Chaminade wraps up joyful, thankful, generous golden anniversary year
By Hawaii Catholic Herald
Chaminade University of Honolulu closed its busy 50th anniversary year with a warm gathering of several hundred alumni, Marianists, faculty, staff, students and friends on Sept. 16 in the campus Mystical Rose Oratory for Mass and a friendly reception afterward.
The school used the event to thank its supporters for their steady enthusiasm through a year of special events and transforming milestones.
“We opened with a big bang in September 2005, and then closed with this intimate thank you,” said Melba Kop, a co-chairperson of the university’s 50th anniversary steering committee and a former Chaminade communication professor.
The anniversary year began on Sept. 17, 2005, with a joyful campus Mass, an open house and reception, and an extraordinary exhibit of historic photos by the late Marianist Brother Bertram Gabriel Bellinghausen.
“Take a deep breath and inhale the joy and thanksgiving of this event,” Chaminade president Sue Wesselkamper had exhorted the crowd packed into Mamiya Theatre for that opening liturgy a year ago.
The year continued joyfully with academic forums, special guest speakers, a fun-run, a Kaimuki community party, an elegant gala at The Royal Hawaiian Hotel, an alumni reunion weekend and a pilgrimage “in the footsteps of Father Chaminade” to France and Spain.
Bolstering the months of celebration was a remarkable gift of thanks from the university to the broader community — 90,000 hours of service.
The initial goal had been to encourage 50 volunteer hours each from faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends from Jan. 1, 2005 to Sept. 16, 2006, for a collective 50,000 hours of documented community service.
The Chaminade community nearly doubled that goal, surpassing it by more than 40,000 hours.
The school’s own accomplishments this past year did much to make the anniversary a golden one.
It was a year boasting in new facilities including the Vi and Paul Loo Student Center, the Brogan Hall for education and research, the Jean E. Rolles and Kiki Tidwell Sculpture Garden and Ceramics Studio, plus major renovations in science labs and student residences.
This past year, the university also began its largest construction project in decades — The Sullivan Family Library and Information Resource Center.
“Transformation” is the theme of the campaign to raise the financial support for this new era of growth for Chaminade. The campaign, announced in April at the 50th anniversary gala celebration at the Royal Hawaiian, has already raised nearly $40 million toward its 2008 goal of $50 million.
Students also made great strides last year. Enrollment grew by 36 percent. The class of 2006 rated among the highest in the nation for students with jobs awaiting them upon graduation. A significant number graduated from the university’s pre-med and biology programs. In June, five communication students represented Hawaii at the National Student Advertising Competition in San Francisco after winning the state competition.
The men’s basketball team brought home the NCAA PacWest Conference championship title and was second round NCAA Division II tournament participants. Three players were named to the all-conference team, one of them was named PacWest Player of the Year, and the head coach was named Pac West Coach of the Year.
Chaminade University offers programs of study grounded in the liberal arts with day, evening, online and accelerated courses. The main campus is located in Kaimuki at 3140 Waialae Ave., Honolulu, HI 96816, with 10 satellite locations around Oahu military bases and Catholic parishes and schools.