Bitterman to speak to UH grads

Mary Bitterman, president of the Bernard Osher Foundation, will be the commencement speaker at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's graduation ceremony on Dec. 20. The university will award about 1,800 degrees at the end of the semester.

The commencement ceremony starts at 9 a.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center. Doors will open at 8 a.m.

This year's ceremony marks a change in that it will be on a Saturday, rather than a Sunday as in years past.

Bitterman, a former executive director of the Hawaii Public Broadcasting Authority and director of the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, leads Osher Foundation programs that support higher education and the arts, including a network of lifelong-learning institutes for older adults at more than 120 colleges and universities nationwide, including UH-Manoa.

Parking will be available in the lower-campus parking structure, which will open at 6 a.m. Balloons and strollers are not allowed inside the Stan Sheriff Center.

Friends and family members may greet graduates following the ceremony on the football practice field (A-L), the soccer practice field (M-T) and at the softball stadium (U-Z). Authorized lei vendors will be available.

There will also be a live webcast of the ceremony. For more information visit manoa.hawaii.edu/commencement.

UH academic post is open again

The search for the top academic leader at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is resuming after Vice Chancellor for Research Gary Ostrander withdrew his name for the position.

The announcement was made in an e-mail to faculty Tuesday.

UH-Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw had chosen Ostrander for the position of vice chancellor for academic affairs. But his name was not forwarded to the Board of Regents for approval after faculty members objected to his selection.

A resolution passed in May by the Faculty Senate raised concerns about what it called the “;inequitable and unfair search process.”; Ostrander had been a co-chairman of the search committee, along with Hinshaw.

In Tuesday's e-mail, Hinshaw said Dean of Nursing Mary Boland would lead the revived search committee and that she and Ostrander would not lead the group.

Hinshaw said the goal is to recruit additional candidates and conduct interviews early next year.

In August the UH Board of Regents approved the appointment of Peter Quigley to become interim vice chancellor for academic affairs.

Quigley had been assistant vice chancellor of academic affairs and an English professor at UH-Manoa. He had previously served as chancellor at Leeward Community College and had been a finalist in the original search for the permanent position.

The university has been without a permanent academic leader since Neal Smastresk, the previous vice chancellor, left last spring.

Apoliona is re-elected OHA chief

Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona has been re-elected to that post by the agency's nine-member board of trustees.

Trustees also voted Walter Heen as vice chairman, OHA said in a news release.

Other leadership roles announced this week include Oz Stender as chairman of the Committee on Asset and Resource Management and Colette Machado as chairwoman of the Beneficiary Advocacy and Empowerment Committee. Vice chairmen of those committees are Robert Lindsey and Boyd Mossman, respectively.

Punchbowl limits decoration

Real and artificial flowers and potted plants are OK, but Christmas trees and other items are not permitted as Christmas decorations at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

Graves may be decorated beginning Dec. 20, according to an announcement from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Anything placed earlier will be removed, and the decorations will be cleared away on Jan. 2.

The rules state that families and friends may not secure floral arrangements or plants to headstones.

Prohibited decorations include Christmas trees, permanent plantings, statues, vigil lights, glass items of any kind, toys, balloons, pinwheels and stuffed toys.