The Other Regents Are Also Meeting This Week

U of Hawaii Regents

From time to time at our UC Regents, the issue of their participation in a project to construct a major new telescope in Hawaii comes up, usually in public comments. The opponents argue that the new telescope - the TMT (Thirty Meter Telescope) would be an affront to religious beliefs of native Hawaiians. Proponents make counterarguments concerning that religious interpretation and stress the scientific benefits.

Hawaiian politicians on the whole seem both to want the new telescope because of the funding it would bring and, at the same time, not to want to dislodge protesters who have so far blocked construction.

The U of Hawaii has been the proprietor of the site of the existing and proposed new telescope. But there are plans to change the organizational structure concerning who is in charge of the site at Mauna Kea. At the Hawaiian Regents this week, there is due to be discussion of the Draft Report of the State House of Representatives Mauna Kea Working Group.* While that discussion is not directly focused on the proposed new telescope, perhaps it will shed some light on where things are going (or not going).

At this point, however, resolution of the TMT dispute seems a bit like self-driving cars: always coming but always some time in the future.

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*https://www.hawaii.edu/offices/bor/regular/notice/202201200830.regular.pdf.