UH has been catalyst for progress in Hawaii

“I understand that research in the biosciences is important, but why do we need another book on Shakespeare?”

That’s what a prominent public figure in Hawaii recently asked one of us.

Whenever we get a question like this, our hearts sink — but such skeptical inquiries remind us that faculty and administrators often fail to communicate the value of the University of Hawaii at Manoa to the taxpayers who support it.

The standard arguments to justify public support for higher education are familiar to most of us: Universities provide training for future workers; they help to spawn new and potentially lucrative industries; they produce educated, well-rounded citizens.

But many people whose tax dollars fund UH-Manoa will never attend the university as a student or see any direct financial benefits from its research projects. What’s the value of a public research university to them?

Here, we offer three examples of how the Manoa campus has made Hawaii into the place it is today — a better place for all of us, we think, than it would have been without the contributions made by the university’s faculty, students and staff.

Our examples could come from the pathbreaking work of scientists who are shifting the national conversation on climate change and alternative energy, but the university’s value also comes from research in the arts, social sciences and humanities.

Throughout Hawaii’s history, the research and community activism of UH-Manoa’s academic community — its students and faculty — has rippled out to define some of the most important debates we have as a community.

To begin, in the years following World War II, the university played an instru mental role in the democratic revolution that continues to shape politics in Hawaii.

UH-Manoa provided the opportunity for future leaders like Spark Matsunaga, Dan Inouye and Patsy Mink to exchange ideas and to develop their early enthusiasm for politics. They were inspired by their teachers like Professor Allan Saunders to challenge the Big Five oligarchy and to make Hawaii into the more equal and tolerant place it is today.

Fast forward to the 1970s, as Native Hawaiian researchers and students on the Manoa campus brought about the resurgence of Hawaiian language and culture.

Hokule‘a and the Polynesian Voyaging Society began as a research project led by Professor Ben Finney in cooperation with community leaders Tommy Holmes and Herb Kawainui Kane. Its triumphant success helped to inspire new research and activism by faculty and students actively engaged in scholarship on Hawaiian history.

Today, revived interest in food security has emerged out of concerns over climate change and renewed research on Native Hawaiian agricultural systems. These efforts have benefited all of us who recognize the importance of providing fresh food to everyone — and who enjoy farmers’ markets, farm-to-table restaurants, and community-supported agriculture.

Kamuela Enos, who has degrees from UH-Manoa’s Hawaiian Studies program and the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, helped to build Ma‘o Farms. His university training provided him with some of the skills to develop this pioneering experiment in community-supported agriculture that provides healthy produce to residents of the Waianae Coast — and to some of Honolulu’s finest restaurants.

As with any large organization, the Manoa campus has its share of problems. Yet for every “Wonder Blunder,” there are dozens of examples to show how the work of faculty and students contribute in vital ways to the life of our island community.

We recognize that supporting a research university is an expensive proposition. But what if UH-Manoa didn’t exist? Would these political and cultural achievements have been possible?

We think the answer is no.

ON VACATION:

“On Politics” columnist Richard Borreca is off this week.

Debora Halbert is associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Hawaii-Manoa; Colin Moore is associate professor of political science and director of the Public Policy Center at UH-Manoa.