Kahuliau

Kahuliau committee

This committee was originally formed in response to student, postdoc, and staff demands and has evolved into a permanent committee dedicated to improving our ocean sciences community at UH Mānoa.

Our department website is currently down, so you can’t actually read about our work right now, but here are some of my thoughts on the current state of things:

Each day we are witnessing systematic attacks on science in the United States. Each of us, whether we are individual researchers, students, project leads, or the head of an institution, is faced with the lose-lose situation of keeping our heads down, scrubbing websites and mission statements of anything related to “DEI” or pushing back and risking losing funding, jobs, or becoming the target of unwanted attention. It may be the case that you feel you can do more good by supporting those around you or those in your organization than by speaking out. There is no answer, no magic solution that makes this situation easy.

Yet in staying quiet or pre-emptively removing all hints of diversity, we leave the most vulnerable in our communities to stand alone. I therefore believe it is important to reaffirm our shared commitment to inclusion in science, to the idea that diversity of people and ideas makes our science better, and to the understanding that merit is more than the list of publications and awards on our CVs but also includes the challenges overcome to get where you are.