Plan to ‘reimagine’ University of Hawaii is considered

First steps toward “reimagining” the whole 10- campus University of Hawaii system are underway, with a proposed new focus on luring and training more local residents to the fields in which the state most urgently needs workers, such as health care, education and technology.

Creating stronger online learning and improving the university’s relationship with the Native Hawaiian community so UH can become a “model Indigenous­-serving institution” are also among the proposed goals listed in a wide-­ranging vision document being considered by the university’s Board of Regents.

Titled “Reimagining and Repositioning the University of Hawai‘i: Navigating Together to a Sustainable Future for UH and Hawai‘i,” the proposal is meant to set the framework as UH works to create its next six-year strategic plan for the entire system, include the Manoa, West Oahu and Hilo campuses and seven community colleges.

Board Chairman Randolph Moore told fellow regents during their Feb. 17 meeting that setting a vision for the university is “one of the top three most important things that the Board of Regents ever does. … This will affect what the university does and what it becomes over a period that will extend beyond most of our tenure.”

The proposal came up for a vote at the meeting, but after several regents said it needs more concrete goals and a tighter focus, it was unanimously referred to the board’s Committee on Academic and Student Affairs for refining. The full board meets next March 17.

The nearly yearlong timeline to create the six-year “strategic directions” plan for UH includes surveys, working groups and outreach continuing through the spring and summer, a draft plan in September or October, and a final plan in November.

In its most recent draft, the vision proposal calls for UH to:

>> Engage more local residents in post-secondary education and training.

>> Prepare more residents to fill the jobs Hawaii needs.

>> Seed new economic sectors and develop new approaches to existing ones.

>> Strengthen research as a major economic and intellectual source for the state.

“This ‘reimagining and repositioning’ initiative is a direct response to the pandemic crisis, which focused us more strongly on resource challenges and mission imperatives associated with the impacts and lessons of COVID-19 including their short- and long-term implications,” the proposal said.

Among the lessons of the pandemic for UH are that Hawaii needs a more diversified economy; UH needs a more diversified revenue stream than just tuition and state general funds; and offering online learning, working and services can improve efficiency, the proposal said.

The draft document calls for UH to emphasize subjects in which there is overlap among the state’s “need areas,” the university’s fields of research excellence, and economic opportunities for the state.

In addition to education, health care and technology, the proposal mentions construction; creative media, such as film and gaming; ocean, earth and atmospheric sciences; food, agriculture and aquaculture; sustainable tourism; astronomy and space sciences; civics; and study of Asia and the Pacific, including Hawaii.

The proposal also says UH should streamline administration; prioritize academic programming for the most pressing needs of students and the state; diversify operating revenue sources; operate using “the most modest physical plant feasible”; and work as a more tightly knit system, under the banner phrase “UHunited.”

Another section, titled “Initial Ideas for UH Role in Improving Hawai‘i’s Relationship With the Native Hawaiian Community: Journey to Become a Model Indigenous-Serving Institution,” contains a long list of objectives.

They include reducing equity gaps for Native Hawaiians in higher education access and attainment; researching disparities in health; producing more Hawaiian-language teachers; collaborating with the state to create greater economic opportunity for homesteaders; and improving stewardship of Mauna Kea, “with stronger focus on culture and education, and ensure decommissioning of existing telescopes to honor commitments.”