami’s "The University of Diverse City").
"Deb has an uncanny knack of capturing idiosyncrasies based on her pet peeves and shrewd observations that most people can relate to," writes Murakami in the forward. From her home in Emeryville, Calif., Aoki continues her observations of Hawaiʻi life in "Bento Box" for the Honolulu Advertiser.
Selections from the first decade are now available as Deb Aoki’s Bento Box, another book from Bento Box Press. She is also the manga (japanese comics) guide for the newly launched manga pages at about.com and a senior content strategist for eBay, where she is helping redesign buyer side webpages.
"Jon’s just Jon: a local guy from Pearl City who draws hilarious cartoons," Aoki says in her forward to his half of the book.
Murakami has illustrated books from a piano performance manual by retired Mānoa Professor of Music Peter Coraggio to The Original Poi Cats on Oʻahu written by UH alumna Genevieve Suzuki. His artwork appears on Maile Way Products’ "Local Kine" greeting cards produced by fellow alumni Gayle Machida and Paul Isono. He alsoe continues to draw strips—"Generation Gap" for The Hawaiʻi Herald, "Calabash" for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and "Online Aloha" for the Time-Warner Oceanic Roadrunner website.
topMānoa centers assist with disaster planning
The University of Hawaiʻi and the federal Pacific Disaster Center have signed an agreement with Busan Metropolitan City and Pukyong National University to enhance the Korean city’s disaster management capabilities.
The Pacific Emergency Management Preparedness and Response Information and Training Services at UH Mānoa, in partnership with Yale University, launched a series of web-based courses to help public health professionals in Hawaiʻi, California and the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands prepare for potential public health threats.
topMānoa establishes Hawaiian knowledge college, women’s studies degree
The Board of Regents established Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa effective July 1, 2007.
The school unites the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, Kawaihuelani Hawaiian Language Program and Ka Papa Loʻi o Kanewai Hawaiian cultural garden under one administrative parent. It doesn’t affect the degrees offered—BA’s and MA’s in both Hawaiian and Hawaiian studies.
Noting that Hawaiian Studies 107 is the campus’s most heavily enrolled course, officials say the move further promotes the study of Hawaiian language and culture.
The shift does necessitate renaming of the remaining programs as the School of Pacific and Asian Studies and the Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literature.
In other academic action, the board approved a BA in women’s studies at Mānoa. Previous women’s studies majors received their bachelor’s degrees in liberal arts or interdisciplinary studies.
topJazz group wins raves in Texas
Jazzed up: Hill, Barich, Mergens
The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Jazz Ensemble received superior ratings from adjudicators at the North Texas Jazz Festival in March 2007. The group was one of only 12 university ensembles invited to perform, and the only one to receive a standing ovation.
Alto saxophonist Aaron Hill, a master’s candidate in musicology, and tenor saxophonist David Mergens, a history major, received Outstanding Soloist certificates. Bryce Barich, who earned his bachelor’s in business administration in May 2007, won the Outstanding Lead Trumpet award.
Since the 1990s, Mānoa’s jazz ensemble program has experienced dramatic increases in enrollment as high school band directors who are UH alumni encourage their students to get involved.
The ensemble performs on Nov. 17, 2007 at the Barbara Smith Gamelan Courtyard in the Music Department complex at Mānoa.
For details, more about the ensembles and downloadable MP3 music clips, visit the Jazz Ensemble website. For additional programs and concerts, see the Music Department website.
topMedical school launches perinatal clinic, mobile outreach
The John A. Burns School of Medicine has launched a state-funded program to provide prenatal care for pregnant women who abuse drugs. Physician Tricia Wright, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and a staff of three provide perinatal classes, nutritional advice, group therapy and case management on the grounds of the Salvation Army Family Treatment Center in Kaimukī.
As many as one in eight island women use "ice," or crystal methamphetamine, during their pregnancies, says Wright. She hopes the clinic can serve as a model for community health centers.
