Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 9, 1 September 2008 — UH Hilo Hawaiian language college disputes commission's concerns [ARTICLE]

UH Hilo Hawaiian language college disputes commission's concerns

By ī. Ilihia Giansan Publicatians Editur An organization that accredits schools and colleges has wamed a newly fonned doctorate program in Hawaiian and Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo that improvements must be made, or the school could face sanctions. Leaders of the program, however, said that many of the organization's concems have either been addressed or require additional funding from the UH system. The doctorate was established in Fall 2006 as a program of Ka Haka 'Ula o Ke'elikōlani, the Hawaiian language college at UH Hilo. The degree is not only the first doctorate in the Hawaiian language, but it is the first Ph.D. in a native language in the United States and the first degree in indigenous language revitalization in the world. The concems brought up by the Westem Association of Schools and Colleges regarding the doctorate program included an apparent laek of objective oversight over the curriculum and a potential for conflict or interest as four of the five current doctoral students also hold rank in the Hawaiian language college. However, the college maintains that the concems stem from the coimnission's misunderstanding of the stmcture of the college. "It's important to note that WASC has not found fault with the academie quality of our Ph.D. program, nor has it questioned our widely acknowledged nahonal leadership in indigenous language revitalization," said professor Pila Wilson, program leader for the doctoral degree. Regarding the laek of objective oversight, Wilson says that the Ph.D. proposal was reviewed by more entities than any other degree program at UH Hilo. In addition to entities on the UH Hilo campus, the proposal was reviewed by the UH Mānoa gradu-

ate eouneil and Hawaiian Studies program, faculty senates across the UH system and the UH Board of Regents. Also, the college's proposal stated that faculty from other universities would be brought in to teach courses, ensuring external oversight. "We will ask for clarification of this eoneem when the WASC site team retums next fall," Wilson said. Because of the relatively small pool of faculty with advanced degrees in the Hawaiian studies coimnunity, the inclusion of the college's faculty was always a possibility. "The original proposal to WASC stated that the program would be the first of its kind in the world, and therefore be used to address faculty development for the college itself as well as other Hawaiian and indigenous entities," Wilson said. Another issue regarding the faculty is that the UH system has not made good on its coimnitment to fully fund the 1997 budget creating Ka Haka 'Ula o Ke'elikōlani, according to Wilson. The college is the only college in the UH system without a dean or dean's office, and the teacher-student ratio is mueh higher than in other language programs in the system. For example, UH Mānoa's Chinese program has a ratio of almost five students per faculty member, versus Ka Haka 'Ula's nearly 13 students per teacher. "The laek of full funding at all levels has required our faculty to juggle a huge nmnber of responsibilities including those nonnally carried by secretaries and administrators," Wilson said. Wilson concluded that the eollege will be able to or already has addressed the concems over whieh the college has control. "Our greatest eoneem is the area over whieh we have no control: assming that the resources long promised to the college are actually delivered, a critical matter to be addressed by the UH system." E3

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