SSRI > Boilerplates
Boilerplate descriptions for uh manoa, college of social sciences, and ssri
university of hawaii
The University of Hawai‘i was founded in 1907 as the Hawaii College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. This land-grant college became the University of Hawaii in 1920 with the addition of the College of Arts and Sciences. In 1972 the original Mãnoa Valley campus was designated as the University of Hawaii at Mãnoa to distinguish it from the other units in the growing statewide University of Hawaii system. Today UH-Mãnoa is the flagship unit of a ten-campus UH system and the only institution in Hawaii classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a Doctoral/Research Extensive University. The University of Hawai‘i at Mãnoa is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior College and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Professional programs are individually accredited by appropriate agencies.
The mission of the University of Hawai‘i system is to provide quality college and university education and training; create knowledge through research and scholarship; provide service through extension, technical assistance, and training; and contribute to the cultural heritage of the community. The University of Hawai‘i at Mãnoa is the leading research institution in the state. Its leaders and faculty strive for excellence in teaching, research and public service.
Leadership for UH-Mãnoa is provided by a Chancellor and four Vice Chancellors with responsibilities for research, academic affairs, student affairs and administration and budget. The instructional and research responsibilities are carried out in 16 colleges and schools each headed by an academic dean and 55 organized research centers, institutes, programs and offices headed by a director.
Traditionally the system’s special distinction is found in its Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific orientation and in its international leadership role. The Mãnoa campus is known for its strengths in tropical agriculture, tropical medicine, oceanography, astronomy, electrical engineering, volcanology, evolutionary biology, comparative philosophy, comparative religion, Hawaiian studies, Asian studies, Pacific Island studies and Pacific region public health. UH Mãnoa offers instruction in more languages than any U.S. institution outside the Department of State.
The Mãnoa campus enrollment is on a steady increase. In the fall semester of the 2003-2004 academic year 19,863 students were studying towards bachelor’s degrees in 87 different bachelor degree programs, 89 master’s degree programs, 57 doctorate programs and first professional degrees in law and medicine. Of this total, 13,775 were undergraduates and 6,108 were enrolled in graduate and/or professional degree programs. Approximately 69% of the students were undergraduates. Among the undergraduate enrollment, 735 students were nonresident aliens. The self-reported ethnic breakdown of the remaining students was: Black 125; American Indian or Alaska Native 40; Asian or Pacific Islander 7,588; White 2,779; and Race/ethnicity unknown or not reported 2,234.
The educational, research, and service role of UHM is carried out by a staff of 8,646 that includes 2,447 faculty, 929 Administrative, Professional and Technical (APT) staff, 77 Executive and Administrative personnel, 1,102 Graduate Assistants and 1,002 Civil Service staff. The academic staff is well qualified with 94.8% of faculty at the rank of Professor holding a Ph.D. or first Professional Degree. The Ph.D. rate for Associate Professors is 91.7% and that for Assistant Professors is 85.9%. Thirty six percent of instructional faculty at Mãnoa are women.
As the only publicly funded institution of higher education in the state, the University of Hawai‘i system receives the bulk of its operating budget from an annual appropriation from the Hawai‘i State Legislature. For FY 2002-2003, total expenditures for the Mãnoa campus were $591,750,435. Of this amount, $ 238,367,634 were from State general funds. The remaining $353,382,280 came from various federal and revolving funds.
For the fifth year in a row, the University of Hawai‘i has received record extramural support for research and training. The $323 million received in FY2002-2003 reflects a 150% increase over the last ten years. Of this amount, $190 million was for research. The bulk of extramural support to UHM comes from federal agencies. The largest supporters of research at Mãnoa are the Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, the Departments of Education and Commerce, Energy and Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2003 the largest recipient of extramural funding was the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences followed by the School of Medicine and the College of Natural Sciences. In addition to competitive grants made to individual faculty investigators, the University and the State of Hawai‘i also has received a major strengthening grant from the NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program. Funds from this grant are being used to further enhance the ability of Mãnoa and other UH system researchers to successfully compete for major research center and other RO1 grants. The Hawaii EPSCoR program is focusing its institutional and faculty strengthening efforts in three general areas: evolutionary genetics, ecosystems studies and information technology for environmental research.
Currently the largest capital improvement expenditure in support of research and graduate education is $150 million for a new medical school and bio-medical research facility that is presently under construction.
Educational and Research Support
Faculty and staff in the academic and professional schools and the various organized research units are assisted by a range of Research Support Services including the Office of Research Services (ORS), the Office of Research Relations, the University Research Council (URC), the Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development (OTTED) and the Research Corporation of the University of Hawai‘i (RCUH). Additional guidance to research investigators is provided by the Committee on Human Studies (CHS), the Hawaii State Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network, and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).
Most of the academic and research units maintain their own computer systems for instructional and research support. On the Mãnoa campus thousands of computers are interconnected by a high bandwidth network. A mainframe computing facility provides administrative and electronic communication support for the entire UH system. In October of 2001 the University of Hawai‘i assumed management responsibility for the Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC). UH operates and manages the MHPCC for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory under a 10-year contract. The MHPCC provides world-class, parallel computing capability to the research, science and military communities. The high performances computing resources include a range of technologies from IBM Power3 (16-way) and Power4 (32-way) configurations to large Linux clusters including the largest Linux Supercluster in the Department of Defense inventory.
