In October of 1988, upon the recommendation of the Hawaiian Studies Task Force in the Kaʻu Report of 1986, to address the under representation of Native Hawaiian students, the Kuaʻana Student Services was established and later changed to Kuaʻana Native Hawaiian Student Development Services. Kuaʻana is a service program for Native Hawaiian students that is organized within the Hawaiʻinuiākea and Native Hawaiian Student Services at UH Manoa.
Since 1988, Kuaʻana has served thousands of Hawaiian students academic support student services that include need-based tuition waivers, mālama ʻāina activites, an annual financial aid fair to allow students to interact face to face with financial aid, tuition waiver and scholarship resources on and off the Mānoa campus. In addition, students may visit the Kuaʻana office to speak with staff about academic or financial related concerns.