Click here to view the Spring 2007 version of the Manoa Sun in PDF

S
INSIDE
News
NORTH
8-10 FT.
2
Campus
3
Na Kanaka
5
Around Town
9
U R F
SOUTH
R
4-5 FT.
E
P O R T
EAST
1-2 FT.
MANOA SUN
WEST
5-6 FT.
WAVE HEIGHTS ARE IN HAWAIIAN SCALE OR APPROXIMATELY HALF FACE HEIGHTS
SPRING 2007
Check out the new Web site
www.manoasun.com
The Ma
noa S
University of Hawai‘i at Manoa • Journalism 302 Spring 2007
WHAT’S IN
THIS ISSUE
N A K A N AKA
A LOOK AT THE NATIVE
CULTURE AND PEOPLE
OF HAWAI‘I
CHECK OUT OUR
FOUR-PAGE
SPECIAL
INSERT
PAGE
5
Illustration by Nai’a Watson
Campus
PAGE
3
UH officials
struggle to raise
government funds for
on-campus construction and repairs
Manoa hunts bag 22
pigs in first open month
By Alyssa S. Navaresa
NAVARES@manoasun.com
Pig numbers
Hunters brought in a decent
number of feral pigs during the
first month of the upper Mānoa
pig hunting season, state officials said, but despite the
growing pig population, some
community members want out,
saying both their safety and that
of the hunting dogs are at risk.
More than 20 pigs were
killed a month after the hunts
started February, including 17
boars and five sows – a catch
equal to a hunt three times as
long in 2004, according to David Smith, O‘ahu wildlife manager of the state Department of
Land and Natural Resources.
“This program seems to be
pretty successful,” said Smith
during this month’s Mānoa
Neighborhood Board meeting
at Noelani Elementary School.
“When you hunt with dogs,
there’s a lot of trauma [to the
pigs] involved because they’ll
chase the animals, kill the young
and break up family groups.”
Registered hunters may use
bows and arrows, knives and
dogs every Wednesday and Sun-
A pack of hunting dogs attack a feral pig in Tantalus February. Registered hunters
may use dogs and knives or archery methods every Wednesday and Sunday for
one year in order to control the pig population in upper Manoa Valley.
High Rises
Rise
on the
Around Town:
PAGE
9
Anna Banana’s
offers more than
booze to UHM students.
The Manoa Sun represents the cumulative works of the Journalism 302
students at the University of Hawai‘i at
Manoa. This publication is for educational use only and is not intended for
mass distribution.
•
•
•
•
Partly Sunny
Afternoon Showers
Light Trades 15mph
78˙ Low - 82˙ High
By Rachel Manuel
MANUEL@manoasun.com
- 55 issued hunting permits
- 22 pigs (17 boars, five sows)
- 10 hunting days
*DLNR data from Feb. 4 to March 1
day to eradicate the pigs, which
have destroyed people’s yards
and native forest plants in upper
Mānoa Valley for decades.
The season, scheduled to
end next February, legalizes
hunting in the usually off-limit
area of the Honolulu mauka
trail system – including MakikiTantalus, Mānoa and Wa‘ahila
ridge.
“Our main problem is that
the hunts are going on dur-
Tourists at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki bask in the sunlight. The view of
the sky will soon be obstructed by a new 39 story tower the Waikikian which is
slated for completion in 2008.
UH pays prof
for ‘alleged
damages’ and
other claims
ing the weekday,” said Napua
Wong, representing Paradise
Park, Inc. in Mānoa. “We have
[the Hālau Ku Mana] charter
school here, with kids wandering around here and volumes
of people going to visit Mānoa
Falls.” As many as 800 people
trek through the valley or go to
the park’s restaurant every day.
Last week Wong said a
group of hunters and their dogs
Please see HUNTING | page 2
By Jessica Hamamoto
HAMAMOTO@hawaii.edu
Tall steel yellow cranes
loom high into the sky as construction on Honolulu’s new
high rises continues.
The City Council unanimously approved a bill in
January of this year allowing
high-rise buildings in urban
Honolulu to get even higher.
Zoning chairman Charles
Djou. who wrote the bill, said
in an article in the Honolulu
Star Bulletin that he hopes the
measure will encourage the
city administration to build
right up to the current height
limits instead of heights below
the recommendation.
The recommended height
limit for buildings in downtown
Honolulu is 350 feet although
currently the tallest building
is the First Hawaiian Center
exceeds 430ft.
The Ko’olani is one of five
400 ft towers recently built.
Constructed in 2006 by the
Miami based company.
Crescent Heights, the 47
story building is situated on
1189 Waimanu Street near the
Nauru and Hawaiki Tower
Please see HIGH RISE | page 2
The University of Hawaii has agreed to pay a tenured, full professor $25,000
for “alleged damage to reputation, mental and emotional distress, loss of peace of
mind and other elements of
general damage,” according
to the settlement agreement
obtained by Ka Leo.
The agreement is a global one to settle 20 complaints
and grievances against UH
over the
past 18
months
made by
Professor Judy
Daniels,
who has
taught
DANIELS
for 16
years in the Department of
Counselor Education in the
College of Education. The
payment is made jointly to
her and to her attorneys in
the firm of Bickerton Saunders Dang and Sullivan,
under the agreement signed
on Oct. 16, 2006 by them,
UH and the faculty unionUH Professional Assembly
(UHPA).
These parties agreed
that the legal settlement
is not to be construed as
admissions of liability or
negligence. The agreement
scripts out that neither Daniels nor UH will disparage
each other regarding this
dispute that involved what
the documents describes as
intra-departmental conflicts,
retaliation and complaints to
the Equal Employment Office and to the Hawaii Civil
Rights Commission.
Under the agreement,
Daniels releases UH and its
officers from all claims and
liabilities relating to her employment with it as of Oct.
3, 2006.
Events leading to the
agreement began around
Sept. 21, 2005 when Daniels
filed a grievance against UH
alleging violations of university policies relating to
non-discrimination, maintenance of rights and benefits,
disciplinary actions as well
as faculty professional responsibilities and workload.
Please see LAWSUIT | page 2
Journalism 302 Spring 2007
2
NEWS
FROM PAGE 1
HUNTING: Controlled dog hunts, area fencing could control pig populations
came through the park after 10
p.m. Although they said they
were registered to hunt under
DLNR, some had guns, which
the state prohibits the use of in
forest reserve areas.
“It could be that they weren’t
with the state, but none the less,
if it’s going to attract people to do
this, we’re going to have to find
some way before [hunting in the
area] gets out of control,” she said.
No hikers, according to
Wong, reported pig encounters
since portions of the park reopened several years ago. But
she worried that hunting in the
area could drive pigs from the
mountain into hiking trails and
parking lots.
Rep. Kirk Caldwell (DManoa) said that hunting will
probably scatter pigs into other
areas and introduced a bill requiring the fencing in of public and private game management locations. House Bill
1831, which was referred to the
money committee Friday, will
protect native species and keep
game away from more populated areas.
However, because of the
$30 million price tag, Smith
said, the bill will most likely
die in committee, just as similar fencing proposals have in
the past.
Some hunters say that
residents should worry less
about eradication methods
and more about native forest preservation. Feral pigs
uproot tree ferns, shrubs and
herbs, as well as spread seeds
from non-native plants. It is
Local feral pig hunters Brian Biroan (left) and his father Bradley Biroan use a tracking device at Tantalus to find their hunting dogs, missing after a hunt
Wednesday. They believe people against hunting may have removed the dogs' collars, which contain signal-emitting microchips.
impossible to determine how
many pigs live in the area,
Smith said.
“[Mānoa residents are] the
ones who called us in the first
place to hunt pigs,” said Brian
Biroan, who started hunting on
the island as a child. “There
was one time when my dogs
and I were chased down to the
traffic lights by some people
against hunting.”
He and his father Bradley
Biroan, both featured hunters
on Olelo TV’s “Hawaii Sportsmen,” have been hunting near
Tantalus almost every week
last month as two of 55 hunters registered for the year-long
season. However, two of their
seven dogs did not return after
chasing a pig into the forest
Wednesday. The Biroans used
a tracking device to locate the
dogs but fear people opposed
to hunting may have removed
their collars, which contain signal-emitting microchips.
“I’ve heard of people doing that, but it’s because of
how badly the hunting dogs
are treated,” said Honolulu
resident and hiker Jane Beckett, referring to how owners starve their dogs before a
hunt in order to heighten their
sense of smell.
But Brian Biroan disagreed,
saying that hunting is a sport.
“My dogs love what they
do, but people don’t see it that
way,” he said. “The pigs have a
chance, too. It goes both ways,
you know.”
While some community
members disagree with how
FROM PAGE 1
hunting dogs are treated, others
fear being near them. A pack of hunting dogs
surrounded Beckett’s friends
while hiking a few weeks
ago, which she said still
frightens them until this day.
However, state officials posted signs near major hiking
trails at the beginning of the
season, warning people about
entering the trails at their
own risks because of possible dangers from the twiceweekly hunts.
Hunting dogs, which are of
no particular breed but trained
to hunt, will attack pigs after
tracking their smell from miles
away. Hunters then follow the
pig’s high-pitched screams and
dogs’ growls before killing the
pig with a knife. The archery
method requires more patience,
Brian Biroan said, and is not as
effective in killing pigs.
Although some hunters carry out the entirety of their kill,
which could weigh as much as
150 lbs. per pig, most will gut
the pig in the forest and hang
its entrails from trees. The rotting intestines have startled
hikers on occasion, and state
officials now require hunters to
bury them.
Ancient
Polynesians
brought pigs by canoe to islands throughout the Pacific,
and hunting them became a
common survival method, according to the Hawaiian Studies Department at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. For the
Biroans, it’s been a long-time
family tradition.
FROM PAGE 1
HIGHRISE
LAWSUIT: Qualifications Help Professor in Settlement
between The Victoria Ward
Center and the Ala Moana
Shopping Center.
When asked how she felt
about all of the high rises going
up UH Alumni Jennifer Espiritu
said, “It just means more people
and it is just going to be more
crowded... It is unbelievable to
think that someone is going to
fill them (the high rises). There
are just buildings everywhere
it is totally changing the
skyline.”
The idea of building up
instead of sprawling out is
what Djou explained as a better
option for Honolulu’s increasing
housing needs.
In an article in the
Honolulu Star Bulletin he
said,
“While
increasing
heights is controversial and
not universally welcomed...
We don’t want Manhattan in
Honolulu...nevertheless, given
the choice of paving over more
of our open space, I think going
up is a better policy.”
The high rises recently
completed were all high-end
residential buildings catering
to the luxury market. Prices for
units in luxury condos usually
range from $750.000 to $3.5
million.
When asked if the increase
in high rises is going to affect
the island landscape, Berton
She and UHPA then filed
for arbitration against UH.
