Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 12, 1 Kekemapa 2005 — UH faculty nixes Navy center [ARTICLE]

UH faculty nixes Navy center

University of Hawai'i faculty leaders have struck a blow to plans to launeh a $50-mil-lion Navy research partnership with the school. On Nov. 16, the UH Mānoa Laculty Senate approved by a vote of 31-18 a resolution requesting that school administrators reject the plan to bring the controversial University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) to the school's main campus. The proposal, however, could still heeome a reality if it is approved by the university's interim President, David McClain; interim Mānoa Chancellor Denise Konan; and the Board of Regents. The vote was the latest display of opposition to the project, whieh would create the fifth such research center in the nation. Since its introduction in Iuly 2004, the UARC proposal has been denounced by some teachers, students, community members and several Native Hawaiian organizations, who see the proposal as an attempt to further militarize Hawai'i. Opponents elaim that research conducted through the proposed center, such as military weapons development, maybe deemed

classified by the Navy, thereby keeping the puhlie in the dark about what types of studies are being performed on the campus. In the spring, protestors held a weeklong pation of McClain's UH office, demanding that the approval process be slowed down so that more discussions on the issue could take plaee. Proponents of the plan elaim that the university needs the federal research funding, whieh is getting harder to eome by, and that the proposed relationship with the Navy could make the school one of the nation's premiere research centers. In addition, they say that most of the work done through the proposed center would be unclassified and that no weapons of mass destruction will be created at the university.

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