Native Hawaiian Student Profile...

Native Hawaiian 2012

Brandi Jean Nālani Balutski Research & Evaluation Coordinator

Dr. Erin Kahunawai Wright

Director, Native Hawaiian Student Services

Student Profile

March 2013

Native Hawaiian Student Services

University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Native Hawaiian Student Profile 2012 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS Native Hawaiian Student Services ............................................................................................................................... 2

The Core Values of NHSS ............................................................................................................................................................ 2

Living Our Mission: Supporting Native Hawaiian Student Success ......................................................................... 4

Our Program Learning Outcomes and Activities ............................................................................................................. 5

Native Hawaiian Student Profile Series .................................................................................................................. 15

University of Hawai‘i System ...................................................................................................................................... 16

University of Hawai‘i Community Colleges ............................................................................................................ 17

University of Hawai‘i Four-Year Institutions ........................................................................................................ 19

University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa .................................................................................................................................. 20

Gender ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 22

Geographic Region ..................................................................................................................................................................... 23

High School Background ......................................................................................................................................................... 24

Admission Status ........................................................................................................................................................................ 24

Undergraduate Students ......................................................................................................................................................... 25

Graduate Students ..................................................................................................................................................................... 28

Degrees Earned ................................................................................................................................................................ 31

University of Hawai‘i Community Colleges ..................................................................................................................... 31

University of Hawai‘i Four-Year Institutions ................................................................................................................. 32

University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa ............................................................................................................................................ 33

Retention & Success Rates ........................................................................................................................................... 36

Our Way Forward ............................................................................................................................................................ 38

Research as Sovereignty ......................................................................................................................................................... 38

Interrogating Resilience: Native Hawaiian Doctoral Student Success ............................................................... 38

From ‘Dispossessions of Empire’ to Dispossessing Empire: Kanaka ‘Ōiwi Identity Formation in

Culturally-Based Higher Education .................................................................................................................................... 39

Po‘ohū Ka Lae I Ka ‘Alā: Understanding the Role of Financial Aid in Accessing Higher Education for

Native Hawaiian Students ...................................................................................................................................................... 40

Future Directions ............................................................................................................................................................ 41

Our Positionalities & Our Research ......................................................................................................................... 43

Nālani Balutski ............................................................................................................................................................................ 43

Dr. Erin Kahunawaika‘ala Wright ........................................................................................................................................ 43

Appendices ........................................................................................................................................................................ 44

Endnotes ............................................................................................................................................................................. 45


NATIVE HAWAIIAN STUDENT SERVICES The mission of Native Hawaiian Student Services (NHSS) is to serve Native Hawaiian students at the

University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa through a comprehensive, culturally respectful, and academically

competent program of student support and advising services. Our resources and services are

designed to increase the recruitment, retention, and matriculation of Native Hawaiian students.

NHSS has two primary kuleana (responsibility) with respect to student support. The first kuleana,

as reflected in our mission, is to provide support and guidance to all Native Hawaiians pursuing

higher education with an emphasis on those attending UH Mānoa (approximately 3,000). The

second kuleana is to provide support and guidance to all Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian

Knowledge (HSHK) majors, undergraduate and graduate students majoring in Hawaiian Language

and/or Hawaiian Studies.

The Core Values of NHSS

To provide a ground level perspective of the Native Hawaiian performance data provided in this

report, we would like to begin the Native Hawaiian Student Profile with performance data for NHSS.

NHSS’ core values that drive and shape our student support activities stems from our mission and

informed by our collective experience and initial assessment work. Figure 1 highlights the core

values that guide and drive our collective work.

Figure 1: Native Hawaiian Student Services Program Learning Outcomes


Create and promote a Hawaiian place for learning.

Hawaiian places of learning are intentional and organic spaces and places that give power

to Hawaiian perspectives; welcome multiple Hawaiian identities; promote collaboration,

networking and organizing; encourage mentorship; and serve as pu‘uhonua (places of

refuge) for Hawaiian students and our communities.

● Promote and advocate Hawaiian language, studies, and education.

In addition to the recruitment of students to our HSHK majors, NHSS promotes and

advocates for the teaching and learning of Hawaiian knowledge to be used as the medium

for students to better understand themselves (as a Hawaiian), their education, their

kuleana, our communities, and our nation.

● Recognize our kuleana to honor the traditions of our Indigenous people and to

promote social justice for Native Hawaiians.

NHSS supports student empowerment and advocates for social justice by encouraging

student organizing efforts; helping students recognize the intersectionalities of oppression;

promoting community access and human service; and investing in student leadership

development.

● Educate a highly knowledgeable, skilled, flexible, world-class Native Hawaiian

workforce.

NHSS hopes to produce a highly knowledgeable, skilled, flexible, world-class Native

Hawaiian student community by guiding students in learning how to learn; providing

students with transformative and transferable skills; providing opportunities for student

professional development; and fostering an entrepreneurial spirit in our students.

● Learning Organization

NHSS strives to be an entity that not only responds to research trends on effectively serving

Hawaiian students, community and nation but also actively engages in generating and

contributing knowledge to the broader body of knowledge on Indigenous/Native student

success.

Unlike traditional student support models that focus on acculturating students to the institution, we

strive to create cultural and physical spaces that allow students to explore, discuss, and reinforce

Hawaiian identity because we believe it is integral to student success. In turn, supporting Hawaiian

identity is the thread that runs through all of our services and programs. Consequently, NHSS

provides encouragement and support for haumāna to engage in diverse disciplines that foster

Native Hawaiian representation in different professions and leadership opportunities; for haumāna

to serve our lāhui, and engage in integrated learning experiences that link classroom learning and

community engagement.

As an organization, we continuously work towards excellence and innovation by engaging in active

learning through ongoing assessment, scholarly research, reflection, and professional development.

At the program level, we have integrated assessment into our everyday practices and reflect on our

practices, results, and analysis on a regular basis. We have also established a robust research

agenda on Native Hawaiians in higher education especially in relationship to our student support

programs. At an organizational level, we have been very active in sharing our research with

national audiences through participation in national and international professional conferences in


the areas of higher education, student affairs, assessment and evaluation, advising, and education.

Our participation in these scholarly activities have helped to keep us current on educational

policies, practices, and theories, pushed our thinking about developing our research agenda, and

networked our staff with national and international scholars and scholar-practitioners.

Living Our Mission: Supporting Native Hawaiian Student Success

NHSS is organized into units which address different aspects of supporting student success: HSHK

undergraduate programs academic advising, HSHK graduate programs support, community

engagement and recruitment, academic and cultural enrichment, transition support, and research

and evaluation. Five of our staff are permanently funded through HSHK, which consists of one

director, one academic advisor for Hawaiian Language, one academic advisor for Hawaiian Studies,

one graduate programs support assistant, and one community engagement coordinator. In

addition, we have one administrative officer, whose position is temporarily funded through the

HSHK Dean’s Office. We also have five grant-supported staff, consisting of one research and

evaluation coordinator, one grant program coordinator, one assistant grant program coordinator,

one Bridge Programs coordinator, and one

Kāko‘o coordinator. The majority of our

student staff, as well as our graduate

research assistant positions, are funded

through our grants.

As reflected in the composition of

our NHSS staff, a significant part of our

work in supporting Native Hawaiian

student success is facilitated through

extramural funds. As such, we consistently

assess student and program needs and, in

turn, apply for extramural funds to sustain,

modify, and grow our programs and

services. Below are brief overviews of our

grant-funded programs:

Kōkua a Puni (Title III Grant $1,354,084)

Kōkua a Puni (KAP), meaning “to surround with support,” is a

developmental grant program funded through the U.S.

Department of Education Title III Native Hawaiian Strengthening

Institutions Program. The grant lasts for five years and began in

October 2007 with a one year no-cost extension taking us into

September 2013. KAP was established to support and provide

direction and guidance to Native Hawaiian students so that they

graduate; to foster leadership among our haumāna (students); to

reinforce and grow our sense of Hawaiian identity at the UH

Mānoa campus; to include our ‘ohana (family) and community in

higher education; and to serve our lāhui (nation).

Kōkua a Puni logo.

Student advising session with Hawaiian Studies academic advisor, Lehua Nishimura.


Hūlili: Cooperative Program with Windward Community Col lege (Title III Grant $2,806,349 )

Hūlili is a cooperative grant program funded through the US Department of Education Title III

Native Hawaiian Strengthening Institutions Program. The grant lasts for five years and is a

partnership between UH Mānoa-NHSS and Windward Community College (WCC) Office of the Vice

Chancellor for Student Services and started in October 2010. The program title, Hūlili, translated

into English means “ladder, bridge.” Due to poor retention and graduation rates of Native Hawaiian

students and the large numbers of Native Hawaiian students attending WCC and UH Mānoa, the

overarching activities of this collaborative partnership are to increase the number of Native

Hawaiian students at WCC who transfer to UH Mānoa; increase the retention rate of Native

Hawaiian students at UH Mānoa; and to provide professional development opportunities for Native

Hawaiian serving faculty and staff and transfer students.

Aka Lehulehu (Office of Hawaiian Affairs Grant $180,000)

The purpose of Aka Lehulehu is to help upper-division undeclared undergraduate Native Hawaiian

students attending UH Mānoa complete their Bachelor’s degrees by providing integrated career and

research-focused internships. In keeping with the Hawaiian worldview of maintaining balance, the

program is designed to be holistic in nature and encourage academic and life success through

guidance and mentoring. Aka Lehulehu refers to the “shadow of the multitudes” or, more

figuratively, “a well-worn path.” That is, the mentor knows the path well and the student “shadows”

the mentor. In this context, students will discover they have many mentors, sources of support, and

guidance in their journey through higher education and beyond. As such, in addition to gaining

valuable real world work experience, we also have students engage in activities which also help

them to clarify personal values and interests, strengthen personal gifts, and foster self-reflection

that will contribute to assisting in declaring a major and graduating within a 2-year time frame.

Our Program Learning Outcomes and Activities

As outlined in the beginning, our work is driven by our core values. To demonstrate how our work

aligns with the NHSS core values, we included exemplars of our work and corresponding

assessment pieces that best address these values.

Hawaiian places of learning are intentional and organic spaces and places that give power to

Hawaiian perspectives; welcome multiple Hawaiian identities; promote collaboration, networking,

and organizing; encourage mentorship; and serve as pu‘uhonua for Hawaiian students and our

communities.

Student Resource Centers

NHSS maintains two student Resource Centers at UH Mānoa, one at the Kamakakūokalani Center

for Hawaiian Studies, and another one at the Queen Lili‘uokalani Center for Student Services.

Combined, these centers add 1,300 square feet of space dedicated to the success of Native Hawaiian

students. The two spaces provide similar services and programs our students have come to value

and enjoy: academic and wellness counseling; math, English and Hawaiian language tutoring; PC

and Mac computer and printing access; Promethean Smart Board technology; launa (socialize,


relax) and meeting space;

programs and services

referrals; academic

enrichment, career

development and technology

workshops; cultural and

community engagement

opportunities. NHSS utilizes

an online survey to monitor

visits to the space to track

usage. Between January 2010

and February 2013, there

were 19,392 student visit

sign-in’s to our two spaces.