The grievance was among
20 complaints Daniels said
she made against UH, including some related to discrimination, retaliation and
workplace violence.
An
intra-departmental conflict arose in early
2005 after a temporary
faculty member who reviewed Daniels’s personnel files and several others
questioned Daniels’s professional qualifications and
expressed their concerns to
UH administrators.
As part of the settlement
agreement, an expert consultant was hired by UHPA
and UH to review Daniels’s
qualifications. This consultant, Theodore Remley
Jr., had served as a board
member of the Council on
Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education
Programs (CACREP). He
wrote that, “Dr. Daniels definitely has relevant preparation and experience in the
areas in which she is teaching,” and that, “Dr. Daniels
has the necessary training
and supervision experience
to supervise practicum and
internship students.”
“It is my opinion that
The 36 story Nine O Nine building on Kapiolani Boulevard slated for completetion
Dec. 2007
Hamamoto, President of the
Honolulu Board of Realtors,
said, “You can argue that it has
already been done, we keep
going. Where do you stop that
is the question? If you stop
building the prices will go up.”
Lesa Viviano a tourist
visiting from New York said,
“I was here in Hawaii ten years
ago and I am just shocked at
how built up it has gotten, I just
couldn’t believe it.”
A drive down Kapiolani
Boulevard these days and one
might get the sense that the street
is getting darker as more and
more high rises begin to block
out the warm Hawaiian sun.
Dr. Judy Daniels satisfies the
requirements for core faculty
members in a counseling graduate program” that is accredited by CACREP, he wrote.
He noted that his conclusion was echoed by 11 other
national leaders in the counseling profession who had
been requested by UHPA and
Daniels to review her qualifications.
A written statement by
Daniels details that she was
hired at UH in the Department of Counselor Education
in 1990, promoted to associate professor, tenured and then
promoted to a full professor in
1998.
Her work includes publishing more than 40 refereed
articles and book chapters,
two books and the conducting of 83 national and international scholarly presentations.
Some of her work has focused
on what she describes as multicultural counseling and racism in higher education and in
local communities.
She had also received two
of the most prestigious awards
from the American Counseling
Association (ACA), the national association for the counseling profession. In 2002, she
received the Gilbert and Kathleen Wrenn Award, also called
Journalism 302 Spring 2007
3
M a noa S u n
C
a m p u s
Governor’s budget cuts $400 million from UH improvements project
Reduced budget
cuts18 initiatives
from project
By Nathan Serota
Serota@manoasun.com
The
University
of
Hawaii Vice President for
Administration Sam Callejo
recently provided testimony for
House and Senate committees,
comparing two separate budget
proposals for the Capital
Improvements Program (CIP)
at UH; the Governor’s seven
project, $296.843 million plan
and the Boards of Regents’ 27
project, $697.963 million plan.
The CIP is a university
initiative that, “meets the
goals and objectives of the
University’s Strategic Plan by
maintaining and improving
campus structures to promote a
nurturing learning and working
environment,” according to
Callejo’s written testimony.
The CIP budget is intended
to fund larger projects using
money appropriated from the
state legislature, as opposed
to the university’s operating
budget, which consists of tuition
and funds basic educational
needs
(teachers’
salaries,
basic building maintenance,
educational equipment, etc.)
According to Callejo,
because
the
Governor’s
budget provides severely less
funding for fewer initiatives,
the university is not able to
undertake several of the projects
that it had initially intended to
commence between now and
2010.
“A lot of projects are not
being funded. Some major
projects like the Windward
Community College library and
the new College of Education
building at Manoa that burned
down, were a couple of the
big initiatives,” Callejo stated.
“It’s not as effective because it
diminished the funds.”
Other projects that were
completely rejected by the
Governor include plans to:
• redesign and renovate
UHM’s campus center
• design and create new
performing arts classrooms
and parking spaces at UHM
UHM drops
the number
of partnerships
By Nodoka Fuse
Fuse@manoasun.com
The University of Hawaii
at Manoa is one of the nation’s
global
universities.
There
are students from variety of
countries with different cultural
backgrounds. Every semester,
those students are coming and
going from UH.
According to records from
the officer of the Office of International Education, (OIE)
the numbers of international
partners is decreasing. In August 2005, total number of the
partners was 182; however,
it dropped to 164 in January
2007.
However, the numbers of
partnership colleges increased
for a few countries. For example, the numbers of partnership
colleges with Korea increased
to three within two years; also
Brazil became one of the UHM
partners. But, most countries
like Japan, Sweden and Thailand decreased in numbers. Japan dropped from 24 partnership colleges in August 2005 to
18 partnership colleges in January 2007.
The OIE keeps the record of
how many colleges in the world
join the UH partnership. In addition, they record how many students actually come from there
and how many UH students at-
• design and construct an
information
technology
building for the entire UH
system
• expand the UHM law
school
• design a new classroom and
office building at UHM
• renovate Gartley Hall at
UHM
• design and construct a
pharmacy building for UH
Hilo
Still,
the
Governor’s
budget does prioritize several
“key” initiatives to improve
UH campuses system wide. In
many cases, the Governor’s
budget proposal compiles
numerous projects suggested
by the Board of Regents into
one larger initiative.
One of those initiatives is
called the Capital Renewal,
Health
&
Safety,
and
Infrastructure Project (or UOH
900), which was given the
highest priority by the Governor.
According to her proposal, the
UH system has accumulated a
backlog of maintenance projects
greater than $164 million and
Please see BUDGET | page 4
tend their universities.
Students can visit the OIE
office on the first floor of the
Physical Science Building and
ask for information on International Exchange and study
abroad, and also the ratio of the
students participating in a study
abroad program.
However, Rosemary Casey,
the Coordinator for Global Mobility and the officer of the OIE,
said the data of the records is
not updated frequently. She
added, “Even it is updated, the
changes are a little: becoming a
new partner or leaving.”
But people can see the records themselves at home at
http://www.hawaii.edu/oie/ by
clicking on “Partnership” on the
top of the page to see the International Exchange Agreements,
and also the list of the partnership universities.
Within the record, the country that has the largest number
of partnership colleges is Japan. UHM has many Japanese
students comparing to students
from other countries. Moreover
this shows that since it is an
exchange system, UHM sends
many students to Japan.
Gov. Linda Lingle will eventually control the fate of UH’s CIP Budget
Blogs praise and insult UHM
Students, instructors
alumnae dishing out
the good and bad
By Rachel Manuel
manuel@manoasun.com
More than 75 groups
discussing UH exist on
Facebook, while on MySpace,
there are more than 50. Beside
websites like Rateaprof, the
groups on these social networks
have become the places where
students, alumni and even
former instructors are dishing
out their opinions about UH.
On StudentsReview.com, a
website where people can take
surveys then comment about
universities, about 30 people
rated UHM.
Whether to complain or
praise, encourage or discourage
prospective students, bloggers
have weighed in on topics such
as what dorms look like and
what students like best about
UH. The most frequent topics
are education quality, UHM’s
architecture, the students and
parking.
Associate Vice President
for External Affairs and
University Relations Carolyn
Tanaka said, “My office
does not monitor blogs like
MySpace, but we do stay on
top of the more news-oriented
and watch dog blogs.” She said
readers should keep in mind
that these are reflections that
may not be indicative of the
general view of UH. “They’re
personal opinions based on
personal experiences,” she
said.
“You have to come onto
the campus and experience it
yourself,” Tanaka said.
“Hang-loose
island
atmosphere”
A common idea amongst
students is that UH is a “slacker
school.” On MySpace, a man
said in the group “University
of Hawaii @ Manoa,” with
about 3,600 members, that it
took him eight years to get
his Bachelor of Arts. Another
commented UH is considered a
backup school because gaining
admission is easy. “I wonder
if there even is an admissions
committee,” wrote a person in
response to what SAT scores
were needed.
On StudentsReview.com, a
former lecturer cited the “very
mellow, hang-loose kind of
island atmosphere” as a plus
for UH.
The fact that the university
is in Hawaii is enough to
convince some students to
Please see BLOGS | page 4
Journalism 302 Spring 2007
4
CAMPUS
FROM PAGE 3
BUDGET: Less funding for fewer initiatives; more non-funded projects
requires improvements in
areas such as fire safety, waste
management, air conditioning
and general building repair
and maintenance.
This project intends to
address current maintenance
projects within the UH system
in addition with correcting
these health and safety
deficiencies and improving
infrastructure for energy
conservation.
Both budget proposals
allocate more than $100 million
towards this program, but
Callejo said that the money will
provide for current needs instead
of completely addressing the
accumulated backlog.
“Every year we need about
$30 million just to maintain the
facilities. We have inventory
of buildings in all 10 campuses
FROM PAGE 3
BLOGS:
However,
one
student
reminds readers going to school
in Hawaii does not mean it will
be a vacation. She posted on
MySpace, “Too many people
(i.e. mainlanders) move here
expecting it to be paradise
because they vacationed here
once and once they move realize
that it’s not all it’s cracked up to
be.”
Environment stagnant
People complained that
UH is not one of the best
universities, academically. On
Studentsreview.com,
UH’s
education quality and scholastic
success were given C+s by
commenters. Several wrote they
were planning to transfer out. A
freshman student wrote, “The
majority of the students here
are potheads that don’t care at
all about their education.” She
warned others not to attend UH,
saying that of public universities,
UH is at the “VERY bottom.”
Another freshman wrote,
“The educational environment
here is totally stagnant.”
However, UH’s cheap tuition
is an advantage for students.
Several programs were praised.
The former lecturer said that
the East-West Center and Asian
Studies programs were excellent.
An alumnus wrote he learned a
great deal about the environment
and sustainability because of
the events on campus and guest
speakers. Another alumnus
said the business school has an
excellent study aboard program
and career services and that he
was able to do several internships
before graduation.
The campus is a dump
When it comes to UHM’s
architecture, commenters agree
on one thing. It is ugly. One
man wrote on MySpace that the
architecture is, “A mishmash of
disastrous post-modern boxes
intermingled with faux roman
buildings.” Another, who called
that
are
w o r t h
over $1.6
billion.
And
the
rule
of
thumb is
that
you
n
o
r
m
a
lly
CALLEJO
set aside two to four percent of
that cost for repair and maintenance. You need to maintain
your buildings,” Callejo said.
Although
UOH
900
addresses several maintenance
and health safety issues
facing UH structures, this
CIP program does not
include improvements to
student housing. According
to the recent state auditor’s
assessment of the UHM
housing,
which
deemed
several on-campus resident
the campus “unbelievably ugly,”
wrote on StudentsReview.com
that it was, “A jumble of concrete,
small-windowed,
multi-story
boxes in the middle of a beautiful
subtropical valley.”
