In yesterday’s Hawaii Tribune-Herald:

The University of Hawaii at Hilo will use a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to build a campus resource center for Pacific Islanders.

The two-year project will turn a third-floor Campus Center lanai into an enclosed 2,700-square-foot facility where multicultural training and workshops can be conducted. The Center for Pacific Islander Education and Retention will also house a library of cultural education material, with an overall aim of increasing success and retention of the university’s approximately 200 Pacific Islander students.

Students will be able to use the center for peer mentoring, tutoring, networking or to relax.

“We seemed to be lacking a gathering place for these students to call their own, and where visiting scholars and performers can use the space — something less stuffy than a classroom,” said Jim Mellon, UH-Hilo’s director of student development.

The lanai being eyed for the space has been under-used and isn’t a functional space, Mellon said. The grant specified that the money must be used to renovate an existing facility. But it does also allow $10,000 to be used on art, Mellon said.

“I think there’s room in the grant to furnish the place, buy some electronic equipment and some art to put on the wall,” Mellon said.

The project is in line with UHH goals of bolstering the study of Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and indigenous cultures and a system-wide goal of being a “training hub of Oceania,” Mellon said.

“One of the things that our graduates say is that they learned a lot about people from other parts of the world,” Mellon said. “I would envision this as a place for all students.”

Congresswoman Mazie Hirono announced the first installment of the two-year grant on Monday. Planning and design will begin in the fall, with the center opening in 2010.

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