A first-draft outline of a new strategic plan for the University of Hawaii system calls for providing education to a bigger chunk of the islands’ population, eliminating the state’s shortages of teachers and other high-
demand workers, and
improving equity for Native Hawaiian students and employees among its numerous goals.
The draft, presented Thursday by UH President David Lassner at a UH Board of Regents meeting, was the first substantive glimpse of the evolving plan for 2023-2029 that will steer the 10-
campus public university system, with its approximately 46,000 students and 9,000 employees.
The strategic plan draft draws heavily on recommendations from four reports on academics, facilities and more that UH has produced in recent years, including a report on “what Hawaii needs most from its university during and following the pandemic,” Lassner said. “Our goal is to come up with one strategic plan that will encompass the best and most important points of all of these.”
The draft is shaped also by internal and external surveys, town hall meetings and ongoing interviews with key stakeholders, such as state legislators, the governor and county mayors, UH officials said. The surveys have generally placed high priorities on student success, better workforce opportunities
and improvement as an
Indigenous-serving
institution.
Four “imperatives” are listed for the UH system, along with steps to reach them and metrics officials would monitor to make sure they are met:
>> “Imperative One: Successful Students for a Better Future” outlines a goal to “educate more students and empower them to achieve their goals and contribute to society.”
Among the steps would
be growing participation in post-secondary education statewide; embracing “multiple modalities of instruction that recognize changing times and widely differing student preference and needs,” such as more online learning; and providing “innovative learning experiences that prepare them to achieve their personal and professional goals while fulfilling their kuleana (responsibility) to people and place.”
>> “Imperative Two: Meet Hawaii Workforce Needs of Today and Tomorrow” specifies a goal to “eliminate workforce shortages in
Hawaii while preparing students for a future different than the present.” Producing professionals “to fulfill statewide needs in occupations that are essential to community well-being: education, health, technology, skilled trades and sustainability/resilience,” and expanding nontraditional offerings are among its steps.
>> “Imperative Three:
Embrace Kuleana to Hawaiians and Hawaii” says the goal is to model “what it means to be an indigenous-
serving and indigenous-centered institution — Native Hawaiians thrive, traditional Hawaiian values and knowledge are embraced, and UH scholarship and service advance all Hawaiians and
Hawaii.”
Steps include ensuring
equity for Native Hawaiian students; increasing employment of Native Hawaiians, especially at faculty and executive levels; creating opportunities for students, faculty and executives to “inform their work … by learning about Hawaiian language, culture, knowledge and
Hawaii’s difficult history with colonization”; and playing “an active role in advancing Hawaiian language, culture, and improving the lives of Native Hawaiians across the islands.”
>> “Imperative Four: Diversify Hawaii’s Economy through UH Innovation and Research” describes a goal to “build and sustain a thriving UH research and innovation enterprise that directly creates jobs and advances new economic sectors with living-wage jobs.”
UH would build research and innovation hubs in such key areas as climate, environmental conservation and protection, technology, health, ocean and earth sciences, space sciences, Hawaii/Pacific/Asia and food and agriculture, the draft said. “UH will infuse innovation, discovery and entrepreneurship throughout its educational programs” as well as “weave indigenous knowledge throughout its research and scholarship,” the draft said.
The board will review
subsequent drafts of the strategic plan and offer
opportunities for more
public and stakeholder input, aiming for a final approval by the end of this year. The public can follow the progress at 808ne.ws/UHstrategicplan Opens in a new tab.
Among the survey tools that helped shape the draft plan, UH officials said, was an internal survey of faculty, students and other people in various roles across the UH campuses. That survey, which drew 2,503 responses, ranked “student completion” as the most important area UH must address in the next six years.
“Workforce opportunities” was the second priority, and “model indigenous/Hawaiian serving institution” was third, over 10 other possible priorities.
Four town hall meetings were held in May, with more than 230 participants. In breakout groups,
participants were asked to come up with priorities for UH. Their top responses echoed the internal survey’s but in a different order, with workforce opportunities at No. 1, followed by model
Indigenous/Hawaiian-
serving institution and student completion.
An external survey of people outside of UH asked them to rank six priorities, and emerging at No. 1 was “provide the scientific and intellectual capacity to address Hawaii’s problems and opportunities, particularly around sustainability, energy, and climate
resilience.”
At No. 2 was “educate and train Hawaii residents for Hawaii’s jobs,” and at No. 3 was “drive economic diversification and development across the islands through research, innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology.”
