LSAC's Implicit Response to Economic Stimulus Criticism?

In reality, each of the above statements are indeed true, and thus the United States' current ~10% unemployment rate is not a sufficient indicator of U.S.'s current economic state, policy critics.

I stumbled across this logic-based question while studying for the LSAT.  I would suggest the question reveals the testwriters' biases towards the politics surrounding our current economic state, but to be fair, this particular question is from the June 1996 LSAT. But what a great question!

Honolulu Civil Beat - New Website

http://www.civilbeat.com/

Congratulations Civil Beat on the beautiful website revamp! I guess it's time for me to shell up the $20 a month for the content. At this point I just cannot deny the value, and I'm sick of my Blackberry Civil Beat RSS feeds getting cut short.

And right in time for the half off, 3-month election special.  I'll see you on the discussion boards!

The Congressional Race

My fun little centrist reaction to a rather djouicy debate:



The debut of djou being subdued by the dude to pursue an overdue vote through, anewed: term number 2.

Djou: blew worthless ado, to the camera askewed, viewed in the hue of accruing a flu. Questions eschewed; no answers construed.

Please ensue, this party be imbued; but blue, don’t stoop to the taboo of an untrue slew. In lieu, like ballyhoo in your full canoe, let the voters come to you.

Be cool, unlike djou's coo with no shew, in his final adieu, before he ran out and flew to the loo.

Bless you djou, and all the djoudoo you spew!

And Here Comes the Faculty...

In the midst of extensive budget cuts to our university by the State, I have been continually encouraging a wave of activism from the student population, community, and any other stakeholders who would want to be a part of a movement to protect and preserve Hawai‘i's education and encourage the development of future leaders.

A great opportunity has arisen to for students and faculty to come together and possibly create a massive boom...

[caption id="attachment_771" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="KITV4 News, September 18, 2009: Leaders of UH Professors Oppose State\'s Last Offer"][/caption]

During my Comparative Politics class today, the professor opened up by highlighting a current university issue concerning the nature of faculty and administrator "negotiations". The professor drew a parallel between our university's multi-leveled autonomous bureaucracy and that of tyrannic rule under a certain, well-known dictatorship.

He has been a faculty member at a number of universities including one in Asia, but insists that he has never seen such a unique and hegemonic administration like that of UH.

(I asked if he has been aware of UH's structure before our system's administration was granted autonomy by the State of Hawaii during the mid-nineties, and if he was aware of how our campus was "administrated" before the creation of 78 new executive positions just a few years ago under President Dobelle's term. He said he would like to learn.)

My guess of why the subject of administrative hegemony was brought up was because of a certain bitterness my professor may possess in regards to a recent proposal being "unilaterally imposed" by administration: to cut UH faculty pay by 15%.

It is nice to see some spark finally igniting some major resistance from faculty to the originally State-imposed cuts, but let's not forget and overlook the fact that a few years back, faculty did receive a huge salary increase while students received a similar tuition increase. Before choosing to take on a particular stance, students should be sure to know what the consequences will be of their efforts . We need to realize that as ASUH (the Student Body), we stand alone and must remain autonomous in our decisions. We should hesitate to offer diplomatic assistance with initiatives moving towards collective goals, but we must refuse to be used as another entity's pawn: whether that be administration or faculty.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="432" caption="Will we be seeing some of this again? From Star Bulletin Archives April 5, 2001"][/caption]

But let's just hope faculty and administration can see eye to eye, because students can't afford to have faculty go on strike. Hopefully, I will be able to meet with various faculty leaders to discuss any collective goals between students and faculty and possibly establish a vehicle in which students and faculty could move forward together.

TIM School/Shidler College Merger

Craig Gima's Article in the Star Bulletin-11/10:



Students' voices must be heard, even if going to the media is the only way to get a response. Please note that nothing in this blog post depicts a stance on the merger, nor represents a consensus of ideas reached by the 97th ASUH Senate.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="George Hall, the home of the Travel Industry Management School at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa."][/caption]

The proposed merger between the School of Travel Industry Management and the Shidler College of Business has been a hot topic of discussion over the course of the past few months. However, little to no student input has been sought by administration concerning this and many other of our University's most pivotal decisions -- decisions that effect us the foremost in the midst of this budget fiasco.

|------------------------->

Past ASUH President, Jamie Sohn of the 96th senate, was allowed to sit on a preliminary process committee for the Chancellor during last school year. These meetings ended in early January. Once the prioritization actually began with actual dean recommendations, new committee's were formed with no student seat being made available.

