Wainaku Executive Center, Hilo

Those of you here tonight represent several generations of Big Islanders, so I don’t have to tell you how far UH Hilo has come since our founding 60 years ago. A few of you even helped get us started, and you can probably tell our history better than I can.

Some of you remember the tiny two-year extension program in the Hilo Boarding School, which grew into a small undergraduate liberal arts college, which evolved into the multi-faceted university we are today.

You’ve watched us take advantage of our island’s unique geographical setting to develop signature programs in marine science, astronomy, and conservation biology. You’ve seen us add six master’s programs and two doctoral programs. You’ve seen us double our enrollment, and burst at the seams!

Some of you may have joined your children or grandchildren for exciting adventures at our ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center. Or you may have hired our graduates and experienced firsthand the powerful economic impact of UH Hilo.

I wonder, however, how many of you have had an opportunity to look beyond these achievements and see some of the critical problems that the university is working to solve.

Just 30 years ago there were fewer than 50 children under the age of 18 who were able to speak the Hawaiian language. Did you know that thanks to efforts like those of our UH Hilo faculty– who wrote curriculum and started the state’s first Hawaiian immersion schools– the Hawaiian language is being saved from extinction? And that today, representatives from other indigenous populations come to Hilo to learn from our example how to revive their own languages and cultures?

Did you know that despite Hawai‘i’s reputation as a tropical paradise, the waters around this island have become a big dumping ground for all kinds of non-biodegradable plastic and other garbage? At UH Hilo, we’re starting a new focus on this critical issue of marine debris and its toxic impact on marine life and human health. We’re raising awareness and challenging our students to look for permanent solutions to this global pollution problem.

The crisis in medical care here on this island is in the news everyday, and the national shortage of nurses and pharmacists is only making this problem more critical. Are you aware that UH Hilo is working to address both of these shortages? Six new nursing faculty positions added this year will enable us to graduate 50 percent more nurses– and not just any nurses, but nurses who are trained to deliver care appropriate to culturally and ethnically diverse populations.

And just this fall, we’ve accepted our first class of 90 students into our new College of Pharmacy. When these students graduate in four years, they can count on receiving immediate offers of employment and attractive starting salaries. All of us in Hawai‘i– especially those in underserved rural areas– will benefit as these newly trained nurses and pharmacists spread out across the state to help deliver medical services.

These are inspirational snapshots, but there is so much more that UH Hilo wants and needs to do. And there is so much more that the young people of our island, and the future of our state, deserve.

Let me share some of my hopes and dreams.

I want us to build on UH Hilo’s success and enrich the quality of the academic experience we offer our students. To do this we need to do 3 things: invest in our faculty, support our students, and enhance our facilities.

Faculty are the bedrock of any university. A single professor can impact hundreds or even thousands of students over the course of a career. If UH Hilo is to compete nationally and internationally for the best and brightest faculty– and if we’re to keep them here after they’ve come and built a reputation– we need the assurance of private funds to augment our state budgets and protect us from downturns in the economy. My goal for this campaign is to create at least one permanent faculty endowment for each of our colleges.

Student access is also important. When I say that 68 percent of UH Hilo students are the first in their families to go to college, people can’t believe it. Or that 65 percent of our students rely on financial aid or loans to pay for their education. Every spring, just 3 weeks after the deadline for financial aid applications, we run out of private scholarship funds. If UH Hilo is to continue to serve our needy but deserving population, we must dramatically increase the funds we have available for scholarship support. My goal is to increase our endowment for scholarship support by $2.5 million, or another 100 endowed scholarships.

We like to say that UH Hilo has “classrooms that money can’t buy” because of the rich physical environment all around us. But we need to match the excellence of that “natural living laboratory” with state-of-the-art facilities for teaching and learning. We also need affordable housing for our growing student population. My priority goal for this campaign is a new building with classrooms, and practice and research labs for the College of Pharmacy. And we want to build a marine science field station and education center on our five acres in Puako, to expand our ocean research and outreach in the natural sciences.

UH Hilo would not be where we are today without the support of the greater Hawai‘i island community, represented by those of you gathered here tonight. We are grateful for your vote of confidence in us. Private gifts allow UH Hilo to offer programs and services that would not be possible with state funds and tuition dollars alone.

Barry Taniguchi talked earlier about the importance of UH Hilo to his hometown, but he was too modest to tell you about the endowment which he established at the university in honor of his grandparents, the founders of KTA. The Taniguchi Memorial Fund is invested in the support and development of faculty innovations in teaching and scholarship, something we could not do without a far-sighted supporter like Barry.

Ben Inouye is the president of the Hilo High School Class of 1940. Under his leadership, 17 years ago, this class used the occasion of their 50th reunion to start a scholarship endowment, to support Hilo High graduates attending UH Hilo and Hawai‘i Community College. Ben and his classmates are still going strong and still raising money. Today, their endowed fund has grown to nearly $100,000 and more than 30 students have benefited from the generosity of the amazing Class of 1940!

This very morning I signed a gift agreement with a UH alumnus, Dr. Don Rubinstein, who is endowing a new scholarship at UH Hilo, to benefit students from the tiny island of Fais in Micronesia. Dr. Rubinstein tells us that in the past 40 years there have only been two Fais students who have earned undergraduate degrees, but with his help, UH Hilo will make a radical change in that statistic!

Finally, UH Hilo is grateful for the sponsorship of the Hawai‘i island business community. They step forward to support everything from Vulcan Athletics, to the Performing Arts Center, to the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, to the Mookini Library. If I can thank just one– a company which has supported every one of these causes and more– I’d like to acknowledge HPM, represented here tonight by Robert Fujimoto and Jason Fujimoto. As you all know, HPM is a legendary Hilo institution which is 86 years old, almost as old as the University of Hawai‘i! Thank you, HPM.

I hope that you are as inspired as I am by these powerful examples of ways that private donations have moved our university forward.

Thank you for being with us here tonight, as you’ve been with us throughout our history. I invite you to be part of our bright future as well.

Mahalo and aloha.