September 26, 1995
Dear Colleague:
Last October, I appointed an 18-member committee of faculty, students, and administrators to articulate a "Focus on Manoa" under the leadership of Senior Vice President and Executive Vice Chancellor Carol Eastman. I received their report in March 1995 and met with the group several times since then. I am pleased to distribute the committee's report to members of the University community for review and discussion. Your comments and advice can be submitted directly to Senior Vice President Eastman at Bachman Hall 202 (ceastman@uhunix).
The committee was charged with making recommendations to the president on the final steps needed to synthesize the Regents' Master Plan, Manoa's Long-Range Development Plan, and the priorities resulting from planning the 1995-97 budget. The goals of the "Focus on Manoa" group were to showcase Manoa as the place where active research and creative expression could be optimized to enhance professional, graduate, and undergraduate education; establish priorities for Manoa as the research university in our multi-campus system; clarify its identity as well as the steps needed to improve the student experience and develop its own "sense of place."
I express my gratitude to Senior Vice President and Executive Vice Chancellor Carol Eastman and all members of the committee for their dedication and commitment to Manoa and the University of Hawai`i, and for devoting considerable thought and attention to the "Focus on Manoa" project.
Sincerely,
Kenneth P. Mortimer
President, University of Hawai`i and
Chancellor, University of Hawai`i at Manoa
Enclosure
TO: The UH-Manoa Community
The following is the text of a letter to President Kenneth P. Mortimer from a group of faculty, students and administrators at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa. The group was convened to make recommendations regarding UH-Manoa's role in the evolving UH-system. This pamphlet is a reproduction of the 'focus' group's final report. Each member of the group signed the document compiled on its behalf by committee member and Architecture Professor Barry John Baker. It is the wish of the Focus on Manoa group that the views expressed here serve as a guide for Manoa's future.
Carol M. Eastman
Senior Vice President
Executive Vice Chancellor
March 16, 1995
The Focus on Manoa group has completed its work and offers the following report and views regarding the role of the University of Hawai`i at Manoa (Manoa) within the University of Hawai`i system (system) for your consideration. The group reviewed and discussed many published documents relating to Manoa and the system, including the Manoa and system mission statements. The theme that best characterizes our approach was borrowed from President Mortimer's published comments, in which he stressed the need for the University of Hawai`i to have a "sense of place". This particular theme links the principal points and recommendations discussed below and addresses what Manoa is and what we believe it should be, but with less advice on how to get from here to there.
The system Master Plan has two major goals:
Manoa's mission needs to be more clearly articulated and understood by the academic community and publicized and broadly shared, so that it is in turn understood by the larger community throughout Hawai`i. The mission is extremely diverse and of great importance to the system and the state.
The present mission statement notes that Manoa is singular in Hawai`i as the only "public research university." The statement stresses comprehensive and excellent graduate and doctoral education, exemplary advanced graduate and professional studies with outreach sites across the state for select graduate programs, excellence in research and undergraduate education, high quality teaching, and the importance of student involvement in scholarship and all aspects of campus life. The statement also requires outstanding research programs that add to global knowledge, particularly on issues relating to the Asia/Pacific region and Hawai`i; service to the community and state; and the utilization of the special advantages of Hawai`i's diversity and multicultural population. The Manoa campus offers greater diversity than all the rest of the system, with comprehensive undergraduate, professional, graduate education, research, and service of great importance to the state and nation. The mission statement should be formalized, published, widely distributed, and acted upon.
Manoa has a multifaceted and important service mission directed to specific professions, industries, and commercial activities, state populations, and issues important to the state. The service activities conducted under this mission are structured and organized, and involve education often offered to the public in an informal manner. Organized service is conducted by several colleges through faculty offering professional service, assisting with internships and training, continuing education, and serving as extension specialists, and county extension agents. The organized service mission of Manoa can be expected to change in scope and size over time in response to the professional, industrial, commercial, and social needs of the state and community.
Manoa must continue to work to increase the numbers of students within presently underrepresented populations. Despite significant efforts in this area, much remains to be done. It is essential that the community understand our commitment to accepting this challenge and be made aware of our positive activities in this important area.
Recognizing that the system must act on accepted priorities, Manoa as the research campus should continue to give resource priority to programs that enhance Manoa's research and educational role, serve the needs of the people of Hawai`i and the region, and support and develop scholarship relating to Hawai`i's unique history, culture, geography, and natural history, and its special place within the Asia/Pacific Region.
Attempts in the past have been made to prioritize academic programs, presumably with the objective of managing limited resources in a more rational fashion. However, there is little evidence of either success or institutional acceptance of this activity, due to lack of will and leadership. Any future prioritization attempt should recognize the important distinction between academic programs that have a high institutional priority, and programs that are important to the community at any given time due to market forces.
