UH centennial party of the century

An event kicks off 18 months of remembrance and renewal

THE University of Hawaii had a 100th birthday party yesterday, setting off an 18-month Centennial Celebration aimed at sharing the school's accomplishments, highlighting areas for improvement and raising money.

University President David McClain said UH grew from a humble agriculture and mechanic arts college with five students to a 10-campus system where more than 1 million people have studied. Faculty working at the 80,000-student university, which stretches from a community college on Kauai to observatories atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island, generated $430 million in research and training funds last year, he said.

Under the theme, "Honoring Our Past, Celebrating Our Present and Creating Our Future," the university held an open house in Manoa yesterday.

"We've created educational and economical opportunities, we have helped secure social justice for the people of Hawaii," McClain told school officials, alumni, state leaders and others who gathered at the steps of Hawaii Hall, which became the Manoa campus' first permanent building in 1912.

"And most fundamentally," McClain added, "we've championed the hope, that a better life is within the reach of everyone."

The university's contributions, McClain said, can be seen through scientific discoveries like the first reproducible cloning of a mammal, the mouse Cumulina, in 1998 and also in student-run medical clinics for the homeless, tax preparation workshops for the poor and dental hygiene services for the uninsured.

Gifts and pledges to UH's Centennial Campaign, a fundraising drive which began in July 2002, have topped $159 million as of December, said Kathryn Nelson, the foundation's vice president for development.

The public phase of the fundraising campaign will start later this year with events across the state and nation, she said. "The state provides excellent funding, we get great federal funding, and the third leg to the stool is private support from the alumni and friends, corporation and foundations," Nelson said. "It's really critical to getting where David (McClain) wants to take the University of Hawaii."

Carolyn Tanaka, the UH system vice president for external affairs, said each campus is budgeting its own funds to mark the centennial.

UH-Manoa Vice Chancellor Kathy Cutshaw said the campus is spending $80,000 -- $40,000 from the UH Foundation and $40,000 from student fees and tuition fund monies -- for centennial publications and activities this year.

Before the festivities began, some 25 students, faculty and others demonstrated against the university's plan to enter into a research agreement with the Navy. Opponents of a University Affiliated Research Center want McClain to abandon the proposed partnership.

McClain, who has backed such center with some conditions, including one that would move any classified research off campus, said negotiations with the Navy have been moving slowly but that he would still like to give the center a try.