A central component of the MLMC Strategic Initiative is creating a virtual institute to raise the profile of the multilingual multicultural perspective in Hawai‘i as it pertains to enhancing higher education and career development, conducting research on social engagement and community well-being, and exploring policies and institutional practices that promote equity, access, and understanding. We have developed this website to house the project’s educational and research endeavors, to provide a portal for community outreach and engagement, and, ultimately, to coordinate stakeholder participation in and contributions to the MLMC Virtual Institute.
The first Virtual Institute event occurred in the form of an all-day working meeting, was held October 29th (on the UHM campus). VIPs attending were UHM Provost and Deans Lyons (LLL) and Murata (CoE). Participants developed project ideas and brainstormed organizational structures for the Virtual Institute. VI Summit Summary Report. We extend our thanks to all who participated.
Highlights from VIPs
“The University of Hawaii, the College of Ed, we always talk about Hawaiian place of learning and I strongly feel and believe we are behaving, and not just using these words to pacify, to get us by, but I strongly believe that we are behaving, tied into the values of what we grew up with. You folks can help us get to a better space and I look forward to hearing more about it in the future.”
–Dean Nathan Murata, CoE, on honoring the multilingual multicultural ways we grew up
“There is no accessing of rights without access to language. That’s the minimum that we can give to citizens and people who come to this country. That’s the bare minimum. What we really need, and ultimately is the real strength of this proposal, is a change in culture, a change in our values. One of the things I am very pleased about with this proposal… is, we need to value language, we need to value people speaking multiple languages, not even just two languages, not even biliteracy, but multiliteracy…. As often as we talk at this university about creating global citizens, we have to understand that you can’t really be a global citizen if you’re monolingual. That’s a very narrow perspective of the world.”
–Dean Laura Lyons, LLL, on promoting language access and fostering multilingualism
“This is an area in which we are a world leader… we teach a very large number of languages… about 25… our linguistics department is always ranked among the top in the United States… we have the definition of a multilingual multicultural society here in our State….This is a group that should be a leader internationally or could set the stage for other communities in the US.”
–Provost Michael Bruno, on being a global MLMC leader
We will be constituting a Steering Committee that will guide the VI in project moving forward.