 Okay, we're back. We're live. I'm Jay Fidel. This is Think Tech and guess what? It's community matters because community does matter. Michael Bruno is the provost of UH Manoa or UH the whole system. Which one? UH Manoa. Okay, he joins us today. We are so happy to have him here with us because we want to learn more about the University in this time of COVID and inflection. Welcome to the show, Michael. Thank you, Jay. Appreciate it. So here you are and all you guys must be thinking about how how the University is changing, will change, must change because everything is changing and you know the the prize goes to the nimble. The prize goes to the one who sees the change. So what are your thoughts about this in general, Michael? Wow, we talk a lot about agility right now, Jay. You know, being resilient means you prepare, you respond and importantly you adapt. The organizations that are going to come out of this in a stronger position are the ones that can adapt to whatever the new reality that evolves and we're working hard to provide that flexibility, that adaptability that goes everywhere from how we onboard people, new faculty and staff to the programs that we deliver to how we take care of our students and our staff and our faculty to make sure the students learn, the faculty teach, staff support and they do all of that in a very safe and is very safe and effective way. Yeah, that'd be the primary thing right now because although Japsim is working on some pretty interesting projects around COVID, fact is we don't have a therapeutic and we don't have a we don't have a vaccine and it's no guarantee we'll have either of those and so the important thing now is to you know look at how to flatten the curve. People don't use that as much the last couple of weeks about flatten the curve. They have other ways of looking at it and and also about testing and tracking which technology can help us a lot with and I think the university can help us a lot with. Can we talk about the university's sort of technological response to the disease itself and then we'll talk about the delta factor. Yeah, that's a great question. The community that means the university community responded very very early on to to this and we were having discussions going back to late February with groups of faculty primarily about beginning the preparations for a possible move to the online delivery of courses. So that involved then looking at best practices, most effective technologies, the resources that we would need to provide to the faculty and also frankly to the students. So so that aspect started. How do you how do you learn remotely? At the same time in particular our medical science faculty and administration and even some students were looking forward to how do we play a positive role and and I'll add to that the engineering students and the engineering faculty. So there were there were so many examples of our faculty and their students kind of rising to the task and providing technology based support to the community as we began to battle this this pandemic here. You know I this is a mindset about this and it's not necessarily I want to make a million billion want to commercialize some smart idea it's also not necessarily I want to save the world it's just this is my personal experience I'm interested in your personal experience and and what you what you sense around the university. I think at the mindset that I see that I feel is I want to take I want we are at an inflection point and I want to do something good. I want to see if I can find a vacuum to fill. I want to do creative things that I that I never had a chance to do before but now that you know the the world was open for creativity. Let's see if I can in Jefferson's term Jefferson said make yourself useful. I want to see if I can make myself useful you know in the community context. Well how do you feel what motivates people to do that? You know two parts to that Jay it's a great it's a great question. Number one academia writ large across the nation has really been undergoing as a slow but steady transformation with faculty more and more interested in having an impact. The days of the so-called ivory tower where a faculty member is judged solely by the number of papers and that sort of thing. Those days are long gone and in particular in the technology domains science and engineering in particular you know we want to see what impact you're having out in the broader community. So that's that's number one and I would say and the thing that I've really come to appreciate in my nearly five years here at the university is the the strength of the connection out into the community. With the other nonprofits with the the health care system with engineering and consulting firms the business community the connection is really extraordinary. So you combine those two things and you you're you're really set up for the community writ large to engage directly with faculty on campus who are anxious anxious to make a difference. Yeah the word outreach comes to mind I got a survey yesterday about UH Sir Peter Adler Accord 3.0 survey and he's he's gathering opinions in the community about how the university is doing I don't know the results of this but we'll we'll hear about results and you know what the outreach might be in the future and maybe this is an inflection point for outreach too. You know for example one of the questions that your your comments made me think of it was Ed select as many as you wish of the following things where you think the university UH could achieve some success in outreach and that you would want to be part of and there were about oh I guess 10 things and it's all about training a new generation of workers a new generation for Hawaii a new generation that is up to up to speed up to grade on technology and all other things that may be relevant to our time you know to go into the next chapter of our state but to me this is a fascinating kind of question because there's so many things when you know come to mind this is a great opportunity to do things that we never did before to benefit the community every person as we have not before it doesn't stop at a degree it goes further. You're right now and it never stops at a degree we we had our commencement you know virtual commencement activities this year very bittersweet and very emotional and just you know that these students are anxious to get out and make a difference and they're they were seeing it over the last couple months with their own their own faculty and this this came up in some of the some of the gatherings you know I'll give you some examples that people might not know of so so out of the blue I get an email that the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources CTAR you know they