We periodically review the

usage data to better

understand our visitors. The

majority of our student visitors is Hawaiian (78%) and from a variety of majors. Students come

into the spaces to study, launa (relax, hang out) or utilize the computers.

UH Mānoa Enrollment Management Planning Committee

The Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the Vice Chancellor for Student Services initiated the

creation of several planning committees to support the strategic enrollment goals of UH Mānoa.

NHSS was invited to co-chair the enrollment group created to address the differential rates of

educational attainment across Hawai‘i’s population. NHSS was assigned to lead the effort for Native

Hawaiians. This initiative was integrated into the emerging work of our Mālama programs. In

particular, NHSS received two faculty releases for the Fall 2011 from the Office for the Vice

Chancellor of Academic Affairs and partnered with Kawaihuelani and Kamakakūolani faculty to

plan outreach activities designed to increase high school student access and awareness of

educational support systems at UH Mānoa. Faculty participated in planning meetings, high school

student campus visits, and career exploration workshops. During campus visits, the staff prepared

custom classes which provided brief introductions to their experiences as Native Hawaiian

professionals, exposed high school students to Hawaiian knowledge content, and increased

connections between classroom learning and college navigation. Faculty and staff also participated

in career exploration workshops geared to provide insight into personal stories of career choice.

In addition to the recruitment of students to our HSHK majors, NHSS promotes and advocates for

the teaching and learning of Hawaiian knowledge to be used as the medium for students to better

understand themselves (as a Hawaiian), their education, their kuleana, our communities, and our

nation.

NHSS Student Resource Center at the Queen Lili‘uokalani Student Services Building.


Native Hawaiian Residential Learning Program

In collaboration with Student Housing,

NHSS developed the Native Hawaiian

Residential Learning Program (RLP)

beginning in the academic year 2010 -

2011. This RLP is designed for students

who are interested in taking a critical

look at issues and experiences facing

Native Hawaiians in higher education.

In its first year, the RLP was located in

Hale Laulima dormitory. Students

attended activities like huaka‘i (field

trips) to Kumu Ola, a Native Hawaiian-

run farm in Mānoa Valley, and also

participated discussions about

Hawaiian masculinity. In its second

year, the RLP moved to the newly-

renovated Johnson Hall dormitories to

accommodate the growing interest in the RLP. In its first year (2010 - 2011), forty-six students

participated in the program when it was housed in the Hale Laulima dormitory. In its second year at

the new dormitory Johnson Hall, thirty-eight students participated in the program. The lower

number of participants was attributed to the fewer number of rooms available in the newly

renovated dormitory. Our future plans are to expand the number of rooms available so NHSS RLP

can serve more students, as well as incorporating the RLP into our bridge programs.

Graduate Student Professional Development

NHSS is committed to increasing

professional development opportunities for

Native Hawaiian and HSHK graduate

students especially to help prepare them to

engage in scholarly work especially in “nā

mea Hawaiʻi”. One way we have supported

graduate students is to provide mentoring

and travel funding for national professional

conference travel. NHSS staff work with

graduate students to prepare their

presentations, travel with graduate students,

and provide mentoring opportunities during

the travel. For several participants, it was

their first time attending and/or presenting

at national professional conferences, so,

mentorship was vital to helping students navigate, discuss, engage, and reflect on the experiences

and learning. We have support graduate students to attend and/or present at the following

professional conferences:

RLP students with NHSS tutors at a Final Exam Prep Session, May 2012.

RLP students with NHSS tutors at a Final Exam Prep Session, May 2012.

HSHK graduate students and Graduate Programs Support Assistant at NAISA 2011.


● Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) 2011, 2012

● American Education Research Association 2011

NHSS staff conducted two focus groups with students who attended both NAISA conferences. The

questions focused on overall impressions of the conference, the importance of attending

conferences, and reflections on the impact of the travel experience on their academic and career

growth. Students reported that the professional development experience did the following:

● Helped identify gaps in their own research

● Solidified the importance of professional development, research and presenting

● Built relationships and networks

● Built confidence in their work

● Inspired them to consider doctoral programs

● Connected them to other Indigenous people beyond Hawai‘i

NHSS supports student empowerment and advocates for social justice by encouraging student

organizing efforts, helping students recognize the intersectionalities of oppression, promoting

community access and human service, and investing in student leadership development.

Summer Enrichment Program

The Kōkua a Puni Summer

Enrichment Program (SEP) is an

intensive four-week, residence-

based experience in which students

take culturally-grounded classes,

participate in community-based

huaka‘i, learn about campus

resources, and actively engage in

discussions with Native Hawaiian

scholars in different fields. The

program is designed to provide

culturally-grounded college

readiness activities to Native

Hawaiian students entering the


from UH System community colleges. The following are some program activities SEP students have

participated in previous years: tailored four week academic program that has included culturally-

grounded classes such as “Hawaiian Literature and Political Thought,” “Lā‘au Lapa‘au Hawai‘i,”

“Hawaiian Geography,” and “Ma‘awe, Hawaiian Fiber Arts”; “Meet and greet” sessions with Native

Hawaiian scholars and community leaders; UH Mānoa campus and library orientations; huaka‘i

kaiāulu (community excursions) to Papahana Kuaola, He‘eia Fishpond, ‘Ioleka‘a Kuleana, and Nā

Kamakai He‘enalu at Waikīkī. All SEP participants also benefitted from NHSS-sponsored room and

board. To date, NHSS has served three cohorts of SEP students totaling 25 students. A fourth cohort

of 10 students started in June 2012, for a total participant group of 35 students. Today, of the 35

Summer Enrichment Program 2012 cohort at their hō‘ike ceremony.


have completed the program, 6 have since earned a Bachelor’s degree, and another 18 are still

enrolled at UH Mānoa for a 68.6% success rate. Another 4 students are still at the community

college level with plans of transferring soon.

NHSS has conducted in-depth interviews with seven of the 10 students who participated in the

2011 SEP cohort and nine of the 10 students who participated in the 2012 SEP cohort. In

particular, NHSS was interested in understanding how students experienced SEP with particular

attention to transfer preparation and engaging in community. Students reported that SEP helped

them in the following ways:

● Create a strong peer support network with their cohort

● Understand and familiarize with the UH Mānoa resources to support them

● Feel confident about transferring to UH Mānoa

● See UH Mānoa as less intimidating and scary

● View the university, professors, and college courses as more welcoming

● Feel eager to learn and appreciate research

● Feel motivated to get involved in community work

● Interrogate and learn more about their Hawaiian identity and culture

● Learn more or re-affirmed aspects about themselves and their future goals

NHSS hopes to produce a highly knowledgeable, skilled, flexible, world-class Native Hawaiian

student community by guiding students in learning how to learn; providing students with

transformative and transferable skills; providing opportunities for student professional

development; and fostering an entrepreneurial spirit in our students.

Student Internships

The goal of the Kōkua a Puni

internship program was to

provide students with

opportunities for hands-on

meaningful workplace

experience, to increase

opportunities for gainful

employment and/or pursuit of

a higher degree. Like Kōkua a

Puni, Aka Lehulehu builds upon

this foundation but focuses on

supporting undeclared Native

Hawaiian students, which

compose a significant portion

of undeclared students at UH

Mānoa. With assistance from

NHSS staff, students fully engage

in the internship process,

including exploring and securing potential internship sites, preparing and submitting a

Summer 2012 Internship Cohort with Hawaiian Studies Academic Advisor, Lehua Nishimura.


resume/personal statement, and interviewing for the internship. During the internship, students

gain practical experience related to their field of study and career goals, develop and refine skills

for the workplace, develop a career network, build their resume, and create and develop a career

portfolio. Students also attend career and technology workshops and use technology tools

throughout the internship period. As an added benefit, students engage in several reflection

activities, which help students identify strengths and clarify values and interests.

Over the duration of the KAP grant, 50 students have participated in the KAP internship program,

with another 15 students participating in the OHA supported Aka Lehulehu internship program.

Students interned at a variety of sites across Hawaiʻi including non-profit organizations like Native

Hawaiian Legal Corporation, the Domestic Violence Action Center, and the Edith Kanakaʻole

Foundation; public entities like Kahoʻolawe Island Reserve Commission and the Department of

Land and Natural Resources (Kauaʻi); as well as private businesses like Pali Momi, L&L Drive-In,

and Kamehameha Publishing. Of the 65 students who have participated in the internship program,

32 have graduated as of Fall 2012 (49.2% graduation rate) and another 31 were still enrolled as of

Spring 2013, for a total student retention and graduation success rate of 96.9%.

NHSS conducted in-depth interviews with seven students who participated in the internship

program in Summer 2011. In particular, NHSS was interested in understanding how the students

experienced the internship program with particular attention to self-efficacy and career

preparation. Students reported that internship program helped them in the following ways:

● Feel more confident, mature, and comfortable with self

● Raise critical questions of life purpose and found that inquiry necessary for their growth

● Reaffirm goals, skills, and interests

● Clarify or consider their role in broader society and “find self”

● Answer questions like “Where do I want to go?”

● Identify next steps for their educational and career journeys

● Better understand “what it means to be Hawaiian” for themselves

Additionally, interns complete two surveys evaluating their site and the different learning

opportunities they were afforded at their site. Site supervisors also complete surveys evaluating the

intern on different elements, including their performance, dependability, and initiative. The

Summer 2010 internship cohort had 12 students, of which we received 11 final supervisor

evaluations. All supervisors rated the interns at either “meets expectations” or “exceed

expectations” in the categories of dependability, enthusiasm, creativity and problem-solving skills,

honesty and integrity, initiative and motivation.

Based on the successful model of the KAP internship program, NHSS was awarded a two-year grant

from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to develop our internship program, Aka Lehulehu. According to

our research and institutional data, a significant number of undeclared upper-division students at

UH Mānoa are Native Hawaiian, which means these students will take longer to graduate, spend

more money, and accumulate excess credits. As such, Aka Lehulehu focuses on helping these

students clarify their interests through engaging in internships and, hopefully, graduating sooner.

Currently, NHSS is recruiting for the second cohort of 26 students.


Native Hawaiian Student Professional Development

NHSS is committed to increasing training and leadership development opportunities for Native

Hawaiian students (regardless of their major), and thereby have supported student travel to attend

and present at conferences. In the last two years, we have sponsored undergraduate and graduate

students from a variety of majors to attend the following conferences:

● Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA) 2012

● American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2011

● Native American Indigenous Studies

Association (NAISA) 2012

NHSS has begun to integrate mandatory

assessment assignments for participants of our

student professional development sessions. For

the 2012 NAISA trip, NHSS staff conducted

reflection sessions where all students shared

their reflections from the conference and

described the ways in which their classroom

learning was enhanced by the professional

development experience. Future assessment

plans include following up with all past

professional development participants to

understand more long-term impact of such

training and development opportunities.

