Aloha kākou,
Welcome to the fall semester! Those of you who participated in the Fall New Student Convocation have already felt the excitement in the air as we have more activity on campus. It was such a joy to welcome new members of our ʻohana!
Mahalo
Mahalo to those of you who were able to come out for the campus clean-up mālama ʻāina event coordinated by our new Director of Native Hawaiian Engagement Pele Harmon on August 15. I regret that I was at the Regents meeting on Maui that day, but I have heard about the enthusiasm and camaraderie of the day. Just as we care for our students and colleagues, we care for this place. Also here to welcome our new and returning students is the campus dining center lanai, which promises to be a popular gathering place on campus this fall.
Mahalo also to those of you involved in writing grants, supporting grants, and doing the work that earns us grant money. As I mentioned in July, we had our highest grant year since 2015 this past year ($22,597,700 — a 27% increase over last year), and also had an all-time high as far back as we have foundation records for gifts ($8,316,760 — a 9% increase over last year).
WSCUC (i.e. WASC)
In June, our hard-working accreditation liaison officer Seri Luangphinith and I traveled to Oakland, CA, to meet with the WSCUC Commission. We had a good conversation with commissioners and they delivered their Action Letter in July. It has been posted on our WSCUC webpage.
The Commission rightly commended the campus for the great progress we have made in program review and program assessment. My sincere thanks to all of you who have embraced that work and recognized its importance, not just for WSCUC, but for the sake of continuously improving our programs for the benefit of our students.
Because work on the strategic plan has not been completed and because we did not yet have an enrollment plan, the Commission has decided to schedule another visit in Spring 2025. The visit will take place the last week of April. By that time, they wish to see the harmonized strategic plan, a strategic enrollment plan, and more information about multi-year financial planning.
Strategic Plan
Throughout the summer, our strategic plan harmonization team — Keiki Kawaiʻaeʻa, Karen Pellegrin, Kalei Rapoza — have been working on this project. Fresh vision and mission statements and a statement of purpose and values have been developed, and the actions from the three campus plans are being consolidated into a single plan which will be available for campus comment at the end of next week. Once the campus has vetted it, we will also circulate this new plan to external communities and stakeholders, with the goal still to have it approved by our governance groups and posted by the first of the year.
Enrollment Management
Echo Delta, our enrollment management consultants, were on campus at the beginning of August and are reviewing our enrollment and student success data. The conversations were rich, challenging questions were asked, and the team is eager to help us improve both our recruitment and retention. They are confident that they can have a plan for us before the WSCUC visit this spring.VCSA Chris Holland is on point for this project and will have updates along the way.
Multi-Year Financial Plan
Each year the UH System does a high-level multi-year financial forecast. Using that as a model, we will be producing one for the campus, based on similar assumptions. VCA Rapoza also has meetings scheduled with the Faculty Congress budget committee and will be meeting with colleges to discuss budgets as well, in the hopes of raising the level of knowledge and engagement of the campus with the budgeting process.
Institutional Research
While not included in the scope of the next visit, WSCUC recommends we continue working on strengthening the data-informed culture of the campus. To that end, Jennifer Stotter and I have re-engaged with the Student Success Equity Initiative (SSEI) of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), to which we belong. Working with AASCU and some partners with whom they work, we will be doing a landscape analysis of the student journey (Where are the obstacles? What can we improve?), working to capture the student voice through focus groups, conducting a climate study of the campus, and doing a curriculum mapping project, among other things. The team from AASCU will be on campus in mid-October.
Communication
We are always seeking ways to improve communication for both internal and external audiences. You will be seeing a new communication from University Relations coming out soon. Interim Director Amy Kalili and the UR team have been working through the summer on the purpose and design of this new communication, which will be coming out every two weeks. Look for the first issue to include updates on many things, including Kaʻi i ka Wēkiu activities. Susie Enright has also revived Keaohou, which contains research profiles of several of our faculty.
It has been a busy summer here on campus, and I am thrilled to see the students back and the campus back in action.
I mua!
Bonnie