Chaminade University of Honolulu

Campus and Community

Important Travel Update for Out-Of-State Students

Following discussions with Chaminade University and other institutions of higher learning in Hawaii, Governor David Ige has announced special modifications to the State’s 14-day quarantine for out-of-state college students registered for classes this fall.

The modifications, coupled with strong safety protocols, are meant to protect the broader community while recognizing the importance of student participation in their own learning―and in university activities at the beginning of term.

“At Chaminade, we have worked hard to institute a host of protocols aimed at protecting our campus and community from the spread of COVID-19,” said Dr. Lynn Babington, Chaminade president. “These quarantine modifications balance the needs of our incoming out-of-state students with the appropriate safety concerns of the Ige administration, and we are happy to offer them to our students this fall.”

Details of the modified quarantine for out-of-state students have just been finalized and include allowing out-of-state students who have tested negative for COVID-19 to adhere to a “bubble” quarantine within the university community―releasing them to participate in classes and safe university-sanctioned activities―rather than a strict lockdown. When students in the “bubble” quarantine program are not participating in university activities, they must remain in their places of residence.

No family members will be eligible for “bubble” quarantine modifications. This means that family members traveling with the student will need to adhere to the State’s mandatory 14-day quarantine.

This program, exclusively for university students in Hawaii, will work in parallel with the State’s mandates for face coverings and social distancing. It is also coupled with the university’s existing daily health screenings and evolving guidelines to protect our campus community.

There are three scenarios for the modified quarantine. Please understand this continues to be a dynamic situation, and parameters from State leadership are continually evolving. The university will continue to communicate the latest updates via email and on the COVID-19 section of the university website.

  • Category A (STRONGLY RECOMMENDED): Student has obtained a negative result for pre-travel COVID-19 test taken with 72 hours of travel to Hawaii. All students in this category will be required to provide a written attestation to several health- and exposure-related questions. Students who return a positive test result must contact the university for additional assistance and full quarantine procedures. (The COVID-19 test must be a nucleic acid amplification test or NAAT test conducted at a CLIA-certified laboratory per the State of Hawaii’s mandate.)
  • Category B: Student is awaiting COVID-19 test result (after arrival in Hawaii). Students in this category will report directly to their intended place of residence and enter the State’s 14-day mandatory quarantine. A negative result (during the 14-day quarantine) will allow students to break quarantine to attend university events with proof of University Modified Quarantine Approval. Students who return a positive result will be assisted by the university with full quarantine procedures and requested health-related support.     
  • Category C: Student does not have State-approved COVID-19 testing available in their area (outside the State of Hawaii). Please email [email protected] immediately for support and further assistance with possible testing options in your area.

STUDENTS: Please complete this form today to express your interest in qualifying for this modified quarantine program.

The announcement of the quarantine modifications for out-of-state students comes as Chaminade prepares to welcome undergraduate students to campus on August 24.

As part of safely reopening campus, the university’s COVID-19 task force has re-spaced learning areas and classrooms to ensure social distancing guidelines can be followed. Signage is also posted across campus to remind everyone of the importance of face coverings, maintaining a six-foot distance from others and regularly washing hands. In addition, the university is conducting regular health screenings and has installed contactless temperature stations throughout campus.

For the latest on Chaminade’s coronavirus response, go to chaminade.edu/coronavirus.
For questions concerning the modified quarantine program, please contact Stari Nakano, Assistant to the Dean of Students, at 808-735-4710 or [email protected].

Welcome to the New Normal

Spanish Mission architecture. Large expanses of green. Blooming bougainvillea.

Classroom set up per COVID-19 guidelines

At first glance, Chaminade doesn’t appear to have changed much in the last several months. But a closer look reveals a myriad of upgrades—all aimed at keeping people safe.

In classrooms and other shared spaces, seating is kept 6 feet apart and markings on the floor offer a guide for how to space out. Signage posted all over campus reminds everyone to wear a mask and practice social distancing. At strategic locations, you’ll find sanitation stations and no-contact thermometers. And Chaminade’s maintenance team is busy throughout the day, keeping high-traffic areas and frequent touchpoints sanitized and well-cleaned.

Contactless temperature station

It’s all part of the university’s commitment to ensuring a safe and healthy environment for everyone—and is thanks to a large team of Chaminade faculty and staff who worked tirelessly to develop and execute a campus reopening plan that put a priority on community wellbeing.

The university has already taken some major steps in that plan.

Like most campuses around the country and in Hawaii, Chaminade went fully to online instruction in March amid “stay-at-home” orders and a push to flatten the coronavirus infection curve. Shortly after closing campus, however, Chaminade got to work to craft a strategy—and a timeline—for safely welcoming people back.

Health screening checkpoint

Staff returned first—in June. Then, on July 6, in-person graduate instruction resumed. Undergraduate and Doctor of Clinical Psychology students come back to campus for the fall Aug. 24.

A COVID-19 task force was convened to gather data-informed safety protocols locally and nationally, determine what needed to be done—and then figure out how to do it. They tackled a host of projects in a short period, including a campus-wide effort to reconfigure classrooms, residence halls and common areas to accommodate social distancing requirements.

COVID-19 signage

The university also focused on other areas, including by posting bold signage with health reminders and communicating regularly with members of the Chaminade ‘ohana to keep them up to date with what was going on. The appeal to everyone: when you’re on campus, you’ll need to do your part to keep it safe by wearing a mask and practicing social distancing.

As more people have returned, it’s a message that has resonated across a university community that prides itself on a mission of service to others. Everyone understands they share the responsibility of creating a safe campus and that their actions protect not only themselves but other members of the Silversword ‘ohana—and their family members and friends, too.

Caring for Caregivers

As a nursing major, Rosemarie Maltezo was excited for her junior year. It’s when she was going to get to work hands-on in a clinical setting and put into practice some of what she had learned about patient care in the last two years in the classroom and simulation lab.

Queen's Medical Center's nurses and staff saying thank you to the HOSA Club for the care package donation
Queen’s Medical Center Punchbowl unit nurses thanking the HOSA Club for the care packages

Maltezo was assigned to the 9th floor of the Diamond Head Tower at Queen’s Medical Center, and spent her time shadowing and assisting the unit’s nurses. But a week after her clinical coursework ended, COVID-19 hit and she received a message from her professor saying that the whole 9th floor had been turned into a COVID unit.

That hit home. The nurses Maltezo had been working alongside were now on the front lines of combating a still very mysterious and unpredictable global disease outbreak.

Maltezo wanted to help. She was the president and founder of the Chaminade Health Occupational Schools for America (HOSA) Future Health Professionals Club, and they were slated to do a community service project with the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America in April. When that event was canceled, Maltezo saw it as an opportunity to get down to the core of who they were and what they believed in.

Chaminade's HOSA Club's care pacakges
HOSA Club’s care packages

HOSA Club members are all aspiring healthcare employees, and throughout their time in clinicals they had come to realize just how much of a sacrifice nurses make every day. The global pandemic brought that sacrifice to a whole new level.

“Going through clinicals, we noticed that nurses do so much for us that sometimes they forget to take care of themselves,” says Maltezo. “Their number one priority is being an advocate for their patients, but sometimes they neglect their own health to keep us alive and running.”

With funding and supplies donated by Chaminade’s School of Nursing and Health Professions and two of their club advisers and professors, Denise Cooper and Dr. Edna Magpantay-Monroe, the HOSA club members put together 128 care packages to donate to nurses on the front lines at Queen’s Medical Center Punchbowl and Queen’s Medical Center West Oahu.

Each care package included a stress ball shaped like a pill with the label “chill pill”, face masks, deodorant and some power snacks. The packages also included mouthwash and gum, because as Maltezo realized during her clinical rotations, “they’re in their masks all day and honestly it’s so hard to be in a mask and smell your own breath all day.”

Chaminade's HOSA Club delivering care packages to Queen's Medical Center
Delivering care packages to Queen’s Medical Center West Oahu: Rose Alika Maltezo, Jasmine Pineda, Alisha Chavez, Elanie Sua’ava and alumna Brandy Dela Cruz

Maltezo founded the HOSA club in the spring of 2018. The Chaminade club is part of the international HOSA organization which empowers future healthcare leaders. Member clubs participate in community service, leadership opportunities, networking events and competitions.

The students and their advisors chose to deliver the packages at the end of May, once COVID-19 was starting to slow down so that they wouldn’t be a bother at the hospital and interrupt the busy workflow of the nurses. They dropped off packages at Queen’s Punchbowl on May 15 and Queen’s West on May 26, and were met by Chaminade alums Edlene Vanessa Coloma, Kate Chamberlain and Brandy dela Cruz who came out to receive them.

Maltezo had participated in a HOSA club at her high school, and knew she wanted to bring the club to Chaminade. So her freshman year, she recruited a few upperclassmen to help her create a Chaminade chapter, and by summer 2018 they had already won second place in their first international competition in Dallas, Texas. They repeated that accomplishment again in summer 2019, winning second place in the international competition in Orlando, Florida.

HOSA Club at a competition
HOSA Club at a competition, winning second place

Maltezo is stepping down as president this coming year to focus on finishing her fourth year as a nursing student. The club has selected sophomore Kelvin Manganaan to take over as president, and Maltezo will serve as his vice president to help get him settled into the new role. 

“This coming year we want to participate in the Hawaii State Leadership Conference again, and hopefully send at least 10 people to the international competition,” says Maltezo. “We also want to be more involved in the community.”

Honolulu NAACP Hosts Virtual Town Hall

Over 10,000 people took part in a rally at the Hawaii State Capitol on Saturday, June 6, to show solidarity with the black community against systemic racism and police brutality. It was the largest of several peaceful protests that took place across the state in response to the recent killing of George Floyd.

Following the rally, the Honolulu chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) held a virtual town hall meeting featuring a panel of community leaders, including Chaminade Professor Dr. Allison Paynter. Paynter was joined by the Reverend Dr. Anthony Cook from Trinity Missionary Baptist Church; John McCarthy, the deputy chief of the Honolulu Police Department; Rep. John Mizuno from the Hawaii State Legislature; and Christel Thompson, a family counselor.

Co-host and NAACP Honolulu Branch President Alphonso Briggs began the town hall by explaining that the meeting was designed to be the next step after the march. Now that the rally was over, what could be done to continue discussions and further efforts to address systemic racism?

Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald helped put the issue of racism into a local context. “I want to make very clear—this is not just an issue for the mainland,” stated Recktenwald. “One study showed here in Hawaii, a person who is black is more than twice as likely to be imprisoned than a person who is white. So we have a lot of work to do.”

John McCarthy, deputy chief of the Honolulu Police Department, opened by immediately calling out the killing of George Floyd. “I’ve been in law enforcement for 44 years with the Honolulu Police Department,” said McCarthy. “I’ve seen a lot of things, but even that was disturbing and appalling and should never have happened, anywhere. It just shouldn’t have gone down that way.”

NAACP's Virtual Town Hall - Dr. Allison Paynter was one of the panelists

Dr. Allison Paynter offered a historical perspective, comparing today’s perceptions of African Americans to a quote from the early 20th century by one of the co-founders of the NAACP, James Weldon Johnson.

The quote reads: “The battle was first waged over the right of the Negro to be classed as a human being with a soul; later, as to whether he had sufficient intellect to master even the rudiments of learning; and today it is being fought out over his social recognition.”

To Paynter, the quote reflects how unfortunate it is that nearly 100 years later, “we are still trying to establish the African American as a viable, just and equitable partner in the citizenship of America.”

The outrage Paynter sees flooding the streets across the nation is not surprising to her. She supports the emotional responses and sees them as a vital component to our wellbeing, but she encouraged protesters to channel their aggression into creative venues. She called on youth to use their words, their social media platforms, their art and their politics to demand effective change.

While Paynter described racism as “the most virulent virus around,” she understands how the current COVID-19 pandemic in conjunction with civil rights protests across the nation has many on edge. As the only higher education representative on the panel, she recognized that parents of college-aged students may be feeling incredibly anxious about a fall return to the classroom given recent events. She described Chaminade’s plan for hybrid learning—combining face-time in the classroom with online lectures and seminars—as one way forward.

“The most important thing a family can do is speak to their institutions and make sure that any concerns they have are answered,” offered Paynter. “I think all of our faculties and administrators across the nation are willing to take part in that discussion.”

