Ka Pe‘ahi Lono: Monthly Message for April

Date/Time sent: 04/04/2022 9:00 am

Hoʻokāhi ka ilau like ana (Wield the paddles together)

Aloha mai kākou e UH West Oʻahu ʻOhana!

We begin with this thought:

He ʻaʻaliʻi ku makani mai au;
ʻaʻohe makani nana e kulaʻi
I am a wind resisting ‘aʻali’ʻ, no gale can push me over.
Ōlelo Noʻeau no. 507

Indeed, the ʻaʻaliʻi bush can withstand the worst of gales, twisting and bending but seldom breaking off or falling over. Like the ʻaʻaliʻi, let the wind bend and twist you, but never let it break you. May this ʻōlelo noʻeau remind you that it’s always possible to overcome adversity.

Mahalo nunui to you – our UH West Oʻahu ʻohana, for your continued efforts to support our students, our programs, and the health and well-being of our campus community! This month’s Peʻahi Lono is filled with celebrations and information – I hope you will take the time to scroll through it. This month we introduce you to Dr. Lea Kinikini, our new Director of the Institute for Research & Engaged Scholarship, we ask for your kōkua to support our student enrollment efforts, and alert you to important events coming up! Take a moment to scroll through our recent UH West Oʻahu Report to the Board of Regents slide deck, review the work of our Kūlana o Kapolei Dr. Manu Meyer, and catch up with the brilliant work of colleagues and students.

Mahalo nūnui for taking the time to review this week’s bulletin.
E mālama pono!
Maenette Benham, Chancellor

Please READ-ON!

Section divider made up of two canoe paddles.

REVITALIZING THE LIFE OF OUR CAMPUS

We need your kōkua to support our UH West Oʻahu Enrollment Team!

Enrollment Services is busily processing applications, sending out admissions decisions and working with admitted students to help them finalize their college plans.

With the March 1 priority application deadline having passed, we are currently seeing an 8% increase in freshman applications (1,005 applications compared to 930 last year at this time). Our focus this time of year is on “yielding” students – turning acceptances into enrollments.

In addition to an admitted students communication campaign that includes emails and mailings, Enrollment Services is hosting a reception for admitted first year students on April 12 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. This event will offer students and families an opportunity to interact with faculty, staff and current students. A focus of this event will be our state-of-the-art Creative Media building and our Outdoor Learning Space. A tabling fair will be set up in the Outdoor Learning Space for families to learn more about our academic and student service areas. Tours of our 33,000 square-foot Creative Media building as well as campus tours will also be offered. Light refreshments and giveaways will also be provided.

Enrollment Services is in the process of working with faculty and staff to plan for a fun and informative event. If you are interested in joining us on April 12 to welcome our first-year students, please contact Michelle Cohen at macohen@hawaii.edu.

The Admissions team is also working with our high school partners to conduct “Next Steps” workshops at the high schools to guide admitted students through the enrollment process.

Stay tuned for details about an event for admitted transfer students to be scheduled later this spring! We would appreciate faculty and staff in welcoming students.

As we work to enroll the incoming class, we also continue our work with high school sophomores and juniors. Earlier this month, Enrollment Services hosted a group of 21 high school students participating in Maui’s TRIO Educational Talent Search (ETS) program. As part of their college tour program, the students visited our campus for an Admissions information session and a campus tour, a highlight of which was our Creative Media building. As pandemic restrictions ease, we look forward to bringing more students to our campus.

Five students pose together, smiling and wearing red shirts.

Pictured from left to right: Alejandra Ramirez (Presidential Scholar, Maui TRIO Coordinator); Samantha Datoc (Chancellor Scholar), Ilikea Gould (Chancellor Scholar), Matthew Schaeffer (Chancellor Scholar), Sierra Furukawa (Chancellor Scholar).

A CELEBRATION OF GOOD WORKS: KŪLIA I KA NUʻU (REACH FOR THE SUMMIT!)

Let’s celebrate our good health and our ability to be a steward of our community!

During this unprecedented time, the Hawaiʻi Foodbank needs our continued support now more than ever. The issue of hunger continues to be a major challenge facing our community and the demands on the Hawaiʻi Foodbank are even greater. While the top five needs are various canned goods and rice, which are currently in short supply, please be reminded that monetary donations are also being accepted via the Hawaiʻi Foodbank’s “Online Donation” page – be sure to list UHWO as your campus.

This year, your Hawaiʻi Foodbank coordinators will be trying something new. Coordinators will be asking for weekly donations of the highest in demand requests from the Hawaii Foodbank.

Beginning TODAY, Monday, April 4, UH West Oʻahu will ask for the following:

April 4-8 Rice
April 11-15 Canned proteins
April 18-22 Canned meals (chili, mac n cheese, soups, pork n beans, etc)
April 25-29 Canned fruits
May 2-6 Canned vegetables
May 9-13 Rice

Donations can be dropped off in the Nāulu Center or Administration building lobby. We look forward to continuing the University’s long tradition of support for the Hawaiʻi Foodbank. More information about UH’s Foodbank Campaign can be found at hawaii.edu/offices/president/foodbank. Additional Information on Emergency Food Assistance can be found at the Hawaiʻi Foodbank: hawaiifoodbank.org/emergency-assistance.

