Report Title:

UH-Hilo Hawaiian language college.

 

Description:

Appropriates funds to the Hawaiian language college at UH-Hilo. (HB HMS 8535)

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1214

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

Relating to higher education.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that it is a matter of statewide concern to promote the study of the Hawaiian language within the University of Hawaii system. Hawaiian is an official language of the State and is an area of study the State is required to promote pursuant to the State Constitution.

The legislature further finds that the Hawaiian language college established in 1997 at the University of Hawaii at Hilo (UH Hilo) has been carrying out its mandate to use the Hawaiian language in a wide variety of functions and to support the study of Hawaiian language, culture, and history for the State as a whole. Activities of the college include teacher training, telecommunications, long distance learning, undergraduate study, graduate study, Hawaiian medium K-12 laboratory schools, curriculum development, research, and technological applications in Hawaiian. Many of these functions are found nowhere else and serve isolated communities in the state that otherwise would have no access to them.

The college, named Ka Haka Ula O Keelikolani in 1998, has the largest enrollment of any Hawaiian studies or Hawaiian language program anywhere and has an extensive outreach to other indigenous peoples of the United States and the world. The college has been prominently featured in national publications and was included in an exhibit at Expo 2000, the millennium world’s fair in Hanover, Germany.

The college’s location in Hilo is especially appropriate to serve the entire State. The natural environment of the island of Hawaii is unsurpassed for its biological and cultural sites that are integral to Hawaiian culture. The human environment includes the largest community of native Hawaiians in the state and the heavily Hawaiian student body at UH-Hilo. The Hawaiian population at UH-Hilo is the only consistently expanding student body in the University of Hawaii system. Federal recognition of the importance of the programs at UH-Hilo and of efforts to integrate Hawaiian language and culture with the very latest technology and science is bringing additional resources to the Hilo campus.

Although the Hawaiian language college has received considerable grant funds, it faces major challenges in the areas of staffing, facilities, and basic programs, without which the program cannot meet its full potential. In establishing the college, the legislature accepted a three-phase plan that included the construction of a facility and basic funding of the college at a level that is comparable with state funded programs in foreign cultures and the English language. The legislature finds that this is an appropriate time to fund the first phase of that plan.

The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds to UH-Hilo for staffing, program, and facility planning expenses for the Hawaiian language college.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2001-2002 to provide staffing and program expenses for the Hawaiian language college at UH-Hilo.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by UH-Hilo for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2001-2002 for the planning of a new facility for the Hawaiian language college at UH-Hilo.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by UH-Hilo for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2001.

INTRODUCED BY:

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