Resources will tend to flow to programs in market-driven areas. This is not necessarily the case in areas of high priority to the institution and the centrality of Manoa's mission, such as Arts and Sciences and Education, for example, which are absolutely essential to a liberal education and to the public education needs of the state, respectively.
During the last several decades there has been an apparent lowering of standards due to inadequately prepared entrants and unfortunate grade inflation. The level of undergraduate education must be raised and the undergraduate student experience enhanced. The best way to accomplish this is to raise exit standards with the requirement for increased student competence for the award of baccalaureate degrees.
The Manoa campus is not the best place to offer remedial education. Prospective students with academic deficiencies, students who need exposure to remedial education, and students who do not meet Manoa's entry requirements should be able to enroll at other two- and four-year campuses to properly prepare for Manoa's requirements. Manoa should cooperate with other campuses to develop new and innovative programs to help students reach the level of achievement that will allow them to transfer to Manoa at the earliest reasonable opportunity.
The Manoa undergraduate experience must continue to become more user-friendly. To ensure their success at Manoa, students must be encouraged to take full advantage of the range of student services that is available to them.
Faculty need to become more involved and sensitized to programs available to help students, and more responsive to the advising and counseling needs of undergraduates. The Manoa administrative procedures, such as advising and registration, must continue to be enhanced; this will require responsiveness and commitment from faculty and staff.
Recognizing that quality research and graduate education are the primary activities that distinguish Manoa within the system, every effort should be made to encourage increased state and external funding in support of research activities. The community will support this only if the symbiotic relationship between quality research and graduate education on the one hand and excellent undergraduate and professional education at all levels on the other, particularly in the area of teaching, can be demonstrated. We cannot assume that this is self-evident.
As excellent graduate students are essential for viable research projects, the successful recruitment, use, and retention of these students (an extremely important resource) cannot be underestimated. They bring prestige to and demonstrate the efficacy of the institution's graduate programs. To reach reasonable levels comparable to similar state institutions, the numbers of funded graduate and research assistantships should be doubled.
Since additional state financial resources are unlikely in the present fiscal environment, the methods by which graduate and research assistantships are allocated and supported should be reviewed. This presently scarce resource should not be made available to moribund and unproductive graduate programs at the expense of more productive ones.
Given the importance of research and graduate education, the role of the Manoa Graduate Division and its relationship to the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research and Graduate Education is ambiguous and perplexing. Graduate Division has no budget and little control over the quality and staffing of graduate programs. In addition, unlike other deans, the Dean of Graduate Division has little authority and no fiscal responsibility regarding graduate programs. The impotence of this arrangement should be remedied.
To enable Graduate Division to fulfill its proper function, it should be equal with the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and its relationship to the Manoa Executive Vice Chancellor, clarified. The Dean of Graduate Division should be a member of the Manoa Executive Council. Consideration should also be given to merging the Office of the Dean of Graduate Division with the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research and Graduate Education
Acknowledging Manoa's special research position and graduate responsibilities within the system does not detract from the importance of undergraduate and professional education. On the contrary, quality research and graduate education enhances and enriches undergraduate and professional education. Faculty with a commitment to excellent research are more likely to be enthusiastic and effective teachers who can add great value to the undergraduate experience. We must assist the community to clearly understand that Manoa's special research and graduate education responsibilities do not detract from the importance of undergraduate education on the Manoa campus, and clearly publicize that the former supports the latter.
Manoa should offer a different student experience from other system campuses through a greater involvement of undergraduates in the research process. The Manoa undergraduate experience should be unique in the system because of the strong research capability of the Manoa faculty. It is imperative that this strength be utilized and built upon, perhaps by introducing a capstone undergraduate experience such as a special course, research activity, professional internship, or senior project for graduation. All faculty should be encouraged to participate in this capstone experience by guiding individual undergraduates at this important stage of their academic life.
Manoa, like most comparable institutions, offers professional education in a wide variety of disciplines at the baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral levels. The value of excellent professional programs to an individual graduate's future financial success is well understood by the community, and because of this, professional programs that are considered successful enjoy strong community and state support.
The commercial activities of graduates from many professional disciplines are regulated by the state for the protection of public health and safety. Excellent professional education is therefore essential to the life of the community and to the economy and financial health of Hawai`i. Given the high cost of professional education, professional schools should monitor and respond to local and national trends and requirements, by implementing appropriate qualitative and quantitative changes in academic programs, to enhance the competency and marketability of graduates.
The symbiotic relationships among professional education, undergraduate and graduate education, and research are sometimes misunderstood by the community, who often see the parts of the educational triad as mutually exclusive or unrelated. Quality professional education thrives in an environment where excellent undergraduate and graduate education and research also exist, and where all parts offer mutual support. At Manoa it is essential that all parts of the triad support one another and that each, in turn, is adequately supported by the institution and the system.