In Spring 2013, NHSS awarded 23 mini-research and conference travel awards to Hawaiian

students at UHM, totaling approximately $25,000.

NHSS strives to be an entity that not only responds to research trends on effectively serving

Hawaiian students, community and nation but also actively engages in generating and contributing

knowledge to the broader body of knowledge on Indigenous/Native student success. Staff in NHSS

is actively involved in knowledge generation and dissemination in the fields of educational

assessment and evaluation, student services, and student development at different levels.

Specifically, we are fortunate enough to have a research and evaluation coordinator who has

created a solid infrastructure for us to be able to build, strengthen and grow NHSS’s and HSHK’s

capacities to conduct research and evaluation. Programmatically, NHSS staff has integrated

program and services assessment into our work and regularly revisit our guiding documents like

our mission, core values, and experience map to insure that our work is relevant, high quality, and

effective. Locally, we contribute our knowledge, expertise, and experience on Native Hawaiian

students and student support services to the University of Hawai‘i and local communities.

NHSS Staff Assessment Activities

Since 2009, NHSS has developed, revisited and revised our Experience Map that aligns all our

student learning outcomes to our activities, as well as mapped out assessment activities (tools) and

NHSS supported students after their panel presentation on Hawaiian language at NAISA 2012.


aligned student competencies. Our current NHSS learning outcomes have been highlighted in this

text, the following is a snapshot of some of our assessment activities conducted since 2010:

● Sign-in logs, e.g., student spaces, activities/programs, events, tutoring

● Basic surveys (primarily satisfaction-oriented) from NHSS activities

● Staff advising logs, e.g., electronic, survey-type format

● Final student presentations, e.g., Internship Program, Summer Enrichment Program

● Kuder Career Assessments

● Internship student and supervisor evaluations

● Student artifacts, e.g., presentations, portfolios, journals

● Student Participant Interviews

● External evaluation reports for Kōkua a Puni program

Original Scholarship: Conference Presentations (Selected examples)

● “From ‘Dispossessions of Empire’ to Dispossessing Empire: Kanaka ‘Ōiwi Identity

Formation in Culturally-Based Higher Education” in “‘Gotta Liberate My People Like

Haunani-Kay Trask’: Critical Pedagogies of Race, Ethnicity and Indigeneity from Hawai‘i”,

Selected Panel Presentation with R. Labrador, D. Saranillio, and N. Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua,

Critical Ethnic Studies Association Conference, Chicago, Illinois. September 2013.

● “Interrogating Resilience: Native Hawaiian Doctoral Student Success,” Selected Paper

Presentation, American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, California. April

2013.

● “Native Hawaiian College Students: Understanding the Voyage from High School,” Selected

Paper Presentation, NASPA Western Regional Conference, Waikoloa, Hawai‘i. November

2012.

● “Lessons from a Native Hawaiian Culture-Based Student Services Program,” Selected Paper

Presentation, NASPA Assessment and Persistence Conference, Tampa, Florida. June 2012.

● “From the Threat of Colonial Death and Back: E Ola Mau Ka ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i,” Selected Panel

Presentation, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Annual

Conference, Uncasville, Connecticut. June 2012.

● “Kōkua a Puni: Strengthening Culture-Based Student Services,” Selected Paper

Presentation, NASPA, Phoenix, Arizona. March 2012.

● “Education for the Nation: Forging Indigenous Identity in Native Hawaiian Higher

Education,” Invited Presentation, Native Hawaiian Education Association Annual

Conference, Windward Community College, Hawai‘i. March 2012

● “Making Our Way Forward: Creating an Evaluation Design for an Indigenous College,”

Think Tank Presentation, American Evaluation Association Annual Conference, Anaheim,

California. November 2011.

● “Our Voices, Our Definitions of Success,” Paper Presentation, World Indigenous Peoples

Conference on Education, Cusco, Peru. August 2011.

● “Kōkua a Puni: Strengthening Culture-Based Student Services,” Paper Presentation, 2011

Institutional Service Project Director’s Meeting Conference, Washington, D.C. April 2011.

● “Institutional Data and Native Hawaiians: Reflections on Creating the Native Hawaiian

Student Profile,” Keynote Address, Native Hawaiian Education Association Annual

Conference, Kāne‘ohe, Hawai‘i. March 2011.


Original Scholarship: Scholarly Publications

● Wright, E.K. & Balutski, B.J.N. (Forthcoming). The role of context, critical theory, and

counter-narratives in understanding Pacific Islander Indigeneity. In S.D. Museus, D.C.

Maramba & R.T. Teranishi (Eds.) The Misrepresented minority: New insights on Asian

Americans and Pacific Islanders and their implications for higher education. Sterling, VA:

Stylus Publishing.

● Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua, J. N., Hussey, I. & Wright, E. K. (Eds). (Forthcoming). Ea: A history of

Hawaiian movements for life, land, and sovereignty. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

● Freitas, A., Wright, E.K., Balutski, B.J.N. & Wu, P.Z. (Forthcoming). Development of the

‘Indigenous Self’ and ‘Student’: An examination of the Kōkua a Puni Summer Enrichment

Program. Ho‘okulāiwi Journal of Native Hawaiian and Indigenous Research.

● Thomas, S., Kanaiaupuni, S., Freitas, A. & Balutski, B.J.N. (2012). Access and Success for

Students from Indigenous Populations. In Smart, J.C., & Paulsen, M.B. (Vol. 27), Higher

Education: Handbook of Theory and Research. Springer Science+Business Media.

● Labrador, R. L. & Wright, E. K. (2011) Engaging the indigenous in Pacific Islander and Asian

American Studies. AmerAsia Journal, 37:3, 135-147.

● Tran, J., Wong, M., Wright, E., et. al. (2011). Understanding a Pacific Islander young adult

perspective on access to higher education. California Journal of Health Promotion 2010,

Special Issue, 23-38.

● Balutski, B.J.N, Freitas, A. & Wright, E. (2010). Native Hawaiian Student Profile 2010. Kōkua

a Puni, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

● Freitas, A. & Balutski, B.J.N. (2009). Native Hawaiian Student Profile 2009. Kōkua a Puni,

University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

● Freitas, A., Wright, E. & Balutski, B.J.N. (2008). Native Hawaiian Student Profile 2008. Kōkua

a Puni, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Table 1 below provides an overview of how NHSS has supported programs that meet Program and

Student Learning Objectives. As a new division at UH Mānoa and the only unit with a focus

primarily on the host community, the success rate has been stellar.

TABLE 1: NATIVE HAWAIIAN STUDENT SERVICES PROGRAM LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES

Student Learning Outcomes & Activity

Description Outcomes

SLO #1: Create and promote a Hawaiian place of learning.

Student Resource Centers

Maintains two resource centers on campus where students can access study and work areas.

19,392 student visit sign-in’s since 2010.

Mālama Student Shadowing Visits

Provides opportunities for high school students to visit UHM, and shadow a UHM student for the day.

33 high school students & 22 UHM students

SLO #2: Promote and advocate Hawaiian language, studies and education.

Native Hawaiian Residential Learning Program

Provides cohort-style Hawaiian-focused programming (workshops, field experience) to students in UHM Housing.

84 participants


HSHK Graduate Student Professional Development

Provides training and professional development opportunities for HSHK graduate students.

13 HSHK graduate student participants

NHSS Advising Provides advising services (e.g., academic, personal, career) to HSHK majors and other UHM Hawaiian students.

>1,800 advising sessions since Spring 2011

SLO #3: Recognize our kuleana to honor the traditions of our indigenous people and to promote social justice for Native Hawaiians.

Summer Enrichment Program

Provides a residential summer bridge program to Native Hawaiian students intending to transfer to UHM from a UH community college.

35 participants

68.6% success rate (graduation + continuation) up to 2012 cohort

SLO #4: Educate a highly knowledgeable, skilled, flexible, world-class Native Hawaiian workforce.

Student Internship Program

Provides career skills to Native Hawaiian undergraduate students, to include a 6-week summer placement at an internship site that matches students’ career and educational goals.

65 participants

96.9% success rate (graduation + continuation) up to 2012 cohorts

Native Hawaiian Student Professional Development

Provides training, professional development opportunities, and research support for Hawaiian students (regardless of major or academic level).

28 Hawaiian student participants

Tutoring Program Provides student peer tutoring in Math, English/Writing, and Hawaiian Language.

>272 tutoring visits since Spring 2011

Mālama Career Explorations Program

Brings targeted Hawaiian high school students to UHM to network with community resources and representatives from different career fields.

37 high school students, 27 career representatives, volunteers & support staff

SLO #5: Learning Organization

Native Hawaiian Student Profile

Provides and disseminates institutional research data on Native Hawaiian students in the UH System.

5 Profiles published and disseminated

Original research on Native Hawaiian student success

Provides and disseminates original research on Native Hawaiian students in higher education to better understand Native Hawaiian student success.

11 conference presentations

2 book chapters

1 journal article


NATIVE HAWAIIAN STUDENT PROFILE SERIES This report is the fifth in a series started in 2008 by Native Hawaiian Student Services. This report

aims to provide a snapshot of basic descriptive institutional data about Native Hawaiians in the

University of Hawai‘i System to Native Hawaiian serving programs, the greater University of

Hawai‘i System and Hawaiian communities. This snapshot includes enrollment and degrees

awarded data from the 10 University of Hawai‘i (UH) campuses, including the 7 UH community

colleges and 3 four-year institutions.

The data in this report comes from the UH Operational Data Store (ODS) database, which is fed by

Banner. ODS is the preferred database to query data used in reports, as it “freezes” data at

benchmark points throughout the semester for static reporting benchmarks.

University of Hawai‘i System “Hawaiian” Definitions

In this report, the term "Hawaiian" student refers to the UH System Institutional Research Office

definition of "Hawaiian Ancestry" which is defined as students who answered "Yes" to the Hawaiian

Ancestry question ("Were any of your ancestors Hawaiian?") plus those who answered "No" or left

the Hawaiian Ancestry question blank, but said they were "Hawaiian or Part Hawaiian" for the

ethnicity question. This "Legacy" methodology is a more accurate reflection of Hawaiian student

enrollment because of its more specific Hawaiian ancestry indicator.

Furthermore, "Hawaiian & Part Hawaiian" refers to the UH System Institutional Research Office

ethnicity category, which is part of the Conventional Methodology for determining ethnicity. Prior

to Fall 2005, this Conventional Methodology was the only indicator used to determine Hawaiian

ancestry. In Fall 2005, the University of Hawai‘i adopted the more preferred "Legacy" methodology

(see above), which, unless otherwise stated, is used in this report.


UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I SYSTEM

Hawaiian Student Enrollment

Both University of Hawai‘i System enrollment and

Hawaiian student enrollment has increased slightly

from Fall 2010 to Fall 2012.i In Fall 2012, there is a total of 14,608 Hawaiian students in the UH

System. Therefore, 24.2% of the total UH System students are Hawaiian compared with 23.5% of

total enrollment in Fall 2010. (See Table 2 below) Thus, over the two year period, there has been

an increase in 474 Hawaiian students within the UH system, for a total increase of 3.4%. Past UH

System enrollment trends attributed the bulk of the growth in enrollment to community college

enrollment increases. However, in this snapshot from Fall 2010 to Fall 2012, the bulk of the growth

came from UH West O‘ahu, growing by 134 Hawaiian students during that time period.