On the volunteer front, students and staff involved in the Homeless Outreach and Medical Education project have extended their services through a new mobile clinic. With a donated HandiVan and community support, they have added a free weekly afternoon clinic at the Waiʻanae Transitional Shelter to their weekly evening at the Kakaʻako Transitional Shelter.
topEducation college earns best practices honor for distance education
The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Education received the U.S. Distance Learning Association’s 21st Century Award for Best Practices in Distance Learning.
Since 1991, the college has used interactive TV, Internet and multimedia technologies to provide or augment a variety of teacher training and credentialing, special education, administration and counseling programs statewide.
More on the colleges distance education offerings at the technology and distance programs website.
topUH ROTC cadet commissioned in White House ceremony
Cadet David Song from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Army ROTC program was among 55 ROTC graduates from across the nation commissioned by President Bush during a White House ceremony in May 2007.
Song isn’t your typical cadet. The son of Korean immigrants who worked 14-hour days in the family’s Doylestown, Pa., produce market, he completed a combat tour in Afghanistan as an enlisted soldier on a civil affairs team before choosing UH ROTC over officer candidate school.
Song was commissioned as an Army second lieutenant. Nine other UH cadets were commissioned in Honolulu on May 14, 2007.
For more information, see the Army ROTC at UH program website.
topGrant backs social norms approach to reduce underage drinking
The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa will use a $250,000 grant from Anheuser-Busch Cos. to expand the Mānoa Alcohol Project over the next four years.
The project seeks to reduce underage drinking among freshmen in Mānoa dorms through a social norms approach. Social norms projects encourage positive behavior change by communicating the responsible behavior of the vast majority of students.
Read more about the Mānoa Alcohol Project.
topEmergency telephone sustem sucessfully tested
The University of Hawaiʻi successfully tested a new automated system in late April 2007 to provide emergency phone and email notification to UH emergency coordinators and administrators.
The NTI Group Connect-ED system augments the university’s email broadcast, which can distribute urgent or informational messages to all UH student and employee email accounts. The university is also exploring text messaging to student mobile phones.
No single approach can address all emergencies, says Vice President for Information Technology David Lassner, noting that the power outage following the October 2006 earthquake affected many Hawaiʻi email and phone service providers. So on-campus warning sirens and PA systems are also being considered.
Emergency contact information and a variety of links to local and national sites is available at the UH Emergency Information webpage.
topWorking restaurant for culinary training part of fundraising goal
A working restaurant is planned at the scenic site of the old Canon Club on Oʻahu’s Diamond Head. It will provide hands-on training for a bachelor’s program in culinary management offered by Kapiʻolani Community College and the University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu and short-term courses for working chefs and the public.
Honolulu architects Ferraro Choy and Associates are designing the building. Private funds are being sought for construction as part of the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation’s Centennial Campaign.
Read more about the Centennial Campaign.
top2007 Regents Medal recipients honored
Among the awards presented during the centennial UH System awards convocation Sept. 5, 2007, were the following:
Excellence in Teaching
- John Barkai, professor of law, Mānoa
- Maria Fabro, instructor in nursing, Kauaʻi CC
- Cynthia Franklin, professor of English, Mānoa
- Kathleen French, instructor in social science, Windward CC
- Colette Higgins, associate professor of arts and humanities, Kapiʻolani CC
- Kathy Hill, professor of accounting, Leeward CC
- Donnalyn Kalei, instructor in administration of justice, Hawaiʻi CC
- Femar Lee, assistant professor of developmental studies (mathematics), Honolulu CC
- Jill Omori, assistant professor of family medicine and community health, Mānoa
- Lorelle Ann Peros, assistant professor and chair in business and hospitality, Maui CC
- Shirley Yamashita, specialist in educational technology, Mānoa
Excellence in Research
- Robert Bidigare, professor of oceanography, Mānoa
- Ralf Kaiser, professor of chemistry, Mānoa
- Michael Liu, associate astronomer, Mānoa
More honorees can be found at the Awards website
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