It is essential that "pride of place" be developed and continually enhanced at Manoa. An unfortunate community view of the University of Hawai`i as a second-rate institution has emerged in the post-Hamilton era, and this view is often shared by faculty and students. We must do whatever is necessary to dispel negative community perception and this inaccurate notion in order to achieve the level of support Manoa requires to maintain a Carnegie Research University I classification. Despite significant academic success at Manoa, which has a leading national and international reputation in a number of fields, this mistaken perception is difficult to dispel.
Manoa is often perceived in the community as an institution principally staffed by mainland transplants unsympathetic to local culture, attitudes, and concerns, and with whom local people have no strong bond. It is imperative that faculty work to dispel this unfortunate perception wherever and whenever possible; community service offers excellent opportunities to do so.
Every effort should be made to recruit both Hawai`i-born academicians living and working elsewhere and Hawai`i residents to the faculty, using attractive employment packages, including spousal hiring, and housing and mortgage assistance. Academicians familiar with Hawai`i who return would know what to expect and would be less likely to see a move to Manoa as a temporary or expedient action prior to accepting an appointment elsewhere. More Hawai`i-born faculty would assist in shaping the community perception of Manoa as their university.
Within the community, Manoa has many distinguished and influential graduates together with strong supporters who, although they are graduates of other institutions, recognize Manoa's importance to the system and state, and also the institution's value to the community. Alumni and supporters should be enlisted in a formal outreach program and publicity effort to improve community support and involvement with Manoa.
Manoa must make itself more accessible to the community in ways that will encourage citizens to see that they are stakeholders in Manoa's future to the benefit of everyone in the community. Outreach to secondary schools can be enhanced, and special open days at Manoa can be developed and publicized that will draw the community to the campus to observe and engage in what we do. The campus could become "a university without walls" much more accessible to the community through enhanced distance education and life-long learning programs similar to the United Kingdom's Open University and Japan's University of the Air. Above and beyond an adequate budget, commitment and involvement of faculty and staff will be essential to the success of community outreach.
The educational experience should allow students to grow intellectually and be transformed while at Manoa to liberally educated individuals committed to life-long learning. This is primarily a faculty responsibility and can only happen if faculty are proud of their research and teaching, proud of their academic programs and students, and most importantly proud of what their students can become while under their tutelage at Manoa. All faculty, whatever their primary responsibilities, should consider themselves educators in whatever they do within the university and community.
Manoa should be a campus where faculty want to be and a place where they are proud to be. Manoa faculty morale must be improved. Faculty should be made aware that students often detect faculty discontent and interpret it as resentment by faculty that they are here. Poor faculty morale is certainly not limited to Manoa. This is a complex issue associated with personal and professional attitudes. Real problems exist that cannot be solved overnight; however every effort must be made to improve faculty morale. Faculty should be encouraged and made aware of their responsibility to be advocates for Manoa and to offer students the opportunity to enjoy a positive life-enriching educational experience at Manoa.
Efforts must continue to enhance the diversity of Manoa faculty (and staff). Ethnic and gender diversity has not substantially improved over the last decade, despite significant efforts to improve the situation. The problem is probably one of both recruitment and retention. Innovative programs should be developed to improve the recruitment of underrepresented minority and women faculty and to strongly support and mentor new faculty after appointment, in an attempt to improve retention. We should look to other comparable institutions that have been successful in this area and learn from their experiences.
All faculty are valuable, and a diverse faculty bring different skills, backgrounds, experience, and points of view to Manoa. The collective expertise of Manoa's faculty represents a tremendous resource for students of the university and the state. The richness and variety of faculty interests and skills serve many constituencies. Some faculty are excellent teachers; some are outstanding researchers; other faculty generate substantial external funding for complex interdisciplinary research and training projects; many combine both research and teaching skills; and many perform valuable community service that translates into economic and social benefits for the people of Hawai`i.
Manoa should make every effort to retain and support these exemplary faculty, and encourage their professional development and scholarly productivity. Faculty who offer significant additional value to the institution should be rewarded and supported for their activities and programs.
Merit raises represent one way to reward outstanding faculty. A permanent administrative process for such awards should be developed and added to the Manoa faculty retention policy. In addition, post-tenure review procedures should be strengthened to encourage greater faculty productivity. Post-tenure review could be timed to occur the year before each faculty member's potential sabbatical leave to focus career development and scholarly accomplishment.
Faculty achievement can also be rewarded by the provision of intramural seed funds in support of research and scholarship. Manoa should protect and enhance the Research and Training Revolving Fund and other intramural resources that allow faculty to earn released time, travel support, seed funds, equipment, and staff support for excellent research and training proposals and activities.