TABLE 2: UH SYSTEM HAWAIIAN ENROLLMENT

Campus

Fall 2010 Fall 2011 Fall 2012

Hawn Total % Hawn Total % Hawn Total %

UH Mānoa 2,866 20,337 14.1% 3,004 20,429 14.7% 3,049 20,426 14.9%

UH Hilo 1,028 4,079 25.2% 1,034 4,139 25.0% 1,074 4,157 25.8%

UH W O‘ahu 380 1,471 25.8% 437 1,662 26.3% 514 1,997 25.7%

UH CC's 9,860 34,203 28.8% 10,121 34,100 29.7% 9,971 33,715 29.6%

UH System 14,134 60,090 23.5% 14,596 60,330 24.2% 14,608 60,295 24.2%

UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census.

FIGURE 2: UH SYSTEM HAWAIIAN ENROLLMENT

UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census. For enrollment numbers utilizing the Conventional Methodology, see Appendix A.

ii


UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I COMMUNITY COLLEGES Combined, the UH Community Colleges accounted for 55.9% of total UH System enrollment in Fall

2012. The UH Community Colleges did not show the significant growth in Hawaiian student

enrollment as it has in past years, growing from 9,860 Hawaiian students in Fall 2010 to 10,121 in

Fall 2011 and a slight dip in Fall 2012 to 9,971. Still, Native Hawaiians compose 29.6% of the

overall student body enrolled in the community colleges. Furthermore, 68.3% of all Hawaiian

students in the UH System were enrolled in one of the seven UH Community Colleges in Fall 2012.

TABLE 3: UH COMMUNITY COLLEGE HAWAIIAN ENROLLMENT

Campus



Hawai‘i CC 1,657 3,815 43.4% 1,702 3,917 43.5% 1,644 3,663 44.9%

Honolulu CC 1,288 4,725 27.3% 1,246 4,600 27.1% 1,247 4,582 27.2%

Kapi‘olani CC 1,677 9,301 18.0% 1,756 9,023 19.5% 1,680 8,892 18.9%

Kaua‘i CC 435 1,428 30.5% 451 1,433 31.5% 490 1,495 32.8%

Leeward CC 2,208 7,942 27.8% 2,189 7,895 27.7% 2,199 7,960 27.6%

Maui CC 1,453 4,367 33.3% 1,574 4,527 34.8% 1,503 4,382 34.3%

Windward CC 1,142 2,625 43.5% 1,203 2,705 44.5% 1,208 2,741 44.1%

Total CC's 9,860 34,203 28.8% 10,121 34,100 29.7% 9,971 33,715 29.6%


FIGURE 3: UH COMMUNITY COLLEGE HAWAIIAN ENROLLMENT

Enrollment as of Fall semesters. UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census.


In Fall 2012, Leeward CC had the highest number of Hawaiian students (n=2,199), followed by

Kapi‘olani CC (n=1,680) and Hawai‘i CC (n=1,644). However, in Fall 2012, Hawaiʻi CC had the

largest percentage of Hawaiian students to total students (44.9%), followed closely by Windward

CC (44.1%), a switch in positions from Fall 2011. Kaua‘i CC and Hawaiʻi CC were the only

institutions to experience an increase in Native Hawaiian enrollment from Fall 2011.

FIGURE 4: UH COMMUNITY COLLEGE HAWAIIAN ENROLLMENT (FALL 2012)



UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I FOUR-YEAR INSTITUTIONS All 3 four-year institutions have showed remarkable growth in its Hawaiian student enrollment. In

Fall 2012, the 3 campuses had a combined Hawaiian student enrollment of 4,637, up 82.7% from

the 2,538 student enrollment in Fall 2005.

UH West O‘ahu has tripled its Hawaiian student enrollment over the last seven years, growing

207.8% from its 167 Hawaiian students in Fall 2005 to 514 in Fall 2012. Much of this growth is

mirrored in its overall campus growth, but the Hawaiian enrollment growth is still impressive. UH

West O‘ahu’s total enrollment in Fall 2005 was 858, compared to 1,997 in Fall 2012, accounting for

a 132.8% total campus growth over the last seven years.

UH Hilo has almost doubled its Hawaiian student enrollment over the last seven years, increasing

by 91.4% between Fall 2005 and Fall 2012.

UH Mānoa also increased its Hawaiian student enrollment between Fall 2005 and Fall 2012,

growing by 68.5% during the seven-year period.

FIGURE 5: TOTAL HAWAIIAN ENROLLMENT BY UH 4-YEAR INSTITUTION

All academic levels. UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census.


UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA Hawaiian undergraduate enrollment at UH Mānoa has increased steadily since Fall 2005, increasing

68.5% from Fall 2005 until Fall 2012. Hawaiian graduate enrollment has also realized significant

gains, growing nearly 60% from Fall 2005 to Fall 2012. However, Hawaiian graduate enrollment

has decreased slightly over the last two years from its peak at 771 Hawaiian graduate students in

Fall 2010.

In general, UH Mānoa continues to enroll the largest number of undergraduate and graduate

students compared to all other campuses in the UH System. The growth over the last seven years is

testament to the great work being done at the UH Mānoa campus to bring more Hawaiian students

to our campus. In Fall 2012, there were 3,029 Hawaiian undergraduate and graduate students

enrolled at UH Mānoa, which is 1,230 more students than there were in Fall 2005 with 1,799

enrolled. While this growth is impressive, more is needed before Hawaiians reach parity with other

ethnic groups represented on campus.

FIGURE 6: UH MĀNOA TOTAL HAWAIIAN ENROLLMENT BY ACADEMIC LEVEL

All academic levels (excluding blanks), UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census.


In Fall 2012, there were 3,049 Hawaiian students at UHM of which 2,308 were undergraduate

students and 721 were graduate students (and 20 blankiii). Therefore, as in years previous, UH

Mānoa continues to enroll the largest number of Hawaiian students compared to any other campus

in the UH System, accounting for 20.9% of all Hawaiian students in the UH system in Fall 2012

(3,049 of total UH System Hawaiian enrollment of 14,608).

FIGURE 7: UH MĀNOA HAWAIIAN ENROLLMENT COMPARED TO TOTAL ENROLLMENT BY ACADEMIC LEVEL

In Fall 2012, the total UHM campus enrollment was 20,426, of which 14,573 were undergraduate

students, and 5,771 were graduate students (and 82 blank). Hawaiian students are more

represented at the undergraduate level, accounting for 15.8% of total undergraduate students

(2,308 of the total 14,573). At the graduate level, 12.5% of total UH Mānoa graduate students are

Hawaiian (721 of the total 5,771).


Gender

At the undergraduate level, there is little gender disparity for Hawaiian students (54.2% are female,

n=1,248). This representation is not significantly different from the total UHM population, where

females make up 53.5% of the total UHM undergraduate population.

At the graduate level, however, the gender disparity is pronounced. Over 68% of all Hawaiian

graduate students are female. While female students are more represented at the graduate level for

the total UHM population (58.9%), the disparity in representation is not nearly as evident as it is for

Hawaiians.

FIGURE 8: UH MĀNOA HAWAIIAN ENROLLMENT BY GENDER (FALL 2012)

No Data on 2 students at the graduate level and 6 students at the undergraduate level.

All academic levels (excluding blanks), UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census.


Geographic Region

The vast majority of Hawaiian undergraduate and graduate students are from O‘ahu. At the

undergraduate level, the second most represented geographic region is “Other” comprising of

students from outside of Hawai‘i. Lāna‘i and Moloka‘i are the least represented of all the geographic

regions.

FIGURE 9: UH MĀNOA HAWAIIAN UNDERGRADUATE ENROLLMENT BY GEOGRAPHIC REGION (FALL 2012)

Acad_lvl_iro = ‘UG’, Geog_region_haw. UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census.

FIGURE 10: UH MĀNOA HAWAIIAN GRADUATE ENROLLMENT BY GEOGRAPHIC REGION (FALL 2012)

Acad_lvl_iro = ‘GR’, Geog_region_haw. UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census.


High School Background

In Fall 2012, there are just as many Hawaiian undergraduate students at UH Mānoa who graduated

from a Hawai‘i private high school (43.8%)as did a Hawai‘i public high school (43.0%). However, at

the graduate level, there is a larger percentage (50.2%) of Hawaiian students who graduated from a

Hawai‘i private high school.

FIGURE 11: UH MĀNOA HAWAIIAN ENROLLMENT BY HIGH SCHOOL TYPE (FALL 2012)

All academic levels (excluding blanks), High_sch_type_iro (HIPR and HIPU, “other” = all others). UH Legacy Methodology.

Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census.

Admission Status

The majority of Hawaiian undergraduate students at UH Mānoa in Fall 2012 were "First-time"

when they were admitted to UH Mānoa (n=1,192), followed very closely by “Transfers” (n=1,054).

FIGURE 12: UH MĀNOA HAWAIIAN ENROLLMENT BY ADMISSION STATUS (FALL 2012)iv

All academic levels (excluding blanks), STYP_ADM (Freshman-Classified & First Time combined to “First Time”).


UH Mānoa Undergraduate Students

In Fall 2005, there were 1,339 undergraduate students (See Figure 6). In Fall 2012, that number

has grown substantially to 2,308.

As of Fall 2012, the majority of Hawaiian undergraduate students are in the upper-class standings,

specifically at the senior (39.0%) and junior (26.2%) levels. The disproportionate number of

Hawaiian students at the higher class standing may be reflective of the large number of Hawaiian

students who start at UH Mānoa as transfer students.

FIGURE 13: UH MĀNOA HAWAIIAN UNDERGRADUATES BY CLASS STANDING (FALL 2012)v

Academic level “UG”. UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census.


The majority of Hawaiian undergraduates are in the College of Arts & Sciences as their primary

major. The second and third most represented school is the College of Education and the

Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge. There have been increases in the College of

Education, School of Business, and School of Nursing & Dental Hygiene.

TABLE 4: UH MĀNOA HAWAIIAN UNDERGRADUATES BY PRIMARY MAJOR COLLEGE (FALL 2011 & FALL 2012)

Fall 2011 Fall 2012

College Hawn % Hawn %

Arts & Sciences 1,466 65.1% 1,361 59.0%

Education 103 4.6% 190 8.2%

Hawai‘inuiākea School Hawaiian Knowledge 171 7.6% 172 7.5%

Engineering 120 5.3% 134 5.8%

Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources 126 5.6% 133 5.8%

Business Administration 95 4.2% 122 5.3%

Nursing & Dental Hygiene 58 2.6% 71 3.1%

Architecture 37 1.6% 34 1.5%

Travel Industry Management 26 1.2% 31 1.3%

Social Work 25 1.1% 31 1.3%

Ocean & Earth Science & Tech 12 0.5% 15 0.6%

Unclassified 9 0.4% 7 0.3%

Pacific & Asian Studies 5 0.2% 7 0.3%

Medicine 0 0.0% 0 0.0%

Total 2,253 100.0% 2,308 100.0%

This analysis is by students’ primary major only. Therefore, each student is only associated with one school, their primary major school, in this table. Any second or third majors a Hawaiian student may have is not reflected here, or any other analysis by major and college that follows. Academic level “UG”. UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census.