Please take a moment to consider making a contribution to assist those who are most in need.
If you have any questions, please contact Chris Neves at 689-2773 or at cabralch@hawaii.edu or Ryan Perreira at rperreir@hawaii.edu.

Mahalo nui loa for your continued support during these trying times.
Chancellor Maenette Benham

Highlights

HANA LAWELAWE: ON LEADERSHIP

Pūpūkahi i Holomua (Unite to Move Forward)!

UH West Oʻahu Report to the Board of Regents, March 17, 2022

Take a moment to review our slide deck presentation. We start with highlights then provide our quick facts dashboard that presents overall numbers. Included are trend data focused on our students providing a glimpse of our: student enrollment, retention and graduation numbers and efforts. Additionally we provided information on enrollment strategies and academic programs while recognizing the challenging impacts of the pandemic, our efforts to address them, and both lessons learned as well as brilliant advancements we made. You can also view a recording of the Board of Regents meeting here, along with the meeting materials.

Introducing our new Director of the Institute for Research and Engaged Scholarship

“Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose”: So wrote Zora Neale Hurston, a scholar who held the real question is not whether you do research or not, but whether you engage the world around you. It is with this kind of engaged philosophy that Chancellor Benham has expanded the Institute for Research & Engaged Scholarship (IRES) which welcomes a new Director, Dr. Lea Lani Kinikini (she/her/ia). Dr. Kinikini comes to UH West Oʻahu from the community college and international development space, with research experience in cultural development, heritage, education, and climate resilience in the Pacific Islands Region. Her role is to support, guide and build faculty research capacity, engage community-university partnerships, and strengthen UH West Oʻahu’s transdisciplinary research portfolio. IRES is set to support transdisciplinary research projects to guide UHWO to become a recognized leader in transdisciplinary scholarship and research in the Pacific Region. UHWO’s extramural awards portfolio of over 40 research projects and grants includes many in STEM, sustainability, community development, teaching, equity, student recruitment and student retention. Faculty and staff at UH West Oʻahu are leading the charge bringing in National Science Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Department of Education, amongst other funding. Faculty’s community-driven partnerships are innovative and fresh: from food system sustainability and Mokauea fishponds to cybersecurity and community-based initiatives such as NiuNow! a grassroots coalition which promotes indigenous food and community knowledge systems by growing and distributing coconuts in nurseries around the Kapolei region.

Dr. Lea Lani Kinikini

Important Announcements

REGARDING COVID-19

Our Revised COVID Guidelines are now posted. We encourage you to get your booster shot and to follow all campus safety precautions. If you have any questions about our campus protocols please email covid19@hawaii.edu.

Let’s be mindful, respectful, and responsible of and to our campus community as we celebrate family, holidays, commencement, and continued good news in the upcoming months.

The Hawaii Safe Travels program will end on 03/25/2022 at 11:59 p.m. HST. As a result, the Hawaii Safe Travels digital platform, found on travel.hawaii.gov, will no longer be available after 2:00 a.m. HST on 03/26/22.

The Hawaii SMART Health Card application, which is found on the Hawaii Safe Travels website, will also shut down when the program ends. Holders of a Hawaii SMART Health Card who wish to keep a copy of their digital vaccine card for possible future use have these options:

Save the QR code by printing it or saving a screenshot of it on their mobile device
Add it to their Apple Wallet. Instructions can be found here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212752
Add to Samsung Pay or CommonHealth app.

If saved, the QR code will still have the ability to show the verified information when scanned by the verifier app.

All of the information stored in the Hawaii Safe Travels digital platform is subject to the State’s records retention schedule, which is 3 years after the end of the program. When the Safe Travels platform goes offline on March 26th, the existing data will be secured, encrypted and stored off-line in a safe manner. After 3 years, the data will be destroyed. We are planning to make a version of the information, with all personal information removed, available for research purposes in the future, for example, visitor trends during the pandemic.

Mahalo for supporting the Hawaii SMART Health Card Program.
-Hawaii Safe Travels Team

FROM OUR KŪLANA O KAPOLEI

Kūlana o Kapolei is a movement to bring cultural awareness to our campus world. We do this in many ways: through talks, class visitations, creative pedagogical and research work with faculty and students, by supporting our beloved kupuna Aunty Lynette Paglinawan, and through active engagement with aloha ʻāina work via our uluniu (coconut/ulu grove) beside our Student Organic Garden. It is truly exciting to envision a post-pandemic environment where ʻike kupuna (knowledge of our elders) and ʻike ʻāina (knowledge from land) is once again infused into our thinking. Continuity, a synonym for Indigenous knowledge, is first and foremost a robust discussion of embodied principles. These principles are found in our Pahuhopu, our Institutional Values:

Waiwai: We value abundance/wealth that develops a culture of philanthropy and sustainable use of resources through the cultivation of quality relationships, creativity, exploration, and transdisciplinary learning
Kaiāulu: We value viable, healthy communities where everyone feels included, welcomed, and respected.
Mālama ʻĀina: We value environmental responsibility that links our love and care of land, water, and people.
Poʻokela: We value excellence in education to meet the high aspirations of students, faculty, and staff, and the needs of our community.
Hana Lawelawe: We value conscious service to community that builds the capacity to offer one’s excellence for the benefit of others and our environment.

Please enjoy this summary of how Kūlana o Kapolei inhabits and expresses our Pahuhopu during the start of our Spring Semester, 2022!