have a fashion program well that program teamed with our theater and dance department really early on and said hey there's a real shortage of masks we're the we're the designers we know fabric we're starting to get some indication of what kind of fabric we need you know to to guard against particulates of certain diameters so you know that that chatter went on across a couple days and boom they started manufacturing masks in a big way and and the same was true with engineering who said well face shields we can 3d print these face shields and then of course as everyone knows one thing led to another and they also got involved in the redesign of ventilators none of those initiatives happened top-down none of those initiatives was prescribed by anybody like myself or president last year or anyway this this came bottom up I know a lot of it came up from students to their faculty mentors hey we can do this why don't we do this why don't we do that and it was it was really inspirational of course we know the stories about our nurses and our our physicians and our medical students you know and those very inspiring putting themselves in harm's harm's way on the front lines but I think people should know that even even in these other disciplines quite surprising quite surprisingly people stepped up yeah and it goes back to the question of why what what motivated them I would doubt they're in there to make a million billion I would doubt they're in here to you know help the people in I don't know Western Europe they're probably they're probably motivated to help the people in Hawaii and help the university am I right you're totally right that that strength that connection I you know it's it's interesting I interview people all the time are coming here for senior positions like like deans of colleges I often find myself saying you know if we're out to dinner you have to understand we are quite literally the only game in town so yes you know kind of humorously if you want to come watch baseball or football or volleyball what have you're coming to the university of Hawaii no professional sports teams here but more importantly for for that conversation this conversation if the state has an issue with respect to healthcare with respect to sea level rise a volcano erupting on the big island the governor the legislature those departments come to the University of Hawaii and and that's really exciting for the right type of administrator for the right type of faculty and and even for the right type of student that is all you're asking for you want to see your work your research your technology and knowledge put to good use out in society I see this let me call it an inflection point again as a as a pivot where we fully understand that we see the expertise at the university more useful for the community we see the community more appreciative of that expertise we see a connection in government and business you know and in the community in general where the university is helping and we want we appreciate their help and and we have no reservations in funding that because we can see the benefit right now right right right in front of our eyes so this is this is a kind of a destiny that has been long in coming and is here I see this as being a very important moment I think you're right on and President Lasser and I've been talking about this over the last month that you know as as these various groups at the university among our community have emerged as as thought leaders and as as doers really in response to this emergency public health emergency and also we should also meant mention the fiscal emergency so you have you hero I mean just churning out analysis and reports that are that are really really important in guiding the governor and the legislature so I'd be remiss not mentioning that it's really significant and and as you said all that comes together to really further strengthen the bond between the university and policymakers and the business community and I think that's I really think that's a permanent situation and one that I hope the community government will lean on strongly as we make decisions on the future of the state post pandemic because that's going to be where the real work you know that's that's the rubber meets the road when we make those decisions what what is the new economy not just you know we've been hearing about that for a long time but now more than ever I think everybody who talks about it means it's time for action yeah well I mean if we do same old you know do it the way we used to do it before that that really won't suffice because it's not not so easy to start up an economy you know and this I heard various points on this on NPR this morning you know you get certain camp thinks well we have a coiled spring nationally and it's just ready to go and then other people say well you know you don't realize that that the relationships the connections in a working economy they tended to degrade pretty quickly if the economy is not happening so as anybody's guess maybe you hero knows more about this it's anybody's guess about how quickly things could come together but the problem is you can't just say okay have at it Oklahoma Landrush it's not like that it's more like we have to go step by step then we have to test each step this has to be with great expertise great thought great concern the university can help in that at the end of the day though it's it's going to be significantly different for all of us and I think the smart money knows that and the smart money begins looking for the opportunities of contributing to the new the new economy and the new university and and I'm really happy to hear that that you're doing that it benefits the faculty the students the researchers the administration everything at the university but but query this you know we talked to me yesterday about utilities and how they they're consolidating around the country it's a natural process and if you look at universities you find that to state universities you know the public universities have grown much bigger I'm not sure why you probably know why but isn't it isn't reasonable to assume that going forward there will be a consolidation of higher education and although UH will be a local university our university the ones you know the the university that we care about that we are and mesh twist but also it's the state university and it will be closer it will consolidate with other state universities in a kind of regional way do you see that in the future I do I do in our in our strategic conversations particularly over the last 12 to 18 months I often find myself emphasizing that we we need to make sure those conversations are in the context of who we are and where we are so what are the what are the things that