Fall 2019: November Issue 3

Dearest Vulcan,

This past year, the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo was named the most diverse four-year public university in the nation by both U.S. News & World Report and Chronicle of Higher Education. In other words, our campus’ demographics have the honor of reflecting where we sit at an oceanic crossroads of intermixing ethnicities, communities, and identities.

The islands’ historical context considers Hawaiʻi’s contemporary population a “melting pot;” and fostered among our unique convergence of people, a multifaceted unity emerges. While an ethnic mulled stew of sorts boils down the reality that people here have perpetuated the traditions of their roots – perhaps the image of a mixed salad bodes better – it’s undeniable that the local culture here is a blend unlike any other.

Despite different backgrounds, there will always be at least a particle of commonality to discover between us. Our similarities serve as salient reminders that at the intersection of human homogeneity, we’re essentially all the same. While we may judge, condemn, divide, and discriminate, everyone breathes, loves, ages, and dies. Call me naïve, but I believe our planet might be a much more harmonious place if people kept this in mind.

In our third edition for the year, we’ve covered a few cases that focus on our campus’ diverse student body. Please enjoy what I consider to be our most aesthetically pleasing issue yet, perhaps over some pumpkin pie and contemplation of why it’s problematic to celebrate genocide and gluttony. Sniding aside, do remember the actual reason for the season and endure this last stretch as the weeks of the semester tally into double digits.

Makani ʻoluʻolu e kai malie
Fair winds and following seas,

Rosannah