STAR-BULLETIN FILE / MAY 2001
Les Murakami's number hung at the Rainbow Stadium
entrance in May. Some hope to rename the stadium
after the former coach.

Idea gains support
to name UH
building after
Liliuokalani

The last queen would join 4 others
slated for on-campus honors

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By Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.com

Queen Liliuokalani has been added to a list of candidates who may have University of Hawaii buildings named after them.

A public hearing before an ad hoc committee yesterday was to consider renaming the Center for Hawaiian Studies after Gladys K. Brandt, Rainbow Stadium after Les Murakami and an unspecified building after Marion and Allan Saunders.

However, at the start of the meeting, Rodney Sakaguchi, Manoa interim vice chancellor for administration, said UH President Evan Dobelle had received suggestions that the Student Services Center be named for Liliuokalani and would consider those suggestions as a nomination.

No one testified against the proposals for renaming the buildings, but there was some disagreement over which building should be named for the Saunderses and which should be named for Liliuokalani.

The proposal to name facilities after Brandt and Murakami also raised questions about changing the Board of Regents policy that requires that buildings not be named after someone until at least five years after his or her death, although this was not addressed in testimony.

Dobelle is expected to ask the board to make an exception to the rule at its September meeting and will forward the committee's recommendations at the board's October meeting.

The Social Sciences Building, Hawaii Hall or the Student Services Center could bear the Saunderses names, but the 10 people testifying yesterday about the couple all identified the Social Sciences Building as the most appropriate choice, as it houses the Political Science Department and Women's Studies Program.

Mary Ann Raywid, who contributed two chapters and helped to edit Allan Saunders' biography, said: "This was the man who founded the Political Science Department. (Marion) founded women's studies."

But Center for Hawaiian Studies Director Lilikala Kameeleihiwa said the building, home to the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace, should be named for Hawaii's last queen, an advocate for peace.

The Social Sciences Building's name has a controversial history. In 1974 it was named after the late Samuel D. Porteus, despite arguments that he had been a racist. In 1998, Porteus' name was stripped from the building following student-led protests.

Then-president of the Associated Students of the University of Hawaii C. Mamo Kim now sits on the ad hoc committee.

Both Kim and Kameeleihiwa support naming the Student Services Center after the Saunderses.

No one testified against renaming the Center for Hawaiian Studies and Rainbow Stadium, and in fact, many said Brandt's and Murakami's names were already informally attached to their respective buildings.

Those advocating for renaming the Center for Hawaiian Studies after Brandt said it should be known by her Hawaiian name, Kamakakuokalani, however, not as Brandt Hall.

As for Rainbow Stadium, the only objections to calling it Les Murakami Stadium were that perhaps it should be called Les Murakami Park or Field instead.

Another public hearing will be held in UH-Manoa's Campus Center Ballroom from 4 to 6 p.m. Sept. 11.