Remarks by Chancellor Rose Tseng
Ho‘oulu Terrace

Aloha and Welcome to the Spring 2008 semester!

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to join us today.

Before I start, I’d like thank faculty and staff for advising our students this semester. I appreciate your dedication and commitment. Your Spirit of Aloha makes UH Hilo a very special place!

Today, I’d like to share some highlights of the university with you.

As background, when I came to UH Hilo in 1998, I surveyed our faculty and staff and the community. Together, we established three major goals: academic excellence, enrollment growth, and resource development.

The most important highlight today is UH Hilo’s commitment to excellence. It’s a commitment to high-quality programs and the best education possible. It’s a commitment to build strong communities, a thriving economy and professional workforce for the 21st century.

Thanks to your vision and hard work, UH Hilo has transformed into a comprehensive university with 36 baccalaureate, six master, and two doctoral degree programs.

Our six master programs are in response to our state’s social, economic and cultural needs. Thanks to your dedication, the programs were approved so we can bring dynamic education to our students.

Yesterday, Hawai‘i Community College Chancellor Rockne Freitas and I signed an articulation agreement. It moves us toward seamless transfer from the community college to UH Hilo four-year degree.

Academic excellence is our foundation. You are the best teachers, and your aloha spirit creates a very special learning environment. Our island inspires the spirit of discovery, and many of our programs make the most of our living laboratory-culture, science, art, and more.

With our unique environment, we have developed programs integrating science, culture and technology to prepare students to meet global challenges.

WASC [Western Association of Schools and Colleges] recognized our excellence when our accreditation was reaffirmed for ten years. We were commended for our “bold vision of service to the Hawaiian community,” and our efforts to “transform from a liberal arts college to a comprehensive university that serves the workforce needs of Hawai‘i.”

We are continuing our trend of enrollment increases. We have increased our local students, Native Hawaiians, and Filipinos. We remain the only campus in the UH system to show steady enrollment increases for the past ten years!

We have done well in delivering strong academic programs and attracting new students. But we also face challenges in our services because funding has not kept pace with our development.

For resources, we submit a budget request every year. This year is the second year of the state’s two-year budget cycle. There were CIP approved in the last cycle, and we are asking for only the most critical health and safety items this year.

We have asked the legislature for the following:

• College of Hawaiian Language building.
• Utility grid upgrade.
• Covered basketball court at Student Life Center.
• Soccer and softball fields.
• Funding for five rangers at Mauna Kea Reserve.
• Staff for campus security and emergency response.
• Staff and equipment to provide field study safety and safety education.
• Staff for health services, substance abuse prevention.
• Safety officer at farm, and new agricultural equipment to ensure safety.
• Six faculty for Conservation Biology master’s program. These positions were previously funded by EPSCoR grants through the National Science Foundation.

We are also working with the UH system to ensure future resources. I want to thank the Long Range Budget Planning Committee, and faculty and staff who attended meetings last Friday with the system vice president for academic planning and policy. I am extremely proud of the quality of the discussions.

Another major resource for the university is grant funding. When I arrived nine years ago, UH Hilo was bringing in only about $3 million annually. Since then, you have brought in major grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, NASA, USDA, and others. We had a little dip this past year from about $20 million in activity, but we have had significant increases over the last nine years, and currently top $16 million. Congratulations for all your hard work with grant funded projects!

Our grant programs for research and education meet island, state, national and international needs. These programs prepare our students to become productive global citizens of the 21^st century.

Some programs are:

• Student Support Services Program
• Kipuka, Native Hawaiian Student Support Program
• NSF EPSCoR
• Research Infrastructure in Minority Institutions
• Keaholoa STEM
• Pacific Internship Programs for Exploring Science
• Research Experiences for Undergraduates
• UH Hawaiian Internship Program
• Micronesia & American Samoa Student Internship Program
• Minority Biomedical Research Support
• UH Space Grant Consortium

EPSCoR is a National Science Foundation grant program to develop science and technology infrastructure for the entire state. I’m proud UH Hilo took the lead in 2001 to have Hawai‘i declared an EPSCoR state. It’s brought in over $40 million to the state for research. Because of the success of our program, we were selected to host the national EPSCoR conference, held last November at Waikoloa. About 400 people attended, including 30 NSF program officers, department heads, and directors from around the country. We had some very good discussions.

Now I’d like to share some recent highlights with you from each of the colleges.

The College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management is working on an agreement with the county to develop biofuel crops. The goal is new energy and new jobs. There’s a fundraiser called “Cowboy Up!” on February 23 to raise money to finish the arena at Pana‘ewa farm.

Highlights for the College of Arts and Sciences stretch from Mauna Kea to New York City. UH Hilo’s 36-inch teaching telescope is in the final stages of development. It will provide incredible hands-on learning for our students. Teams from our Computer Science department took first and second place in the state at the 2007 programming contest. And the UH Hilo Showcase Singers performed at Carnegie Hall on Monday! They were invited, with other choral groups from around the country, to perform the Requiem by Karl Jenkins.

The College of Business and Economics is looking forward to a new bachelor’s degree in Accounting this Fall. The college’s first community workshop in January was attended by 32 Hilo business people. We signed a Degree Pathway Agreement with Hawai‘i Community College for Associate of Arts program with emphasis in Business.

The College of Continuing Education and Community Service is serving the entire island with 114 non-credit courses. The college’s $2.8 million North Hawai‘i Education and Research Center in Honoka‘a is now complete.

The College of Hawaiian Language has record enrollments this year. They are becoming more and more recognized as the most advanced language revitalization program in United States. The college’s first doctoral cohort in Hawaiian and Indigenous Language Revitalization has finished their course work. After exams in March, they start writing their dissertations!

At the College of Pharmacy, the inaugural class of 91 had their White Coat Ceremony. And planning is underway for the interim building– their home base until the permanent college is built.

I have great news to share about Athletics. UH Hilo’s women’s cross country team repeated as Pacific West Conference Champions! Coach Jaime Guerpo was named women’s Coach of the Year. Our women’s volleyball team also captured Pac West championship and swept all major awards for 2007! Coach Bruce Atkinson was named Pac West Coach of the Year.

The Student Life Center is scheduled to open in April! Our students will finally have a wide range of health and fitness activities on campus.

Our $28 million Science and Technology Building it scheduled to begin construction in February.

The Library is in the final phase of renovation. Thank you for your patience during the renovations. I’d like to commend the library staff for moving several times with a minimum of disruption to services. Renovations should be finished this summer.

Our Performing Arts Center is very busy. This year’s spring musical is Grease in April. And … you can still try out for a part! Auditions are tonight at 7 p.m. at the theatre. The UH Hilo Orchestra will perform in February. There are many more exciting shows planned for spring season. The full program is on the Web.

The Office of Technology and Distance Learning is bringing us into the 21^st century with support and services. They established an Instructional Technology Training Lab to help faculty using technology in their course development. They also continue to upgrade campuswide wireless connections.

UH Hilo excels at community outreach. We build strong partnerships with community, county, state, federal and international stakeholders. One example is UH Hilo’s ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, inspiring Hawai‘i’s youth to explore modern science and ancient Hawaiian culture. Did you know that ‘Imiloa is the only planetarium theater in the world with true 3-D images? I hope you go see the new movie “Dawn of the Space Age” by Mirage3D. It makes you feel like you’re flying among the stars!

The Office of Mauna Kea Management oversees the daily activities on Mauna Kea summit.

The BOR [Board of Regents] approved the lease for the China-U.S. Center, giving us needed housing for 800 students! This project is a great example of public-private partnership to benefit students, faculty and staff, our island community, and the entire state. I want to thank everyone who has worked so hard on this project.

We’ve come a long way. But if we had adequate resources, UH Hilo could better address the educational needs of underserved populations of the entire state. I am eager to continue working with you to transform UH Hilo into a world-class comprehensive university for the benefit of our island, state, and beyond.

That concludes our program today. Thank you again for joining us. Thank you, everyone, for working together to build UH Hilo into the best comprehensive university. We have achieved much, but there is still much to do. When we all work together, great things can happen!