Hoʻolauna
“To Get Together; To Introduce”
UH Mānoa New Faculty Experience
One of the core areas of responsibility within the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa’s Office of Vice Provost for Academic Excellence (OVPAE) is faculty development and support across the faculty life-cycle. Connections with other faculty, students, and the outside community is a key element in faculty retention. Hoʻolauna (meaning to get together or to introduce, including one person to another) is a program that invites recently hired tenure-track faculty to participate in a set of experiential opportunities. Each event is led by a faculty member or guide with expertise related to the site or experience, including Manoa faculty and staff members. Not only will the set of experiences provide the faculty with the opportunity to learn more about Hawai‘i, the community, and the campus, but it will also give them a chance to meet other faculty across disciplines.
Ho`olauna’s goal is to provide experiential opportunities for newly hired tenure-track faculty. Through these experiences, participants will have the opportunity to learn more about Hawai‘i’s diverse people and communities through “field trips” to culturally and historically- significant events and places of interest, while getting to meet other faculty across the campus from different disciplines.
Specific outcomes expected/achieved:
- Monthly opportunities for new faculty and their families to meet other members of their campus and outside communities.
- Cross-campus connections and partnerships will be formed for future engagements (professional or personal)
- New knowledge of community and campus resources gained
- Improved understanding and appreciation of Hawai‘i’s rich history and unique people and culture
- Inspired interest in learning more about the UHM’s diverse student population and community
Ho’olauna: What Our Participants Are Saying:
- “Through these activities, I got to know new colleagues in other departments. In communication with these colleagues as well as in the activities, I broadened my horizon and learned more about other disciplines. Overall, Ho’olauna is a fantastic program to facilitate new faculty to integrate into the local culture.”
- “This has been a great opportunity to meet faculty and learn about the local culture and ʻaina.“
- “This is my first time to join the event for new faculty. I greatly appreciate this opportunity to talk to faculty members who started (and most likely moved to Hawai’i) at a similar time. Thank you so much for planning this. I look forward to the next one!”
- “This has been an amazing part of my introduction to UH and Hawai’i — looking forward to the next one!”
- “I have a much better understanding of why there are so many diverse cultures in Hawaii now.”
- “Most of the time, we didn’t have to pay to join the events and we always had a good time. Hawai’i is such a special place with a rich history I didn’t know much about. For me, the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaiʻi (JCCH) is especially memorable due to my cultural heritage.”