Meeting Minutes
April 4, 2025

I. Opening Protocol

1. Mele Honouliuli – Ke`alohi Perry
2. Land Acknowledgement – Stan Orr

II. Approval of Minues

March 7 meeting minutes approved

III. Administrative Reports

1. Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs (Vice-Chancellor Dee Uwono)
   1. Financial Aid Officer has been hired
   2. Mental Health position will be closed out soon, two positions, may be announced at the May meeting.
   3. UHWO has started awarding Merit Scholarships: $2000 for high school GPA higher than 3.5 and $1000 with a minimum 3.0 GPA. Scholarship is automatic.
      Feedback had indicated that lack of financial aid was one reason students were not coming to UHWO, so hoping this will be an incentive.
2. Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs (Vice-Chancellor Harald Barkhoff)
   1. Third Annual Research and Engaged Scholarship Symposia was very successful. Mahalo for the organizers and participants.
   2. Students have continued to express a clear desire for more online classes, even though we need to provide some distance learning, the student body has articulated that they want the in-person classes because some of them are struggling with the online experience.
      1. Some of this information comes from the ASUHWO suggestion boxes around campus, and the input was shared with OVCAA.
   3. Two OVCAA staff members are leaving as of today, Clinton Nishida and Michael Bucao; looking to streamline processes and have a clear diagram of responsibilities connected to people for the OVCAA moving forward. For now, please be patient.
3. Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Administration (Vice-Chancellor David McDonald)
   1. Onizuka Day is April 5, 2025 (Boy Scout event, including the military helicopters, again)
   2. AVCAA finalists are coming to campus the last week in April
   3. Testifying at the State Legislature – mahalo to anyone who supported UHWO with testimony regarding different bills, nursing and cybersecurity, We will know where we stand in a few weeks but so far we are “still in the game”
4. Office of the Chancellor (Chancellor Maenette Benham)
   1. Because of the fluid situation with federal grants, Chancellor Benham has been meeting regularly with PIs on grants, also include FS Chair Stanley Orr.
   2. UH is dealing with the Executive Order (EO) regarding Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. So far only K-12 has to provide evidence of this in their curriculum, but higher education may be next. There are court cases seeking a stay on these Eos.
      1. UH anticipates more impacts from federal funding cuts in the weeks to come.
      2. There have already been five stop-work orders or termination orders, but not in areas that impact UHWO.
   3. At UHWO we are reviewing our grants with the PIs to better understand the purpose of each, where the grant is in his its cycle (first year, second year, etc., or closing out); understanding the payroll implications for faculty, staff and students; and understanding the potential impact of losing a particular grants.
   4. There is a Federal Policy Advisory Council that has been started at UH. LINK the focus is to develop strategies and responses. System is trying hard to keep everyone up to date.
   5. Offered to answer questions:
      1. Of all the federal funds that we have coming into our campus, I would say at least 70-75% of it is on federal funds. The rest would be on state funds, on philanthropic funds, on agencies outside of the Feds. So I’d say close to about, that’s my best guesstimate is 75%.
      2. Here on our campus, there are 40 faculty and staff being paid on federal funds, and there are a lot more students who are student assistants. Many of the folks that are peer tutors, peer leaders, student assistants.
      3. Question regarding DEI and the concern about how strict this might get. Do you think they are going to look at syllabi and textbooks, tell us we can and cannot use?In response, Chancellor Benham said, you know your rights and responsibilities are as scholars in your field and discipline. We stand on our 1st amendment right to freedom of speech. We stand on the right of faculty to teach within their discipline area what is appropriate. We will be getting more information up. Of course, you know, there is a lot of legalese, a lot of legal language is part of that as well.
      4. Beverly Baligad attended a big Conference held by Nakua, which is a national organization for attorneys for universities, and she brought back quite a bit of information. She will do a briefing.
      5. Pell grants, which are more important to UHWO for the students than the federal funding. Given the various cuts, can UHWO survive as an institution? To help students,
      6. The institution itself will stand up for the enhanced work that we do. We are working hard to look for other funding outside of the Federal funds to do that work.
      7. Alaska natives, tribal colleges and universities and native Hawaiians have a trust relationship with the Federal Government, and as such, we congressionally have carved out funding to support many of our programs. Our programs that fall under Title Three and Title Five have not been touched. We are talking with our program directors at the Us. Department of Education. We have been told to continue the work that we’re doing.
      8.  At least through the end of September, we’re good to go. We’re considered a minority serving institution. Part of that bucket is also HBCUs and tribal colleges and universities. Those 3 categories of funding have not been targeted. We anticipate that there may be some reduction of funding going to our programs, but not the stop or termination of the programs.
      9. Chancellor also has concern for our international students and staff. Administration is keeping an eye on visa lists.
         1. Administration is putting together a document about what to do if ICE shows up on campus. UHWO has a direct number for UH general counsel. And website will be updated soon.
      10. Chancellor welcomes anyone to email her directly with specific questions or concerns.

