Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 6, 1 June 2008 — Three candidates vie for deanship at UH's Hawaiʻinuiākea [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Three candidates vie for deanship at UH's Hawaiʻinuiākea

By Lisa Asatū Public lūformatiūū Specialist The University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's newly established Hawai'inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge could have its founding dean by August.

"Certainly the hope is that we will have a dean by the start of the fall semester," said Myrtle Yamada, Hawai'inuiākea's executive director and a co-chair of the 13-member selection conunittee. "Everything is now in the chancellor's hands." Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw will make the final ehoiee, although there is no firm deadhne for a decision to be made. She ean either hire one of the three candidates or decide that none of the candidates are suitable and continue recruiting for the post. The puhlie got their first look at the candidates during 90-minute presentations and question-and-answer sessions held in late April and early May at UH's Shidler College of Business. The candidates are: • Jon OsoriO, an author and UH professor who has served as director of the Center for Hawaiian Studies since 2003, said the school should: establish connections to every school and program on campus as it has with the law school and others, conduct outreach with indigenous education agencies to help preserve dying languages, and slow its rapid growth to ensure resources ean meet demand. Knowledge of the school, its people and Hawai'i is emeial as dean, he said, and the incoming dean should read all "historical texts written by kanaka maoh even before they walk through that door." • Gary Raumati Hook, a

Maoii scientist, educator and businessman, said the school should grant doctoral degrees, produce first-class research and a forum for debate, and serve as a resource for indigenous people worldwide. He worked for 31 years at the Nahonal Institutes for Heahh in

North Carolina and later served five years as chief executive of a Maori university, Te Whare Wānanaga o Awanuiārangi. Hook said he wants to increase the school's percentage of Native Hawaiian students, who comprise about 11 percent of the student body. • Maenette Benham, a professor at Michigan State University's Department of Educational Administration and a former teacher at Kaiser High and Kamehameha Schools, her ahna mater, said offering minor fields of study at the school would help produce well-rounded engineers, teachers, architects and otherprofessionals, whieh would help in nationbuilding. She also said it wasn't for the school to dictate polhieal direction but rather provide a safe plaee where debate could occur. Benham spent five years working on a Native American higher education inhiative to help Tribal College and University systems develop into culture-based hubs of eeonomie development and learning. Hawai'inuiākea was established in 2007 with the merger of three existing programs: Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language and Ka Papa Lo'i o Kānewai Cultural Garden. Together, h is described as the nation's largest school of indigenous studies. □

I L to R: Jonathan Osorio, Gary Raumati Hook and Maenette Benham. - Photos: KW0 staff