People on Studentsreview.
com gave Campus Aesthetics
and Campus Maintenance the
lowest scores of C+ and C-,
respectively. A former student
said he transferred from the
university because he thought
UH was too dilapidated. He also
could not bear getting poo on his
research because of birds nesting
in air-conditioner units. You
get what you pay for, wrote the
woman who said, “The campus
is a dump,” about tuition being
under $2,000.
This school is racist
Students and a former lecturer
expressed differing views about
the students at UH. A man on
MySpace wrote he befriended
people from all over the island,
saying, “Each of them look out
for me.” but another male wrote
on, “UH is definitely NOT the
place to make friends.” Another
said, “This school is racist.”
Because many people who
have attended high school in
Hawaii continue their education
at UHM, this often tightens their
circle of friends, who have also
attended high school in Hawaii.
The same student of Class of
facilities to be “neglected,
unsafe and mismanaged,”
UHM residence halls have
their own separate backlog in
repair costs, estimated at $45
million.
Callejo assured that housing
improvements at Manoa are
a separate initiative from the
CIP projects, and are receiving
separate funding from this twoyear budget bill. “The plan
is to spend about $40 million
in revenue bond funds over
the next couple of years to
do major repair, maintenance
and renovation to the Manoa
dormitories. So you’ll see a lot
of work happening in the next
couple of years.”
Despite the absence of
housing improvements in the
budget, other initiatives are
specified,
including
plans
to create an entirely new
four-year
undergraduate
college campus in Kapolei to
accommodate West and Central
Oahu students. This initiative
represents the largest portion
of the funds being requested in
the governor’s budget, with an
estimated cost of $135 million,
of which $35 million is funded
by general obligation bonds
and $100 million by special
funds provided through private
partnership .
Other projects designed to
create new facilities include:
the consolidation of the
College of Hawaiian Language
in Hilo into one new building,
the development of a new
facility for the US Geological
Survey Research Center in
Hilo and the acquisition of
land and office buildings
for the Leeward Community
College Waianae Education
Center facility.
The final category of
the CIP includes plans
for future projects on the
Manoa
campus.
These
projects include possibly
using existing courtyard
areas at Holmes Hall and the
Biomedical Science Building
for research laboratory space
and determining whether the
Waahila Faculty Housing
buildings on Dole Street can
be expanded to accommodate
more faculty residents.
“These appropriations are
just for the feasibility studies
so we have the option to go
back and ask for additional
funds to design and build
there,” Callejo concluded.
“Campus Aesthetics” were given an average rating of C+ by commenters on Studentsreview.com. The National Weather
Service building at UHM illustrates one complaint made by a student. He wrote the campus is, “A jumble of concerte,
small-windowed, multi-story boxes.”
2010, who is an international
student,
continued,
“This
university is like a ‘watering
hole’ for Hawaiian high-school
graduates who would only
mingle in their own group from
their high-school days, mingling
in their tiny, nostalgic world of
immaturity.”
A former lecturer wrote of his
students, “Culturally, they are not
the most engaging, outspoken
or culturally curious of people
outside their little cliques. They
are quite boring to teach.” He
Outside of Keller Hall, a bird rests by the air-conditioning unit. On Studentsreview.
com, a student wrote he had transferred from UH because he was frustrated by
birds resting on the unit and getting “poo” on his research.
added many of them cannot
speak or write proper English.
While UH is known for its
diverse international student
body, some students said they
still feel left out.
An engineering major wrote
on Studentsreview.com, “I’m a
minority student and the local
people here don’t like the way
I talk.” He continued, “Since I
don’t use pidgin English.”
F--- UH Manoa Parking
Parking is the bane of most
who go to UH. On MySpace,
there is a group called “I hate UH
Parking and their staff!” and on
Facebook, a group called “F- UH
Manoa Parking.”
Good luck, a man from
Kailua wrote on MySpace. He
said, “UH 20,000 students and
1,500 stalls or something like
that.”
On
Facebook,
students
express their opinions of UH
more by the groups they joined.
One of the popular groups,
with more than 400 members,
is “Sodexho Is Killing Me
Slowly Network: Hawaii.”
The comments in the group
illustrate students’ distaste for
food at the dining halls. One
man suggested, “Stop eating at
school?” while another student
wrote, “I think Sodexho is
single-handedly responsible
for the ‘freshman 15.’”
A man on MySpace called
for a boycott of Sodexho’s
food, writing if nothing is done,
prices will go up, “JUST LIKE
TUITION.” Another student
wrote on Facebook, “Don’t
they know we come here cuz
we’re poor.”
Other groups include “Wanna
adopt a Wild UH Cat” and “I’m
Going to UH to Become Wasted
Potential!”
A male alumnus of the class
of 2000 wrote on Studentsreview.
com
that
problems
he
encountered at UH, like isolating
high school cliques and issues
between local students and
out-of-state students, he also
found while attending college
on the mainland. He wrote that
attending UH, “Can be a most
rewarding experience if he/she
comes with an open mind.”
College, as several students had
written on blogs, really is what
one makes of it.
MANOA SUN
Na KANAKA
5
LOOKING AT THE NATIVE CULTURE AND PEOPLE OF HAWAI‘I
UH alumnae rebuild He‘eia fishponds for future generations
By Nai‘a Watson
naia@manoasun.com
COMMUNITY
PARTNERSHIPS
Kalaupapa’s Future
Remains Uncer tain
By Brooke Hutchins
brooke@manoasun.com
It will be the end of an era
when the last few patients on
Kalaupapa pass away, and
the place of memories and
culture will once again go
through a change. Department
of Hawaiian Home Lands, the
National Park Services, and
the patients will have to decide
Kalaupapa’s future.
“Patients just want to be
remembered…Hawaiians have
to be remembered too,” said
Lydia Puna Ka‘ai‘ali‘i-Ramos,
a national park volunteer and
wife of a patient.
There has been much debate
over what will happen to
Kalaupapa settlement once
the patients have gone, and it
is a relevant issue seeing as
the oldest patient is 87 and
the youngest is 66. The end
is drawing to a near and the
several groups involved have
different views.
National
Park
Service
(NPS) would like to continue
preserving the structures and
landscapes like they have
always been doing, turning
the living National Park into a
traditional National Park seen
around the world. However,
many Hawaiians would like
to see the land go back to
the Hawaiians as homestead
because of their displacement
in 1865 and 1895. The
Department of Hawaiian
Home Lands (DHHL) owns
the land where the Kalaupapa
patient community resides
today, which is the land in
dispute. The patients would
like a monument built and the
graves of there fellow patients
maintained.
“Don’t let this place be a
nothing,” said Olivia Breitha,
a patient who recently passed
away.
Kalaupapa
Settlement,
located on the western edge
of the Molokai peninsula with
Kalawao on its eastern edge, is
currently the home to patients
with Hansen’s disease and its
many workers and volunteers
Please see KALAUPAPA | page 6
Conflict Over Mauna Kea Plans
Please see page 7
In the early 1900’s a
survey showed at least 600 loko
i‘a, or fishponds, on O‘ahu. Today, approximately 25 remain
but the fishpond at He‘eia, in the
ahupua‘a of Ko‘olaupoko on the
windward side of Oahu, is one
of the only fishponds still producing fish for the community.
“Fishponds are viable resources in today’s modern econCOURTESY PHOTO | BRUCE LUM, KSBE
omy,” said Mahina Paishon-Du- An arial view of He‘eia fishpond in the ahupua‘a of
arte, “They are important food Ko‘olaupoko–Kane‘ohe, O‘ahu. The pond is one of the
systems and important educational
few fully functioning ponds left in the islands.
systems. They need to be revitalized
and restored.”
Paishon-Duarte is not only the exec- to 800 years ago.
“The pond could be as old as 1000 years,” said
utive director of Paepae o He‘eia, a nonprofit organization set up in 2001 to care Kawelo, “but nobody knows for sure.”
However, despite the importance of loko i‘a
for the He‘eia fishpond, she is also a UH
alum, who leads a staff filled with other as a renewable food supply to the Hawaiian peoUH graduates who are working hard to ple, the total number of ponds, island wide, took
a sharp decline at the turn of the century. Some of
fulfill Paepae’s vision and mission.
“Our vision is to provide for our the most important reasons include: a shift from a
subsistence to a cash economy, a
‘ohana (family)
decline in the native population,
and our commua change in the land tenure that
nities
through
made it difficult to continue with
education,” said
the ahupua‘a system or mounKeili‘i Kotubetey,
tain-to-ocean resource manage“ … and we are trying to feed the spirit, • The Oceanic Institute sup- ment, and more recently, invasive
species.
plies Paepae with fingerthe body, and the mind.”
lings (baby fish) that in the “ Invasive plants like mangrove
Kotubetey, is a UH alum,
causes over-siltation of the pond,”
end become the fish sold
who graduated with an
said Kotubetey, “and foreign limu
MBA in 2003. He is
to the community.
(seaweed) chokes out native habthe fiscal manager for • The Nature Conservancy
Paepae o He‘eia.
sponsors the annual inva- itat.”
Prior to Paepae’s consistent care,
“Constructed
sive seaweed cleanup.
both periods of non-management,
when the popula- • The University of Hawaii
and a large flood in 1965, which
tion of ancient
was instrumental in helpbroke a significant portion of
Hawaii reached
ing to develop the “Super
the kuapä, were also factors that
capacity,” said
Sucker,” a machine that
made it difficult for the pond to
Hi‘ilei Kawelo,
helps to mechanically
consistently produce fish for the
“the ponds came
extract the invasive seacommunity.
into being in orweed.
Under the leadership of Paisder to enhance • Local farmers take the
hon-Duarte,
the efforts of staff,
the food supply
invasive seaweed and till it
the board of directors, landowner
with a renewinto their organic crops so
Kamehameha Schools, and many
able source of
there is no waste.
volunteers have focused on to
protein.” Kaweproducing: rebuilt walls, fewer
lo holds a BA in
invasive species, a long term vibiology from UH
able food supply, a large volunand is Paepae’s
facilities manager and site coordi- teer base that provides on-going assistance, and the
means to rebuild the foundation of cultural knowlnator.
The pond at He‘eia is special in edge around loko i‘a management.
“At our recent Moi and Poi Sale … we were able
than its 1.3-mile-long kuapä, or fishpond wall, is a circle enclosing 88 to supply roughly 500 pounds of fish to our comacres of brackish water, whereas munity,” said Paishon-Duarte. And the success of
most ponds are semi-circular. The this sale exemplifies the effectiveness of Paepae’s
water is kept brackish from peren- partnership efforts with a variety of organizations
nial streams running down into from the scientific, farming, educational and conKäne‘ohe Bay from the Ko‘olau servation communities.
