University of Hawaii-Manoa faculty members and students opposed to the core objectives of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation are demanding that UH leaders pull back the welcome mat they have extended to APEC leaders who are converging on Oahu in the coming weeks.

Anti-APEC forces are holding a noontime march today from McCarthy Mall to Bachman Lawn at University Avenue and Dole Street to demand the removal of a large sign placed there to welcome APEC attendees.

There are similar signs in other key sections of campus, including one in front of Kennedy Theatre across from the East-West Center, which hosted a pre-APEC conference on agriculture concerns last week.

A university spokesman said the signs were put up to show aloha to APEC attendees and are not designed to discourage people on campus from expressing their own views.

Hector Valenzuela, a professor of agriculture, said UH administrators "made a statement saying the university welcomes APEC, and I don’t think that’s a uniform perspective from the UH system population of faculty and students."

Valenzuela and other APEC opponents say the campus community should have been allowed to weigh in before the administration decided to put up the signs.

APEC and its members focus on deregulation and other ways of improving the business climate in their countries, often at the expense of individuals and the environment, Valenzuela said.

"It’s supposed to be a public university that reflects the position of the faculty and its students, not just ‘what the administration says, goes,’" he said.

UH-Manoa spokesman Gregg Takayama said the signs are intended to "welcome visitors and to inform students about APEC in the same spirit that President Obama chose Hawaii to host APEC — so that others would be exposed to our community’s sense of aloha."

UH has not endorsed APEC, and activities on campus express different viewpoints on the organization, he said, noting that a talk on campus Tuesday evening was given by Lori Wallach, an international critic of APEC’s trade policies.

Gaye Chan, chairwoman of the Art and Art History Department and also an Eating in Public co-founder, meanwhile, has raised objections to an APEC video contest for students sponsored by APEC interns in the Economics Department.

Chan said the tone of the contest, which is offering prizes, suggests broad support for APEC and focuses on its positive impact on Hawaii’s economy while ignoring its more controversial, global perspective.

Contest judges are expected to come from disciplines that would tend to support APEC, she said. "They’re clearly, blatantly manipulating public sentiment."

But APEC intern Sun Young "Kelly" Park said the contest welcomes submissions espousing all views about APEC. Contest judges for the entries, which are due Friday, have not yet been finalized, although they likely will be "mostly sponsors, but students, too."

UH Economics Department Chairwoman Denise Konan, who also serves as UH President M.R.C. Greenwood’s senior adviser for APEC, said UH is taking advantage of the opportunities provided by APEC’s decision to meet here, and is not discouraging opposing voices on campus from being heard.

"We see this as a really great opportunity for our students to learn more about the Asia-Pacific region and to benefit from all of the opportunities that APEC coming here creates," she said.

About 50 UH volunteers, including about 20 APEC interns, such as Park, who are obtaining course credit, are helping the local APEC host committee, the U.S. State Department, Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz’s office and even the leaders conference, Konan said.

Funding for APEC programs, as well as an APEC Night scheduled for Nov. 3 for UH students sponsored by the interns, is coming from the Economics Department and the schools of business and travel industry management, as well as the Associated Students of the University of Hawaii, not from the APEC Host Committee, a nonprofit support group headed by local business leaders, Konan said.

APEC Night is intended to educate students about the upcoming conference, Park said. Groups opposing APEC are not scheduled to participate, but have not approached event organizers, she said.

ASUH, the-UH Manoa undergraduate student senate, voted unanimously to approve $5,000 for APEC Night. The measure described APEC Night’s purpose, in part, as providing students with "a positive and accurate perspective on APEC."

ASUH President Anna Koethe said APEC interns made a presentation before requesting funding for APEC Night, and no concerns were raised by the senators or the public.