University of Hawai‘i and the East-West Center signal closer collaboration

HONOLULU, Hawaiʻi — In an effort to strengthen their already-close collaboration and increase operational efficiencies, University of Hawaiʻi System President David McClain and East-West Center President Charles E. Morrison today announced the formation of a new joint committee for institutional collaboration.

The UH-EWC Cooperative Committee is charged with examining means the two institutions can take to reduce or share expenses and better complement each other‘s activities. UH members on the Cooperative Committee are David Lassner, UH System vice president and chief information officer, and Virginia Hinshaw, UH Mānoa chancellor. EWC members are Terry Bigalke, director of education programs, and Nancy Lewis, director of research.

In announcing the new committee, the two institutions highlighted their interdependence and the importance of enhanced cooperation in a tighter fiscal environment. "The East-West Center and its mission are of central importance to the University of Hawaiʻi," said McClain, who serves as an ex-officio member of the East-West Center Board of Governors. "East-West Center programs and students give UH a dimensionality that helps us bring the insights of our remarkable scholars to bear on a wide variety of issues facing Hawaiʻi, the United States and the world."

Morrison added that although the East-West Center is an independent national institution, its very existence depends on its relationship with UH. "Our partnership with the University of Hawaiʻi is a long and highly valued one," he said. "It helps set the East-West Center apart from other public diplomacy programs."

Established by the U.S. Congress, the East-West Center is charged with building trans-Pacific understanding and relations through cooperative research, study and exchange activities. It is headquartered in Honolulu, but also has a Washington office.

The University of Hawaiʻi gives East-West Center scholarship holders the same tuition as Hawaii residents, a benefit estimated at nearly $1.2 million annually. East-West Center payments to UH for tuition for credit and non-credit courses, fees and related charges total nearly $1.4 million. Other dimensions of the relationship include payment by the EWC to UH for provision of library services, security and parking, and computer and telecommunications services; EWC salary support of UH faculty with joint appointments, and for UH students who work at the EWC; collaboration on a wide variety of research activities; and the provision to UH of rented space at EWC for offices and dormitory rooms.