Faculty, staff urge University of Hawaii to reject plans for Thirty Meter Telescope

With the legal fight against the Thirty Meter Telescope appeared to be over, University of Hawaii faculty, staff and students took their case to the public Wednesday in a press conference on the UH Manoa campus.

They vowed to continue the fight against the $1.4 billion project while demanding UH President David Lassner, the Board of Regents and TMT International Observatory terminate their agreements for construction of the planned $1.4 billion project.

As about 200 TMT foes stood on the steps of UH Manoa’s Hawaii Hall, members of the university’s faculty and staff not only described the university’s pursuit of the TMT as a violation of ethical research, but urged UH administrators to reject the current draft of administrative rules governing public and commercial activities on the mountain.

“The rules target and, in effect, criminalize those seeking to protect and sustain the mauna and restrict Native Hawaiian spiritual and customary practices,” said Konia Freitas, director of Manoa’s Center for Hawaiian Studies.

Wednesday’s event comes as the TMT legal battle apparently ended following the state Supreme Court’s refusal last week to reconsider its October ruling in support of the project.

But Davianna McGregor, UH ethnic studies professor, said the fight has only begun.

“This is just the beginning for faculty and staff to organize systematically and across all the campuses to challenge the university,” she said.

Organizers noted that TMT construction-related activity has led to 57 arrests, including those of UH faculty and staff members.

‘Call for respect of place’

Political Science Department Chairwoman Noelani Goodyear- Ka‘opua was among a handful of faculty members who drafted a statement that was read aloud Wednesday. It described the university’s quest for the TMT as a breach of ethical research standards that call for respect of place and the community affected by the research.

“The arrests of dozens of people, particularly the native people of this land, for research infrastructure is an unacceptable cost for any kind of research and is a glaring contradiction to what many of us teach our students in a wide variety of disciplines about ethical relationship between research, researchers, place and community,” the statement says.

Goodyear-Ka‘opua said the university’s support for the project also undermines UH’s goal of becoming a model indigenous- serving institution.

“It causes harm to a sacred mountain, to the indigenous people, to cultural practitioners who already spent years in legal processes trying to highlight that,” she said.

Freitas said the university has given astronomy priority over its obligation to properly care for Mauna Kea’s natural and cultural resources.

Instead, the university should give priority to protecting the mountain, respecting cultural practitioners and working to heal the degradation that already has occurred, she said.

Among the throng Wednesday afternoon were faculty and staff members from various UH campuses, plus dozens of students and other prominent TMT foes, such as Mauna Kea Hui petitioner Pua Case of Hilo, Walter Ritte of Molokai and cultural educator Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu.

Some demonstrators carried signs that read, “How many Hawaiian students are you willing to arrest on Mauna Kea?” and “See you on the Mauna.”

Jon Osorio, dean of UH Manoa’s School of Hawaiian Knowledge, said the university needs to “come to its senses” and start preparing rules of engagement for how it plans to respectfully treat those who will gather on the mountain to object.

“I do believe Native Hawaiians are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the mountain,” he said, “because that’s what you do for someone you love.”

‘We are listening’

UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said the university remains committed to seeing the cutting-edge telescope come to life.

“Even though the university doesn’t agree, we are listening and want to do a better job,” he said.

As for the proposed administrative rules, Meisenzahl said they aim to protect cultural and natural resources to better manage public access and address tour operators on the mountain.

“They do not provide for criminal sanctions and certainly not for Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners,” he said.

Meisenzahl added: “The TMT project has followed all of the legal requirements that has included more than 20 public hearings, an extensive environmental review process, two contested case hearings and has been upheld in the state Supreme Court. The process has taken 10 years and the project will continue to do all that is legally required and more. As PUEO, the Native Hawaiian group from H awaii Island that supports TMT stated during the Supreme Court oral arguments, the project will be done in a manner that is respectful and pono.”