Throughout the spring and the summer, and two budget/advisory committee's later, many decisions began moving forward without direct input from students. Faculty and some dean's also had concerns about not being considered in the process, as the Chancellor's advisory committees always seemed to consist of a team of the same select few individuals.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Shidler College of Business--building E from courtyard."][/caption]

Four months ago, shortly after I was elected into the office of ASUH President, I met with both the Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs and the Chancellor our Mānoa campus herself, during separate meetings, to inquire about why no students are being involved in the prioritization process and budget recommendations. (See also my response @8:30 to Hinshaw's answer to a question regarding the prioritization process on PBS Insights with Dan Boylan)

I asked that if any additional meetings are held, a student representative such as myself be given a seat. I also asked for a more transparent approach to remedying our budget gaps, and that an open-forum by the administration to students, sponsored by the Chancellor's office, be held on campus during the start of the Fall semester.

An open-forum event was set-up , but I haven't received an adequate answer to the remaining inquiries. I did, however, leave the meetings under the slight impression that the prioritization process was over and that if any final decisions were to be made, a student voice will be directly involved. That hasn't happened.

And look where we are at now! An outcry from both faculty and students has been brought forth subsequent from a recent email announcement from the Chancellor stating that the committee opts to:

"Merge smaller units with larger, related schools/colleges to strengthen impact and economize on administration. The committee supports the reconsolidation of the School of Travel Industry Management with Shidler College of Business to enhance UH Mānoa’s service to the tourism industry in Hawai‘i and strengthen the impact of TIM’s significant ties to the business economy. We will develop criteria for organizational structures that best support faculty/staff/students and maximize resources to examine schools with low critical mass."

From looking at and comparing the statistics of the respective schools with others, it isn't consistent that the TIM school fits under the category of "with low critical mass". It doesn't seem the case the education and value of their degree will improve for students, under the merger. Students worry that under a new school, their degree won't be as effective and their extremely high employment rate directly after graduation (partial due to the TIM school's extensive required internship hours) may be reduced.

Furthermore, adequate transparency hasn't even been achieved between administrators. After meeting with the dean of the TIM school, it surprised me that she knew only as much about the details of the proposed merger as I did from the Chancellor's side.

This somewhat contradicted the statement that VCAA Dasenbock made during a meeting with me in the beginning of summer when I asked about the process of the prioritization. To paraphrase: now that recommendations have made their way up through our redundant bureaucracy, they will be brought back to the Dean level of administration where student input will be considered. The latter hasn't happened, at least not yet.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Hawai‘i Hall, campus administration building."][/caption]

I understand both sides of the argument concerning the merger and it isn't necessary, at least not yet, for me take a side. But it IS my duty to make sure students' voices are being considered.

1) Within the next week, after I meet with various student leaders involved with the merger controversy, I will write letters to the respective executive administrators raising concern about lack of student involvement in the process.

2) I will request a time line on when these decisions will be finalized. I will also inquire and suggest, since meetings have been on-going and it is most likely too late for a student seat, how administration willreach out for student input.

3) I will entertain a Senate Resolution to be drafted and passed by ASUH, whether taking or not taking a stance on the issue, addressing our concern for a lack of administrative transparency and student involvement during the prioritization process.

4) If no adequate response is received in a reasonable amount of time, I'll make sure we are heard one way or another (having local T.V. and newspaper contacts on hand is a great thing).

It's unfortunate that so much tension is occurring between students and executive administration, but this could have all been avoided with initial transparency and accessibility and adequate communication between administration and students as the prioritization process was unfolding.

I recognize administration's claim that any and all of these plans of actions are "preliminary" and that all entity's involved will have their concerns considered in the final decision, but I will not pass up on looking into any truth behind the rumors that the merger is already being pushed forward.

Students, as the greatest stakeholders, should have been a part of the "preliminary", most extensive portion of the prioritization process. Any last ditch efforts of reaching out to students (i.e. a single meeting with student leaders after extensive deliberation has already been made) is appreciated but doesn't suffice in aquiring student input. Many students may view such actions as a mere nominal and political formality.

