University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa was founded in 1907 as a land-grant college of agriculture and mechanical arts establishing "the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts of the Territory of Hawaiʻi and to Provide for the Government and Support Thereof".[14] The bill Maui Senator William J. Huelani Coelho through the initiatives of Native Hawaiian legislators, a newspaper editor, petition of an Asian American bank cashier, and a president of Cornell University,[15] was introduced into the Territorial Legislature March 1, 1907 as Act 24, and signed into law March 25, 1907 by Governor George Carter, which officially established the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts of the Territory of Hawaiʻi under a five-member Board of Regents[15] on the corner of Beretania and Victoria streets (now the location of the Honolulu Museum of Art School).[14] Regular classes began on September 14, 1908, with John Gilmore as the university's first president.

In September 1912 it moved to its present location in Mānoa Valley on 90 acres of land that had been cobbled together from leased and private lands and was renamed the College of Hawaii.[14] William Kwai Fong Yap, an cashier at Bank of Hawaii, and a group of citizens petitioned the Hawaii Territorial Legislature six years later for university status which led to another renaming finally to the University of Hawaiʻi on April 30, 1919, with the addition of the College of Arts and Sciences and College of Applied Science.[16][15]

In the years following, the university expanded to include more than 300 acres. In 1931 the Territorial Normal School was absorbed into the university, becoming Teacher's College,[16] now the College of Education.

The university continued its growth throughout the 1930s and 1940s increasing from 232 to 402 acres. The number of buildings grew from 4 to 17. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, classes were suspended for two months while the Corps of Engineers occupied much of the campus, including the Teacher's College, for various purposes. The university's ROTC program was put into active duty, which made the campus resemble a military school. When classes resumed on February 11, 1942, about half of the student and faculty body left to enter the war or military service. Students, who returned to campus, found classes cancelled due to lack of faculty and were required to carry gas masks to classes and bomb shelters were kept at a ready.[16] Once the war was over, student enrollment grew faster than the university had faculty and space for.

In 1947, the university opened an extension center in Hilo on Hawaiʻi Island in the old Hilo Boarding School. In 1951, Hilo Center was designated the University of Hawaii Hilo Branch[16] before its reorganization by an act of the Hawaiʻi State Legislature in 1970.[17]

By the 1950s, enrollment increased to more than 5,000 students, and the university had expanded to include a Graduate Division, College of Education, College of Engineering, College of Business Administration, College of Tropical Agriculture, and College of Arts and Sciences.[17]

When Hawaiʻi was granted statehood in 1959, the university became a constitutional agency rather than a legislative agency with the Board of Regents having oversight over the university. Enrollment continued to grow to 19,000 at the university through the 1960s and the campus became nationally recognized in research and graduate education.[17]

In 1965, the state legislature created a system of community colleges and placed it within the university at the recommendations of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare's report on higher education in Hawaii and UH President Thomas H. Hamilton.[15] By the end of the 1960s, the University of Hawaiʻi was very different from what it had since its beginning. It had become larger and with the addition of the community colleges, a broad range of activities extending from vocational education to community college education, which were all advanced through research and postdoctoral training.[17]

The university was renamed the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to distinguish it from other campuses in the University of Hawaiʻi System in 1972.

With the exception of the university's first semester, there has always been either a president, interim president, or chancellor. From 1907 to 1965, before the Hawaiʻi State Legislature created the University of Hawaiʻi System, which incorporated the technical and community colleges into the university, the president's role expanded to include oversight of all system campuses, with chancellors taking responsibility for individual campuses. As a result, the president has filled the role of chancellor at the university in addition to serving as president of the University of Hawaiʻi System.[18] The chancellor's position was created in 1974 and would be abolished in 1984, with Albert J. Simone becoming acting president on June 1, 1984.[17]

In 2001, the position of chancellor was recreated[19] by UH System president Evan Dobelle over conflict of interest concerns. It was again abolished in April 2019.[20]

• 1907–1908: Willis T. Pope (acting)
• 1908–1913: John W. Gilmore
• 1913–1914: John Donaghho (acting)
• 1914–1927: Arthur L. Dean
• 1927–1941: David L. Crawford
• 1941–1942: Arthur R. Keller (acting)
• 1942–1955: Gregg M. Sinclair
• 1955–1957: Paul S. Bachman
• 1957–1958: Willard Wilson (acting)
• 1958–1963: Laurence H. Snyder
• 1963–1968: Thomas H. Hamilton
• 1968–1969: Robert W. Hiatt (acting)
• 1969: Richard S. Takasaki (acting)
• 1969–1974: Harlan Cleveland
• 1974–1984: See list of chancellors below
• 1984–1992: Albert J. Simone
• 1992–1993: Paul C. Yuen (acting)
• 1993–2001: Kenneth P. Mortimer
• 2001–2017: See list of chancellors below
• 2017–present: David Lassner

• 2001–2002: Deane Neubauer (interim)
• 2002–2005: Peter Englert
• 2005–2007: Denise Konan (interim)
• 2007–2012: Virginia Hinshaw
• 2012–2014: Tom Apple
• 2014–2017: Robert Bley-Vroman (interim)