FIGURE 14: UH MĀNOA HAWAIIAN UNDERGRADUATES BY COLLEGE (FALL 2012)

Academic level “UG”. Major_Orgstr1_IRO. UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census.


TABLE 5: UH MĀNOA HAWAIIAN UNDERGRADUATES BY PRIMARY MAJOR COLLEGE (FALL 2012)

College/School & Major #

Col of Trop Ag & Human Res 133

Animal Sciences 19

Apparel Prod Design & Merchandising 12

Biological Engineering 5

Family Resources 41

Food Science & Human Nutrition 16

Natural Res & Environmental Management 19

Plant & Environmental Protection Science 7

Plant & Environmental Biotech 3

Tropical Plant & Soil Sciences 11

College of Arts & Sciences 1,361

American Studies 5

Anthropology 22

Art 59

Biology 99

Botany 7

Chemistry 8

Chinese & Classics 2

Classics 1

Communication 26

Communicology 12

Computer Science 19

Creative Media 30

Dance & Dance Theatre 8

Economics 17

English 53

Ethnic Studies 2

Ethnobotany 2

General (Pre-Business) 129

General (Pre-Kinesiology & LS) 26

General (Pre-Math & Pre-Pharmacy) 2

General (Pre-Medical Program & Med Tech) 8

General (Pre-Nursing) 61

General (Pre-Psychology) 64

General (Pre-Social Work) 7

General (Pre-Travel Indus Mgt) 2

General Arts and Sciences 283

Geography 4

German 1

History 23

Information & Computer Science 12

Interdisciplinary Studies 16

Japanese 21

Journalism 6

Korean 1

Marine Biology 28

Mathematics 5

Microbiology 5

Molecular & Cell Biology 4

Music 21

Philosophy 7

College/School & Major #

Physics 8

Political Science 34

Pre-Dentistry 3

Pre-Education 18

Pre-Engineering 62

Psychology 34

Religion 7

Second Language Studies 2

Sociology 62

Spanish 1

Theatre 10

Women's Studies 2

Zoology 10

College of Business Admin 122

Accounting 36

Entrepreneurship 8

Finance 19

General Business & Human Resource Mgmt 9

Management 25

Management Information Systems 6

Marketing 19

College of Education 190

Elem Education & Special Educ 14

Elem Education, Early Child 8

Elementary Education 56

KRS, Health/Exercise Sci. & Lifestyle Mgmt. 66

Sec Education, Various Concentrations 16

Secondary Education 14

Special Education 16

College of Engineering 134

Civil Engineering 51

Computer Engineering 7

Electrical Engineering 34

Mechanical Engineering 42

School of Hawaiian Knowledge 172

Hawaiian 53

Hawaiian Studies 119

School of Nursing & Dental Hygiene 71

Dental Hygiene 10

Nursing 61

School of Ocean & Earth Sci & Tech 15

Geology and Geology & Geophysics 8

Global Environment Science & Meteorology 7

School of Pacific & Asian Studies 7

Asian Studies 5

Pacific Islands Studies 2

School of Architecture 34

School of Social Work 31

School of Travel Industry Mgmt 31

Unclassified 7

Grand Total 2,308


UH Mānoa Graduate Students

In Fall 2005, there were a total of 374 graduate students at the Master’s, First Professional, and

Doctorate levels at UH Mānoa. In Fall 2012, this enrollment figure climbed to 647, reflecting a

73.0% increase over seven years.

There were twice as many Hawaiian students enrolled at the Doctorate and First Professional levels

in Fall 2012 as there were in Fall 2005. At the Master’s level, there were 425 Hawaiian students in

Fall 2012, up 60.0% from its enrollment of 266 Hawaiian students in Fall 2005.

FIGURE 15: UH MĀNOA HAWAIIAN GRADUATE ENROLLMENT BY EDUCATIONAL LEVEL

*Excluding Grad Special and Post-Baccalaureate Unclassified Academic level “GR” by Edlvl_IRO. UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census.

There was a total of 721 Hawaiian graduate students in Fall 2012, of which 425 were in Master's

programs, 119 in doctorate programs, 103 in First Professional programs, 7 Grad Specialvi, and 67

Post-Baccalaureate Unclassifiedvii.


FIGURE 16: UH MĀNOA HAWAIIAN GRADUATE STUDENTS BY COLLEGE (FALL 2012)

Academic level “GR”. Major_Orgstr1_IRO. UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census.

TABLE 6: UH MĀNOA HAWAIIAN GRADUATE ENROLLMENT BY EDUCATIONAL LEVEL (FALL 2012)viii

College Master’s Doctorate First

Professional Grad

Special Other

Education 105 44 11 5

Arts & Sciences 86 52 2

Hawai‘inuiākea Hawn Knowledge 54

Social Work 48 3

Business Administration 42

Nursing & Dental Hygiene 39 5 3

Medicine 17 10 14

Engineering 13 1

Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources 9 3

Pacific & Asian Studies 8

Ocean & Earth Science & Tech 4 1

Architecture 13

Law 62

Unclassified 67

Total 425 119 103 7 67

Academic level “GR”. Major_Orgstr1_IRO by Edlvl_IRO. UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Base, Fall Census. “Other” refers to “Post-Baccalaureate Unclassified.”


TABLE 7: UH MĀNOA HAWAIIAN GRADUATE STUDENTS BY COLLEGE & MAJOR (FALL 2012)

College/School & Major Master's Doctorate

Col of Trop Ag & Human Res 9 3

Animal Sciences 1 0

Entomology 1 1

Molecular Biosci & Bioengr 1 1

Natural Res & Environm Mgt 3 0

Nutritional Sciences 2 0

Tropical Plant & Soil Sciences 1 1

College of Arts & Sciences 88 52

American Studies 0 4

Anthropology 3 3

Astronomy 0 1

Botany 3 3

Chemistry 0 1

Communication 4 0

Communication & Info Science 0 4

Computer Science 2 0

Dance 1 0

Economics 2 1

English 11 9

Geography 1 1

History 2 3

Library & Information Science 14 0

Linguistics 0 1

Mathematics 1 0

Microbiology 1 1

Music 5 3

Planning 1 0

Political Science 4 12

Psychology 3 2

Public Administration 12 0

Public Administration Cert 1 0

Religion (Asian) 2 0

Second Language Studies 4 0

Sociology 1 1

Urban and Regional Planning 8 1

Zoology 2 1

College of Business Admin 42 0

Accounting 3 0

Business Administration 25 0

Human Resource Management 14 0

College of Education 110 55

Counseling and Guidance 2 0

Curriculum Studies 26 0

Early Childhood Education 5 0

Education 0 43

Educational Administration 14 0

Educational Foundations 5 0

Educational Psychology 4 1

Educational Technology 19 0

Kinesiology & Rehab Science 3 0

PK3 5 0

Professional Education Practice 0 11

Special Education 6 0

Teaching 21 0

College of Engineering 13 1

Civil Engineering 7 1

Electrical Engineering 3 0

Mechanical Engineering 3 0

School of Hawaiian Knowledge 54 0

Hawaiian 22 0

Hawaiian Studies 32 0

School of Nursing & Dental Hygiene

39 8

Nursing 39 1

Nursing (PhD) 0 4

Nursing Practice 0 3

School of Ocean & Earth Sci Tech 4 1

Geology & Geophysics 1 0

Ocean & Resources Engineer 0 1

Oceanography 3 0

School of Pacific & Asian Studies 8 0

School of Architecture 0 13

School of Law 0 62

School of Medicine 17 24

Biomed Sci (Physiology) 0 1

Biomed Sci (Tropical Medicine) 1 0

Biomedical Sciences 0 1

Cell & Molecular Biology 1 3

Communication Sci & Disorders 4 0

Develop & Reprod Biology 2 0

Epidemiology 0 2

Medicine 0 14

Public Health 9 3

School of Social Work 48 3

Social Welfare 0 3

Social Work 48 0

Unclassified 67 0

Grand Total 499 222

Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO BASE. Major_desc_iro &

edlvl_iro

Master’s = ‘Master’s’, ‘Grad Special’, & ‘Post-Bacc

Unclassified’

Doctorate = ‘Doctor’s’ & ‘First Professional’


DEGREES EARNED

University of Hawai‘i Community Colleges

The number of UH Community College degrees awarded to Hawaiian students has doubled over the

last five years. This growth is mirrored at the campus level, with almost every UH Community

College doubling or more than doubling the degrees awarded to Hawaiian students from 2007 to

2012. Showing significant growth was Kaua‘i CC, awarding 112 degrees to Hawaiian students in

fiscal year 2012, up from 24 in 2007.

TABLE 8: UH COMMUNITY COLLEGE DEGREES EARNED BY HAWAIIAN STUDENTS BY FISCAL YEAR

CC Campus 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Hawai‘i CC 105 151 125 119 149 223 202 223

Honolulu CC 117 122 113 117 112 115 177 177

Kapi‘olani CC 88 98 105 154 168 125 202 219

Kaua‘i CC 32 32 24 57 37 46 65 112

Leeward CC 85 113 121 109 166 241 303 298

Maui CC 63 96 152 221 164 257 284 297

Windward CC 36 65 56 67 80 111 72 102

Grand Total 526 677 696 844 876 1,118 1,305 1,428

UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Degree, EOS. Fiscal Year 2012 = Summer 2011, Fall 2011 & Spring 2012.

FIGURE 17: UH COMMUNITY COLLEGE DEGREES EARNED BY HAWAIIAN STUDENTS BY FISCAL YEAR

UH Legacy Methodology. Source: UH IRO, ODS, IRO Degree, EOS.

Fiscal Year 2011 = Summer 2010, Fall 2010 & Spring 2011.


University of Hawai‘i Four-Year Institutions

In fiscal year 2005, there were 458 degrees earned by Hawaiian students at the three University of

Hawai‘i four-year institutions. In fiscal year 2012, this number grew to 865, accounting for a

growth of 88.9% in that seven year period.

The number of degrees earned by Hawaiian students has more than doubled at UH Hilo between

2005 to 2012. UH Mānoa and UH West O‘ahu have also realized significant gains, growing by 74.9%

at UH Mānoa and by 65.2% at UH West O‘ahu since 2005.

FIGURE 18: UH FOUR-YEAR INSTITUTIONS DEGREES EARNED BY HAWAIIAN STUDENTS BY FISCAL YEAR


Fiscal Year 2012 = Summer 2011, Fall 2011 & Spring 2012.