Rewards for first-class faculty will enhance academic programs, attract additional first-class faculty, and add value and prestige to Manoa and the system.
Over the last decade, the state has been extremely generous with capital improvements at Manoa. The campus community is greatly appreciative of this additional support. However it came after many years of little improvement and inadequate maintenance of existing campus buildings and infrastructure. It is essential that this positive direction be continued, and in the case of maintenance, accelerated.
The physical environment at Manoa must continue to be improved. Given the extraordinary natural environment of Hawai`i, it is ironic and unfortunate that so much can and should be done (as specified in the Long Range Development Plan). The physical environment can be substantially improved only if Manoa has the necessary resources and appropriate procedures, staff, and organization to support the proper design and development, procurement, and maintenance of buildings, site improvements, landscape, and infrastructure. The present Manoa organization and procedures should be reviewed and changed where necessary. A Manoa Physical Environment Committee should be formed to consider and advise the Manoa administration on master planning, building procurement, landscape and site development, and maintenance priorities.
The relationship between faculty and the administrative leadership of Manoa academic units is sometimes problematic, causing faculty to be apprehensive of actions by deans and directors. Some are seen by faculty as bureaucrats who are not fully integrated into the academic community, managing financial and human resources to the exclusion at times, of some important academic concerns. This may be largely a problem of perception that can be addressed and improved by better communication between unit leadership and departments and faculty.
Although we recognize that the present Manoa administrative arrangements are experimental and have yet to be properly implemented, they are also confusing, with unclear areas of authority and responsibility among the system, other campuses, and Manoa. From Manoa's perspective, the present administrative structure is unsatisfactory and potentially unwieldy, and does not serve Manoa as well as it should. It is essential that the President, the Senior Vice President and Executive Vice Chancellor, and the Senior Vice President for Research and Graduate Education review the present situation, negotiate appropriate arrangements that will allow Manoa to be properly managed, and institute change where necessary.
It is essential for the Manoa administration to be separated from the administration of the system, and for Manoa's senior administrators to be able to act as advocates for Manoa without other conflicting responsibilities and loyalties. Manoa should not be micromanaged. For focused academic leadership and clarity, the administration of Manoa must be given autonomy, authority, and the same budgetary freedom that the system wishes to have from the State administration.
Following our wide-ranging discussions, the Focus on Manoa group members recognized that many other important issues could have been singled out, addressed, and included in this response. We decided, for example, not to offer comment and advice on two important areas, athletic programs and student life on the Manoa campus. In the case of the latter, we recommend that you convene another group, similar to Focus on Manoa, perhaps Manoa Focus on Students, to explore this extremely important area.
Thank you for the opportunity to consider these extremely important matters and offer our comments. The group offered an extraordinary diversity of views. It consisted of 18 individuals with strongly held views, and this generated intense discussion at group meetings. While all members support the major themes of this open letter, it should be no surprise that none of us necessarily subscribes to every detail.
On the large issues, such as the conviction that Manoa faces serious challenges, the belief that we need to develop new ways of thinking about Manoa as an evolving institution in a changing community within national, regional and global environments, and the importance of the challenges noted in this document, we are unanimous.
We, the undersigned, hope that these comments are useful for your future deliberations. We all agree that our discussions reinforced our views on the importance of the University of Hawai`i at Manoa to the University of Hawai`i system and the future of the state of Hawai`i, and our concern for and dedication to this very special place.
Respectfully submitted,
Leonard Y. Andaya Barry John Baker
Director, Center for Professor of Architecture
Southeast Asian Studies
Byron W. Bender Catherine G. Cavaletto
Professor of Linguistics Associate Professor of Horticulture
Carol M. Eastman John P. Dolly
Senior Vice President and Dean, College of
Executive Vice Chancellor Education
Shawn Eppe Rockne C. Freitas
President, Associated Vice President for
Students of the University University Relations
of Hawai`i
Frederick C. Greenwood A. Pua Hopkins
Director, Pacific Biomedical Acting Dean of Students
Research Center
Kenneth Y. Kaneshiro E. Alison Kay
Director, Center for Professor of Zoology
Conservation Research and and Chair, Manoa Faculty
Training Senate
Nancy Davis Lewis Juanita C. Liu
Associate Dean, College of Professor of Travel
Social Sciences Industry Management
David S. McClain Peter J. Mouginis-Mark
Walker Professor of Business Associate Director,
Enterprise and Professor of Hawai`i Space Grant
Financial Economics and Program
Institutions
James Palmer Colleen O'Brien Sathre
President, Graduate Student Vice President for
Organization Planning and Policy