COM 0687.074 2004-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 • . Community O niz~ io r Educational Dev pment Wes[ Hawaii P.O. Box ~ Keal kek ail 96750 t ~ M~~I Testimony for LUC Meeting regarding Hiluhilu Developn~ ur! COMM~It7q My name is Diana Nui. I am a retired administrator for 'The Kamehameha Schools and have lived on this island since 1976. Today I wish to explain the role of the Conununity Organization for Educational Development or COED in assisting the University in the past and then Lionel Kutner, another past president of our organization will give testimony on our position regarding the proposed mutually supportive role of Hiluhilu and the University of Hawaii. This will only take a few minutes of your time but is important in establishing that we have more than a passing interest in this partnership and have been active over a period of many years in lobbying for wider programs and a real campus in West Hawaii. In the late 80's and in most of the 90's COID held public meetings regarding the various strategic plans, lobbied HELCO to limit their growth below the proposed new campus, held vision meeting involving many community leaders to establish community educational needs, hosted public Regent visitations, published a newsletter informing our members of University progress in various areas, lobbied for a nursing program, sent out countless newsletters and finally provided speakers to various community groups regarding the proposed permanent campus sites. COED provided transportation to these sites for approximately 200 interested community members so they could see for themselves the choices facing the Regents. We also hosted a final community meeting where the various organizations voiced their choice of the present site. It was said that this was the first time in the history of Kona that the community agreed on something. When it became clear that the new campus was on the legislative back burner, COED became inactive for several years. This new development possibility has prompted us to hold several meetings with interested community members and past COED members. Community members meeting with us have been: Monty Richards, past Regent, Dr Billy Betgin, past Regent, Dr. Waiter Kunitake, past Director of UH West Hawaii and ~ COED members David Garcia of Liliuokalani Trust, Dr. David Holzman, retired UHWest faculty member, Ken Clewett, University of the Nations; Lionel Kutner and myself. Lionel Kutner will present the consensus reached in these meetings. /1 group of atizens dedicated to banging quality post-secondary education to West i lawan