by virtue of who we are as the state university the only public research one university in the state of Hawaii and by virtue of our location in the middle of the Pacific as an island state what what do those characteristics then provide for in terms of our strategic imperatives we our programs must be responsive to state needs and at the same time they must capitalize on our strengths including our location so it's it's no it's no surprise to anybody that marine sciences and astronomy emerged as major major strengths I think we need to build on those and some other disciplines agriculture comes to mind and some of the unique business opportunities international business and economics and our linguistics programs and Asia Pacific programs these are unique to UH and they are areas that we can export so we could we could talk forever about you know sustainable sustainable agriculture sustainable use of the oceans protection of coastal communities against climate change and sea level rise the entire world is going to have to look at these issues we're just in a large sense we're first so if we you know we can capitalize we can export this knowledge we can export technologies yeah this is what Alan or she must said about about the work of Hawaiian Electric a few months ago before COVID just as it was starting in fact he said what what they were interested in doing these days is sharing what they learned about renewable energy with other places and you know counseling consulting what have you even making some money and taking the technology that they had learned about and implemented here for the benefit of other places and and Hawaii does have expertise that is worth exporting and because export export assumes there's some transaction going on it isn't just a giveaway so I totally agree and I think that this is a time for that but it seems to me that take agriculture for a moment agriculture has been you know a kind of frustration since the demise of the plantations we have the technology we have a history a hundred it goes back to the development of a sitar 110 years ago whatever it was right and you know we have the technology but but we don't have the incentives that will encourage young people to go out and start agricultural facilities farms and that requires a handshake between the University and the powers that be because you in order to incentivize you have to deal with tax and land you have to deal with policy you have to incentivize it's it doesn't come easy or cheap especially in an island state where land is limited so hey go ahead I just want to add to that that there I think I think sometimes we lose sight of the the cultural aspects of the change that we need to make so when it comes to agriculture you're talking about people's dietary habits you know should it be possible for us as an island state to have all the various berries 12 months of the year is that natural that's not natural there should be some seasonality and maybe that seasonality gets driven by you know more produce being grown here the same with with protein what where you get your protein well we're an island oh should we look more to aquaculture and and other forms and you mentioned energy of course UH is one of the country's leaders in alternative energy development and delivery the same as true there I mean you don't you don't drive around anywhere else in the US and see as many photovoltaic cells on roose as you do here it's it's part of the culture here and as time goes on you know that will become even more and more and the last thing I'll add to that is water island community water is is our most precious resource and we have ways of dealing with and and using managing even charging for water here that that don't exist in other states and so it's it's a bit of it's a bit of culture it's it's a bit of sociology that needs to come to the fore as we make some of these necessary changes yeah there's all kinds of possibilities out there one thing you mentioned which is struck me as a interesting point is that years ago I guess it was in the 60s Congress established the East West Center as an international meeting place a place which would welcome people from Asia you know to meet with Americans and for that matter Europeans and develop you know research programs and writing programs and so forth still exists although I relatively speaking I don't think Congress is as interested in the East West Center as it used to be but the East West Center is essentially correct me if I'm wrong it's the expression of UH's international you mentioned the Shardless School and of course that's international business but international relations foreign policy kinds of things you know and I've you know I've followed what happens in that in that realm but it seems to me that one of these days you may wind up being closer to the East West Center going forward it may be part of your international outreach don't you think yeah it already is I have to say J over the last three or so years under the new leadership at the East West Center there really has been a very strong coming together of our two organizations you know in this domain you really can't you really can't top the brand of the East West Center the East West Center is known throughout the world in particular across the Asia Pacific region but that is also as I alluded to earlier that is one of the unique aspects of who we are and where we are at UH Manoa so so that coming together is is a natural and I'm happy to say that there's there's a lot more both formal and informal partnering these days between the East West Center and the University of Hawaii at Manoa and and only good can come out of that I agree I agree it's a great thank you for mentioning that so we talked before the show began about about professional schools schools where you could learn something here we have a medical school aren't that many medical schools around the country people can come here and go to medical school though we probably need greater facilities to accommodate a lot of additional students and we don't have a dental school we have agriculture but maybe and we have oceanography but there are schools on the mainland that we would have to establish here from scratch if we were going to you know build that into the fabric of the new university and and query is that really necessary if we establish you know collaborative collaborative consolidative kind of arrangements with with regional groups of higher educational public public universities yeah that's that's a great point you know I think higher education has been evolving for some time now certainly going before the the Great Recession where there has been for most universities a recognition that they can no longer be all things to all people and they