Chaminade University of Honolulu

Marianist

Panelists Offer Solutions for ‘Housing the Houseless’

Faith-motivated responses to Hawaii’s homelessness epidemic was the topic of “Housing the Houseless,” a well-attended panel discussion at Chaminade University. Moderated by Hawaii News Now TV reporter and weather anchor Ben Gutierrez, the March 12 event was part of the Mackey Marianist Lecture Series: Catholicism in Prophetic Dialogue.

Panelist Peter Savio, a real estate broker/developer and social worker, characterized homelessness as a symptom of a greater problem – that being the high cost of housing in the Aloha State. As a result, many renters are just one paycheck away from losing their homes.

Savio called for the construction of affordable housing units financed by low-interest government loans. He also favors expansion of home ownership through equity-building rent-to-own projects that create “hope and opportunity” for lower-income families and individuals.

Panelist Terry Walsh (Behavioral Science ’93.), the new president and CEO of Catholic Charities Hawaii, believes in a “housing first” approach to getting people off the streets. First, provide shelter and meals for these needy individuals, Walsh said. Then tackle more deep-seated challenges such as alcohol abuse, drug addiction and mental illness.

“It takes a community to address this problem,” Walsh emphasized. “All of us together.”

Rounding out the panel were Dave and Bernie Reeves, retired teachers from Chaminade College Preparatory School in West Hills, California, and chairs of the Homelessness and Affordable Housing Committee at St. Ann’s Parish in Kaneohe.

Bernie Reeves, who volunteers for the state’s annual point-in-time homeless count, said the crisis is worse than the numbers indicate. That’s because many street people decline to provide information about themselves to outreach workers.

According to the statewide count from a single night in 2016, there were 7,921 homeless in Hawaii, up 4 percent from the previous year. More than half those counted lacked shelter of any kind.

“You have to organize individuals to solve problems,” