Aloha mai kākou!
This cohort is comprised of the following units:
- School of Architecture (ARCH)
- Athletics (ATH)
- Branding & Marketing
- UH Communications (Comms)
- College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources (CTAHR)
- College of Education (EDU)
- Institute for Sustainability and Resilience (ISR)
- Library Services (LS)
- College of Natural Sciences (NS)
- Office of Global Engagement (OGE)
- Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Excellence (OVPAE)
- Office of the Vice Provost for Enrollment Management (OVPEM)
- Shidler College of Business (SCB)
This webpage is meant to orient you to Cohort Kaulua, invite you to learn about this professional development, and update you on its progress.
If you have any questions please email us at: nhpol@hawaii.edu.
A short story on this cohort:
After the UH Mānoa campus approved the current strategic plan Mānoa 2025: Our Kuleana to Hawai‘i and the World, the Native Hawaiian Place of Learning (NHPoL) Advancement Office began working on our strategy to support the plan’s three goals specific to becoming a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning. One of the three goals is that, “100% of schools and colleges and other similar nonacademic units will have a five-year strategic plan to address each of the four Native Hawaiian place of learning strategic focus areas relevant to their particular units” (p. 19) by the end of the strategic plan period.
In spring 2023 we reached out to the members of the Provost’s Council – including but not limited to academic deans, directors of ORUs, and the vice provost offices – to invite them and their units into a process with our NHPoL Advancement Office to support their efforts to create their five-year plans. They gauged readiness within their units and responded to us. Cohort 2 is the continued response to this invitation and we are so looking forward to engaging with you! As for the other units, don’t worry! They will have an opportunity to join this work in future cohorts.
A note on the name Kaulua:
For Cohort 2 we have chosen the name Kaulua. Kaulua can be described in English as two of a kind; a pair; two like things put together for a common purpose. The term wa‘a kaulua refers to a double-hulled canoe, for example. Kaulua is also one of the names of the star Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, known for being a guiding star on the trip from Hawai‘i to Tahiti. Hence, we have named this cohort Kaulua because it is the second and therefore pair to Cohort Kumukahi, comprised of schools, colleges, and other units all working towards the common purpose and guiding star of becoming a Native Hawaiian place of learning.
2025 Invitation
We invite you to join a 5-day in-person professional development opportunity for students, staff, employees, community partners and UHF liaisons in a Cohort Kaulua unit, as listed above. Our time together will be a deep dive into the Native Hawaiian principles outlined in the UH Mānoa Strategic Plan. You do not need to have a background in Hawaiian language, history, or culture and you do not need to be Native Hawaiian to join. This is open to anyone who is interested in learning more about the Native Hawaiian principles for your professional and personal life.
A Commitment to Engage
This Google Form asks for your commitment to engage in this process. First and foremost, each part of the form is meant to help you understand the commitment in time and energy as well as to the content that will be expected of all participants. This level of commitment is important so that you and your colleagues can have the most meaningful experience possible. After you fill out the form, the team who is designing your experience will review your responses to ensure that you will be able to fully engage and commit. If we have any questions, we will reach out to you. Once you have selected a session, please put a hold on your calendar for the dates you selected and we will notify all participants via a confirmation email by December 1, 2024.
The Time Commitment
We recognize how busy everyone is and this work requires a level of presence and commitment. The five-day experience is designed to be immersive and therefore we ask that you be physically present for the entire time. We are offering this experience three times in the Spring 2025-Fall 2025 semesters to be as inclusive as possible of the realities you hold either as a student or employee. The dates include:
- March 17-21, 2025 from 9am-4pm (UHM spring break) OR
- July 21-25, 2025 from 9am-4pm (summertime) OR
- October 3, 10, 17, 24 & 31, 2025 from 9am-4pm (5 consecutive Fridays in October)
You only need to attend ONE of these sessions and the 9am-4pm is a firm time commitment. Exceptions will not be made because we want you to benefit from the full experience and we want your colleagues to fully benefit from your presence across the 5 days since much of the program involves work in pairs and small groups.
Resources Needed to Make The Commitment
In the form you will be instructed to read, listen, and watch the following foundational resources. Please read them in order from first to last as you will reflect upon them in the form.
- UH Mānoa Strategic Plan (pages 7-14)
- Read “Our Hawai‘i Grown Truth” (4 pages) or listen to it here (14 minutes)
- Watch TRHT Vision Video (9 minutes)
The resources are fairly short, though we honor that they hold quite a bit of information. The form is not a test so you do not need to feel pressured to review them in intense detail. Instead, we invite you to be present with the resources. The questions you will be asked are purely reflective and there are no right or wrong answers.
Importantly, the resources are meant to invite you to spend time with the Native Hawaiian principles described in the above strategic plan. The next two resources give some context for why and how they are relevant today given all of our current complexities and realities. You will see reference to our Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation™ (TRHT) work. While TRHT is integral to everything that we do, don’t let that distract you. As you will see, it helps us honor today’s complexities while focusing on the Native Hawaiian principles.
Cohort Kumukahi Testimonials:
Just in case any of your coworkers or staff would benefit from some insight on the significant impact of the cohort experience, please feel free to share with them the below testimonials from some of their campus colleagues. These participants joined the inaugural cohort, called Cohort Kumukahi in the 2024 calendar year.
You can also visit the Cohort Kumukahi website to learn more about the inaugural cohort and its progress, which is the foundation for these continued efforts and ongoing opportunities.
Testimonial #1
Rob Wright – Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
“Making UHM a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning…”
“…If you are interested in understanding what we can do to make the university more reflective of Native Hawaiian culture, I encourage you [to] apply … Is it a time commitment? Yes. I moved my availability to before 9 and after 4 to accommodate, which wasn’t too much hassle. The October workshop is easier as it will be on consecutive Fridays.
I attended the week-long session last week, learned a lot, and met a lot of good people. I know we have many responsibilities already but this is important to our hosts, the people of Hawai’i, as it demonstrates a commitment to being good guests. Importantly you will learn that there is nothing to fear from being part of this process. You are not going to be forced to change the content of your courses. You are not being forced to take political positions. You are not going to be told you cannot write proposals you want to write.
What you will learn is something of Hawaiian culture and language, and that with that knowledge, making UHM a place of Native Hawaiian Learning really boils down to recognition of the following, which is not a controversial sentiment: that by looking out for each other, so we can collectively take care of our surroundings, we will ensure that people we will never meet will be able to live here and thrive in the future. That is more or less a direct quote one of the course leaders used to summarize what it means to be a NHPoL. So making UHM a NHPoL is really i) being a good neighbor, and ii) casting an eye towards sustainability. There are probably many ways you currently serve that purpose, and others we could envision in the future that would not upend how our lives are currently configured.
Signing up for one of the future workshops does not commit you to being involved in a multi-year event to develop the final plans. But it does mean you will be able to contribute if you decide you want to.
Anyway, I enjoyed it, and think I learned something. There are some really good intentions here.
Cheers, Rob.”
Testimonial #2
Jenny Engels – School of Ocean Earth Science and Technology
“Re: Please consider participating in this transformational training”
Last week I had a chance to participate in the Cohort Kumukahi training offered by the Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement Office. In the 20+ years I’ve been associated with UHM, this training has been the single most useful to help me understand Native Hawaiian values, UHM’s Strategic Plan, and my role as a settler and guest in these islands. It’s a big time commitment to participate for 5 days, but it was also a gift to get to focus totally on one activity, and to be completely immersed in learning with old and new colleagues. I came away with a fundamentally changed perspective on my relationship with these islands and our planet – it was that impactful…”