Activity One

Academic Advising

Native Hawaiian students are not currently provided consistent and sufficient academic advising to persist to complete many degree programs. While progress toward graduation is ultimately the responsibility of each student, University faculty, who hold the primary responsibility for academic advising, may typically see a student only at the end of each semester or during the week of orientation and registration at the beginning of each semester for new students. Although faculty members have access to students' academic records, the amount of time spent advising each student is often too limited to provide adequate help and they do not develop a nurturing relationship with their advisee. Moreover, new faculty members are often untrained in providing academic advising services. The General Advising Coordinator who assists nearly 300 unclassified students each year, is also limited in the amount of time and help provided each student. Native Hawaiian students who are interested in graduate and professional school are also unable to get adequate academic information or requirements for entrance into these programs. The following academic advising services and resources are proposed:

• Four peer advisors will be hired and trained to assist the General Advising Coordinator with advising native Hawaiian students who are undeclared majors, are declared majors and need additional advising assistance of need information and assistance on graduate and professional programs.
• Peer advisors will be hired and trained to provide quality counseling coupled with degree requirement advising.
• Peer advisor hired and trained to provide information relevant to graduate and professional degree programs.
• Increased hours of services to include evening hours.
• Increased access to advising materials and resources including use of the World Wide Web over the Internet.

Career Services

Native Hawaiian students do not have adequate access to information and support in career planning and preparation. Presently, one faculty and one professional staff member jointly coordinate these services on a part-time basis. Since they each have other counseling and administrative duties, service is only available for a few hours each week resulting in a very small number of students being reached. Limited support is also provided for students who desire assistance in obtaining internships or professional employment. The following career services are proposed:

• Four peer counselors to be hired and trained specifically to assist the Career and Employment Placement Specialist in guiding native Hawaiian students toward careers that are congruent with Hawaiian culture and values.
• Peer advisors to be hired and trained to be familiar with career information and resources and therefore able to provide high quality services consistently.
• Peer counselors to be hired and trained to provide outreach services targeting native Hawaiian students.
• Peer counselors to assist the Specialist in securing internships with native Hawaiian agencies, organizations, businesses and professionals in the community and in developing employment opportunities on and off-campus that meet the academic and career interests of native Hawaiian students.
• Peer counselors to assist the Specialist in designing a mentoring program for native Hawaiian students with UH Hilo native Hawaiian faculty and staff.
• Increased hours of service provision to include evening hours.
• Increased access to career information materials and resources including use of the World Wide Web.

Tutorial Services

Currently, native Hawaiian students do not enjoy access to adequate tutorial services primarily because these services are available through the Learning Center operated by Hawai‘i Community College. This despite the Learning Center being "shared" by UH Hilo. The Center emphasizes developing basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills. Native Hawaiian students having difficulty in their major course work such as Statistics (Biology, Psychology and Sociology majors) and Accounting (Business majors) are not able to receive tutorial assistance in these content areas. This is because there are no tutors, or too few tutors, trained to assist in these courses. Moreover, the time a student spends with a tutor is limited because of the large numbers of students who seek assistance. Tutoring is not usually provided on a one-on-one basis, and students are often unable to continue with the same tutor. Finally, the Learning Center does not systematically monitor the academic progress of students using the services.

Additionally, most native Hawaiian students lack adequate computer skills to be successful in classroom work. This includes basic word processing, spreadsheet preparation, and the ability to conduct on-line searches. At this time, the Learning Center does not provide such services. The following tutorial services and resources are proposed:

• Four peer tutors will be hired and trained to provide tutorial services for native Hawaiian students in content areas.
• Peer advisors to provide consistent quality of services and are knowledgeable about content areas most needed by native Hawaiian students.
• Peer tutors to conduct one-on-one tutoring with native Hawaiian students.
• Peer tutors to assist with monitoring the academic progress of native Hawaiian students.
• Peer tutors to provide assistance in basic computer skills.
• Increased hours of service to include evening hours.
• Increased access to learning modules by increasing the number of computers available in campus labs.

Support Services for Students in the College of Hawaiian Language

The College of Hawaiian Language (CHL) has the largest concentration of native Hawaiian students at 80% compared to 18% in the College of Arts and Sciences and 27% in the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Management. At the end the 1998/1999 academic year, 20% of the students in the College were in academic distress of which more than 50% were native Hawaiian students. Unfortunately, all five students who were dismissed for academic reasons were native Hawaiian.

The College of Hawaiian Language is a highly specialized school still in the process of building its faculty base and academic programs. It offers Hawaiian language and culture programs at both the baccalaureate and master degree levels. Support services needed by students enrolled in this college are somewhat unique from the general student population and other native Hawaiian students. We propose to hire, train, and place an Education Specialist in the College to assist these native Hawaiian students with academic advising, career services, and tutorial assistance in order to increase their retention and graduation rates.

[ Continue to Activity two ]