would have to I'll go back to that be true to where you are and who you are and and if if you can't deliver a program effectively or efficiently then maybe your students your local students and others will need to go elsewhere for that education I often mentioned the fact that we we don't have a vet school at UH so why is that somebody clearly along the line somebody said well if our local students want to go to vet school they'll have to go somewhere else for that and and there are other examples we can point to but this university like all other universities public and private over the next couple years I think are going to find ourselves asking that question perhaps in a more forceful way and a very you know be in a very reflective mode on where are the priorities for for Hawaii and where are the strengths that we can capitalize to make real impact both here and and globally yeah including including Asia of course I can see exchange students in a consolidated regional larger grouping I could see courses and I could see tuition where you have a discount one place or the other or both there's all kinds of possibilities this is a time for creativity not just for students figuring out how to make masks but for you especially for you this must be the kind of time where you wake three o'clock in the morning with ideas and you know and and in the morning you can try to implement them or you can not try to you know the three o'clock in the morning idea is the one that that that shows what's going on so my question to you is what do you worry about Michael what are the challenges what are the pitfalls going forward because just as much as you might have a really great idea a great you know creative solution a great reshaping of the university and its mission and its students and faculty and research and all that you might make a mistake so one of the things that worry you in going forward yeah well one of the things is the the concern that we we may not be reaching everyone when we have those conversations about what what are the what are the urgent needs of our community and how can we best address those needs we are Hawaii's research university we do the teaching the service and that essential research that's going to drive new new knowledge and new products technologies solutions but we need to make sure that all of that is as responsive as possible to the the place that gives us our name and and a good share of our of our budget and and so I I I don't maybe worry is too strong a word but I I certainly am concerned that we need to just keep at it you know we've had a little bump in the road so to speak and in having those conversations but I've been engaging with various foundations in Hawaii and and certainly the ledge and the governor's office business roundtable and others our board members both UH Board of Regents as well as the the foundation UH foundation board they've been fantastic as far as offering their advice guidance expertise we just we just need to make sure those conversations continue and that we take them to heart because we just I think all faculty recognize you can't circle the wagons and say no we need to protect what is in place that's that's not no university is gonna have success if all they want is to continue on with business as usual yeah you know I was very impressed with Dave Carl's 70th surprise birthday party where 70 some odd people showed up you spoke facility CMOS spoke and it was a sense of and and people from all over the country were involved in those 70 people and I was impressed in this in this sense it was it was certainly about research it was certainly about so west and see more in those organizations that do the American you know ocean oceanography research but but it was also about a family a family of the UH people on the same page enjoying their careers enjoying their their fellows and and there was something extraordinary about it in the sense I don't think this would have happened before COVID I don't think it would have happened before zoom and I'm wondering how you felt about that and whether that sort of teaches us something about the social family environment that we need to have to achieve what you're talking about going forward yeah I well I got a lot of the same reaction myself being there and seeing professor Carl and how important this was to him how touched he was by the event of course he's one of the legendary oceanographers in the world as achieved all of the possible honors and awards that one can achieve and in this field to your point about family it it has struck me it struck me right away when I arrived here that the university is really a very strong community I think part of that is as we have we've been talking about that connection to the community and I want to go one step further with another recent episode you know we have a we have a series of speakers that we run at the university anywhere from four to sometimes as many as six different speakers across the year and when I first got here all those speakers tended to be folks from the mainland and the group of us sat down one day and I just asked that obvious question you know we have some of the most famous you know artists and scientists in the world here why don't we showcase them in our community so we we've started to do that so roughly half of those talks now are UH faculty and the very first time we did that I'll never forget it was Professor Mark Hixon from our College of Natural Sciences he's a world-known expert in coral reef coral reef biology and so his talk was really around climate change and impact on corals well we had standing room only I would guess between 500 and 600 people at the talk and when I began and when I introduced the talk really I thought almost a throwaway line I said so we often invite people from the mainland but in point of fact the world's experts are often right here in your University of Hawaii and you know what that room erupted in applause spontaneously people were really touched by that notion that yes right here there is this place of excellence and you know people like Professor Dave Carl you know they are emblematic they represent that excellence and as I said in my remarks it's that excellence that attracts people to the University it's that excellence that that pushes up our reputation for everybody and this and the state and its citizens should be really proud of that excellence yeah and it's a world brand and it will attract people in many ways from everywhere thank you so much Michael Bruno really appreciate you're coming down talking to me Michael Bruno the provost of University of Hawaii Manoa we hope we can talk with you again soon and all the best in your efforts to remake the University and the state going forward thank you