Ka Leo O Hawaii

Issue date: 11/21/07 Section: News

Fewer than 50 people turned out at the Campus Center Ballroom yesterday for the first of two public meetings held at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa to finalize the goals and initiatives emphasized in the UH System Strategic Plan of 2002 to 2010.

"We had three times this amount at our other meetings," said Linda Johnsrud, the vice president for academic planning and policy at the university. Despite the lack of public attendance, Johnsrud gave a two-hour PowerPoint presentation on the specifics of the plan and how it will benefit the UH system, as well as the problems that need to be addressed.

The vision

Johnsrud highlighted the five goals set up in the plan and their correlating actions that according to the Strategic Plan's system mission, will "serve the public by creating, preserving and transmitting knowledge in a multicultural environment."
The goals include:

• Embracing diversity in education, while also making student learning successful in and out of the classroom.


• Creating an institution excelling in technology and research, while also building a service network.


• Positioning UH as the foremost university system of global and indigenous studies, with emphasis on Native Hawaiian culture.


• Investing in students, faculty and staff by creating a fostering environment.


• Managing and allocating the resources of the university, in working together with public and private constituencies.


The university's shortcomings

Although the goals in the Strategic Plan are achievable, Johnsrud said, she added that the university, in working with the state, needs to understand why these goals have not already been met and what it will take to attain them.

She stated that some of the problems within the university system do not begin at the university level, but much earlier.

"Hawai‘i's younger generation is much less well-educated," Johnsrud said. "We have always been a well-educated state, (but) we are going in absolutely the wrong direction."

Johnsrud provided several graphs detailing the decline in percentage of younger generations being well-educated as opposed to the generation before them. She also added that this is a nationwide trend, compared to developed countries such as Japan, Sweden and Canada, whose trends show the opposite.

The root of this problem is that the number of Hawai‘i students dropping out of high school has increased. In addition to students not graduating from high school, of the number of high school students that do graduate, the percentage of those students enrolling in college has decreased over the last several years. Lastly, the retention rates throughout the system, especially the four-year institutions of UH Mānoa and UH Hilo, has likewise decreased.

Adding to the problem is the number of Hawai‘i high school graduates who attend college but do so out of state.

"This is a problem," Johnsrud said. "And we also know that those who go to the mainland too often don't come home."

One possible reason some students chose not to enroll within the university system is due to the physical state of the buildings and campus grounds.

"We are not going to be able to meet (the goals) if we do not have an infrastructure that meets the needs of students," Johnsrud said. "We have given people tours and (UH) becomes the destination of 'Nuh-uh, I'm not coming here.' That's a sad state of affairs."

The public response

Although the turnout at yesterday's meeting was small, with presumably the majority being faculty and staff, those who did attend came with formed opinions.

"These are very lofty goals," said Hye-ryeon Lee, associate professor and chair of the department of speech. "They're not very practical."

Some of those who attended the meeting felt that the wording of the Strategic Plan itself was not easily understood and that it's hard to say how it could be improved if the public cannot even comprehend it.

"If those with a Ph.D. cannot understand, how will the general public," said Krystyna Aune, professor and interim associate dean of arts and humanities.

Despite complications, those who attended said they did so to be actively involved and invested in the university community and to make sure all aspects are addressed.

"The libraries didn't make it into the final wording of the previous strategic plan," said Martha Chantiny, the acting division head of library information and technology.

The last of the 10 public meetings on the updating and finalization of the UH System Strategic Plan will be held on Monday, Nov. 26, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom.

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