There’s still plenty of room for students in the first classes to be held at Hawaii Community College — Palamanui, but those who want to register better hurry. Registration deadline is Aug. 1.
Officials with the new West Hawaii branch campus of HCC updated the County Council on Thursday about progress and plans for the 25-acre campus that’s so far been completed during the first phase of construction. The college wants to create its campus in phases over the next 10 years, eventually accommodating 1,500 students.
Currently, there are about 400 students registered for classes that being Aug. 24.
The campus could hold twice that, said Director Kenneth “Marty” Fletcher. He said the college has been promoting its new campus, but because it’s tucked away out of easy sight of the highway in Kealakekua, people may not be aware of its progress.
“I think we could easily accommodate 750 to 800 students,” Fletcher said. “I’m quite confident that we can easily double the number of people enrolled.”
University staff will have a table July 31 and Aug. 1 at the Kailua-Kona Public Library to help people register.
The campus promises to be not only a place of higher learning, but also a forum to bring the community together, council members said.
“This is a big boost to our community,” said North Kona Councilwoman Karen Eoff.
“We’ve been looking forward to this for so long,” added Kona Councilman Dru Kanuha, the council chairman.
Fletcher said the changing nature of higher learning, which is increasingly tapping into distance learning and other nontraditional forms, means universities have been investing less in bricks and mortar.
“There are not a lot of campuses being built anymore,” Fletcher said. “To build a brand new campus from the ground up is really rare.”
Palamanui will not be a stand-alone campus, in large part because of the expense of achieving and maintaining accreditation. Instead, the center will be a branch campus under Hawaii Community College’s accreditation. In addition, the campus will continue to offer on-site and distance education delivered classes and degree programs from Hawaii Community College , the University of Hawaii at Hilo, UH-Manoa and UH-West Oahu.
University system officials describe Palamanui not as an independent two-year or four-year campus but a gateway center, where students can access courses — many of them via teleconference — from across the university system.
The college will concentrate initially on liberal arts courses for transfer to a four-year university, as well as culinary arts, nursing, early childhood education, substance abuse counseling and Hawaiian studies. The college plans to connect with the business community for intensive internships.
Fletcher said the proximity of the campus to Kona International Airport will enable the college to bring in instructors from other campuses to teach classes, furthering the “flexible learning, blended learning” approach.