History of UH Hilo

1947 The Hilo Program begins as an extension division of UH Mānoa.

1949 The Hilo Program is renamed the University of Hawai‘i-Hilo center.

1951 The Center is renamed the University of Hawai‘i-Hilo Branch with an enrollment of 100 students.

1955 UH Hilo Branch, a two-year school, opens a new permanent campus at Lanikaula Street with 155 students.

1970 The four-year UH Hilo is established, enrollment tops 1,000 with several dozen professors.

1971 Center of Continuing Education and Community Service is founded, later transforms into College of Continuing Education and Community Service in 1991.

1975 College of Agriculture is founded. Name changes in 1998 to College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Management.

1979 College of Arts and Sciences is established (formerly Hilo College).

1991 Up to this point, UH Hilo and Hawai‘i Community College, located across the street from each other, operate almost as a single unit with students able to cross register at either campus. Now the two are separated into two institutions, although still share facilities and services.

1990s UH Hilo University Park of Science and Technology opens on campus under UH Hilo management. First tenants are several base facilities for international observatories with telescopes on Mauna Kea. Soon after, the Smithsonian Array base facilities, the USDA Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry complex, and USDA Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center open. In 2006, UH Hilo opens its ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai‘i. By 2007, total investment of tenants at the park is $800 million with the creation of over 400 jobs.

1998 College of Hawaiian Language is founded and is named Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani.

2001 $3 million Marine Science Building opens. It is the first new major building on campus in 20 years, providing classrooms, labs and offices for growing Marine Science program.

2003 $19 million three-story University Classroom Building opens. With lecture halls, classrooms, labs and offices, it provides additional space for expansion. Located at the new main entrance to campus, it is UH Hilo’s signature building.

2003 The School of Business becomes the College of Business and Economics.

2004 The Western Association for Schools and Colleges reaffirms UH Hilo’s accreditation through 2014.

2006 College of Pharmacy is founded. In Fall 2007, inaugural class commences and college gains pre-candidate accreditation status, the first and only pharmacy college in the state to do so.

2007-2008 UH Hilo celebrates its 60th anniversary.

2010 Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani College of Hawaiian Language presents two doctorates in Hawaiian and Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization, the first doctoral degrees awarded at UH Hilo.

2011 The new Science and Technology Building opens. The campus celebrates groundbreaking for new Student Services Building. Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani breaks ground on it’s award-winning new building to house the College of Hawaiian Language. Construction begins on a new UH Hilo College Campus Store. Plans are underway for a permanent building for the College of Pharmacy.