As proof of Paishon-Duarte’s commitment to
mountains. This process has continued to bring life to He‘eia fishPlease see Fishpond | page 6
pond since it was first built 600
Taro Patents
Please see page 7
New Hawaiian School
Please see page 8
6
NA KA N AKA
Journalism 302 Spring 2007
M A N O A
Hawaiians attack taro patents
By Matthew K. Ing
INGM@manoasun.com
Dean Andrew
Hashimoto of CTAHR
told protestors
that the taro
hybridization at
UH will help the
plant survive Pacific
diseases. But the
crowds booed,
claiming that the
taro is an ancestor of
man and should not
be manipulated.
More than 600 people gathered in front of
Bachman Hall on Thursday to confront interim
President David McClain in protest of patents
of hybridized Hawaiian taro by the University
of Hawai‘i at Manoa’s College of Tropical
Agriculture and Human Resources.
McClain did not make an appearance at the
rally and was unavailable for comment prior to
press time.
“Isn’t it funny that McClain should choose
to take the day off?” Lilikalā Kame‘eleihiwa,
UHM professor, asked the crowd. “Isn’t it fitting
that the man who is to become our president is
not here to greet the Hawaiian people?”
After chastising McClain in front of
Bachman Hall, Kame‘eleihiwa noted the locked
doors of the building. “In over 100 years, that
door has never been closed to the faculty and
students of the university,” she said.
The rally climaxed when Hinaleimoana
Wong, an instructor at the Hawaiian charter
school, Hālau Lōkahi, led the crowd in dismantling the rock garden in front of the hall. The
pōhaku, or rocks, carry mana like everything
else in nature, and every Hawaiian is connected
to the land, Wong said, instructing each protestor
to take a single stone. “When [McClain] comes
back to his lovely garden, he will be reminded of
the wrong,” she said.
Patenting a people
Various Hawaiian charter schools, Hawaiian
activist groups, taro farmers, and supporters of
native Hawaiian rights came together to challenge the university’s legitimacy in claiming
what Hawaiians believe to be their eldest ancestor, Hāloa, the first kalo.
“The reason we’re gathered is to honor
Hāloa,” said Walter Ritte, a chief organizer of
the rally. “We are Hāloa, and Hāloa is us. No one
can own us.”
A Moloka‘i native and long-time Hawaiian
activist, Ritte, along with a few Hawaiian kalo
FROM PAGE 5
FISHPOND
community, culture, and the
ocean, she was awarded with the
Edward N. Kaanaana Umu Kai
Award on
Feb. 1 at the “Our Sea of Islands: A Forum for Oceania on
Marine Management and World
Heritage” at the University’s
East-West Center. As a perpetual
lifetime achievement award, it
will always be given in the name
of Uncle Eddie Kaanaana, a man
who was seen as a living cultural
treasure. He inspired thousands,
including many of the staff of
Paepae o He‘eia.
“Thank you to our respected
elders who have laid this important groundwork for us to learn
from, “ said Paishon-Duarte as
she accepted the award, “ we
will honorably walk this path,
and uphold our traditions.“
Although awarded to Paishon-Duarte, symbolically, the
entire staff was bestowed with
the award. When asked what
inspired the deep commitment
of everyone at Paepae, PaishonDuarte said, “Our inspiration is
the place. It calls us … its our inheritance, its our responsibility.”
Matthew K. Ing
The Manoa Sun
farmers, is spearheading the fight against the
patent.
Ritte also compared the patents to a second
māhele. “The first māhele was a division of
land,” Ritte said, referring to the decision by
King Kamehameha III in 1845 to redistribute
Hawaiian land for private ownership. “This
second māhele is not the māhele of land but the
māhele of mana. They do not have the right to
buy, sell, own and manipulate our mana.”
“We will join people from around the world
in fighting the ownership of peoples,” said Vicky
Holt Takamine, kumu hula and president of
‘Īlio‘ulaokalani Coalition, a Hawaiian cultural
activist group.
Holt Takamine referenced similar ongoing struggles in Middle America, particularly
southern Mexico. Stemming from an ancient
lineage tracing back to the maize in ancient
Mayan culture, the 18 distinct peoples in
modern Mexico referred to as “the people of
the corn” are currently fighting the genetic
modification and patenting of various strands
of corn by research organizations.
Ritte submitted a written proposal to
McClain demanding the rescinding of the three
patents on Hawaiian kalo in Feb. Backed by various Hawaiian activist groups and anti-genetic
modification organizations, such as the Center
for Food Safety in Washington, D.C., Ritte
attacked the legitimacy of the patents and their
noncompliance to the United Nation’s World
Intellectual Property Organization and United
States patenting laws.
Professor Jon Osorio publicly issued
UHM’s Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian
Studies position against the patenting of kalo by
UHM or any other claimant. Representatives
for the Kuali‘i Council, the ‘Īlio‘ulaokalani
Coalition, and the Pūko‘a Council also publicly relayed their separate organization’s positions against the patenting of kalo.
“There is a disconnect between what
the university’s doing and its effects on the
Hawaiian community,” Ritte said through
a megaphone met by scattered cheers of
agreement in Hawaiian. “We’re here to
spread the word that academic freedom
does not mean you have the freedom to
trample over someone’s culture.”
Patenting one solution
At one point in the rally,
Kame‘eleihiwa met UHM interim
Chancellor Denise Konan and
Andrew Hashimoto, dean of
CTAHR. Konan was met with an
embrace from Kame‘eleihiwa and
applause from onlookers because
of her opposition to the proposed
University Affiliated Research
Center, Hashimoto was met with
silence, shaking heads and mutters.
“We live in a changing time,”
Hashimoto said. “Patents are necessary. If we didn’t patent it, who’s
to say some more powerful force
wouldn’t patent it and abuse it?”
“We at CTAHR do not have the
independent power to relinquish the
patents,” said Ching Yuan Hu, associate dean and associate director
for research at CTAHR. “The
patent belongs to the inventor
and to [UHM’s] Office of
Technology Transfer. Both
owners have half of the
ownership.”
The patent, obtained
in 2002, gives UHM and inventor, Professor
Eduardo E. Trujillo, ownership over the three
developed strains of taro. The taro is derived
from the most popular breed of Hawaiian kalo
Please see PATENTS | page 7
FROM PAGE 5
KALAUPAPA: Park services to preserve and use buildings
known as kokuas, who help and
serve the patients. These patients
were forced into isolation in 1866
up until 1969 when Dr. Hansen
discovered the sulfone drug that
made the disease dormant. There
are 32 patients registered at the
Kalaupapa settlement with 26
currently living there.
The National Park Service has
come into the settlement through
several cooperative agreements
including the Department of
Hawaiian Home Lands and the
State departments of Health,
Transportation, and Land &
Natural Resources.
The National Park Service’s
agreement with DHHL was a
50-year lease for the 1000-acre
land known as the Kalaupapa
settlement. The lease began on
July 15, 1991 and will supposedly
last till July 14, 2041.
The Department of Health
resides on the settlement with NPS,
bringing nurses and medical care
to the patients, but it is probable
that it will leave once the patients
are gone and its services no longer
needed. According to Jennifer
Cery a chief of cultural resources
at National Park Service, they
have no intention of leaving, even
when the patients are gone.
“Our intention is to be here for
the long term,” Cerny says.
The National Park Service
plans to continue maintaining the
spirit and feeling of the place. This
includes telling its story of where
Hansen’s disease patients once
resided, which could incorporate
opening the settlement more to
the public. According to Cerny,
they will have to limit the number
of tourists who visit the peninsula
because of the limited number of
resources.
“…how would you feel if
you heard the air-conditioning
running,” Cerny says. “These are
some of the things the National
Park Service will have to look at.”
The National Park Service also
plans to make every effort to re-use
the buildings, which might include
a bed and breakfast to cater to the
tourists. According to Cerny this
isn’t a new idea, seeing as National
Parks around the world have been
doing these kinds of things.
With NPS starting to think
about the future, the Department
of Hawaiian Home Lands may
have thoughts of its own about
the future. DHHL may want to
pull out of the lease at an earlier
time when the patients have
gone, but according to Cerny that
isn’t a concern. According to her
interpretation, the lease states that
if the Department of Hawaiian
Home Lands decides to pull out of
the lease early then they will have
to pay back all of the money the
national park spent on restoration
and maintenance.
The lease states in article
2 section 15b, “Should the
lessor (DHHL)… terminate
this lease prior to the its natural
expiration, lessor shall be liable
to the lessee (NPS) in an amount
equal to the fair market value
of any capital improvements
made to or places upon the
demised land…the lessee shall
be compensated in an amount
equal to the proportionate value
of the lessee’s improvements in
the proportion that it bears to the
unexpired term of the lease.”
However, according to Lydia
Puna Ka‘ai‘ali‘i-Ramos, known
to many as Aunty Puna, she
remembers attending one of the
many national park meetings
where four women from DHHL
addressed the Superintendent of
the National Park Service, Tom
Workman, about the termination
conditions of the lease. Aunty
Puna says that one of the four
members of DHHL walked right
up to Tom Workman and told him
about a clause in the termination
of the lease, which states that if
given one year notice DHHL will
not have to repay NPS. She says
that Tom Workman looked down
and nodded his head, complying
with the claim.
The lease states in article two
section 15C, “the lessee may
terminate this lease, in whole or
in part, at any time by giving a
one (1) year termination notice in
writing to the lessor, and no rental
shall accrue after the effective date
of termination.”
Having DHHL convert the
land to homestead and returning
the land to the Hawaiians with
a monument for the patients is
a popular opinion among the
Hawaiian people.
Many know the history of
Hansen’s disease patients, but forget
that Hawaiians had lived there for
900 years before. They were stripped
from a place that is of immense
cultural significance to them.
These were a thriving people.
Hawaiians fished the rough
surrounding ocean by outrigger
canoe with nets and spears. They
farmed the land, growing sweet
potatoes, onions and taro. They
built heiaus as to make offerings
to ensure their safety while
fishing in the rough waters that
surrounded the peninsula. They
lived in this land until 1865 when
Kamehameha the V Lot Kapuaiwa
approved, “An Act to Prevent the
Spread of Leprosy” to set apart
land to seclude people believed
capable of spreading the disease.
ThereareHawaiianarcheological
sites throughout the national park as
well as many Hawaiian gravesites
such as Kahaloko Cemetery. These
are the many signs that Hawaiians
had fully established themselves on
Kalaupapa peninsula.
Journalism 302 Spring 2007
S U N
7
FROM PAGE 6
PATENTS: CTAHR patents of hybridized kalo could save plants, hurt native culture
with high-yielding and disease-resistant traits
hybridized
from separate father
plants.
Hashimoto used
the cultural analogy of kalo as
man, comparing the
devastation
of ancient
Hawaiians
from foreign
disease to the
threat of foreign
disease currently
affecting native kalo
populations. “UHM
has been working on
taro for more than 100
years. One of the first
projects ever at the university – one that we’re still pursuing
– is how to make quality taro that
resists disease,” he said.
