University of Hawaii West Oahu Seal

Bulletin No. 16

Date/Time sent: 08/31/2020 9:05 am

Aloha mai kākou UH West Oʻahu ʻOhana!

E ala! E alu! E kuilima!
Awaken! Come together! Join hands!

At the August 20 UH Board of Regents Meeting, UH System President, David Lassner, presented an overview of our institution’s forward moving plan entitled, Repositioning the University of Hawaiʻi for FY 2022 and Beyond. His powerpoint slide deck (pages 114-127) is attached and his presentation has been archived on the Board of Regents website. Also at this meeting, VP for Finance, Kalbert Young provided his FY21 financial report for the UH System, which included an overview of our UH West Oʻahu budget (pages 101-104). This Thursday, September 3, at the UH Board of Regents Budget and Finance Committee Meeting (10:30 a.m.), a more detailed overview of this budget will be presented. The report has been posted for public viewing. I strongly recommend that you review these documents.

In a nutshell, all our UH campuses are being hit hard by the economic impact of the pandemic. We will not bounce back to the funding levels of pre-fiscal year 2020. The deep cuts in our general funds ($2.2 million) will not be replaced and we may see more cuts to this funding stream. As a growth campus, many have enjoyed the opportunities of release time and overloads and overtime, which has led to generative growth of knowledge dissemination and development of critical signature programs. However, given the magnitude of our fiscal crisis, UH West Oʻahu must stabilize its foundation by strengthening our signature programs and critically investing in economic growth areas while also meeting the workload obligations of a teaching university. And we must do all of this while ensuring we do so with integrity and humanity.

We all know that education has a transformative impact – we have all experienced it ourselves and we have witnessed it in our students. It is our kāhea/calling to help future generations to experience that transformative power. To do so will require us all to participate in building strategies grounded in our Strategic Action Plan. Strategies that will assist us to plan forward within our fiscal constraints an affordable, quality education that culminates in a timely degree. We will need to work hard over the next two months using our expertise, experience, and common sense. And, we will need to act decisively as we utilize our resources wisely and sustainably.

Over the course of the month of September, I will be meeting with our campus leadership teams across every unit and I will schedule open zoom “talk stories” (similar to when I began in 2017 unfortunately without the food).  I hope that you will participate in these conversations.

E mālama pono!

Maenette Benham, Chancellor

REMINDER: We need all our faculty and staff involved in every aspect of promoting student success. There are two (2) initiatives to promote student support and success (1) Faculty Verification of Non-Participation (No-Show) and (2) E Ala Pono Academic Progress Updates.

  1. The Faculty Verification of Non-Participation report helps our institution to comply with the UH System Executive Policy 7.209 certifying student attendance and participation in class by the end of the late registration period.  Additionally, your reporting of students who are not participating in class (No-Show) helps our institution to comply with USDOE Title IV financial aid policy to identify the first day of academic engagement and the last day of engagement for students receiving financial aid. Note: compliance is required to ensure we can continue to award our students federal financial aid. You report through the MyUH Faculty Services Portal. For step-by-step instructions please see attached document. DUE: September 7.

  1. E Ala Pono Academic Progress Updates: This program partners faculty with our campus resources (Academic Advising, Counseling and tutoring/No’eau Center). Your participation assists us in identifying students who are struggling or exhibiting behaviors of concern early in the semester. This early alert progress updates will be available to faculty during the following periods through the My Success Portal

 https://westoahu.hawaii.edu/academics/advising/e-ala-pono/

  • Progress Update 1 – September 8 – 13, 2020
  • Progress Update 2 – October 12 – 21, 2020

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Leslie Opulauoho and the EAP Team at uhwoeap@hawaii.edu.