Library Volumes, Serials and Special Collection
The University of Hawai‘i at Mãnoa contains 3.3 million books and bound serial volumes housed in two buildings, the Hamilton and Sinclair Libraries. Another 20,000 journal titles, 1,600 E-journal subscriptions and 3,500 CD-Rom titles are available electronically to students and faculty. The Hamilton Library contains the majority of the research collections in all subjects including the Rare Books and Special Collections. Sinclair Library maintains the Computerized Learning Information Center (CLIC), the Wong Audiovisual Center and the music collection. In addition, the library houses one of the primary collections of research reference materials on Asia and the Pacific in the United States. This collection receives materials in 17 Asian languages, as well as English and other Western Languages. The Pacific Collection contains more than 90,000 volumes and is particularly noteworthy for its legal publications from Pacific Island nations. The UH-Mãnoa library is a member of the Association of Research Libraries and ranks 64th out of the 113 university research libraries that are members. The two libraries are maintained by a staff of 55 faculty librarians, 90 support staff and 69 student assistants and a $14 million annual operating and acquisitions budget.
UH-Manoa has been involved in international education and research for more than 80 years. The university’s role in global exchange of academic and technical knowledge and resources builds upon our multinational faculty, institutional competence in selected fields and the comparative advantages provided by the location and environmental diversity of our island state. Currently more than 200 university activities and programs have an international dimension. In addition, the University of Hawaii ranks among the leading American institutions of higher education in terms of the number of foreign scholars on its staff and foreign students enrolled in its various academic programs. Currently over 1,600 international students are enrolled at UH with the majority coming from the Asia and the Pacific region. At present the Mãnoa campus maintains international exchange and partnership agreements with 87 overseas universities and research centers in 23 countries.
COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
The College of Social Sciences (College) is located in Honolulu, Hawaii, on the campus of the University of Hawai‘i at Mãnoa. The College is comprised of 14 departments and programs: Anthropology, School of Communications, Economics, Ethnic Studies, Geography, Peace Institute, Political Science, Population Studies, Psychology, Public Administration, Social Sciences Research Institute, Sociology, Urban & Regional Planning, and Women's Studies and offers a doctoral degree in all but six of these programs.
The College has approximately 2,141 undergraduate and graduate students, and 155 faculty members and staff. The Information Technology center in the College provides computing and communications infrastructure, services, support, and innovation for the instructional, research, public service, and administrative programs. The College has three computer labs for general instructional support and student use and three special use labs for instructional and research support. The special use labs include a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Lab, a Media Lab, and a Quiz Center.
SOCIAL SCIENCE Research institute
The Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) serves as the sponsored research division of the College of Social Sciences. As such, all contracts and grants awarded to faculty in the College are administered by SSRI. SSRI also facilitates and supports interdisciplinary, applied research that addresses critical social, environmental, and economic problems primarily in Hawai'i and the Asia Pacific region. This is done through collaboration with faculty and students throughout the University of Hawai'i and with other educational and research institutions, regional and international organizations, the private sector, and federal, state, and county agencies. It is supported largely by contracts and grants from public agencies and private organizations.
SSRI provides practical experience to students at the University of Hawai'i through involvement in research, planning, and training projects. Institute staff assists county, state, and federal agencies and local community groups in Hawai'i with training and technical assistance. SSRI also works with instructional units to integrate SSRI's research efforts into courses offered at the University of Hawai'i.
The institute focuses on five problem areas: crime, drug abuse, youth problems, and poverty; resources, sustainable development, and futures research; telecommunication and information policy; culture, language and social problems; and health services and health policy. SSRI cooperatively manages the UH Economic Research Organization (UHERO) with the Department of Economics. The Globalization Research Center and the Office for Evaluation and Needs Assessment Services, which provides needs assessment and research evaluation services, are also administered by SSRI.
SSRI is housed on the 7th Floor of Saunders Hall on the Manoa Campus of the University of Hawai`i. The Institute maintains a full complement of PC and Macintosh computers and has direct access to the University of Hawai`i's UNIX computer network and the World Wide Web. The Institute also supports a Video Conference Center and is tied to the Hawai`i Interactive Television system (HITS). SSRI is a hosting site for the Pan-Pacific Education and Communication Experiments by Satellite (PEACESAT), a public service satellite telecommunications network linking educational institutions, regional organizations, and governments in the Pacific Islands region.
Institute staff make extensive use of the University of Hawai‘i library system with over 3 million volumes including more than 26,800 currently received serials. The library system also provides computer access to other local and national indexes, specialized databases, and library catalogues throughout the nation. The Institute maintains some of the most extensive collections of materials on futures research, disaster mitigation, coastal zone management, oral history, and juvenile delinquency, in Hawai‘i.
SSRI is staffed by nine fulltime FTE, which includes the director, associate director, grants specialist, three fiscal officers, and three fiscal and administrative support specialists.
The volume of research and training contracts and grants have been increasing steadily for the College of Social Sciences and the Social Science Research Institute and stands currently at $14.9 million.
