Preserve separate UH School of Pacific and Asian Studies

For nearly 100 years Hawaii has been an internationally recognized center for the study of both Asia and the Pacific Islands. Led by campus and community visionaries throughout its history, the university and the state have leveraged this jewel into one of the outstanding Asia Pacific programs in the country; indeed in the world.

While most campuses across the United States had all but ignored these regions, Hawaii, step by step, emerged as a beacon and a source of knowledge for the study Asia and the Pacific.

But that progress and its future is now challenged by the Board of Regents and the administration of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

With little discussion, the highest officials at the University of Hawaii are contemplating eliminating the home of these programs, the School of Pacific and Asian Studies (SPAS), by absorbing it into a larger unit. While we applaud thoughtful plans for improving the delivery of education, this proposal will bring little benefit to the campus, the state, and the students who come from Hawaii and around the world to study Asia and the Pacific.

It is an easy ploy at “streamlining” that may find resonance on campuses across the continental U.S., but it only undermines a Hawaii success story. As envisioned by countless UHM strategic plans, SPAS needs to remain a separate unit on the UH-Manoa campus.

With broad-based community support, the university through SPAS has built eight specialized centers. These centers grew through close cooperation with community members who have created endowments that provide scholarships, faculty positions, cultural events and cutting-edge research.

The importance of these centers goes well beyond Hawaii’s borders, and have been generously endowed by international foundations. The centers also serve as a source of pride for our allies and supporters throughout the region.

The U.S. Department of Education has similarly recognized and supported three areas under SPAS leadership, naming them as National Resource Centers to forward the study of East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. Through these coveted and highly competitive grants, Hawaii leads the nation in the study of Asia and the Pacific, areas from which many of Hawaii’s people came.

As former deans, we know how resources are distributed. We fully expect that with the proposed assimilation into a generic college, competition for limited resources from within the college will erode the viability of Hawaii’s Asia and Pacific studies. Finally, placed in a generic college under leadership unfamiliar with the region and history, how will Asia and Pacific studies be enhanced?

In 2007 the University of Hawaii administration wisely formed Hawaiinuiakea: the School of Hawaiian Knowledge. By allowing Hawaiian studies to emerge as a separate entity on the UHM campus, it signaled the primacy of Hawaiian studies to our community and our nation. Denying SPAS the ability to enjoy the same support sends the wrong message about the importance of Asia and the Pacific to the university and the state.

At a time when U.S. relations with the Pacific and Asia are so delicate, the School of Pacific and Asian Studies should be strengthened, not subsumed. SPAS was not built in one day but through nearly a century of state, university, national and international support. In the process, it has achieved worldwide recognition.

SPAS has brought exceptional students and scholars to Hawaii and works closely with the East-West Center, and state and federal governments and governments around the Asia Pacific region. In short, SPAS works well. Why dismantle it?

Edgar A. Porter is former dean of the School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies; Edward J. Shultz is former dean of the School of Pacific and Asian Studies.