TMT: UH System-wide walkout planned for tomorrow

The Pūkoʻa Council, the Native Hawaiian council of the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) system, has called for a system-wide walkout among all Native Hawaiian-serving programs on Monday, April 13 at noon, in protest over the proposed Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) project.

“The University of Hawaiʻi, which purports to be a ‘Hawaiian place of learning,’ continues to disregard the voice of the Hawaiian community in its opposition to the construction of the Thirty-Meter Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea,” the council said in a press release sent today.

The walkout will lead into a rally at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa (UHM) Campus Center courtyard, followed by a press conference at 12:30 p.m. The Pūkoʻa Council plans to issue a public statement on its position to the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents.

Professor Jon Osorio, from the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, plans to release a separate letter urging the Thirty Meter Telescope Corporation partners to divest from the project. The letter has garnered support from over 150 organizations within the broader UH community, including departments, professors, staff and student organizations.

“The [UH] Board of Regents and the Office of Mauna Kea Management can no longer speak on behalf of the entire University for this issue,” said Dr. Lilikalā Kameʻeleihiwa, the UH Mānoa representative for the Pūkoʻa Council. “As we’ve seen in the past week, opposition to this issue is widespread, and this includes opposition within the university itself. The Board of Regents needs to know this, as do the TMT investors.”

“Mauna Kea is sacred to Native Hawaiians, and is part of the corpus of Hawaiian national lands. But this is not simply a Native Hawaiian issue,” said Candace Fujikane, a professor in the English Department. “This is an environmental issue; one of upholding legal protections for the environment as well as one of good government. There are three court cases yet to be resolved over the TMT, so why is the university beginning construction?”

The Pūkoʻa Council is composed of representatives from all 10 system campuses. The council met with UH President David Lassner at Kapʻiolani Community College on April 6, 2015. At that meeting, the council informed President Lassner of its “firm” opposition to the TMT project. The council urged the president to put a stop to its planned construction.