Bulletin No. 27
Date/Time sent: 11/16/2020 8:00 amE ala! E alu! E kuilima!
Awaken! Come together! Join hands!
There are two parts to the Chancellor’s message this week: (1) Thoughts Regarding Forward Planning and UH West Oʻahu; and (2) Update from the UHWO Task Force.
Thoughts Regarding Forward Planning
All institutions of higher education are still struggling with the pandemic and its impact on our academic, research, and outreach efforts. See attached Chronicle Of Higher Education article, Higher Education’s Nightmare Scenario: Finances are already strained—and yet public colleges await budget-busting cuts, Oct. 30, 2020. Since March 2020, our initial horizon was to examine and act to “do the right things to help our students and the core operations of our campus immediately.” As we reported to the campus (on a weekly basis through our bulletin, monthly in Ka Peʻahi Lono, and in Chancellor presentations) our priorities often involved discussions and actions related to cost-reductions to operational cost centers and investments in quick-to-execute-operational improvements that focused on learning and teaching, and student success.
As the fall semester began, administration presented a thorough review of COVID-19 and a daunting report on our fiscal outlook. Additionally, I reported that since everyone (faculty, staff, and students) were back “on-campus”, efforts would begin to engage in discussions to frame a plan to see us through this pandemic period as well as begin to forward plan to the next horizon, post-pandemic Hawaiʻi. I stated clearly that this would be challenging, but that I believed we had the skills, the capacity, and the grit to do the hard work.
There is still concern among some faculty and staff that our efforts are pointless – to these faculty I will repeat that what we do now is not inconsequential and refer them to current news reports, to our Pueo Planning Process website, and to the UHERO website for more clarifying information. Additionally, read this short article, Shrinking Sector Job Losses Pile Up During Pandemic (Chronicle of Higher Education, October 30, 2020), attached.
I understand that we are all feeling fatigued and frustrated. Know that we, collectively, have the drive and the courage to push through this — “Pupukahi i Holomua!” Everyday there are successes! Each of these daily steps will lead to big jumps and huge leaps forward. Mahalo nūnui for your continued daily efforts and remembering the joy of learning!
UHWO Task Force
The Task Force has affirmed the efforts we have done to maintain the core operations of our campus and have identified recommendations to refine our Fiscal Year 2021 budget and activities to make certain we balance our budget but also that we lay a firm foundation to nurture future targeted growth. UH West Oʻahu faculty, staff and students had the opportunity last week to respond to a task force survey that presented their list of recommendations. As the task force refines their recommendations for Fiscal Year 2021, they are also beginning to examine our strengths, differentiation, and gaps that require attention to support our campus forward. That is, budget and academic planning for Fiscal Years 2022, 2023, and 2024. This operational playbook is needed to assist UH West Oʻahu to accelerate our momentum post-pandemic in new ways that add value to what we do to create a sustainable growth engine.