UH Mānoa continues to award the largest number of degrees to Hawaiian students in comparison to

any other UH campus. Since 2005, UH Mānoa has made incredible strides in supporting Native

Hawaiians in intentional and specific ways by funding program and campus-level initiatives,

funding permanent positions, and authentically including Native Hawaiians in the development of

institutional priorities. In a review of Tables 9 and 10, we see steady growth in degrees earned by

Hawaiians in academic programs with initiatives focused on Native Hawaiian recruitment and

retention many of which were established in 2005 or shortly thereafter. Examples of Native

Hawaiian-serving programs housed in academic units are Native Hawaiian Science and Engineering

Mentorship Program (College of Engineering), IKE AO PONO (School of Nursing and Dental

Hygiene), Ka Huli Ao (Law), and Ho‘okulāiwi (Education). While we cannot make a causal analysis

between increase of degrees earned by Native Hawaiian undergraduates and graduates with this

data, strong correlations are evident.

TABLE 9: UH MĀNOA DEGREES EARNED BY HAWAIIAN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS BY COLLEGE

College

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Tropical Agriculture & Human Res 17 17 17 20 31 19 19 34

Arts & Sciences 104 123 170 159 167 162 179 172

Business Administration 30 36 45 45 19 46 59 52

Education 16 38 30 39 24 29 41 41

Engineering 1 9 13 15 24 22 18 13

Hawai‘inuiākea Hawaiian Knowledge 43 49 28 59 36

Hawaiian & Pacific Studies 18 20 26

Nursing & Dental Hygiene 8 15 11 23 10 15 20 18

Ocean & Earth Science & Tech 1 1 1 1 3 3 3

Pacific & Asian Studies 1 1 1

Architecture 1

Medicine 1 6 2 3 6 2 4

Social Work 4 3 4 7 9 3

Travel Industry Management 2 6 16 9 8 7 7 7

Total 198 271 335 361 344 341 418 379


Acad_lvl_IRO = ‘UG’ by Major_Orgstr1_IRO. Fiscal Year 2012 = Summer 2011, Fall 2011 & Spring 2012.


TABLE 10: UH MĀNOA DEGREES EARNED BY HAWAIIAN GRADUATE STUDENTS BY COLLEGE

College 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Tropical Agriculture & Human Resource 3 2 3 2 1 3 3 6

Arts & Sciences 17 31 26 28 39 27 22 31

Business Administration 12 13 8 13 10 7 8 29

Education 46 39 50 49 71 55 84 57

Engineering 4 2 2 2 1 1 1 3

Hawai‘inuiākea Hawaiian Knowledge 1 1 6 5 10

Hawaiian & Pacific Studies 5 2 2

Nursing & Dental Hygiene 2 2 2 3 3 5 11

Ocean & Earth Science & Tech 1 1 1

Pacific & Asian Studies 3 2 2

Architecture 1 4 1 3 4 6

Law 15 9 13 12 13 13 26 13

Medicine 10 10 8 10 5 20 13 11

Social Work 19 8 12 10 9 18 14 21

Travel Industry Management 2 1

Total 132 120 128 136 154 159 186 200


Acad_lvl_IRO = ‘GR’ by Major_Orgstr1_IRO. Fiscal Year 2011 = Summer 2010, Fall 2010 & Spring 2011.


TABLE 11: UH MĀNOA DEGREES EARNED BY HAWAIIAN STUDENTS BY COLLEGE & MAJOR (FISCAL YEAR 2012)

College/School & Major UG MA/MS Doc

Col of Trop Ag & Human Res 34 6 0

Animal Sciences 1 0 0

Apparel Prod Dsgn & Merchandsg 2 0 0

Biological Engineering 0 1 0

Entomology 0 2 0

Family Resources 25 0 0

Food Science & Human Nutrition 1 0 0

Molecular Biosciences & Bioeng 0 2 0

Natural Res & Environmentl Mgt 3 0 0

Tropical Plant & Soil Sciences 2 1 0

College of Arts & Sciences 172 28 3

American Studies 1 2 0

Anthropology 4 2 0

Art 7 0 0

Art History 0 2 0

Biology 12 0 0

Botany 1 1 0

Communication 6 1 0

Communicology 4 0 0

Computer Science 3 0 0

Creative Media 9 0 0

Economics 11 0 0

English 14 3 1

Ethnic Studies 1 0 0

Geography 6 1 0

History 8 2 0

Interdisciplinary Studies 13 0 0

Japanese 5 0 0

Journalism 2 0 0

Library & Information Science 0 5 0

Linguistics 0 1 0

Marine Biology 1 0 0

Mathematics 1 1 0

Microbiology 1 0 0

Music 2 1 0

Political Science 14 1 1

Psychology 16 0 1

Public Administration 0 3 0

Religion 2 0 0

Sociology 22 1 0

Spanish 0 1 0

Speech 1 0 0

Theatre 2 0 0

Women's Studies 3 0 0

College of Business Admin 52 29 0

Accounting 11 5 0

Business Administration 0 9 0

Entrepreneurship 1 0 0

College/School & Major UG MA/MS Doc

Finance 9 0 0

Human Resource Management 1 15 0

International Business 2 0 0

Management 14 0 0

Management Information Systems 4 0 0

Marketing 10 0 0

College of Education 41 54 3

Counseling and Guidance 0 3 0

Curriculum Studies 0 10 0

Early Childhood Education 0 4 0

Education 0 0 2

Educational Administration 0 3 0

Educational Foundations 0 3 0

Educational Psychology 0 1 1

Educational Technology 0 7 0

Elem Ed, Special Ed & Early Child 8 0 0

Elementary Education 7 0 0

Kinesiology & Leis & Rehab Science 0 6 0

KRS, Hlth/Exer Sci & Lifest Mg 9 0 0

Sec Education, Various 9 1 0

Special Education 8 4 0

Teaching 0 12 0

College of Engineering 13 2 1

Civil Engineering 7 0 0

Electrical Engineering 2 1 1

Mechanical Engineering 4 1 0

Hawai‘inuiākea 36 10 0

Hawaiian 15 2 0

Hawaiian Studies 21 8 0

Schl of Nurs & Dental Hygiene 18 11 0

Dental Hygiene 4 0 0

Nursing 14 11 0

Schl of Ocean & Earth Sci & Tech 3 0 0

Geology 1 0 0

Geology & Geophysics 1 0 0

Global Environmental Science 1 0 0

School of Pacific & Asian Studies 0 2 0

School of Architecture 0 0 6

School of Law 0 0 13

School of Medicine 0 4 7

Biomedical Sciences 0 1 0

Communication Sci & Disorders 0 2 0

Developmental & Reprod Biology 0 1 0

Medicine 0 0 6

Public Health 0 0 1

School of Social Work 3 20 1

School of Travel Industry Mgt 7 0 0

Total 379 166 34


RETENTION & SUCCESS RATES Completing a degree from an institution of higher education is an incredibly important aspect of

improving the overall conditions of Native Hawaiians. The literature reveals that beyond

participating in higher education, degree completion has positive impacts for the individual as well as

for society, in general. In particular, degree completion is positively correlated to individual success

indicators like increased income, expanded career opportunities, and better health across diverse

ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groupsix. On a societal level, degree completion is positively

correlated to indicators like increased participation in civic activities like voting and volunteerism

while providing the government with an expanded tax basex.

Coupled with degree completion, the literature also cites time to degree completion as another

critical factor in assessing the impacts of graduation. Increased time to degree completion negatively

impacts positive degree completion outcomes such as increased incomexi. Essentially, the longer a

student takes to complete a degree, the less time they (their families, communities, and society) have

to benefit from a college degree. Nationally, less than one-third of all first-time freshmen

participating in higher education at a public four year university actually complete within four-years,

the standard timeframe to complete a Bachelor’s degreexii. Instead, most students take at least six

years to earn a Bachelor’s degreexiii. While research has not been completed specifically on the

relationship between Native Hawaiians and timely degree completion, we can surmise from these

studies completed on comparable communities of color that the benefits of timely degree completion

extend to Native Hawaiians. As such, improving graduation rates and time to graduation is critical to

changing lives of individual Native Hawaiians as well as the Native Hawaiian community.

Retention Rates after Year 1 have increased slightly for Hawaiian students from 2005 - 2008, from

72.9% in 2005 to 73.3% in 2008. These retention rates, however, are still lower than the total UH

Mānoa rate of 78.6%. Thus, Hawaiian students are more likely than other UH Mānoa students of

other ethnicities to leave school after their first year. (See Table 11 below)

The total student success rate for UH Mānoa is 64.9% - twelve percent (12.0%) of the total number of

UH Mānoa students graduate within 4 years with another 52.9% continuing. For Hawaiian students,

this figure is lower - 6.6% of Hawaiian students graduate within 4 years, with another 48.6%

continuing, for a total success rate of 55.2%.

Within 6 years, 42.1% of Hawaiian students graduate (compared to 53.8% of total UH Mānoa

students), with an additional 9.7% continuing. The graduation rate does not improve much more at

the 8 year and 10 year graduation rate. Within 10 years, 50.2% of Hawaiian students graduate,

accounting for an additional 8.1% within the 8 - 10 year time frame. Based on this information, the

bulk of Hawaiian students graduate within 6 years, with the potential for graduation beyond that

time frame decreasing.


TABLE 12: GRADUATION, RETENTION AND SUCCESS RATES AT UHM (CONVENTIONAL FIGURES)xiv

As of 2008xv

As Of 2007xvi

As Of 2006xvii

Average Retention Rates UH Mānoa

Hawn/ Part

Hawn

UH Mānoa

Hawn/ Part Hawn

UH Mānoa

Hawn/ Part

Hawn

Retention Rates After 1 Year

After 2 Years

78.6% 70.3%

73.3% 63.8%

78.7% 70.4%

72.8% 63.9%

78.8% 70.5%

72.9% 63.8%

Within 4 Years Graduation

Continuation Success

12.0% 52.9% 64.9%

6.6%

48.6% 55.2%

11.5% 53.7% 65.2%

6.4%

48.6% 55.0%

11.1% 54.8% 65.9%

5.9%

49.6% 55.5%



53.8% 9.9%

63.7%

42.1% 9.7%

51.8%

54.1% 10.1% 64.2%

42.1% 10.0% 52.1%

54.0% 10.2% 64.2%

41.5% 10.0% 51.5%



61.2% 2.9%

64.1%

48.0% 3.0%

51.0%

61.6% 2.9%

64.5%

48.4% 2.9%

51.3%

61.5% 2.9%

64.4%

48.4% 2.9%

51.3%



63.2% 1.3%

64.5%

50.2% 1.9%

52.1%

63.1% 1.3%

64.4%

50.4% 1.9%

52.3%

63.1% 1.3%

64.4%

50.2% 2.1%

52.3%

While UHM has the highest number of Native Hawaiian students in the UH System, it still has the

lowest proportion of Native Hawaiians in comparison to the overall student population. Native

Hawaiian students compose only about 16% of the undergraduate student population and 12% of the

graduate/professional student population while composing over the 20% of Hawai‘i’s population.

