Our center’s new logo

In April 2020, the Assessment Office acquired a new name, “Assessment and Curriculum Support Center,” that reflects more accurately the mission and responsibilities of the unit. Adrian Alarilla, our research assistant, led the design of an office logo, aimed to depict the ever-growing role of assessment on campus as well as the center’s involvement in the mission to respect the land the campus was built on and push us towards becoming a Hawaiian place of learning. The result is a logo based on the uluhe, or false staghorn fern (Dicranopteris linearis), a fern that is known for its medicinal properties and its role as a keystone species.

In April 2020, the Assessment Office acquired a new name, “Assessment and Curriculum Support Center,” that reflects more accurately the mission and responsibilities of the unit. Adrian Alarilla, our research assistant, led the design of an office logo, aimed to depict the ever-growing role of assessment on campus as well as the center’s involvement in the mission to respect the land the campus was built on and push us towards becoming a Hawaiian place of learning. The result is a logo based on the uluhe, or false staghorn fern (Dicranopteris linearis), a fern that is known for its medicinal properties and its role as a keystone species.

The uluhe is an indigenous type of fern that grows all over the archipelago of Hawaiʻi, especially in the wetter windward sides, as well on the Pacific Islands and in Southeast Asia. Its ability to thrive and propagate rapidly on low-fertility soil has enabled it to be a pioneer species that initiates regrowth in areas such as lava fields, landslide sites, abandoned roads, and degraded forest lands.1 Its indeterminate leaf growth and horizontal clonal reproduction strategy through underground stems (D. Drake, personal communication, August 5, 2020) allows it to quickly form dense thickets of ground cover material that protects the soil from erosion. It is also known as a keystone species, as many plants and animals depend on its initial growth and success.

The Kānaka Maoli recognize the plant for its medicinal properties. There is also at least one chant, a paʻi umauma (chest slapping dance) that mentions the uluhe. Entitled E Manono, it is dedicated to the Chiefess Manono, the warrior wife of Chief Kekuaokalani, one of the chiefs who made a last stand to defend the existing religion from King Kamehameha II’s proclamation to abolish the ʻaikapu system in 1819. It is said that the night before the Battle of Kuamoʻo on the island of Hawaiʻi, Manono desired to fight side by side with her husband, but Kekuaokalani refused. He said he would build her a haliʻi (nest) of uluhe on top of the hill from which she could watch the battle.2 However, Manono still ended up joining her husband’s fight. The first two stanzas of the E Manono chant:

E Manono la, ea,
E Manono la, ea
Kau ka ʻopeʻope,
Ka ulu-hala la, ea

Ka uluhe la, ea,
Ka uluhe la ea
A hiki puʻunana
Haliʻi punana

Come now, Manono,
Come Manono, I say,
Take up your bundle
Through groves of pandanus.

Amid wild stag-horn fern,
Wearisome ferns lie our way.
Arrived at the hill top
We will smooth out the nest
3

We draw from the uluhe’s ecological and cultural importance in Hawaiʻi. For our center, it symbolizes the importance of assessment in creating, maintaining, and nesting nurturing learning environments for the students. Truly effective assessment builds networks of cooperation and collaboration. Assessment fiercely protects what is important in a curriculum while at the same time being adaptive, agile, and flexible. The green color represents the ground that nourishes and is nourished by the uluhe in a reciprocal relationship. The bifurcated, fractal growth pattern of the uluhe allows it to grow into an abstracted “A” shape from the top, representing, for us, the dense network of assessment leaders who sustain and evolve the curriculum.


1 Russell, A., Raich, J., Vitousek, P. (1998). The ecology of the climbing fern Dicranopteris linearis on windward Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Journal of Ecology, 86, 765-779.

2 Chupchoy, L. (2010). Fragments of Memory, Tales of a Wahine Warrior. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 31(2), 35-59.

3 Kahahanui, D. (1962). E Manono. Music of  Ancient Hawaii. Retrieved from Huapala: Hawaiian Music and Hula Archives Website, compiled by Kaiulani Kanoa-Martin: http://www.huapala.org/Chants/E_Manono.html

We would like to thank Don Drake for sharing his knowledge and expertise with us.