IV. ASUHWO Update (President Sydney Whitley)

1. ASUHWO Report (Sydney Whitfield, ASUHWO President)
   1. Senator initiatives are still underway, striving to complete by end of term:
      1. Night owl nook – Thursday at Na`ulu Center
      2. Social Science Summit – Apri 24 1-4pm C225
      3. Communications via message boxes and Podcast, training sessions
      4. MCAT Study Group turnouts were good
      5. First-year survey
      6. Off-island study session
      7. Currently have 10 candidates for next year’s senate, bios have been released, voting April 21-23, unofficial results April 24

V. UBAC Update (Sen. Tom Scheiding / Sen. Aldayne Adlam)

1. UBAC meeting was mostly discussion of Executive Orders from federal government in relation to UH and UHWO.
2. RTRF funds will be able to help sustain operations.

VI. Faculty Senate Chair Report (Stan Orr)

1.  AI Policy Review (review requested by Glory Niles and Alan Rosenfeld)
2. ACCFSC has a representative on the President’s Advisory Council with respect to the Executive orders, and that’s Michelle Talquist from Manoa. See relevant links:
   1. EO Advisory Committee Agenda
   2. Press Release on President’s Advisory Council
   3. UH Advisory Council website has many useful links related to the Executive Orders.
   4. General Education – Megan Ross continues to represent UHWO with systemwide discussions

VII. Committee Reports

1. Academic Affairs and Planning – (Sen. Katie Landgraf)
   1. 1st agenda item we looked heavily into as a committee and about the minimum requirement of a student to obtain 30 credits at West Oahu. Currently the policy is that the student can obtain credit in any field, and it was proposed that maybe we change that to make sure they get 30 credits within the degree they’re seeking. However, we found many barriers to doing that. The Star System wouldn’t be able to handle that very well. It would have to be manually computed. And plus there really hasn’t been a documented scenario where a student graduated with West O`ahu certain degree and didn’t take the majority of their credits within that degree. So as a committee, we decided not to pursue it at this time.
2. Budget and Resources – (Brenda Machosky)
   1. Final opportunity to apply for research-related travel funding by April 9 at 11:55pm, accepting second, third, and highly unlikely fourth round applications. We plan to spend the money out.
      No word pulling back funds from this year; but did receive communication that next year might e a different story.
   2. If you have a conference from July 1 to October 15 or so, you may very well have to pay for that travel if you take it. There is not guarantee of reimbursement as has been typical in past years.
   3. Starting next year, we will have a Lamaku host site, but the applications, if we have them, will go through a Google classroom application, which is surprisingly similar to Laulima, which should be a pretty easy transition for the faculty at large.
3. Charter Review – Special Committee (Sen. Monique Mironesco)
   1. New language was proposed to clarify the lecturer role in the Faculty Senate charter. The proposed new language should be vetted, as was the previous language, socommittee members are taking that proposed language to their respective constituencies because we do have representation from everyone except for education. Therefore, we are waiting to get feedback on that before we meet again in April. We will then Incorporate any feedback, and then propose a resolution for a full Faculty Senate vote in at the May meeting.
4. Curriculum Committee – (Sen. Carina Chernisky)
   1. See actionable items in the report – APPROVED
   2. Note of appreciation for non-committee faculty who have joined meetings over the past year and noted on the committee reports. Faculty with proposals are invited to attend, and that can expedite the approval process as there can be discussion.
   3. Reminder that September 12, 2025 is the deadline for all Kuali proposals, including new course proposals and modifications to programs and concentrations, for Fall 2026 term and beyond. This will be a firm deadline.
      Kuali is on hiatus for the summer and re-open on August 1; however, faculty can input drafts.
5. Distance Education – (Sen, Katherine Aumer) – REV.
6. General Education – (Sen. Megan Ross) – no report
7. Program Review – (Sen.Joy Mahiko)
8. Sustainability – (Sen. Rouel Velasco) – no report
9. Student Affairs – (Sen. Keʻalohi Perry)
   1. APEC Proposal – Revised
      1. APEC Syllabus
   2. FS Resolution, updating FS Resolution 2017-3
      1. Vote:  Yay – 26 Nay 4
         Resolution passes

VIII. New Business

1. Vote for Faculty Senate Vice Chair 2025-27
   1. Sen. Katherine Aumer nominated, seconded
   2. Unanimous yay vote.
   3. Congratulations Sen. Aumer

IX. Adjourn

Time:   1:21pm