Maui College Transfer Final
Mauna Olu Will Be Absorbed
(1971)

The Maui College Transfer was just one of the main changes in the educational system during the seventies.


Maui's Mauna Olu College will be absorbed by United States International University, effective June 1.

Announcement of the transfer to USIU culminates some six months of negotiations between Mauna Olu and the San Diego-based university.

Colin Cameron, chairman of Mauna Olu's board of trustees, said earlier this year that the private college had been experiencing difficulty in recruiting new students and in raising capital for a new campus.

Cameron said he felt a USIU would be able to develop the Mauna Olu campas near Paia into a larger and better school. The transfer, he said, "provides an opportunity for us to do something we couldn't have done by ourselves."

USIU Maui College President William Rust said the university would work toward the enrollment of 1,000 at the Mauna Olu campus within five years. Enrollment eventually should reach 1,500, he said.

Mauna Olu's enrollment for the spring semester of this year was about 200.

Involved in the transfer agreement was a gift of land from Maui Land & Pineapple Co. and acquisition of other land from Alexander & Baldwin, Inc.

The transfer was approved over the objections of students, teachers and staff members at Mauna Olu who complained of their lack of involvement in the negotiations. They also expressed reservations due to the limited amount of information about USIU and its operations.

Mauna Olu will be operated as a two-year campus of USIU. Prior to the transfer, they had been involved in transition to a four-year school.

According to Rust, students attending Mauna Olu after June 1 will be enrolled in USIU and will carry out their lower division (freshman and sophomore) work at the Maui campus. Upper division courses will be taken at one of USIU's two San Diego campuses.

The announcement of the transfer described USIU as "a multicampus, private, independent University offering liberal arts and professional programs at both the under-graduate and graduate levels." The announcement said USIU has over 4,000 students on five campuses in the United States and three abroad, in England, Kenya and Mexico.