Jon Goldberg-Hiller 

Kenneth Kipnis 

Meda Lind

Mari Matsuda 

Jon Osorio 

David Stannard 

Preserving Hawai'i's University

As six senior faculty who have collectively spent many decades serving the University of Hawaii at Manoa, we have undertaken to convene as an informal discussion group to explore (1) the deleterious effects of "financial exigency" on Hawai'i's University and (2) the best responses to the current efforts to diminish Manoa's resources and work. 

This university is the product of a century-long, popular effort to secure access to higher education for all of the people of Hawaii.  While some may accept that, given certain conditions, it would be excusable to eliminate some of the instructional and research units that are tasked with doing our institution's essential work, we are far from being convinced that we have taken an accurate measure of the present crisis, that we have considered all of the alternative strategies that might avert the need for retrenchment, and that we have ruled out the practicality and efficacy of all of those alternatives. The process appears to have been both overly hasty and insufficiently transparent.  

During our discussion, one proposal garnered immediate enthusiasm: that there be an independent website/listserv devoted to making available opinions, observations, data, narratives and documents that can help the Manoa academic community to formulate responsible judgments and appropriate courses of action. 

We have set up such a resource, open to all for review. The URL is 

http://groups.google.com/group/DHU-2010

If, in addition to reviewing its contents, you want to join the discussion -- posting messages or documents -- any one of us can sign you in. And you can reach all of us by posting an email to 

DHUGroup@gmail.com

We are inviting all of you to follow and contribute to what we hope to be a fruitful discussion.