This message was shared with the students, faculty and staff of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa on September 9, 2025.
Aloha UH Mānoa campus,
Welina mai! As we start a new academic year, we wanted to remind you of the Pilina Support Team, a UH Mānoa committee that strives to strengthen relationships and dialogue across the campus community by collaboratively promoting resources, initiatives, and programs that support campus climate and culture across diverse perspectives and communities.
We’d like to share their ongoing efforts with an intentional focus on pilina—the relationships we share with each other and with Hawaiʻi. As we navigate changes that impact our lives and futures, we recognize that moments of transition and challenge will continue to arise.
What we know about our communities here at Mānoa and across Hawaiʻi is that, even when tested, we have the capacity to come together and care for one another across our differences. We know how to offer support, listen with empathy, and draw on our pilina—our deep connections—to sustain the aloha we strive to embody and preserve for future generations.
With this spirit, we invite you to continue building pilina with one another and with this place. We know these connections will be vital in the weeks and months ahead. To support this effort, we are excited to highlight a series of events designed to foster learning, connection, and collaboration across our community.
Featured in this semester’s programming include brave space dialogues, Pilina Circles, and the start of a “Faith in Turbulent Times” series co-sponsored by the UH Mānoa Ānuenue Center. This semester we will visit Buddhism, Judaism and Native Hawaiian traditions as sources of healing and resilience in difficult times. We will include more faiths and religions in future semesters.
Please visit the website to learn more about upcoming programs and to share resources you know of that the campus can benefit from.
Aloha,
Vassilis Syrmos
Interim Provost
Wendy Hensel
President