“There is a complex of
viruses wiping out every variety
of taro in New Guinea right now,”
Hashimoto said. “If it were to
reach Hawai‘i,
all of our taro
would be
wiped out in
no time.”
Even if the New
Guinea virus does not reach
Hawai‘i, Hashimoto estimates that
in 100 years, the 60 or so Hawaiian
varieties of kalo that now exist would be
one or two at most if the university were
not allowed to continue research.
“The Hawaiians themselves were also
skilled in breeding taro for specific purposes.
Hawaiians brought only six to 12 varieties of
taro with them when they first came to Hawaii
and produced more than 1200 varieties,” he
said.
The debate continues
While Hashimoto spoke, a single onlooker
booed him loudly; however, the rest strained to
listen. In time, the “boo” drew more hostility,
and scattered yells of “no patents!” slowly grew
into a clamor.
As Ritte took the megaphone from his
hands, Hashimoto returned to the background.
“We are not a commodity,” Ritte said. “This is
one issue that we [native Hawaiian organizations] can all agree on. Even though we may
not always agree on politics and choices for our
nation, for this, we can be united.”
“The university is once again reminded
that it is illegally occupying the land of our
people,” said Nālani Minton, an activist for
native Hawaiian self-determination. “This
‘āina [land] will not be demeaned or owned as
property by the university or anyone else.”
Hinaleimoana Wong of Hālau Lōkahi
spoke against McClain before instructing the
crowds to dismantle the rock garden in front
of Bachman Hall and leading her Hawaiian
charter school in traditional chants and dances. “This is fornication against will – rape of
a people,” she said. The two other Hawaiian
charter schools in attendance, Hālau Kū Mana
and Ke Kula O Kamakau, also offered chants
and dances.
“CTAHR and all of our Hawaiian groups
are in the process of sitting down initiating a
conversation about this issue,” Kame‘eleihiwa
said. She also urged all of the protesters
to attend the anti-UARC rally at Leeward
Community College on March 16.
“We really need to come to a common
ground between the cultural values of the
native Hawaiians and those of the academic
institution,” Hashimoto said. “The real challenge here is a balance conflict.”
“If, after meeting and talking about the
issue, Hawaiians made a decision against
research that represented the group as a
whole, I’d back off for good without argument, though I’m not sure what the consequences would be in the future,” he said.
Manoa Mana‘o
If we didn’t patent it, who’s to say that
some more powerful force wouldn’t
patent it and abuse it?
Andrew Hashimoto | CTAHR Dean and Director
They do not have the right to buy, sell
or manipulate our mana. They cannot
claim us. We are not a commodity.
Walter Ritte | Hawaiian Activist
When he (McClain) comes back to his
lovely garden, he will be reminded of
the wrong.
Hinaleimoana Wong | Halau Lokahi Kumu Hula
The message is loud and clear: no
patent. This is not something you can
own.
Lilikalā Kame‘eleihiwa | Hawaiian Studies Professor
Matthew K. Ing
The Manoa Sun
Gall wasps infecting endangered trees
By Tiffany Hill
TMHILL@manoasun.com
In the Hawaiian lowland
forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world,
the native wiliwili tree, a species found only in Hawaii, is
on the border of extinction all
because of the Erythrina gall
wasp
First discovered in Hawaii
in April 2005, the gall wasp,
believed by scientists to have
originated in Africa, has since
then infected large numbers of
trees statewide, including trees
on the University of Hawaii at
Manoa campus.
“University researchers
found the wasp originally, and
in assessing the damage [of
infected trees by the wasps],
UH has been a pretty important
player in the process,” said
Cliff Morden, an associate
botany professor at UH.
The gall wasps infect only
the erythrina species of trees,
which includes the endemic
wiliwili (erythrina sandwi-
censis), but also non-native
erythrina species as well, such
as the different species of coral
trees (erythrina variegata).
Because a large number of
trees have been infected statewide and will have to be cut
down due to gall wasp infestation, UH has teamed up with
the Department of Agriculture
and the Department of Land
and Natural Resources. They
hope to prevent further infestation of the trees by finding a
natural predator for the gall
wasp, and seed collecting for
the preservation and continuation of the erythrina species in
Hawaii.
Intrusive Wasps
Small in size, the gall wasp
has created a large problem in
the Hawaiian Islands.
“The wasp has evolved so
that when they lay their eggs,
the little wasp larva that hatches out…secretes hormones
which forces the plant to make
these weird galls which [the
plant] would not normally do,”
said Dan Rubinoff, an assistant
professor of entomology. Cliff
Morden said that the galls, or
the small fleshy balls of plant
cells are the response of the
tree to protect itself from the
gall wasps. But when there are
too many wasp infestations the
tree can no longer protect itself,
and in severe cases, it dies.
“If the leaf is infected very
early then the whole leaf will
not form right and eventually
fall off,” said Morden, who
said that extensive infestation
prevents the trees from producing new leaves and causing the
infected leaves to wither up and
fall off.
Rubinoff said the wasps
attack the soft fleshy parts
of the plant, which primarily
includes the leaves, but also the
stems. This infestation results
in the formation of galls which
a wasp larva eats so it can
develop into a wasp.
“[The gall wasp] hijacks the
plant’s own growth system…
Please see WASPS | page 8
Billy Bob Bo-Bice * Manoa Sun
The erythrina gall wasp, originally from Africa is
extremely tiny in size. The adult male is one millimeter
in length, the size of a grain of sand.
8
M A N O A8S U N
NA KA N AKA
7
Journalism 302 Spring 2007
Regents to approve School of Hawaiian Knowledge
By Kacie Miura
kacie@manoasun.com
The University of Hawaii
Board of Regents is expected
to approve a proposal by May
to create the Hawai’inuiakea
School of Hawaiian Knowledge
at UH Manoa, which will
combine the Kamakakuokalani
Center for Hawaiian Studies
and the Kawaihuelani Center
for Hawaiian Language.
The proposal is currently
being reviewed by various UH
councils, said Keali’i Gora,
the administrator for the Kali’i
Puko’a Councils at the Center
for Hawaiian Studies. He said
that he is confident that the
Board of Regents will approve
the proposal by May, and
that the School of Hawaiian
Knowledge will open in fall
2007.
The proposal calls for
a
merger
between
the
Kamakakuokalani
Center
for Hawaiian Studies, which
currently belongs to the School
of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific
Studies, and the Kawaihuelani
Center for Hawaiian Languages,
which is part of the Department
of Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific
Languages and Literatures.
“Language and studies
shouldn’t be separate,” Gora
said. “The merger will allow for
a unified approach in language,
program and all aspects of
life.”
The merger and creation
of the School of Hawaiian
Knowledge will “revitalize all
areas and forms of Hawaiian
knowledge,” according to the
proposal.
Gora said, “The purpose is
to empower Native Hawaiians
through research and scholarship
in higher education.”
The Center for Hawaiian
Studies offers more than 37
courses and has more than
4,800 students a year, Gora
said. The proposal states that
more than 1,100 students enroll
in Hawaiian Studies 107 each
semester, making it the most
popular focus course at UHM.
The Center for Hawaiian
Languages offers 48 courses
and a total of 706 students
during fall 2006 and added a
program for a Masters degree
in Hawaiian in 2005, according
to the proposal.
Both the Center for Hawaiian
Studies and the Center for
Hawaiian Languages will
continue to offer the same
courses,
degree
programs
and services, but their current
operating budgets will be
transferred to the new school,
Gora said.
The total cost of the new
school will be $368,000, part
of which will go to creating a
position for a dean. According
to the proposal, the dean will
serve as the head of the school,
working with other UHM
executives and community
groups to oversee the school’s
administrative matters.
Gora said that as an
administrator for the Kali’i
Puko’a Councils, he will be
working to increase teaching
positions and secure better
Native Hawaiian programs for
the new school and in all aspects
of university life.
The proposal says that the
school will help UHM to fulfill
the strategic plan it adopted
in 2003, which calls for a
“Hawaiian place of learning” by
spreading Hawaiian knowledge
throughout the university and
Kacie Miura, The Manoa Sun
The new Hawaiian School of Knowledge will be housed at the Center for Hawaiian Studies.
community.
The new school will also help
the 1986 task force of Native
Hawaiian educators and leaders
to realize their Ka’u Task Force
Report, which recommended
that UH establish a single
Hawaiian studies program to
incorporate Hawaiian language,
culture and history.
The
proposal
states:
“Hawai’inuiakea will be a
means to reach these goals
and to raise the university’s
profile not only as a center for
Indigenous Studies, but as an
institution that supports Native
people and Native ways of
knowing.”
Gora said that the school will
“empower Native Hawaiians
through research, scholarship
and in higher education.”
During the fall 2006 semester,
there were 8,620 Native
Hawaiian students at UHM,
making up 17.3 percent of the
student population, according
to the proposal. The proposal
also states that within the UH
system, UHM has the largest
population of Native Hawaiian
students.
The school will be
located at the Kamakakuokalani
Center for Hawaiian Studies
and will also include the
adjacent Ka Papa Lo’i o
Kanewai Cultural Garden,
which Gora said is maintained
by students and volunteers from
the community.
FROM PAGE 7
WASPS: Introduced insects are laying eggs, killing native wiliwili on campus and around the state
that the wasp [larva] can then
eat,” said Rubinoff. “Then
when it has eaten enough it
forms a little pupa and then
out of that pupa is a little wasp
that hatches out and chews its
way outside of the gall, flies
around, finds another wasp,
mates, then flies back to the
plant, then lays eggs for the
next generation.”
According to Rubinoff the
larvae of the wasp cause the
damage of the trees, and as of
yet there is not concrete solution to the wasp infestation.
“Because there’s no control
for these wasps here, there’s
nothing eating them or their
larvae, they’ve gone nuts and
attacked every part of the
plant, and attacked all of the
[erythrina] plants and that’s
what’s causing the big problem,” said Rubinoff.
Rubinoff said he and his
colleagues, along with the Department of Agriculture, have
traveled to Africa to collect
gall wasp species. They are
now working on using DNA
sequences to compare and
determine the exact species of
gall wasps in hopes of finding
a natural predator of the wasp
to introduce in Hawaii.
“We’re trying to assess the
levels of damage the wasps
have done before we introduce a controlled agent,” said
Rubinoff.
Although it is estimated
that it will take years to determine an effective natural
predator that does not create
other problems in Hawaii’s
ecosphere, it is the most comprehensive solution to the gall
wasp infestation.
Saving the Wiliwilis
Because it may take years
before a natural predator
can be introduced into Hawaii, the UH botany department, researchers at the Lyon
Arboretum, and the state are
working together to preserve
the erythrina population.
“A lot of botanists and
horticulturists are concerned
about what is going on here,”
said Morden. “We hope it can
get taken care of because [they
are] beautiful trees, the native as well as the introduced
ones.”
