The University of California system, one of the partners seeking to build the Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea, has invested more than $68 million in the TMT project as of April 30, according to a UC financial report.
Students with the
#UCDivestTMT campaign obtained the report showing the UC’s financial contributions to the TMT over the last six years using California public-records law.
The report found that the contributions were divided between the university’s private funds and grants received from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
“As the nation’s premier research institution, UC feels it is important to support the scientific mission of TMT to peer deep into space for answers to fundamental questions about the universe,” UC Office of the President spokesman Stett Holbrook told the Daily Californian, the student newspaper of UC Berkeley. “It will enable a new frontier of discoveries about the contents, nature and evolution of the universe including the search for life on other
planets.”
The students, who held a news conference Thursday, have been campaigning to persuade the UC to divest from the TMT, arguing the land is sacred to Native
Hawaiians and that it is unethical for the university to support the project.
The proposed $2.4 billion cutting-edge telescope has been on hold for five years, the victim of regulatory hurdles and Native Hawaiian protest.
In addition to the University of California, the TMT partners are Caltech and
science agencies in India, China, Canada and Japan.
Meanwhile in Hawaii the state is planning to launch an independent review of the University of Hawaii’s oversight of Mauna Kea.
The review will focus on UH’s compliance with the Mauna Kea Comprehensive Management Plan, which was approved by the Board of Land and Natural Resources in 2009.
The action comes as the university also conducts a mandatory update of the same plan, which guides the management of roughly 11,000 acres that UH leases from the state, including
the 525-acre astronomy
precinct.
At the same time, the university is working on yet another plan to restructure the internal management of the UH-managed lands on Mauna Kea.
That plan, which among other things would bring separate Mauna Kea management entities under one office, was deferred Thursday by the UH Board of
Regents for further consultation and modification.
More than 2,000 people submitted testimony opposing the plan and criticizing the university for rushing through the process without getting enough community input.
In its testimony, KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance said the plan is an effort to position the university for an extension of the summit’s master lease, which expires in 2033.
“We oppose this proposal because Maunakea deserves to be cared for with aloha and protection and UH has shown over the last 50 years that they are neither willing nor able to do this,” KAHEA said.
Greg Chun, UH executive director of Mauna Kea stewardship, said the university is moving to streamline management not just because it will help with the lease extension, but because it’s the right thing to do.
Among other things, the plan calls for bringing the Office of Maunakea Management, which answers
to UH-Hilo, and Maunakea Support Services, which
answers to UH Manoa, under one office, the Center for Maunakea Stewardship, which is part of UH Hilo and is currently run by Chun.
Chun said the proposal aims to align competing priorities with one focus.
“This proposed management structure will improve transparency and lines of accountability, and clarify UH’s oversight and stewardship roles in the broader Mauna Kea community,” Chun said.
As for DLNR’s independent review, Chun said he was part of the conversation that set up the project, and he fully supports it.
“We’re gathering information for the consultant now,” he said.
According to DLNR, the review will evaluate the efficiency of UH management and specifically its Office
of Mauna Kea Management, and will assess the management of cultural and natural resources on the mountain.
Ku‘iwalu Consulting has been hired for a review that will include “a community engagement process to gather as much input as possible on UH’s implementation of the Comprehensive Management Plan.” The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
