There’s something
about UH-Hilo
The nationally recognized public liberal arts college is attracting more students with its special programs
Hilo's drawback: Few places for fun
By Rod Thompson
Star-BulletinHILO -- Hawaiian language classes at the University of Hawaii-Hilo drew Maria Saehndrich from Germany.
The hands-on use of equipment to study Kilauea volcano draws students to UH-Hilo from Indonesia, Mexico and Italy.
The UH-Hilo marine science program includes a 53-foot catamaran that has sailed with students 99 times in a little over a year. The program just got a grant that will draw additional students from France, Belgium and Spain.
These unique programs contribute to the growing reputation of the Hilo campus, which this summer was ranked No. 3 among public liberal arts colleges in the Western United States by U.S. News and World Report.Factors considered included the number of classes with fewer than 20 students (51 percent at UH-Hilo), full-time faculty (99 percent) and students who graduated in the top quarter of their high school class (44 percent).
UH-Hilo's favorable ranking stands in contrast to recent negative publicity about the university's Manoa campus, including reports of low morale, controversy surrounding the pending closure of the School of Public Health, and a critical report by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
While Manoa's enrollment has declined slightly, UH-Hilo Chancellor Rose Tseng noted that the Hilo campus enrollment has grown about 50 percent in the past 10 years to its present 2,790 students.
On the job for a year already, Tseng was to be formally inaugurated in ceremonies today.
In UH-Hilo, she sees a quality school that can be better still.
"It's like a piece of jade that's not polished," she said.
Tseng said she was amazed to learn that more than 90 percent of the faculty hold doctoral degrees.
For large universities the number is more like 50 percent, and assistants who hold lesser degrees teach many courses, she said.
"We don't have teaching assistants," Tseng said. "Our faculty's responsibility is to teach."
At large universities, professors often concentrate on graduate students. Professors pick the research topics.
At UH-Hilo, all undergraduate students do team research, Tseng said. And they choose their own topics.
Linguistics student Saehndrich learned about the university at home in Germany by reading the UH-Hilo Internet site.
The site was created by UH-Hilo students, Tseng said.
Class sizes are small at UH-Hilo. U.S. News listed one faculty member for every 13 students. By comparison, some highly ranked colleges in the Western region had ratios as high as 22 students per faculty member.
Student Kristen Hirata from Hilo said she tried UH-Manoa for a year, but prefers the small classes and easy access to professors in her hometown.
"You can always go into your professor's office with a question," she said.
Saehndrich said friends tell her the opposite is true in Germany.
"I heard from friends that lecture rooms are very full and professors don't have a lot of time," she said. She also takes classes here that she can get nowhere else. "The combination of Japanese and Hawaiian (classes) was a very big plus."
Gail Napiha'a, a Tlingit woman from southeastern Alaska married to a Hawaiian man, also found something unique at UH-Hilo.
The College of Hawaiian Language offers the only master's degree program in the nation in a native American language, said college director Kalena Silva.
The university is also home to the Polynesian Language Forum, which guides language development in 13 Pacific island nations, Silva said.
With those models, Napiha'a has returned to Alaska to work on revitalizing the Tlingit language, Silva said.
One of UH-Hilo's advantages is obvious -- the presence of active volcanoes for geology studies.
Not so obvious is the uniqueness of the university's Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes, providing hands-on field work for undergraduate students and foreign geologists.
Pacific Northwest colleges that are close to volcanoes have no such program, said center director Don Thomas. The only comparable program, at a university in New Mexico, doesn't have an active volcano nearby, he said.
Other special programs:
Business education that includes small-business development with former sugar workers.
There are still improvements Tseng hopes to make. But pride in what has already been accomplished at UH-Hilo is apparent. In remarks prepared for her inauguration today, Tseng quotes the enthusiastic comment of faculty member Don Hemmes.
"We are sitting on a gold mine," he said.
Hilo’s drawback:
By Rod Thompson
Few places to go for fun
Star-BulletinHILO -- University of Hawaii-Hilo supporter and former state legislator Harvey Tajiri has a question for those who have forgotten what it's like to be a young college student.
"Where do you go if you want to go on a cheap date?" he asks.
In Hilo, the answer is: not many places and nowhere near campus.
"If you don't have wheels, you're dead," he said.
The result is freshman students who come, but don't stay. "Our attrition rate is terrible," Tajiri said.
The figures from U.S. News and World Report aren't quite that gloomy. After their freshman year at UH-Hilo, 62 percent of students return, the magazine says. Most comparable schools in the Western region do a little better, 70 percent to 80 percent.
The number who stay to graduate from UH-Hilo is just 24 percent. That's at the low end of the spectrum in the Western region, where graduation rates vary widely and the best is 71 percent at a college in Idaho.
UH-Hilo Chancellor Rose Tseng agrees that "retention" is a problem.
"We don't have a lot of things going on in the community," she said.
Since 1987, Tajiri has been pushing for a solution: Let private enterprise build a movie theater, dorms, and other facilities on campus.
He called the idea the Vulcan Village. It got nowhere.
The latest version proposes to allow Taiwanese investors to build a Chinese cultural center on campus, along with commercial facilities.
Tseng knows several of the investors personally. She says they have made their fortunes and now are interested in creating something more philanthropic.
But there are many steps to go through. The project is "several years away," she said.
Meanwhile, UH-Hilo has an official goal of growing from its present 2,790 students to 5,000 by 2007.
"Without new money for dorms and new facilities, we're not going to get there," she says.
Hilo College was founded in 1947 as a two-year college with 46 students and three professors. The four-year University of Hawaii-Hilo was created in 1970. It now has 790 students and 163 full-time professors or their equivalents, and includes a master's degree program in Hawaiian language. CAMPUS COMES OF AGE
Colleges within the university:
