University of Hawaii faces backlash over $285m Navy research deal

The University of Hawaii (UH) has faced backlash over the poised renewal of its $285 million Navy research deal.

Despite critics calling for the university to end its partnership with the Navy, which began in the early 2000s, its Board of Regents unanimously passed a motion on Friday allowing administrators to finalize the renewal of the school’s contract with the U.S. military worth up to $285 million over 10 years.

Supporters of the Applied Research Laboratory—which is the name of UH’s U.S. Navy University-Affiliated Research Center (UARC)—say it creates well-paying jobs conducting research with important civilian applications, while critics say the university shouldn’t be involved in a partnership that includes work for the military, some of which is classified.

Critics are particularly concerned about the U.S. Navy, which is the laboratory’s sponsor, following back-to-back fuel spills at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Hawaii in 2021. The first fuel spill event in late November 2021 contaminated the Red Hill drinking water well, which affected about 93,000 U.S. Navy water system users.

Vassilis Syrmos, UH’s vice president for research and innovation, told The Associated Press (AP) that the recent backlash reprises one that started when the university began its partnership with the Navy nearly two decades ago.

“The catastrophic event at Red Hill brought all those feelings up again,” he said. “There is no way to sugar coat this thing.”

Meanwhile, the UH student senate passed a resolution demanding the university end its partnership with the military.

Momi Bachiller, a fourth-year student of molecular cell biology and Hawaiian language who serves as a student senator, said it’s disheartening to students that administrators are pushing forward with the contract renewal despite its opposition.

“We are stakeholders, but they don’t respect us,” Bachiller told the AP.

The Applied Research Laboratory founded in 2008 focuses on ocean science, astronomy, optics and renewable energy. It is one of five UARCs across the country that researches critical Navy and national defense technology. The other UARCs are located at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Washington, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Texas at Austin.

The laboratory is a major source of funding for UH. Last fiscal year, the Department of Defense (DOD) provided roughly $65 million of about $625 million in so-called extramural funding the university received for research, according to Syrmos.

Syroms told the AP that Native Hawaiian students and residents are leading the outcry against the DOD.

“It’s a movement,” Syrmos said. “It’s a Native Hawaiian renaissance against the DOD presence. It’s real, and I don’t think it’s going away.”

Punia Pale, the student government treasurer, was one of the handful of students senators who testified against the research contract at Friday’s Board of Regents meeting.

“These lands should be returned to the Hawaiian people, and they should not be used for research that serves the U.S. military interests – especially when such interests have historically oppressed Indigenous people around the world, currently now Palestine,” Pale said during his testimony, in an apparent reference to U.S. support of Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza.

Meanwhile, in a presentation to the Board of Regents earlier this month, Syrmos quoted UH’s former president, David McClain, who recognized the controversy of the UARC but said researchers should be able to pursue their interests.

“Because of the inherent diversity and need for freedom of inquiry which in my view does and should characterize the academy, I tend to be biased in favor of measures to support the individual scholar no matter how popular — or even more importantly, how unpopular — his or her research interests,” McClain is quoted as saying.

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.