Again, once Native Hawaiian students are at UHM, the data indicates that they persist that is, are

retained until degree completion, at lower rates than their non-Hawaiian peers, graduate at lower

rates, and when they do graduate, take longer to do so. Consequently, UH Mānoa needs to continue to

invest in understanding and fostering initiatives to support Native Hawaiian student success like

Native Hawaiian Student Services and other Native Hawaiian-serving programs.

Our Students, Our Definitions of Success

In 2011, Native Hawaiian Student Services and a faculty member at Kamakakūokalani Center for

Hawaiian Studies did a retention and persistence study on a cohort of 271 first-time Hawaiian

freshman at UHM in Fall 2005. The study, entitled “Our Students, Our Definitions of Success”,

involved tracking institutional data of those 271 students from Fall 2005 to Fall 2010. During that

time, we found that 38.8% completed their degree at UHM, while another 11.2% were still enrolled as

of Fall 2010. The majority of students, however, were categorized as leavers (49.9%). Interestingly, a

large number of those leavers enrolled at another UH campus after leaving UHM (39.8%). We plan to

duplicate similar research studies on Native Hawaiian retention and persistence to better understand

trends and patterns of students’ academic journey so we can better understand how we can better

support our students.


OUR WAY FORWARD

Research as Sovereignty

Because of colonization, the question of who defines what is Native, and even who is defined as Native has been taken away from Native peoples by Western-trained scholars, government officials, and other technicians. The theft itself testifies to the pervasive power of colonialism and explains why

self-identity by Natives of who and what they are elicits such strenuous and sometimes vicious denials by the dominant culture.

Haunani-Kay Traskxviii

In the spirit of Indigenous scholars like Trask, Brayboyxix, Corntassel and Alfredxx, Native Hawaiian

Student Services approaches research and knowledge generation as an expression of sovereignty and

self-determination. Brayboy clearly articulates our mana‘o in using research to “reframe” how we

approach, analyze, understand, and address our communities and tell our stories through Indigenous

perspectivesxxi. We are intentional about creating and utilizing our own knowledge systems to

describe and define the experiences of Native Hawaiian students in higher education.

The following section provides a glimpse into some of the research and assessment work we have

mapped out for the next two years based on our work with students, feedback from our staff,

institutional data and reports, scholarly literature, and our many valuable conversations with our

local, national, and international colleagues. The narratives we hope to elicit in these research

projects will inform our frameworks for understanding Native Hawaiian student success and how to

better support their educational journeys. We utilize professional conferences as a way to not only

share aspects of our work; it is also one the ways we can engage broader audiences to provide

feedback on our emerging ideas about Native Hawaiian and Indigenous student success in higher

education.

Interrogating Resilience: Native Hawaiian Doctoral Student Success

Since 1995, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) has awarded 71 Doctorate in Philosophy (PhD)

degrees to Native Hawaiians, 50 of those just in the last seven years. UHM is arguably the primary

pathway for the majority of Native Hawaiians pursuing doctoral education in recent years. What can

their educational journeys tell us about Native Hawaiian student success?

Much of the research on Native Hawaiians in higher education is described from deficit-based

perspectives in which the educational experiences of Native Hawaiians are limited to barriers and

challenges. Studies describe the ways in which Native Hawaiians, for example, consistently lag

behind their counterparts in terms of enrollment, retention, graduation and other factors like

academic preparation and remedial education. While identifying the challenges to educational

achievement is important for a fuller understanding of Native Hawaiians and education, it is also a

very limited perspective as it fails to include stories of success. Our exploratory study attempts to

reframe these conversations by understanding the ways in which Native Hawaiians who have

successfully achieved the highest level of higher education experienced their journeys.

From the literature, preliminary data shows a possible relationship between educational attainment

and family and cultural experiences of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian students

(Akee & Yazzie-Mintz, 2011). Additionally, for many Native doctoral students, there is an altruistic


motivation to attend graduate school, and once in graduate school, mentorship is an important

element that helps students persist (Elliott, 2010). For Maori doctoral students, their dissertation

work lies at an intersection between Maori identity and western academic epistemologies (Middleton

& McKinley, 2010).

Our approach resonates with the work of Trask, Brayboy and Corntassel and Alfred. Brayboy clearly

articulates our approach in using research as asserting sovereignty and self-determination by helping

us to “reframe” research through Indigenous perspectives. We are intentional about creating our

own knowledge systems to define and describe the experiences of Native Hawaiian students in higher

education.

The primary focus of this paper is to build our understanding of characteristics, relationships and

themes that are significant to Native Hawaiian doctoral student success. Our study involves a

transcript analysis of a cohort of Native Hawaiian doctoral completers at UH Mānoa (n=50) to better

understand institutional factors such as time to degree, field of study, and academic preparation for

pre-doctoral study. Secondly, a cross-section of the cohort (representing a mix of age, gender and

disciplines) will participate in in-depth interviews to better understand institutional and other

(cultural, familial, personal, etc.) factors that supported their success. With the number of Native

Hawaiian doctoral completers at UHM doubling in the last seven years, we believe identifying and

understanding the factors and trends that impact Native Hawaiian student success at the doctoral

level are critical to creating success-based educational pathways for all Native Hawaiian students to

achieve.

This study has been approved by UH Mānoa’s Institutional Review Board and we started our

interviews in February 2013. It was accepted as a paper presentation to the American Educational

Research Association (AERA) annual conference in April 2013 where we hope to share some

preliminary findings.

From ‘Dispossessions of Empire’ to Dispossessing Empire: Kanaka ‘Ōiwi Identity Formation in

Culturally-Based Higher Education

Haunani-Kay Trask teaches us that colonialism diminishes Native identity into “dispossessions of

empire” like Native lands and resources. The very “theft” of the power to determine one’s identity -

that is, to define who and what is “Native” - speaks to the pervasiveness and insidiousness of

colonialism. If identity is fundamental to political and psychological self-determination, how do

Kanaka ʻŌiwi (re)claim that power and dispossess empire?

Culturally-based educational contexts like Ka Papahana Kaiapuni Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language

immersion program) and Native Hawaiian culture-based charter schools offer settings for the

deliberate (re)cultivation of Kanaka ʻŌiwi identities. These schools transform traditional K-12

structures into rich educational environments that utilize traditional knowledge, cultural norms, and

contemporary culture to help Kanaka ʻŌiwi youth forge anti-colonial, success-based cultural

identities. According to preliminary studies, Kanaka ʻŌiwi students perform better in culturally-

based educational environments which is partly correlated with the connection students feel to their

identities.


With the growth of academic programs such as Hawaiian Studies, Hawaiian Language, and Hawaiʻi

Lifestyles coupled with Kanaka ʻŌiwi-serving student affairs units, Kanaka ʻŌiwi culturally-based

higher education offers similar environments for (re)cultivating cultural identities and also holds the

promise for improving academic performance similar to their K-12 kaikaina (younger siblings). But

the research on understanding how, in fact, these higher educational contexts influence Kanaka ʻŌiwi

identity development and, in turn, how this identity influences academic and professional aspirations

is wholly insufficient.

In this study, we focus on understanding the ways in which identity is constructed and enacted by

graduates from Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies (KCHS), an intellectual and physical

legacy of Professor Trask. We pay particular attention to discerning the influences this type of

culturally-based higher educational experience may have on identity formation especially as it relates

to student success as well as perceiving and enacting fundamental Kanaka ʻŌiwi principles of

lāhui/nationhood, kuleana/responsibility, and aloha ʻāina/resources stewardship articulated in

KCHS' mission and central to the work of Professor Trask.

This study has been approved by UH Mano’s Institutional Review Board and we will begin our

interviews April 2013. We hope to share our preliminary findings at the biennial Critical Ethnic

Studies Association Conference in September 2013.

Po‘ohū Ka Lae I Ka ‘Alā: Understanding the Role of Financial Aid in Accessing Higher Education

for Native Hawaiian Students

For disenfranchised populations, education is recognized as a viable means to intellectual, political,

social and economic empowerment (Guardia and Evans, 2008; Frieire, 1993). For Hawaiians, higher

education offers the same hope for individual and collective transformation. The University of

Hawai‘i System (UH) has expressed its deep commitment to Hawai‘i and to Native Hawaiian

advancement. As illustrated in the UH System Strategic Plan (2002-2010), the campuses have

committed to “strengthen the crucial role that the University of Hawai‘i System performs for the

indigenous people” and grounds its mission and values in Hawai‘i.

Native Hawaiian enrollment at UH has doubled over the six-year period between Fall 2005 and Fall

2011. Most recently, with a total Native Hawaiian student enrollment of nearly 15,000 students in

Fall 2011, the UH System is arguably the primary pathway for the majority of Native Hawaiians

pursuing higher education. But what role does cost play in pursuing higher education for Native

Hawaiians? Consequently, the primary focus of this study is to begin building our understanding of

the relationship between financial aid in accessing higher education for Native Hawaiians at UH.

Central to participating in higher education especially for students of color and low-income students

is financial aid (Gillen & Robe, 2011). In keeping with the national trend of rising tuition costs, UH

also increased tuition across its campuses, up to 49% at one campus (Bernardo, 2011). From what

we see in initial financial aid awarding trends at UH, awards overall and at the per pupil level have

annually increased since 2006 for all students, including Native Hawaiians (UH Associate Vice

President for Students Special Report, 2011). But as tuition and, in turn, financial need for all

students increase, how does this impact access for Native Hawaiian students especially in light of

UH’s commitment to Native Hawaiians? According to the literature, unmet financial need and the

availability of financial support like grants have considerable impact on access to higher education for

low income students and students of color (Long, 2004; Dynarski, 2002).


Given this gap in the literature and taking into consideration preliminary descriptive data analyses,

our study uses UH institutional data, Hawaiian-serving scholarship agency annual reports, and

interviews to understand the role of financial aid in accessing higher education. Consequently, we

pose the following critical questions:

What are the trends that emerge for Native Hawaiians and financial aid awards in the UH System?

How has UH’s expressed commitment to Native Hawaiians been reflected in the area of financial aid?

How can these trends begin to inform our understanding of the relationship between financial aid and access to higher education for Hawaiians?

How can understanding these relationships inform the policies and practices around financial aid for UH?

While our study is exploratory, we believe identifying and understanding these preliminary trends is

central to building our broader understanding around the financial aspect of higher education access

for Native Hawaiians, a rarely, if ever, studied area of higher education.

Our focus on research and assessment speaks to our commitment to continuous program

improvement by keeping current with research trends and taking the time to talk story with our

students about their experiences. We also understand that we also have to take responsibility for

generating knowledge about their experiences and our programs.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Growing Our Capacity to Serve Our People

Since NHSS’s inception in 2008, we have grown exponentially. Through our extramural funding and

support from Hawaiʻinuiākea, we have developed initiatives that are culturally-grounded, relevant,

and current to address recruitment, retention, and matriculation issues for Native Hawaiians in

higher education. Extramural funding has also allowed us to grow the size of our staff. Yet with our

many successes, we also continue to be mindful of our challenges. Among the areas that we are

working on developing in the short-term are the following:

Growing our outreach to better connect with non-HSHK majors

o Under the guidance of our Community Outreach Coordinator, our student staff –a mix

of diverse Native Hawaiian undergraduates–have created “street teams” to conduct

outreach about NHSS. The student staff have drafted outreach plans to cover more

campus ground in the upcoming academic year including plans to visit all Hawaiian

Studies and Hawaiian Language courses. To further extend our reach, the student staff

also plan to conduct class visits to other departments and student spaces around

campus.