Morden said that different types of insecticides have
been used to treat infected
trees. Certain insecticides
are sprayed directly onto the
leaves and tree branches, while
other are injected into the infected tree’s trunk. In addition,
severely infected or already
dead trees have had to be cut
down. However, insecticides
are expensive and time consuming, proving ineffective in
saving wiliwili and coral tree
forests.
Morden said instead UH
researchers and the state
have turned their focus onto
the preservation of the trees
through their seeds. Alvin
Yoshinaga, a junior researcher
at the Center for Conservation
Research and Training at the
Lyon Arboretum said that it
is essential to “preserve some
kind of material so if and when
they (researchers) do have
some kind of solution, we can
bring [the trees] back again.”
Yoshinaga said that shortly
after the discovery of the gall
wasp infestation in 2005, thousands of seeds of the wiliwili
tree were collected. The seeds
were gathered and collected
by people working in the field
with government agencies
managing the land.
After the seeds have been
gathered they are thoroughly
cleaned and then put in a special seed drier.
“It takes about a month and
a half to dry the seeds,” said
Yoshinaga, who said the seeds
are then transferred to foil
packets lined with plastic and
sealed closed with a household
iron. The packets are then
placed in a freezer where they
can remain viable for up to 30
years.
According to Yoshinaga,
preserving wiliwili seeds is
crucial to the species’ survival.
He said that 90 pounds, or
around 60,000 wiliwili seeds
have been collected and preserved.
Because the coral trees are
grown in other parts of the
world, seed collection from
that species is not as critical.
Yoshinaga said the majority
of the wiliwili seeds were collected in 2005, but a few seeds
are brought in to him for preservation every now and then.
Although the gall wasp
infestation proves destructive
to Hawaii’s natural resources,
UH researchers and the state
agriculture departments have
continued to work hard in
finding a natural predator for
the gall wasp for the continued
existence of the wiliwili.
Journalism 302 Spring 2007
A round T own
MANOA SUN
Chinese Student Finds
Refuge at UH Manoa
By Kumari Sherreitt
Manoa Sun Staffwriter
and globetrotter
COURTESY PHOTO | KUMARI SHERRIET
Ying Guo practices Falun Gong outside of Hawaiì Hall every wednesday aftenoon
as daily practice of his belief.
Two options were presented
to Ying Guo one day in 2004: to
disown his faith and to be re-educated in a mental institution, or
to leave his country behind and
start a new life where his beliefs
would be unrestricted.
Six months later, he anxiously stood in the airport customs
line in western China and used
his U.S. student visa to persuade
security officers to permit his
exit. He was lucky, he said, because Falun Gong adherents are
ordinarily barred from leaving,
and practitioner’s names and
IDs are monitored.
“Can you imagine, persecution and torture, just because
of a spiritual belief?” Guo said,
“Don’t you think it is worthy of
concern?”
According to a UHM political science faculty member, the
Chinese government has said
that “those who give up their
beliefs will be released,” and
those “who refuse are still in jail
or re-education camps.”
With his luggage and belongings intact, Guo left his parents,
both music professors, to begin
his new life in Honolulu, as a
University of Hawai‘i at Manoa
ethnomusicology graduate student in Chinese music.
In 1999, Guo began having
trouble because of his Falun
Gong practicing. The Chinese
Communist Party had begun
persecuting the new religious
movement. On July 22, there
were self-immolations in Tiananmen Square, but Guo
claims they were “stages to defame Falun Gong.”
The Chinese media used fake
Falun Gong members to display
practices as a “dangerous cult,”
Guo said.
The public slowly forgot the
incident, UHM Assistant Geography Professor Hong Jiang said
in an interview, but the ruling
Communist Party continues to
persecute Falun Gong practitioners today.
In May 2004 Guo was discharged from his job teaching
music theory to high school applicants for telling them of the
fiery incident in July. Although
it was “very sensitive in China”
to discuss, Guo said, “It was my
duty to tell them.”
He was not told the details
of his dismissal except that a
student had informed school administration.
With more than 70 million
followers in China alone, according to the organization, and
100 million worldwide in more
than 60 countries, the practices
of Falun Gong have gained international appeal.
According to John Sweeny, a
UHM religion grad student, the
group created a worldwide plea
of the movement’s philosophy
and activism along with the organization’s focus on unity and
connection with the community
and family, using the Internet
and media technology.
Anna Bannana’s rocks
seven nights a week
By Nicholas McEvoy
Manoa Sun Staffwriter
and resident rock star
Anna Banana’s has a lot
more to offer to its customers
than cold beer and a good time.
The full bar venue has been
around for decades and will continue to grow with its numerous
types of nightly events.
After an eventful—well, uneventful--bike ride that ended
with a make-up date for the interview and a completely mangled bicycle, I was able to sit
down with the manager of Anna
Banana’s. Tim Wells greeted
me at the door and invited me to
have a seat in the corner of the
rustic downstairs bar. The bar
was rather empty; I recall only
two men sitting three or four
seats apart watching the Sunday
re-cap of the NFL on ESPN.
Upstairs, Chesus, a rock band
from the island was practicing
for an upcoming gig. I later met
one of the band members and
he explained to me that they did
mostly cheesy covers, which explains the name.
“Sister Golden Hair” by
America supplied the background music as I began speaking with Wells.
Anna Banana’s was not always what it is today. Wells
explained to me that Anna’s was
started back in 1969 and was
managed by numerous people.
Wells says they would play manager of the week, one person one
week, another the next, and so
on. In 1975 a pool hall opened
upstairs, but quickly closed five
years later and Anna’s expanded
its domain to both the upstairs
and downstairs. Anna’s served
food and drinks upstairs at first,
then limited the food to only
downstairs. Later it was cut out
entirely. “We still have peanuts
and microwavable popcorn. I
can put a corndog in the micro-
THIRSTY
wave for ya, but you wouldn’t
really consider that food,” Wells
says with a laugh.
The music scene has made
Anna’s the place to be if one is
looking for a live performance.
This is true because on almost
any night of the week, one can
step into Anna’s and find someone playing music, spinning
records or even reciting poetry. “We try and be open seven
nights a week,” Wells says. The
music ranges from Hawaiian to
country and rock to rap. “I don’t
think there is anything that really
hasn‘t played here,” he adds.
The 120-seat venue on the
second floor of the establishment
is where most of the action occurs. As Wells explains about
See Falun Gong | page 10
scribes poetry night as not being
just a guy in the corner of the bar
talking and only a few people
listening. “Most everybody was
pretty content,” Wells said on behalf of the poetic party.
Another Tuesday attraction
held at Anna’s is open turntables.
DJ’s come in and spin for about
15-20 minutes, depending on
how many DJ’s there are. Wells
says it’s a lot of house music and
drum ‘n’ bass. “It’s open, so it’s
up to the DJ,” Wells says.
Thursdays and Fridays are
held for mainly the solidified
acts that have been around for
a while, such as Go Jimmy Go
and Ooklah the Moc. Go Jimmy
Go is a ska band that has been
around for six years and Ooklah
the Moc has been performing
“Thursdays and Fridays are kind
of our bigger nights for when
people want to come out and play,”
TIM WELLS | MANAGER OF ANNA BANANA’S
trying to stay open all week, he
also describes the individual
theme nights that go on weekly
and monthly.
Monday nights at Anna’s is
open mic night. Wells explains
that it is the longest running open
mic night on the island, at least
on Mondays. Open mic night has
been running for about 12 years
at Anna’s. Curious about poetry,
I ask him if any poets come in for
open mic night. To my surprise,
Anna’s holds a poetry night. Every first Tuesday of every month
there is a poetry reading open to
the public. “We had a crowd of
about 40 and I think 22 (people)
got up and actually did something,” Wells says. Wells de-
THURSDAYS
Falun Gong in China
David Kilgor, a former member of the Canadian House of
Commons, and David Matas, a
human rights lawyer, have been
fighting for the group, which had
been persecuted through illegal
detainment, torture and illegal
9
COURTESY PHOTO | NICHOLAS MCEVOY
Four UH students enjoy Anna’s Thursday night $1.75 PBR bottles special
while watching Mike White and the Saltines jam on stage.
reggae for 10 years. “Thursdays
and Fridays are kind of our bigger nights for when people want
to come out and play,” Wells
says. Wells goes on to say that
the venue is open to anyone who
wants to perform. He says that
there are bands who have previously played there and call up
explaining that they will be in
town and want to play. “If we
got nothing going on that night,
then it works,” Wells says.
Anna’s is open from 2:00 p.m.
until 2:00 a.m. with the upstairs
opening at 9:00 p.m. seven days
a week. In the streets of Boston
or the streets of San Francisco,
Anna’s would just be another
venue to check out and have
a beer in, but here it is unique.
Whether you are looking for a
good time to dance and hang out
or to just kick back in the corner
and hide away from the outside
world, Anna’s is the place. In
most bars or restaurants you are
greeted with an annoying host or
hostess who is asking you questions you don’t care to answer
and you know that he or she
doesn’t care what your answer is.
It’s is all small meaningless conversation if you ask me. Anna’s
lets you decide whether you are
there to chat or just chill. There
is no need to worry about a cover
charge either, for the most part;
the only thing you have to pay
for is whatever you are drinking
and a corndog.
Whether you are coming from
the beach, the football game or
home, there is a seat for you.
“It’s Anna’s, pop in anytime,”
Wells says.
MANOA SUN
Journalism 302 Spring 2007
10 A round T own
FROM PAGE 9
FALUN GONG
seizing and selling of practitioner’s organs. This has resulted
in more than 1,600 practitioner
deaths, states www.falundafa.
org
The investigations by the
Kilgor and Matas group have
concluded that “there had been
and continues today to be largescale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners.” The report was done by
the Coalition to Investigate the
Persecution of Falun Gong, a
human rights organization.
Futures Studies experts analyze Hawaii’s potential in 2050 project
By TRACY CHAN
Manoa Sun STAFFWRITER & RESIDENT GAMER
Politics in China
The Communist Party (China’s now leading party) has recently outlawed the practice of
Falun Gong, and practitioners
are being charged as counterrevolutionaries. Although the
crime of being a “counter-revolutionary was removed form the
criminal code in 1997, western
NGO’s estimated that “as many
as 1,300 persons remain in prison for the crime,” according to
www.specialtribunal.org, a site
about the Falun Gong movement.
The power that the group has
gathered from its sheer mass has
created worry amongst the government, said Wang. “[It] may
be more organized than Chinese
Communist Party,” he said.
“A Beijing official clarified
that since the group had been
banned as a ‘heretical organization,’ any activities linked to
Falun Gong were illegal,” stated
www.amnesty.org.
Falun
Gong’s move toward activism
after the incident has ostracized
it from the other sects of Qigong
and new religious movements,
creating friction with the power
of the Chinese Government.
