The English department at the University of Hawaii-Manoa will always hold a special place in my heart. I spent 5.5 years (including summers) at UHM, and English was the only subject at the school I always knew I'd truly enjoy, excel at and obtain a degree in. As it turns out, my double major in journalism was just fodder to my true love of creative writing.
It's been almost a decade since I've last been here for academic purposes, but I do recall a lot about the building, the faculty offices and the types of classes they offered. I liked most of my professors, and I looked forward to attending most of my classes, especially the upper-level, free-form ones. Although the English department is the largest in the UHM College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literatures (LLL), I strongly believe that its headquarters at Kuykendall are grossly underfunded and in need of major repair. There's an inadequate number of classrooms, sometimes the elevator (i.e., only one) doesn't work, hallways have poor lighting and AC is spotty (especially in faculty offices). It used to feel like a ghost town to me on many occasions, since not very many people hung out on the 2nd or 3rd floors despite all the available benches.
I'm giving the English Department / Kuykendall Hall four stars because - even if it takes another decade or two to actually fund and implement - I still believe there's potential here for something great. read more