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Hawaii Pacific University

Undergraduate School

Mailing Address
1 Aloha Tower Dr
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Phone
(808) 544-0200
Email address
businessoffice@hpu.edu
School Information
Hawai‘i Pacific University is an international learning community set in the rich cultural context of Hawai‘i. Students from around the world join us for an American education built on a liberal arts foundation. Our innovative undergraduate and graduate programs anticipate the changing needs of the community and prepare our graduates to live, work, and learn as active members of a global society.
General Information
Hawaii Pacific University's online library expresses support for activist anti-racism. It publishes resources on anti-racism, BLM, microaggressions, privilege, and anti-oppression from race-focused authors such as Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo. The university also requires a first-year one credit seminar on race and culture.

Actions Taken

Curriculum Changes and Requirements
  • HPU requires a 1-credit "First-Year Seminar course with focused discussions on Hawaiian culture and values, race and ethnicity, and support for LGBTQ students."
  • The 2023-2024 Bachelor of Social Work Student Handbook states the following regarding its curriculum: "As a diverse faculty. we aim to inspire and train students to engage in critical self-reflection and embrace decolonization efforts within their academic training and field placements. When possible, we advocate for inclusion of cultural protocols and practices and view practice-based evidence as equally meritorious to Western theoretical practice approaches and evidence-based treatment in our HPU curriculum."
  • The 2023-2024 Bachelor of Social Work Student Handbook includes the following competencies: "Social workers understand the pervasive impact of White supremacy and privilege and use their knowledge, awareness, and skills to engage in anti-racist practice;" "Social Work students demonstrate anti-racist and anti-oppressive social work practice at the individual, family, group, organizational, community, research, and policy levels;" and "Social work students demonstrate cultural humility by applying critical reflection, self-awareness, and self regulation to manage the influence of bias, power, privilege, and values in working with clients and constituencies, acknowledging them as experts of their own lived experiences."
  • HPU students are required to take one course from the "Global Crossroads and Diversity" curriculum which is described as follows: "Courses explore cross-cultural perspectives and selected concepts that underscore contemporary issues of global concern. Students will develop awareness of cultural practices and traditions in the context of a changing, globalizing world while reflecting on their own values and customs. Students will learn exchange ideas and connect with diverse communities and cultures."
Program and Research Funding
  • The goal of the HPU Undergraduate Infrastructure Student Research Center is to "leverage entrepreneurial research to attract, train, and mentor HPU underrepresented undergraduate students into biomedical research; prepare them for graduate school; and link them to the scientific workforce."
  • On August 15, 2023, HPU News reported that five HPU students and alumni "took part in the annual Student Research Symposium organized by the Islands of Opportunity Alliance–Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation." The Symposium is a "National Science (NSF) Foundation funded program at HPU..." that has the aim of "support[ing] underrepresented students in STEM" and is the "only such program focused on Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students."
  • On March 22, 2024, HPU News reported that the university received the "NASA Space Tech Catalyst prize" which included a $25,000 award in order to advance "underrepresented students in space research."
Resources
  • HPU's library offers extensive resources on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The library writes that "while diversity and inclusion are essential practices, challenging and dismantling individual, group, and systemic biases also requires anti-oppression. " This "involves actively working to eradicate biases on all levels, as well as the systems of power and privilege that perpetuate marginalization and oppression."
  • HPU's library on DEI provides sources for "anti-racism." HPU recommends books such as "How to be an Antiracist," "White Fragility," "Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect," and "Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement."
  • On October 13, 2023, HPU held its "first student-led diversity conference designed to raise awareness, increase knowledge, develop skills, and plan for social action around key DEI topics and trends impacting current college students in Hawai'i."
  • HPU's 2023-2024 Course Catalog includes a course titled "Diversity and Social Change" which "addresses methods for positively impacting social and cultural diversity and equity issues including the possible effects of culture, race stereotyping, family, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual identity, language, and values on student development and progress in the school setting."
Last updated June 28th, 2024
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