Just as she began, Paynter closed her time by putting today’s protests into a historical context. “When we look at protests against slavery and the civil rights movement, we tend to look at them as closed capsules where we only have African Americans fighting for and dying for justice.” Paynter points to examples of that changing now—last week alone there were peaceful rallies in all 50 states standing in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

With new technologies and new ways of documenting injustices and organizing communities emerging, Paynter sees a growth in global awareness that we are all humans. “There is a media presence today that we didn’t have access to in the ’60s,” says Paynter. “We cannot be silenced, nor should we be silenced.”

She concluded by calling for intergenerational collaboration. “When I look back at some of these protests and protesters, and I see these voices coming forward in our youth, I am heartened,” says Paynter. “I am of one generation, you are of another. We need to come together and make sure there is a pathway for kindness, love and justice in the future.”

The full town hall meeting is available for viewing on the KHON website.

PPE for Queen’s Medical Center

CTRAC created PPE donated to Queen's Medical Center

The Castle Teacher Resource Activity Center (CTRAC) in Chaminade’s School of Education and Behavioral Sciences recently donated 62 face shields to nurses in the Trauma Unit at Queen’s Hospital to use as protection while treating patients with COVID-19.

CTRAC created PPE donated to Queen's Medical Center

When Chaminade staff approached Graduate Assistant Veronica Haskell about using the CTRAC equipment to create face masks, she immediately got to work creating a prototype. With a successful prototype in hand, she went into production and produced the face shields using the center’s 3-D printer and laser cutter.

Haskell, a graduate student in Chaminade’s Master of Arts in Teaching program, has worked at CTRAC for less than a year. She has learned to master both the 3-D printer and the laser cutter in that short period of time and has been invaluable on numerous projects, including this one.

CTRAC created PPE donated to Queen's Medical Center

CTRAC was established nearly 10 years ago through generous funding from the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation, and provides a much-needed space for students to study, relax, create and socialize. The center was turned into a maker’s space in 2018 and now houses the 3-D printer and laser cutter, both of which are available for student use.

Haskell worked with Dr. Elizabeth Park, associate professor of education at Chaminade, and Dr. Amber Noguchi, director of Undergraduate Research and Pre-Professional Programs at Chaminade. Together, they were able to coordinate the delivery of the masks to Queen’s in a contactless drop-off on June 1, 2020.

How will we be the change?

President Lynn Babington’s Statement Regarding Unrest Across the Nation

To the Chaminade community:

We mourn the tragic death of George Floyd and join those around the nation, and the globe, in calling for an end to the institutional racism that has plagued our nation for far too long.

The pain and anguish of protesters gathering peacefully in US cities is palpable and justified.

It is also familiar. And in their chants we hear not only George Floyd’s name but the names of countless other African-Americans and people of color who have been killed. 

Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. This must end. 

Silence is not the answer to racism, to bigotry or to violence. It never has been. Now is the time for a dialogue, for action—and for change.

Now is the time to speak the names of those we’ve lost so they will not have died in vain. 

As a Marianist educational institution, we are proud to stand for social justice. It is written into our mission.

And we believe our work to end racism begins at home. Chaminade University has built a safe and inclusive campus community, condemning discrimination. Over the years, we have sought to examine and amend our policies and ensure that all voices are at the table.

There is always more to do, however, and this moment in our nation’s history should give all of us pause. We must ask ourselves: how will we meet this crisis and seek to right the wrongs that were decades in the making?

How will we be the change?

It is everyone’s kuleana to root out racism wherever it is found. To be intentional, active, urgent and unified in addressing the systemic inequities and injustices that we face as a nation.

The images on the news and across social media should also fuel our resolve: the time for real change is here. This is too important to put off any longer. 

We can begin on a different path forward by condemning as a nation and as citizens these violent acts and offering to support one another in building a new future together. 

Many of you are struggling right now with the strongest emotions: you are outraged, you are grieving, you are afraid. These feelings are both incredibly difficult and absolutely understandable. 

Know that your campus community is here for you at this time and always.

We are here to listen, to learn and to lean into the hard work of racial reconciliation together. As one ‘ohana, we will be part of the solution.

Sincerely,
Lynn Babington, Ph.D.
President, Chaminade University