Alumni News

With everyone who can work from home doing so, there’s been a major drop in usage of UH Mānoa campus facilities. Effective Monday, March 30, significant changes affecting access to, and operations of, all UHM upper-campus buildings will be in place. This will reduce the workforce reporting to campus and allow personnel to focus on servicing areas that must remain open to support critical operations.

For years, a dedicated group of volunteers called the Fruit Hui has maintained the research orchard at CTAHR’s Urban Garden Center in Pearl City. Harvesting over 200 pounds of fresh tropical fruit a week, the volunteers donate all excess fruit to the Hawaii Foodbank. The group of certified Master Gardener volunteers plans to continue to harvest weekly now that access to fresh food has become even more critical during the COVID-19 crisis.

Zoom in this Wednesday, April 1, at 3:30 p.m., to find out about efforts to eradicate the invasive weed tree miconia with Herbicide Ballistic Technology. In this latest installment in the Natural Resources & Environmental Management seminar series, NREM grad student David Lewis will discuss “Risk & Resources for Mitigating an Incipient Miconia calvescens Invasion.”

Cheng-Sheng Lee, executive director of the Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture, recently emphasized, “All current ‘stay-at-home’ and ‘shelter-in-place’ orders across the country include agriculture/aquaculture as one of the top essential functions to keep society moving, reminding us of the importance of the work of our farmers and stakeholders.”

Dean Nick Comerford offered the good, the bad, and the neutral in terms of recent COVID-19 news affecting CTAHR, from faculty and student success in the first week of online intruction to the recently announced hiring freeze to the need for appropriate documentation.