The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is merging the College of Arts & Humanities (AH), College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature and the School of Pacific and Asian Studies into a single college named the College of Arts, Languages & Letters (CALL), effective July 1. The goal is to reinvigorate the liberal arts at UH Mānoa with a focus on Asia and the Pacific, for which UH is internationally known. The collective resources of the new college will create more opportunities for students and faculty by facilitating stronger interdisciplinary collaboration while attracting more students and enabling financial stability. Current AH Dean Peter Arnade will be the dean of the new college.
“We anticipate that increased faculty collaboration under the leadership of a single dean will enable more flexible engagement of faculty, for example in teaching the culture, history and language of a region,” said UH Mānoa Provost Michael Bruno in the merger action memo to UH President David Lassner. “It will inspire stronger cohesiveness across language, literature and culture and enhance cross-disciplinary scholarship and studies to attract more students to CALL‘s academic offerings and better prepare those students for the requirements and challenges they will face as global citizens.”
Consultation with stakeholders on the merger began in October 2018 and included faculty and department chairs from the affected units, the Mānoa Faculty Senate and unions. After continuous discussions, the consultation led to an updated plan that includes retaining the School of Pacific and Asian Studies as a school within the new college and retaining Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures as a department.
In approving the recommendation from Provost Bruno, UH President David Lassner stated that “this reorganization will strengthen the ability of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to advance our unique mission, especially in light of the financial challenges now before us.”
The new college is the latest step in the ongoing discussions regarding the reorganization of the UH Mānoa that began in 2016. It follows the merger of the School of Travel Industry Management and the Shidler College of Business in August 2019, the creation of the UH Mānoa Provost position and recombination of the UH President and UH Mānoa Chancellor positions approved in April 2019, and the integrated coordination of administrative services between the campus and system.
Phase 2 of the UH Mānoa reorganization will further refine and sharpen the mission, leadership, and functions of the various support units primarily reporting to the UH Mānoa Provost. The formal consultation on that phase will begin in fall 2020 with a goal of implementation beginning in January 2021.
