HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

132

TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

URGING THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA TO FUND AND FILL THE VACANT AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES FACULTY TENURE LINE POSITION AT THE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, African Americans have had a long historical presence in Hawaii since the early nineteenth century; and

 

     WHEREAS, African Americans have made substantial and long-lasting contributions to the State in many and varied fields, including higher education, science, government, culture, the arts, sports, and civic life; and

 

     WHEREAS, a number of African Americans with Hawaii ties are historically significant, including Barack Obama, the first African American President of the United States; and Alice Ball, who, in 1915, became the first woman and the first African American to earn a master's degree at the University of Hawaii, and who successfully developed medicine from the Chaulmoogra tree for Hansen's disease; and

 

     WHEREAS, students and community members should be able to enroll in courses that cover the contributions of historically significant African Americans of Hawaii, and have opportunities to discuss serious historical and current issues of racism and inequality that face African American students and communities; and

 

     WHEREAS, since the l970s, the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa has employed tenured faculty who teach popular courses about the experiences of Native Hawaiians, Caucasians, Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos and African Americans; and

 

     WHEREAS, the vacant African American Studies faculty tenure line position was transferred out of the Department of Ethnic Studies as a result of position sweeps and budget cuts; and

 

     WHEREAS, African Americans are underrepresented among the students, faculty, and administrators at the College of Social Sciences and other units at the University of Hawaii at Manoa; and

 

     WHEREAS, students, faculty, alumni, and community leaders have expressed deep concern to the Dean of the College Social Sciences about the unfilled African American Studies faculty tenure line position and the need for an institutional environment that supports this hire; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Dean of the College of Social Sciences has stated that the college "values the significance of African American history and its impact in shaping both America and the State of Hawaii", and has prioritized the funding and filling of the vacant African American Studies faculty tenure line position contingent on funding from the Chancellor; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2016, the Senate concurring, that the University of Hawaii at Manoa is urged to fund and fill the vacant African American Studies faculty tenure line position at the College of Social Sciences; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the University of Hawaii at Manoa is requested to report to the Legislature on the status and plans regarding the foregoing matter no later than twenty days before the convening of the Regular Session of 2017; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the University of Hawaii and the President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Honolulu Branch; the former of whom is requested to transmit copies to the Chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Manoa; the Dean of the College of Social Sciences; the Ethnic Studies Student Association at the University of Hawaii at Manoa; and the Afrocentric Society at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

 

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

 

 

Report Title:

University of Hawaii at Manoa; African Americans