I will first try to be a mediator between the two groups and hopefully we can resolve tension by finding a compromise or a design that synthesizes both viewpoints. If this cannot be achieved, I will be sure to represent and lift up the student voice, first and foremost, no matter what position that may put me in with administration.

Noticing the Effects of University Budget Cuts

It's a new school year. And you can see the changes: classes, cafeterias, sidewalks, and campuses in general are more saturated with students then any time I witnessed over the past 3 years.



With approximately 60,000 students enrolled at University of Hawaii campuses this Fall -- a 10.7% percent increase from last Fall and the most ever -- it's apparent that the community is seeing the University as part of the solution to our State's economic struggle.

But this isn't necessarily a good thing for students as 150 instructors laid-off and 500 class sections placed on hold, there has been an increase of competition to get into the remaining courses. In large lecture halls, students are resorting to sitting on stairways. Some commuting students are being forced to arrive on campus hours before class starts, sleeping in their cars, just to secure a parking space.

[caption id="attachment_638" align="aligncenter" width="509" caption="With a 120 student enrollment, and more trying to get it, this accounting section of the course has twice as many students as last year."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_638" align="aligncenter" width="509" caption="Some lecturers who survived lay-offs had their salaries reduced to $12,000 for teaching two classes, while numerous administrators executives are sitting pretty with salaries at over a quarter million."][/caption]


Although other media outlets did publish and broadcast a few stories concerning our University throughout the week, I would like to commend KITV4 news for obtaining exclusive coverage on some issues, and for their extensive updates of our University in featured news stories throughout there first week of classes. They were on campus for 4 separate stories over the course of the first 3 days! I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Honolulu Advertiser as well for continuing to seek out student input, and contacting ASUH, for virtually every story regarding our University.

Words Worth a Thousand Pictures

In a changing society of rapidly advancing technologies, where even television sometimes doesn't provide a conveniently direct enough relayer of information, it is easy for some of us to lose interest in the MOST revolutionary, pervasive, and thus-far effective method of learning and retrieving important information: reading.



Given, we live in a fast-paced world and lead extremely busy lives. And if you are anything like me, you don't have the time to flip through and thoroughly read every page of your local morning paper. Nor will you make use of the investment of numerous magazine or national daily news subscriptions that may only be utilized as packing material or a rag for cleaning windows in future (in case you don't know, newspapers are great at minimizing streaks!)

Here's what I do:
1) Subscribe to a weekly periodical
(my favorite is "The Economist") - most offer ridiculous student discounts and allow you to receive all of your important current events for the week in a single sitting.

2) Utilize a weblog feed reader
(my favorite is Google Reader) - syndicate RSS feeds from daily news websites (WSjournal.com, nytimes.com, honoluluadvertiser.com, etc.), where you can usually specify which section or topic. At the same time, you can subscribe to blog feeds as well to cater more to your specific interests or to get a more juicy, opinionate take on current events. When using a feed reader, you can give up checking every site individually for updates. Instead, updates will come to you all at one place, where you choose what to read and what to leave.

3) Don't rely on television for national news; LOCAL is fine, especially in Hawai‘i!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="425" caption=""Allow this to be the last consumer decision you will ever need to make!""][/caption]

So, besides the believed hypnotic, manipulative, and additive qualities that are the usual concern over its excessive usage...
Why not television?

At 30 fps, an hour long television program broadcasts a total of 108,000 still pictures! So, if a "picture is (really) worth a thousand words," then an hour long television show should provide us with an equivalent to 108 millions words, or 432,000 pages...yeah, i don't think so.

Of course, I don't mean to be that wag that points flaws in idioms that are obviously not created to be taken completely literally! The only point I'm trying to make is that maybe pictures are only valuable when being completely absorbed or read with focused attention not characteristic of watching TV. Perhaps, what is needed is a sort of brain activity similar to reading a book, or even better, surfing the web! Even non-educational, "leisure" reading can stimulate and encourage new connections of neurons to increase intelligence, maybe even more effectively than "educational" television broadcasts.

Furthermore, news broadcasts on television are so full of celebrity gossip, inter-network politics and biases, that it takes a substantial effort to filter any substance through all of the shenanigans. So, make the right choice, and don't forget to use a Reader if you don't already!:



Wow Terry, a little much?!

Aloha, President Greenwood!

