This column by University of Hawaiʻi Maui College Chancellor Lui Hokoana was published by The Maui News on September 24, 2024.
The start of a new school year is always exciting for our students—especially our new students—and for our administration, faculty, and staff, as well. Our Fall 2024 classes started exactly one month ago and we’re happy to report that the semester has gotten off to a great start. One extremely encouraging sign is that enrollment is up more than 25% from Fall 2023.
As you may recall, the University of Hawaiʻi was able to offer full scholarships to all 2024 Lahainaluna High School graduates. Students could choose to attend any of the system’s ten campuses. We’re pleased to have 58 of them right here at UHMC and 67% of those are currently full-time students.
Chad Baclay is one of them. He was born and raised in Lahaina and has many pleasant childhood memories of “hanging out” in town with his friends. His family was fortunate in August 2023. “Our home didn’t burn down, however, we were in the burn zone,” Baclay says. “One day after the fire, we came back to see a huge portion of Lāhaina completely burned down. As we approached our neighborhood, we saw most of the buildings completely burned and collapsing. We approached our building and we saw that our home survived. We were only one building away from burning. We couldn’t live at our home until everything was clear so we lived at a hotel for eight months.” They were finally able to return to their home last spring.
Baclay had been thinking about enrolling in our Culinary Arts Program—he was already working in the food and beverage industry—but after the fires he wasn’t too sure. A scholarship and the encouragement of his parents were the deciding factors. He acknowledges that the coursework is demanding but also says, “My experience so far has been SO MUCH FUN!” He looks forward to moving up the food and beverage ladder at a resort hotel when he completes the program.
Although student success is always our top priority, we do also take a wider view. We count ourselves as being in service to our community and never more so than in the aftermath of last year’s wildfires. That commitment to the recovery efforts looms large again during this 2024–2025 academic year. And we’re ready for it.
In partnership with government, unions, hotels, and private industry, we’re offering free classes designed to develop a new workforce. Future carpenters, plumbers, painters, glaziers, floor layers, taper, and specialty workers are able to train with us. There will be introductory classes in Building Construction, Building Maintenance with plumbing, electrical and appliances, Building Automated Management Systems Service Technician, Advanced Manufacturing and certification classes in CPR/First aid for construction and forklift operation.
We’re also offering free classes in Basic Computing, Office Administration, Certified Nurse Aide Recertification, Culinary Foundational Skills, and a Fashion Technology Incubator Series.
Our on-campus garden, Puʻuhonua Kauluwehi, will continue to grow plants for replanting in Lahaina and Kula and work towards establishing biocultural refuges island-wide to support the cultivation of native plants. The goal is to accelerate landscape-scale agroecological resilience, food security, and community well-being strategies. Our UHMC Water Quality Lab, the only one on Maui, is the “home base” for equipment and instrumentation on the Island. Staff will continue to work with other organizations to monitor water safety, most notably in the Lahaina area. Our Hulihia Center for Sustainable Systems continues to move forward its project for the revitalization of Lahaina. Its focus is harnessing indigenous wisdom, community insights, and advanced systems for a resilient future, specifically a stakeholder map and a restoration of Mokuhinia system. Three of Hulihia’s fellows are exploring community fire resiliency, food security, and transportation systems relating to Lahaina.
Campus improvements are also on our calendar. Our new Hospitality Training Center is scheduled to be completed in November. We’re hoping that air conditioning repair in the Laulima and Hoʻokipa Buildings will be completed by next April. The installation of a new card system for our door locks campus wide is underway and scheduled to be completed in December. A surveillance camera system will be installed on our campus and at our Molokai Education Center with completion scheduled for next May. Beginning in May, our library will get a new roof and some structural repairs will be made. We hope to start campus wide repairs to our irrigation system in January. And we’ll embark on Phase 1 of a major improvement plan for our Molokai Education Center.
For complete UH Maui College information, please visit http://maui.hawaii.edu.