Originally called the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts of the Territory of Hawaiʻi and formerly the College of Applied Sciences, the College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources (CTAHR) is the founding college of the university. Programs of the college focuses on tropical agriculture, food science and human nutrition, textiles and clothing, and human resources,

The college was established as the Honolulu Training School in 1895 to prepare and train teachers and then Territorial Normal and Training School after Hawaiʻi became a territory in 1905.[21] As the school outgrew its location on the Punchbowl side of Honolulu, a new campus was to be constructed on the corner of University Avenue and Metcalf Street. The first two buildings constructed by the Territorial Department of Public instruction became known as Wist Hall and Wist Annex 1.[22] The normal school was eventually merged into the University of Hawaiʻi in 1931 as the Teacher's College. In 1959, the name was changed to the College of Education.

The College of Arts, Languages, and Letters (CALL) is the newest and largest college at the university. It was created following the dissolution of the College of Arts and Science and the merger of the Colleges of Arts and Humanities, Languages, Linguistics, and Literature (LLL) and the School of Pacific and Asian Studies. The college's core focus is the study of arts, humanities, and languages with a particular focus on Hawaiʻi, the Pacific, and Asia Studies.[23]

The College of Business Administration was established in 1949 with programs in accounting, finance, real estate, industrial relations, and marketing. The college was renamed the Shidler College of Business on September 6, 2006, after real-estate executive Jay Shidler, an alumnus of the college, who donated $25 million to the college.[24]

The School of Nursing was established in 1951, even though courses in nursing had been offered since 1932 with a partnership with Queen's Hospital School of Nursing.[15]

The UH Mānoa offers an Honors Program to provide additional resources for students preparing to apply to professional school programs.[25] Students complete core curriculum courses for their degrees in the Honors Program, maintain at least a cumulative 3.2 grade-point average in all courses, and complete a senior thesis project.[26]

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Library, which provides access to 3.4 million volumes, 50,000 journals, and thousands of digitized documents, is one of the largest academic research libraries in the United States, ranking 86th in parent institution investment among 113 North American members of the Association of Research Libraries.[27]

The National Science Foundation ranked UH Mānoa 45th among 395 public universities for Research and Development (R&D) expenditures in fiscal year 2014.[38]

According to U.S. News & World Report's rankings for 2021, UH Mānoa was tied at 170th overall and 159th for "Best Value" among national universities; tied at 83rd among public universities; and tied at 145th for its undergraduate engineering program among schools that confer doctorates.[39]

The university offers over 50 distance learning courses, using technology to replace either all or a portion of class instruction. Students interact with their instructors and peers from different locations to further develop their education.[40]

The University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center part of the Hawaiʻi at Mānoa with the facility completed in 2013 at Kakaʻako in Honolulu.[46] It is designated as cancer center by the National Cancer Institute and represents Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. It was founded in 1971 and was named the Cancer Research Center of Hawaiʻi before 2011.[47]

All UH Mānoa residence halls are coeducational. These include the Hale Aloha Complex, Johnson Hall, Hale Laulima, and Hale Kahawai. Suite-style residence halls include Frear Hall and Gateway House. First year undergraduates who choose to live on campus live in the traditional residence halls.[49]

Two apartment-style complexes are Hale Noelani and Hale Wainani. Hale Noelani consists of five three-story buildings and Hale Wainani has two high rise buildings (one 14-story and one 13-story) and two low-rise buildings. Second-year undergraduates and above are permitted to live in Hale Noelani and Hale Wainani.[49]

The university reserves some low-rise units for graduate students and families.[50]

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the YMCA of Honolulu has enjoyed a close and robust partnership since the university's founding.[51] Beginning informally in 1908, the YMCA held bible classes and discussions at the University of Hawaiʻi, when it was the College of Hawaiʻi. In 1912, the YMCA of Honolulu followed the college to Mānoa valley and continued its work in Hawaiʻi Hall. In 1922, the relationship was formalized and it was one of the largest and most active groups on the university's campus, including hosting events for high school and incoming students.[52][51]

In 1932, through funding by the Atherton family, the YMCA moved across the street to a three-story cement building on University Avenue. The building, called the Charles H. Atherton House or the "Pink Building", in addition to being the center for YMCA activities, also served as student housing and dining hall. In 1995, the YMCA purchased the Mary Atherton House next door to provide additional residential and activity space.

In 2017, the Atherton building was sold to the university and University of Hawaiʻi Foundation.[52][51] Today, its main offices are located in the Queen Lili'uokalani Center for Student Services building on the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where they continue serve UH students and families throughout Hawaiʻi.

The Atherton building has since been closed and renovations began July 2021 to turn the Pink Building into student housing and an innovation center.[53]

The Associated Students of the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa (ASUH) is the undergraduate student government representing the 10,000+ full-time, classified, undergraduate students at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. ASUH was founded in 1910 as the Associated Students of Hawaiʻi[15] and was chartered by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents in 1912.