A K LEO T H E
V O I C E
Ser v i ng t he st udents of t he Un iversit y of Hawa i ‘ i at M ā noa si nce 1922
COMPILED BY M ICHELLE WHITE Staff Reporter
AU G U S T 16 A staff member left a suitcase in the Hale Wainani parking lot at 8 p.m. and returned a short while later to see a gray Japanese car speeding away. A witness saw a male steal the suitcase and jump into the car. HPD is searching for the vehicle.
The world getʻs AMPʻd UH RIO spreads its aloha Features 7
Building a better future Professor and political hopeful Opinions 10
W E DN E S DAY AUG . 2 5 to T H U R S DAY AUG . 2 6 , 2 010
Volu me 105 Issue 13
Honors program welcomes new staff, offers students benefits
Parking officers booted and ticketed a vehicle at the Hale Wainani parking lot after noticing the vehicle had an altered parking pass. The owner of the vehicle explained that they had only redacted the cost of the permit. Still they had to pay the $100 boot removal fee and ticket.
AU G U S T 12 Campus Security Officers were called to Hale Noelani to take possession of a bong. Staff had earlier confiscated two from a dorm room. Bongs and hookahs are among the things prohibited in campus dorms. J U LY 24 A graduate student was arrested at Hale Mānoa after a woman claimed he sexually assaulted her. He met her in Waikīkī and she went to his room. He was arrested for sexual assault IV. J U LY 17 A man fell from a second-story window at Hale Noelani and landed on a car. Witnesses reported seeing him leaning out the window and yelling at someone. Another witness heard something hit a car and saw the man lying on the hood of a car. When Campus Security arrived they found the man on the car being attended by emergency personnel. The car’s windshield was broken.
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MIKO WALCZUK/ KA LEO O HAWAI‘I
Kiana Shroma (left) and Dr. Terry Hunt (right) can be found at the Honors Program office on the top floor of Sinclair Library. LYNN NAK AGAWA News Editor The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Honors Program welcomes a new director and academic advisor to its staff this semester. Dr. Terry Hunt, faculty member from the anthropology department, is the new director while Kiana Shiroma, who received a doctorate in educational administration from UH Mānoa, is the new academic ad-
visor. Hunt and Shiroma began their positions in August and April, respectively. “Dr. Hunt and I are new in this position and a new chapter will be written for the program. We are coming up with ideas of how to benefit students and how to help them succeed in college,” said Shiroma. The program has about 340 students, with about 150 new students joining the program every year. The honors program offers smaller, spe-
cialized classes, priority registration, the opportunity to dorm with fellow honors students, independent studies geared toward juniors and seniors and academic advising. “Specialized courses are courses that only include honors students and are taught by instructors who must be approved by the honors program,” said Shiroma. Shiroma believes honors students will benefit from smaller class sizes. “When I took Religion 150 (as a UH student) the class had 300 students, but the honors course had only 20 students in it. The instructor to student ratio is a lot better.” One of the main changes in the honors program is how the honors award is based. The requirement used to be 12, 15, or 18 credits with a GPA requirement for each level. The credit requirement has changed to 12 credits minimum. “We (now) base the award on how well you do in the courses and not how many courses you take,” said Shiroma. For the honors program, there are three levels of distinction: honors, high honors, and highest honors. Honors distinction requires a 3.25 GPA, high honors a 3.5, and highest honors a 3.75. Selected Studies is the lower division of the program and is designed for freshmen and sophomore students. Upper Division Honors is designed for junior and senior students who usually complete a thesis as part of their studies. All students are invited to apply, as the program is an academic program and not a club or honors society. “Students who are talented and motivated to excel in their studies and in their everyday lives [are encouraged to apply for the program],” said Shiroma. Neal Akatsuka graduated from UHM in the spring 2010 semester. He completed his honors thesis on anti-GMO activists in Japan. Akatsuka entered the honors program as a freshman in 2005. This fall he will attend Harvard University to pursue a doctorate degree in cultural anthropology. “The thesis helped prepare me and See Honors, page 5