Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Higher Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 1159 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to make an appropriation for funding and positions for the expansion of the ethnic studies, labor history, and diversity curriculum for all of the University of Hawaii campuses.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii Ethnic Studies Department and two individuals.

Your Committee finds that students on all of the campuses of the University of Hawaii system will benefit from the various ethnic studies, labor history, and diversity curriculum. Your Committee further finds that ethnic studies classes are unique in that the program emphasizes active community participation in local communities.

As an example, the Hawaiian Studies program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa was founded in l980 and became a full-fledged academic department in l987, and the ethnic studies program was founded in l970 and became a full-fledged academic department in l995. The ethnic studies program provides instruction, research, and community service on race, ethnicity, and class in Hawaii as well as comparative studies of groups in the United States and around the world. Ethnic studies classes are unique in that the program emphasizes praxis, or active community participation in local communities. Ethnic studies believes in community service, ongoing interaction with local communities on the basis of a two-way exchange of learning and information, and the use of undergraduate students as peer teaching assistants. Ethnic studies faculty have special expertise in the history of Native Hawaiians, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, African Americans, Native Americans, and Caucasians. Areas needing additional development include Samoans and other Pacific islanders, Laotians, and Vietnamese in Hawaii.

Your Committee has amended this bill by making an appropriation of $300,000 for five faculty positions and student employment funds to develop and offer additional courses in ethnic studies, including Hawaiian studies, as well as labor history and diversity curriculum at all campuses of the University of Hawaii.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Higher Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1159, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1159, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.