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

Three vie for deanship at UH's Hawai'inuiākea

By Lisa Asato / Ka Wai Ola

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 committee. “Everything is now in the chancellor's hands.”

Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw will make the final choice, although there is no firm deadline for a decision to be made. She can either hire one of the three candidates or decide that none of the candidates are suitable and continue recruiting for the post.

The public 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 can meet demand. Knowledge of the school, its people and Hawai'i is crucial as dean, he said, and the incoming dean should read all “historical texts written by kanaka maoli even before they walk through that door.”

• Gary Raumati Hook, a Maori 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 National Institutes for Health 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 alma mater, said offering minor fields of study at the school would help produce well-rounded engineers, teachers, architects and other professionals, which would help in nation-building. She also said it wasn't for the school to dictate political direction but rather provide a safe place where debate could occur. Benham spent five years working on a Native American higher education initiative to help Tribal College and University systems develop into culture-based hubs of economic 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, it is described as the nation's largest school of indigenous studies.