The primary reason for this
persecution, according to Wang,
is the power in the message
which this organized group was
preaching. “The medical expense for the commoners is very
high,” said Wang, “but both
sides argue the public is being
manipulated [by the other].”
The quiet, kempt Guo settled
into Honolulu without much
difficulty. Adapting to his multicultural surroundings while taking all of his studies in English
was challenging but possible.
“The customs of the US are totally different from that of China,” he said. “Some of my major
classes required actively participating in class discussion.” Guo
had to re-teach himself the English language. His former landlord had helped a great deal in
making Hawai‘i his new home.
“I don’t think of my journey
as an exile,” Guo said, “I know
my mission here in the U.S. is
to do more than what I can do in
China about telling the truth to
the world.”
“Although I do miss my native culture, music and literature, ” he said, “My belief tells
me to be a good person wherever I am.”
Building at 1000 Bishop St. with futuristic architecture.
Jim Dator’s profession is
predicting possible futures. A
senior political science professor at UHM, Dator is a pioneer
in a field rarely mentioned
alongside other academics:
futures studies. While students
may have gotten a taste of some
famous futuristic predictions
from reading George Orwell’s
1984 and Aldous Huxley’s
Brave New World, the futures
that Dator presents include not
only dystopias, as these two
stories describe, but possibilities that include the growth,
collapse, and transformation of
our society.
“Something about our
attitude toward futures comes
from a learned ignorance of
what futures studies is,” Dator
said. One wrong view that a lot
of people hold, he continued,
is that “whatever is happening
now will continue to happen.”
Author of numerous publications on future studies,
director of the Hawaii Research
Center for Futures Studies
which was established in 1971,
and consultant for government, corporate, religious, and
public-interest organizations in
over 40 countries, Dator started
his futures career at Virginia
Polytechnic Institute, teaching
the first class to be recognized
as a Futures Studies course.
In his opinion, the greatest
potential for futures studies at
UHM right now lies in the political science department. “But
my dream would be for ALL
departments to have a futures
component, just as they often
have a historical professor or
program,” Dator said. “Every
course you take is about the
future.”
One of the best examples of
a country that is rising to meet
the future, Dator says, is South
Korea. Previously a war torn,
underdeveloped and ridged
society, South Korea has developed a booming entertainment
market in the past 50 years,
focused on electronic and pop
COURTESY PHOTO | T. CHAN
culture products: movies, TV
dramas, popular music groups,
and especially videgames.
Dator can see a similar
future for Hawaii, especially
at UHM. The Academy of
Creative Media is one outlet
for such potential successes, he
said.
One of the most fascinating projects Dator has been
involved in is the Hawaii 2050
project, a long-term sustainability plan for the state of Hawaii
that the Legislature created in
2005. Three futures experts,
Stuart Candy, Jim Dator, and
Jake Dunagan came up with 4
possible futures, respectively
called the Orange plan, the Silver Plan, the Maroon Plan, and
the Blue Plan, and published
their predictions in a brochure
titled “Four Futures for Hawaii
2050.”
According to the authors,
no single one of these futures is
more or less possible; they are
all intended to be equal possibilities.
The Orange Plan describes
Hawaii in 2050 as an economic
success, but with a few problems. In this possible future,
Oahu has been devoted to mass
tourism and the other islands
are struggling to maintain economic stability and a limited
population, and to produce
enough exotic crops to feed the
tourists. Health care has been
privatized, and there are no
taxes in this future; just user
fees on tourists and locals alike.
In the Silver Plan, the future
takes a darker turn, with a
prediction of the global market
collapsing. In this future, the
tourism industry and air travel
industry is gone, and corporations are condemned as being
responsible for the economy’s
collapse. Many corporate
CEO’s are tried and executed,
and people stop driving because
gas is practically nonexistent.
Waikiki becomes a refugee
camp, and things become
bad enough that the Federal
Government orders the Pacific
Naval Command to impose
martial law. This is so effective
that the military becomes the
permanent governing body, and
eventually reinstates a fullblooded Hawaiian monarch,
who is accepted by both the
people and the military as the
king of Hawaii. In this future,
the Hawaiian Islands become
a stable, self-sufficient haven,
with all citizens becoming part
of the communal effort to keep
it that way.
In the third plan, called the
Maroon Plan, the world has experienced an upheaval, but life
in Hawaii has slowed down.
The “less is more” philosophy prevails, and tourism and
the physical traffic of people
and goods have diminished,
Professor Jim Dator lectured at UH Manoa recently on his opinions and predictions
about the future.
but information travels faster
with a satellite network. The
US, Canada, and Mexico have
consolidated to become the “9
States of North America” and
all the Hawaiian Islands are
self-governing, each with their
own militia to maintain order.
Migration to Hawaii is
limited, and human fertility
is reduced. Most people use
electric and solar powered
transport, and land management goes back to the traditional ahupua’a system. The
climate is unstable, but the
arts are flourishing, and people
have adopted a modern version of old Hawaiian values,
with education focusing more
on survival and quality of life
than on the math, English, and
philosophies that we consider
higher education now.
The last plan, or the Blue
Plan, summons a future in
which the world has changed
far beyond anything we are
familiar with. “Living with
“Every course you
take is about the
future.”
-Jim Dator, futures analyst
various species of non-human
intelligences, post-humans, cyborgs, and augmented animals
has redefined all existence and
altered the course of evolution,” the “Four Futures” report
speculates. In this possibility,
the entire world has undergone
a design and technology revolution. The traditional human
ideas of truth and order no
longer exist and ideas like “individual,” “self” and “nation”
are obsolete.
One governing body oversees communities on the Earth,
Moon and Mars, and nanotechnology has made material
goods accessible to anyone.
There is no reason for labor, so
most beings pursue art, games,
and intellectual things.
While this last prediction
may seem incredibly unrealistic, the point of the Hawaii
2050 panel is that it is not
impossible. “We live in a world
with a single view of the future
in mind,” Dator said, “and it
uses every resource in its power
to focus you on work and being
in debt.” In Dator’s opinion, it
is our generation’s communal
awareness and the connection
to a digital network of our peers
that is our great strength. According to him, futures studies
is a way to give future generations a chance to break out of
that “one future” mentality.
“People should be free to
choose their own future,” Dator
said.
MANOA SUN
Go organic, make
a difference
By Christen Vidanovic
Manoa sun writer
or-’ga-nik: forming an integral element of a whole
“Eat organic and you’ll live
longer, for sure,” said Brazilian
pro surfer Danilo Couto. It’s
common knowledge that eating ‘organic’ is supposed to be
good for you, but the rewards
of buying organic, locally
grown foods reaches much further than our own bellies. The
debate rages on in the scientific
community about whether or
not eating organic products
really makes a huge health
difference, but one obvious difference that eating organic does
make is in our communities.
Organic foods, or foods grown
without the use of pesticides,
additives, chemicals, antibiotics and hormones require a
lot more loving kindness than
those grown on giant factory
farms.
That loving kindness usually
comes from the hands of farmers in your area, on your island.
By buying and eating organic,
locally produced foods, you are
not only potentially saving your
body from unknown health
risks associated with unnatural
chems, you’re helping build a
sustainable community. Couto,
who is sponsored in part by
Sambazon, a popular Brazilian company that specializes
in organic acai, and his family
are great examples of organic
eating and sustainability, “ We
plant our own papaya. We have
a little garden outside with
basil, lemongrass, tomatoes,
peppers and lettuce. We have
avocado’s, strawberry guavas.
They’re all organic or we plant
them,” said Couto from his
Pupukea cottage.
The use of pesticides is
also a growing concern among
many environmental groups.
Some groups, like Earthwatch
and Beyond Pesticides, condemn the use of dangerous
pesticides because of the effects
that they have on farm workers, especially children. For
example, out of 211 children
tested in a study by the Farm
Worker Pesticide Project, in
Washington State, 88 percent
had Organophosphates in their
urine, an ingredient in pesticides that may lead to chronic
fatigue syndrome, anxiety,
depression and other problems.
Aside from the peace of
mind resulting from not stuffing your face with foods full of
artificial chemicals, pesticides,
fertilizers and knowing that
your milk and chicken hasn’t
been shot full of antibiotics and
hormones, eating organic helps
keep our oceans, streams and
land clean and free of chemical
run-off.
Go organic. Like Couto said, “
Its good for the body, good for
the mind, good for the pocket.”
Journalism 302 Spring 2007
A round T own 11
Video Game scholar uses games
as art form and learning tool
By Tracy Chan
Manoa Sun Resident Gamer
On Wednesday, Feb. 28, the
Academy for Creative Media
and Aloha Island, Inc. hosted a
lecture in Kuykendall Hall by
James Gee, a professor from
the University of Wisconsin,
and a scholar in a very controversial and sometimes trivialized topic: video games.
Gee, widely recognized for
his role in advocating video
games as an educational tool
and a new art form, took gaming to a whole new level in his
talk, “Stories in Video Games:
Toward a New Art Form.”
Focusing on “world games,” or
games that immerse the player
in a fictional world and give
people an avatar to play with,
Gee said that not only are video
games an art form, there are
many features to games that
make them an inherent learning
experience.
Games teach real-world skills
Video games develop problem-solving skills that are very
similar to the ones employed
by businesses in the real world,
Gee said. One thing that helps
this is the presence of “affordances,” or ways the game is
built to make problems more
easily solvable in a certain
way. “The world has certain
affordances that make problems
solvable in a certain way,” Gee
said.
“Games at their
best involve players
making choices.”
-Professor James Gee
In games, Gee said, you
have a world in which the body
you get matches the problems
you need to solve in that game,
which is not always the case in
real life. Ironically, in games,
we have fun putting ourselves
into the same work situations
we would encounter in the real
world, and even pay for the
experience.
Gee said video games train
our minds to think in analytical
patterns. For each game, we
adjust ourselves to think the
way the game is designed. He
used Full Spectrum Warrior, a
realistic game the Army uses to
train soldiers, as an example. In
a combat situation, he said, “the
soldier actually needs to see
the world as a series of covers,
sometimes.”
Gee said that there is a
noticeable change in thinking
patterns among the younger,
“gaming generation” that
involves both our priorities and
our values, and said that this
is, perhaps, due to the way that
playing video games for hours
train us to think.
Role-Playing Cooperation
Citing Morrowind, a PC fantasy role-playing game known
for its exceptional graphics and
the freedom players have to
make choices and create a nonlinear storyline of their own,
Gee said that in many cases,
the player of a game also becomes a producer and inventor.
“Games at their best involve
players making choices,” he
said. “In a sense the designer
has given you tools to create
your own game.”
One choice people have
in many video games is that
of choosing an avatar, or a
character to play as. These
characters often have their own
background and their own life
stories, but Gee said they also
give people the choice, to an
extent, of who they want to be.
