 "Photo:")
The Academy for Creative Media will be required to relocate from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa campus to the new West O‘ahu campus and give up its promised lease agreement with PBS Hawai‘i, under a bill passed late last week by two Senate committees.
In a 4-0 vote on Thursday, the Senate committee on Economic Development and Tourism (EDT) passed the bill a day after it was passed by the Senate Education Committee. Senate bill 3168 will now advance to the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which handles funding and budgets.
Student testimony may be sent to the Ways and Means Committee when it schedules its meeting at a later date, prior to its crossing over to the House.
University of Hawai‘i officials opposed the bill, objecting to moving "a Board of Regent's approved program from one campus to another within the UH system," said Linda K. Johnsrud, vice president for Academic Planning and Policy, to the committees in a joint hearing on Feb. 2. Johnsrud said that Mānoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw opposes the move from the Mānoa to West O‘ahu campus and that West O‘ahu Chancellor Gene Awakuni defers to UH Mānoa's position.
However, if ACM is not moved, "we will not fund their department, though we would allow another entity," said EDT Chair Sen. Carol Fukunaga after the hearing on Thursday.
On Feb. 2 nearly a dozen supporters from a variety of backgrounds urged the lawmakers to move ACM to the fledgling West O‘ahu campus.
Supporters included two key members of the Lingle administration. Theodore E. Liu, director for the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, said in written testimony: "An Academy for Creative Media program at UH West O‘ahu Campus is a much needed step in expanding ACM's reach. By establishing a program at UH's West O‘ahu Campus, many students who would not otherwise have the opportunity to participate in the ACM will be able to enroll in a variety of classes and pursue careers that may not have been as accessible to them."
Patricia Hamamoto, superintendent for the Department of Education, in supporting the bill, recommended that ACM's program "be facilitated jointly" by UH's community colleges and D.O.E and that it be included as an option for high school students. She said in written testimony: "The continuity and transition from elementary programs to middle school programs to high school programs to postsecondary programs must be aligned to ensure progressive skills and knowledge development and avoid duplication."
Two developers also gave strong support in written testimony. Kapolei Property Development officials praised the bill as "an ideal solution to finding a permanent home" for ACM, which would also have the benefit of being located near the planned Kapolei studios.
According to Kapolei Property Development officials, these will have "motion picture and television sound stages, office, dressing room, set construction and production office space. We also understand that Kapolei Studios plans to include a student film annex for use by the university's Academy of Creative Media as well as by Wai‘anae Searider Productions at Wai‘anae High School."
Officials from the Schuler division of D.R. Horton, Inc. said, "moving ACM to West O‘ahu campus will provide much needed career opportunites for the next generation, many of whom live in the area and have shown a propensity to excel in this digital media industry."
Other supporting testimonies came from several Leeward residents, prominent attorney Jeffrey Watanabe of the Watanabe, Ing & Komeiji firm, and Randy Iwase, Democratic nominee for governor in 2006.
UHM student Wayde Toyama, an interdisciplinary studies major enrolled in ACM, applauded the "win-win" decision to move the ACM, saying "it either forces them to get their act together or cut the bull----."
Be the first to comment on this article!