Chancellor’s Message

Chamber Connection

August 2007

As promised in a previous column, I’d like to give you an update on this year’s legislative season. Many of you in the Chamber played a big role in generating momentum for UH Hilo at the Legislature this year by writing letters of support, participating in capitol walk arounds and other activities. There are many challenging issues faced by the business sector, and I am grateful for the way everyone rallied around UH Hilo. Thank you for your hard work done on the university’s behalf.

I am pleased to report that the State released $6 million to provide modular buildings for years two through five of our new Pharmacy program. We’re excited to welcome the inaugural class of 90 students this fall with 45 students from Hawai‘i and 45 students from the mainland and elsewhere in the world.

We just received news that our College of Pharmacy has achieved the first step in its accreditation process. The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education has granted the college Pre-Candidate Status. Ours is the first college recognized by the ACPE to offer the Doctor of Pharmacy degree in the state of Hawai‘i. UH Hilo’s Pharmacy program is a good example of the ways in which UH Hilo is answering state and national needs for health care professionals.

The State also appropriated $26 million for renovations and additions to our outdated Student Services Building. With our growing enrollment, which has increased some 33 percent since 1997 to 3,517 students in Fall 2006, the building was in great need of some “catch up.” The improvements will allow for consolidation of services, giving students a one-stop location for all their needs including confidential counseling, academic advising, financial aid, admissions, tutoring, career services, disabled student programs, women’s programs, registrar, and business office. In addition, administration offices that have been housed at the old university clinic for over a decade will also be moved to the expanded building.

The North Hawai‘i Education and Research Center, a community outreach project located in the rural town of Honoka‘a about 40 miles north of the main campus, got a boost with a $2.9 million appropriation for the second phase of its construction. This will provide for a two-story building for classrooms and offices, equipment for computer rooms and parking. An additional $234,000 in the state budget will provide for four additional positions at the center.

Community outreach projects such as the center in Honoka‘a are an essential component of UH Hilo’s commitment to be the “engine” for our island’s socio-economic advancement. The North Hawai‘i Education and Research Center provides distance learning for UH Hilo programs, higher education outreach, lifelong learning classes, a field research base, and serves as a community center. Further, this type of facility fosters a sense of place, identity and community pride for rural residents.

For more information about these and other UH Hilo projects, please visit my website at www.uhh.hawaii.edu/news/latc.

Thank you again for your dedication to the advancement of higher education on our island. Great things happen when everyone works together to move UH Hilo forward.

Mahalo and Aloha.