Growing our physical pu‘uhonua

o Our Student Resource Centers continue to serve as significant points for Native

Hawaiians on campus to use NHSS resources and connect to one another. Earlier this


year, NHSS was contacted by the College of Natural Sciences to partner with them to

develop a similar space in Bilger Hall (Science Technology Engineering and

Mathematics corridor) as a way to attract more Native Hawaiians and Pacific

Islanders to the science fields. This space is planned to open in Fall 2013.

Growing our Research and Evaluation capacity

o As previously mentioned, NHSS/HSHK research and evaluation coordinator has

created a solid infrastructure to increase the school’s capacity to conduct original

research and robust assessment activities. Like our ancestors, we value research as it

informs us and shapes our work. To further build and strengthen this part of our

work, we developed a proposal that outlines a vision for the development of a Native

Hawaiian Institutional Research Center.

Institutionalizing all of our Services

o The majority of our services are supported by extramural funding. To help continue

our work in creating a Hawaiian place of learning at UHM, UHM needs to provide

institutional support for NHSS.


OUR POSITIONALITIES & OUR RESEARCH

Nālani Balutski

A few weeks before starting the Hawaiian Studies graduate program at the University of Hawai‘i at

Mānoa, I attended a mandatory orientation where a senior faculty member in the department asked a

question that, for the first time, made me question my kuleana (privilege and responsibility) and

made me consider my positionality. “Why are you here?” I panicked. I struggled with the simple

question because I just did not have an answer. Even then, weeks before school started, I couldn’t

explain to myself (or my family) why I was there--why despite a Bachelor’s in Business, I was

choosing Hawaiian Studies over an MBA. I quickly snapped out of my panic mode when the man next

to me eloquently says: “I don’t know why I’m here, but I know I have to be.” At that very moment,

amidst my tears, I knew I was where I had to be. I share this story as part of my positionality because

this was a defining moment for me and my coming to understand my kuleana and the summation of

my convictions, passion and career. Looking back almost six years later, this question is not so

intimidating. I’m here because my kūpuna (ancestors) have a plan for me to serve and help rebuild

our beloved Hawaiian nation. I look at my work doing research on Hawaiian student success as an

integral piece in understanding the ways we can better support and encourage higher education for

all Hawaiians as a way to build leaders for our Hawaiian nation.

Dr. Erin Kahunawaika‘ala Wright

On her first day of kindergarten at Fern Elementary School in Kalihi, O‘ahu, my maternal

grandmother was named “Dorothy” by her teacher. Her given name is “Tung Kyau” but her teacher,

she told me, could not pronounce it. While she did not change it legally, Dorothy is the name on all of

her government-issued identification. When my mother was born in mid-1940s Territory of Hawaiʻi,

her paternal great-grandmother and great-grandaunt, Leilehua and Ana Kamakea, named her

“Kahunawaika‘ala” to commemorate the story of a hidden spring our family cared for at Mt. Ka‘ala on

the Wai‘anae Coast of Oʻahu. My grandmother ‘oki the name to “Hunawaika‘ala”, not wanting my

mother to carry a name with “kahuna” because, at the time, the only meaning people associated with

it was kanaka who practiced the “old ways” of praying and healing. When I was born in 1973, my

family named me Kahunawaika‘ala as a way to heal the ‘oki and honor our kūpuna. I share these

family stories on naming as part of my positionality because they address the core of our work in

understanding colonialism and its lasting impacts, findings our “pathways to freedom” by naming

ourselves and telling our own stories in our own voices. As with other Indigenous peoples, names

carry a family’s history and hopes for a child. So, I have endeavored to embrace and enact the

kuleana that comes with my name.


FOR MORE INFORMATION For more information on Native Hawaiian Student Services programs, services, and events, please visit us on Facebook, contact us by email ([email protected]), or visit either of our locations at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa campus:

Queen Liliʻuokalani Center for Student Services Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies 2600 Campus Road, Room 104 2645 Dole Street, Room 211

For information regarding the data contained in this report or to provide us with feedback, please

contact Nālani Balutski, Research & Evaluation Coordinator, at [email protected].

APPENDICES APPENDIX A: UH SYSTEM HAWAIIAN & PART HAWAIIAN STUDENTS, CONVENTIONAL METHODOLOGY


Total Hawn % Hawn Total % Hawn Total %

UH Mānoa 2,866 20,429 14.0% 2,722 20,337 13.4% 2,116 20,435 10.4%

UH Hilo 1,011 4,139 24.4% 1,001 4,079 24.5% 831 3,974 20.9%

UH W O‘ahu 426 1,662 25.6% 366 1,471 24.9% 270 1,333 20.3%

UH CC's 9,709 34,100 28.5% 9,374 34,203 27.4% 7,175 32,203 22.3%

UH System 14,012 60,330 23.2% 13,463 60,090 22.4% 10,392 57,945 17.9%

As prefaced in the Introduction of this report, "Hawaiian & Part Hawaiian" refers to the University of

Hawaiʽi System Institutional Research Office ethnicity category, which is part of the Conventional

Methodology for determining ethnicity. Prior to Fall 2005, this Conventional Methodology was the

only indicator used to determine Hawaiian ancestry. In Fall 2005, the University of Hawaiʽi adopted a

new policy that asked whether or not students had a Hawaiian ancestor by asking the question "Were

any of your ancestors Hawaiian?"

UH COMMUNITY COLLEGE HAWAIIAN & PART HAWAIIAN STUDENTS, CONVENTIONAL METHODOLOGY



Hawai‘i CC 1,631 3,917 41.6% 1,603 3,815 42.0% 1,322 3,275 40.4%

Honolulu CC 1,199 4,600 26.1% 1,222 4,725 25.9% 930 4,567 20.4%

Kapi‘olani CC 1,669 9,023 18.5% 1,582 9,301 17.0% 1,247 9,102 13.7%

Kaua‘i CC 432 1,433 30.1% 413 1,428 28.9% 286 1,345 21.3%

Leeward CC 2,101 7,895 26.6% 2,075 7,942 26.1% 1,411 7,484 18.9%

Maui CC 1,523 4,527 33.6% 1,388 4,367 31.8% 1,159 4,114 28.2%

Windward CC 1,154 2,705 42.7% 1,091 2,625 41.6% 820 2,316 35.4%

Total CC's 9,709 34,100 28.5% 9,374 34,203 27.4% 7,175 32,203 22.2%

mailto:[email protected]

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ENDNOTES i Unless otherwise stated, all data presented in this report comes from the University of Hawai‘i's Operational Data Store (ODS) database (IRO Base) and reports put together by the University of Hawai‘i Institutional Research Office. Fall 2011 data is based on ODS Census Freeze, September 2011. ii The difference between the Conventional Methodology and the preferred Legacy Methodology (Table 2 above) is significant, accounting for an additional 1,901 students or 3.6% system-wide. iii Most of the students labeled as “blank” for academic level have a primary campus other than UH Mānoa, but taking classes at UH Mānoa. iv Admission Status here refers to ODS Element "STYP_ADM" defined as a "Student's status at the time of application or admission to the campus." "STYP_ADM." IRO Base UH. ODS Data Elementary Dictionary, www.hawaii.edu/iro/ded. ODS Data Element Dictionary doesn't provide a definition for these fields, including Returning and Continuing, therefore, the differentiation between some are unclear. v Class standing here comes from ODS Element "EDLVL_IRO" defined as a "Student's educational level. For graduates, based on level of graduate program." "EDLVL_IRO." IRO Base UH. ODS Data Elementary Dictionary, www.hawaii.edu/iro/ded. vi Grad Special here comes from ODS Element "EDLVL_IRO" defined as a "Student's educational level. For graduates, based on level of graduate program." Grad Special here is inclusive of the following majors, all of which are pursuing a Graduate Certificate: Conflict Resolution, Disaster Prep & Emergency Management, Advanced Library Info Science, and International Cultural Studies. "EDLVL_IRO." IRO Base UH. ODS Data Elementary Dictionary, www.hawaii.edu/iro/ded. vii Post-Baccalaureate Unclassified here refers to ODS Element "EDLVL_IRO" defined as a "Student's educational level. For graduates, based on level of graduate program." Post-Baccalaureate Unclassified here is inclusive of all students with ND (No Degree) and are unclassified, but at the graduate level. "EDLVL_IRO." IRO Base UH. ODS Data Elementary Dictionary, www.hawaii.edu/iro/ded. viii IRO Base Fall 2010, Pivot GR students by EDLVL_IRO and MAJOR_ORGSTR1_IRO. ix Baum, S., & Ma, J. (2007). Education Pays for Individuals and Society. Higher Education, 1-48; Ishitani, T. Studying Attrition and Degree Completion Behavior Among First-Generation College Students. Journal of Higher Education, 77(5), pp. 861-889. x Ibid. xi Bound, J., Lovenheim, M.F. & Turner, S. (November 2007) Understanding the Decrease in College Completion Rates and the Increased Time to Baccalaureate Degree. Population Studies Center Research Report 07-626, University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. xii Bradley, A.P. & Blanco, C.D. (April 2010) Promoting a Culture of Student Success: How Colleges and Universities Are Improving Degree Completion. Southern Regional Education Board. xiii Ibid. xiv Fall 1990 to Fall 2007 Cohorts as of 2008. xv “Table 2: Average Graduation and Retention Rates, by Gender and Ethnicity. University of Hawaiʽi at Mānoa and its Peer and Benchmark Institutions. Fall 1990 to Fall 2007 Cohorts, As of 2008." University of Hawaiʽi


Institutional Research Office. September 2009. xvi “Table 2: Average Graduation and Retention Rates, by Gender and Ethnicity.” University of Hawaiʽi at Mānoa and its Peer and Benchmark Institutions. Fall 1990 to Fall 2004 Cohorts, As of 2005. xvii “Table 2: Average Graduation and Retention Rates, by Gender and Ethnicity.” University of Hawaiʽi at Mānoa and its Peer and Benchmark Institutions. Fall 1990 to Fall 2004 Cohorts, As of 2005. xviii Trask, H. (1999). From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai‘i. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai‘i Press, p. 43. xix Brayboy, B. M. J. (December 2005). Toward a Tribal Critical Race Theory in education. The Urban Review, 37(5), 425-446. xx Alfred, T. & Corntassel, J. (Autumn 2005). Being Indigenous: Resurgences against contemporary colonialism. Government and Opposition, 40(4), 597-614. xxi Brayboy (December 2005), p. 429.

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