Yesterday, a "Hawaiian Protocol" ceremony was held at Kanewai Lo‘i with a reception that followed at Hawai‘inuiākea to welcome a new president,M.R.C. Greenwood, to our 10-campus University system. It was a rather intimate gathering consisting primarily of college deans and administrators from around the Mānoa campus, along with some kūpuna and other event hosts from the Native Hawaiian community at UH Mānoa.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Kanewai Lo‘i-- the primary portion of the ceremony was held within this hale. It was such a beautiful location!"][/caption]

I was invited as a member of Greenwood's immediate "entourage" and as one of the four speakers of the afternoon. Leading up to the event, I barely had time to sit down and craft out a speech. But even if I did, I doubt it would've came along.

To be completely honest, during the presidential search process and after the withdrawal of the only other finalist Robert Jones, I wrote a statement to the Board of Regents requesting that an interim-president be appointed while the search continues.

In regards to the ethics controversy which got her released from her last position and the fact that we already have a chancellor from the University of California System (I didn't want our premiere public University for the State of Hawai‘i transforming into a "UC Hawaii" satellite campus!), I didn't feel that Greenwood was quite right for the job.

I also didn't agree with the idea of offering extremely high salary incentives and spending over a million to conduct a nation-wide search would find the most competent leader.

For one, the University of Hawai‘i is situated in one of the most unique and diverse places in the world and experience from other University systems doesn't necessarily carry over. There are so many 30-40 year veterans within the UH system who would've took a lower salary and wouldn't have had to admit to having "a lot of learning to do" and adjust to getting situated within the culture of our wonderful state.

Secondly, the whole idea of having a separate system President and flagship campus Chancellor seems fruitless. Streamlined bureaucracy was more efficient during the pre-autonomy days of UH Mānoa back when the Chancellor of Mānoa and the system president was combined into a single position--especially since the State had a stake in controlling the exuberant salaries of UH administrative executives.

[caption id="attachment_527" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="University of Hawai‘i System President M.R.C. Greenwood"][/caption]

However, I do realize that besides the ethics allegations and lack of experience, none of these concerns fall upon Greenwood herself. And I was actually very surprised and delighted by the humility Greenwood exhibited throughout her appointment, by not holding a sort of "big fish, small pond" mentality that many out-of-state leaders hold when transferring to Hawai‘i.

She seemed very genuine and open to embrace both Local and Native Hawaiian culture here in Hawai‘i. It wasn't hard to see that she was completely overwhelmed by the amount of Aloha she has received throughout her first week on the job.

So the task was this: make use of this opportunity as a speaker to get my point across, among the many witnesses, without coming off as a whiny student or angsty Hawaiian. I wanted my 3-5 minutes to be memorable and tried to avoid cliche as much as possible.

Other speakers had well-written speeches which they read straight off a paper; these speeches were beautiful but quick to be forgotten. I also had a few talking points written down on a small card. But once I was off and going, 30 seconds into my speech, I decided to tuck it away in my pocket and speak straight from the na‘au.

From what I remember, I spoke on UH's commitment to its host culture and the purpose of the newly established Hawai‘inuiākea, primarily regarding its importance and contribution to education as the greatest means to preserving and advancing Native Hawaiian culture.

I asserted how I like to think that I represent many students not because of my position on student government, (or because I am 50% "Asian", 25% "Pacific Islander", and 25% Caucasian/Hispanic!) but because of my story. After mentioning how UH is the only university that I seen myself happy at, the most realistic option financially, and how it had transformed me to who I am today, I was sure to note that it is important not to overlook UH's purpose of fostering future leaders and competent workers for the State of Hawai‘i.

Whether or not I stepped over the line as a student, or even as a speaker at a welcome ceremony, my words seemed to be well-received. I was fortunate to have been able to later carry a heart-felt conversation with President Greenwood during the reception that followed where she mentioned to me that the warmth in welcoming she has been receiving from students has been amazing.

The event was a wonderful one, and just the vibe alone was unlike no other. I met a lot of amazing people and won't soon forget it. I'm sure that neither will the new president.

President Greenwood's openness and humility was greatly appreciated, and I hope she continues to embrace both the Native Hawaiian and local communities here in Hawaii. I look forward to working along side this new leader in the spirit of progress and benefit for the students of the University of Hawai‘i.

I hope she can prove herself and live up to her nearly $1,000,000/yr Salary (including living allowances)! E kipa mai e Greenwood.