Gee spoke of games as a
space over which a human has
extended, embodied control
through their avatar. He called
this feeling of a character being
an extension of the player neurological projection. “It gives
humans the weird experience
that we have control over an
avatar,” he said.
In online games, this
concept becomes even more
complex. Gee used World of
Warcraft, the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing
Game (MMORPG), as an example of multiple experiences
occurring for many people at
Professor James Gee from the University of Wisconsin believes that video
games are a valuable learning tool and an art form with great potential.
the same time. “You are creating a human experience,” Gee
said of the need for players to
work together toward a common goal. He compared this to
the concept of cross-functional
teams in the corporate world,
where each person is a specialist in a different area but unless
everyone is competent at their
skills and knows what to expect
of their teammates, the team
fails.
Gee plays WoW with his
wife, and described the experience of a raid, which can be
a group of up to 40 people,
all-working together to take on
a major challenge. “In a raid,
you have 40 different ways to
look at the world that are superimposed on each other,” he
said. This integration extends
to every aspect of the game, so
much so that Gee calls MMO’s
like this a reinvention of the
public sphere, where the company is not restricted to age,
race, country, class, or gender.
The Creative Element
On the other hand, Gee said,
gaming can be a very personal thing. It allows people to
construct their own experiences
and make their own meaning
from the symbols and storyline
of games. He believes that as
a species, humans take pleasure in learning, and the new
ways of experiencing the world
that video games give us are a
valuable and largely untapped
source for personal education.
People invest hours of time
in playing games, and these
games give us a medium in
which exercise our own creativity, as well as appreciate that of
the game’s designers.
“Gaming is a performance art... it’s from
the bottom up, and it’s
stitched together out
of what is trivial when
described but what is
most profound to humans.”
-Professor James Gee
So are video games art? Yes,
says Gee, that and more. “Gaming is a performance art,” he
said. “It’s from the bottom up,
and it’s stitched together out of
what is trivial when described
but what is most profound to
humans, and that is the...value
and emotion that we give to
everyday experience.”
UHM Student majoring in stress
By April Randolph, Manoa Sun Staffwriter
Stress is something that
seems to tackle every college
student at one time or another.
Some have more stress than
others, especially non-traditional students. These are
students who are older than the
typical undergraduate college
student. If there were a picture
in the dictionary next to the
word “stress” it would be of
non-traditional student Flora
Yee. A senior at the University
of Hawaii majoring in psychology, she is plagued by stress.
Students like Yee usually have
more stress because they hold
many more responsibilities in
their lives outside of school
compared to a majority of traditional students. In her case, she
is a 43 year-old single mother
raising two children by herself.
This semester she is taking 18
credit hours and has a full-time
job working during the late
night hours, which interferes
with her sleep.
Of all the stress in her life,
Yee says that school is definitely at the top of the list at this
point. “I feel like there is no
MANOA SUN
Journalism 302 Spring 2007
12 A round T own
Co l l e g e Student s
By April Randolph
order to address them.
Suppressing stress and not finding a way to deal with it could
be a bad idea. Suppressing
stress can lead to several shortterm effects, some of which can
affect a person’s day.
Short-term effects of stress
include:
•Upset stomach
•Constant fatigue/no energy
•Irritability
•Tight neck muscles
•Weakened immune system
Once the stressful situation is
over, these symptoms should
go away.
Sometimes people maintain
high levels of stress for long
periods of time, which can be
dangerous and lead to longterm effects later in life.
Long-term effects of stress
include:
•Heart disease
•Coronary artery blockage
•Chronic hostility
•High blood pressure
Some people may not realize that they are causing more
stress to themselves, through
their personal thoughts, feelings
and expectations. It is essential
to break this cycle by thinking
positively, managing time, exercising regularly, communicating effectively, balancing work
and family, building a support
system and laughing.
“Our philosophy at the UHS
is based on the Hawaiian con-
cept of Lokahi, which
speaks of balance, harmony and
unity for the self in relationship
to the body, the mind, the spirit
and the rest of the world,” said
McCurdy.
In order to relieve stress in
one’s life, UHS believe that a
person has to look at six different areas of their life and try to
find balance by using different strategies. These areas are
spiritual/soul, friends/family,
work/job, thinking/mind, feelings/emotions and physical/
body.
Spiritual/Soul
People should take the time
to appreciate their lives. Seeking the meaning and purpose of
human existence is important.
This does not necessarily have
to do with religion, although
it can. Realizing that life is
more than just being a college
student is a large step for many.
Some strategies to balance this
area include meditating, doing
yoga and attending church.
Friends/Family
Having strong relationships
with friends, family, or both
is important. Contributing to
the welfare of one’s community can help to bring people
together, creating a bond.
Interacting with people from
a variety of backgrounds is a
way of making new friends and
learning something new. Working toward a goal of pursuing
harmony in one’s family is
important. Some strategies
to help balance this area are
spending time with friends,
eating dinner with your family and having someone to
call if you are stressed out
about something.
Work/Job
While employment is
an essential aspect of most
people’s lives, it is one of the
largest causes of stress for
college students. In order to
achieve balance in this area
some strategies are staying
organized, keeping a planner
or calendar, setting realistic
short and long-term goals for
yourself and taking a break
from time to time.
Thinking/Mind
While school is where
students receive a large majority of their education, it is
also important to learn things
outside of school. Doing things
that stimulate your mind and
present a challenge is usually
a positive, mentally stimulating experience. “In order to
relieve stress in this area can be
as simple as doing a crossword
puzzle, watching the History
channel or just learning from
your friends,” said McCurdy.
Feelings/Emotions
Having a way to express
how you are feeling is important in reducing stress. Some
people feel that by holding in
their emotions they are causing
themselves and the ones around
them less problems, but this is
not the case. After a long time
of holding everything inside,
you will eventually breakdown.
Some ways of releasing your
emotions in a healthy way are
by exercising, having someone
to talk to, or writing down your
feelings.
Physical/Body
Taking care of yourself is
important in maintaining a
healthy and stress-free body.
Because of being out of shape
and overweight people can get
paper or do something school
related,” said Yee. Her kids
are involved in several extracurricular activities including
tennis and bowling, which also
require a lot of her time.
Yee does suffer from several
short-term effects of stress,
including a weakened immune
system. “I get sick a lot and
have frequent migraines,” she
said. She said she does not
get the proper amount of sleep
because of her intense work
schedule. During stressful
times, Yee says she has no appetite and does not eat at all,
or only “stress eats”, unhealthy
food choices such as chips,
chocolate and greasy foods.
When it comes to longterm effects, she said she
feels that she should be more
concerned than she is, but lacks
the time to worry about it. “I
don’t think about what’s going
to happen in the future because
I have to think about what
is going on now. Why stress
about something that is going
to happen later in life?” said
Yee. The only way to decrease
her risk of eventually suffering
some of the long-term effects
of stress would require her to
start slowing down the way she
lives her life, she said, which is
not going to happen right now.
Each person deals with
stress differently, but unfortu-
nately, Yee does not use any
strategies to de-stress. “I don’t
have time to do any of those
things to relieve stress. I am
like the Energizer Bunny, I just
keep going and I don’t stop,”
she said.
Luckily there are things
in her life that calm her down
and make her want to take a
break. These include spending time with her 10 year-old
daughter and 7 year-old son, as
well as her dog. “I think pets
are a great stress reliever, they
don’t talk back to you and all
they want out of life is you to
love them,” said Yee. Unlike
many in Hawaii, her morning
commute to school is one of
Manoa Sun Staffwriter
Stress is a part of every college student’s life. It is impossible to avoid, and seems to
take over our lives a lot of the
time. Chances are, the things
that cause students to stress are
not going to lighten up or go
away. We have to find healthy
ways to deal with them.
“The definition of stress
is an imbalance between the
demands of our lives and the
resources we have available to
achieve balance,” said Dana
McCurdy, a peer outreach coordinator at the University Health
Services office. It is a tricky
thing to compare and contrast
with because every person is
different. What might stress
one person out beyond their
limits may not affect another
person.
UHS provides in-class
presentations as one of its main
services. An employee from
the office will go into a class
and speak as a guest lecturer.
One of the most popular presentations is related to stress
management. “Since students
tend to stress out more, we
are asked to come into classes
around finals time a lot,” said
McCurdy.
Some of the stresses that
bother college students are
work issues, problems with
family and friends and the biggest stress of all: time management. There are several other
things that cause people to
stress, but these are the most
popular.
It is important for students
to try to figure out what things
stress them out the most in
Stress
College students converse and de-stress while passing between classes on campus.
depressed about the way they
feel about themselves. Striving to exercise regularly and
get proper nutrition is essential
in fixing this problem. Some
ways to improve this area are
by having a balanced diet,
exercising regularly, getting
enough sleep (at least eight
hours), seeking proper medical
care, abstaining from tobacco
and illicit drug use and using
moderation when consuming
alcohol and caffeine.
All together these six areas
might seem like common sense,
but if combined, they can work
toward achieving balance in
life. This process of balance is
not going to happen overnight.
In fact, most people will never
achieve balance in all six areas.
No one ever has perfect balance
in their lives; which is fine.
Trying to keep each area balanced without error can make
things worse by bringing on
even more stress.
For students who do not
know where to begin or what
to do about the stress in their
lives, they can go to the UHS
office (QLCSS 313) where
they can speak with one of the
trained employees. They can
help to figure out what specifically is causing the person
stress and the strategies they
can use to reduce this. Students
are also welcome to come and
browse through their large
resource center full of informational brochures about this
topic and several others.
Most college students are
stressed. Being able to release
it and put that energy into a
positive activity is important.
Maintaining a positive attitude
and holding realistic expectations for yourself are ways
of controlling the stress. By
breaking down one’s life into
six categories and exploring
each in detail, people can get
a better view of their specific
problems. There are strategies
to improve each of these areas
her favorite places to be. She
takes the bus from Pearl City
to Manoa each morning and
enjoys not being in control of
the situation. “I love taking the
bus, I can sleep, do homework
or just sit back and relax,” she
said.
If you are a traditional
student or a non-traditional
student, it is always important
to try to include a few minutes each day to relax and just
breathe. Finding ways to reduce your stress is beneficial in
making one a happier, healthier
person inside and out.
FROM PAGE 11
STRESS
no time for me to do my homework … well there is time, but
if I do it I won’t have time to
sleep, and without sleep I can’t
focus to do my homework. It’s
kind of like a vicious cycle,”
said Yee. Most days the only
way that she is able to study
and make it through her classes
awake is by drinking several
caffeine-filled power drinks,
which keep her going.
She believes that lack of
time causes a lot of stress
for her, and also many other
college students. It has even
begun affecting her life at home
with her children. “I feel guilty
because as soon as I get home
I have to open a book, write a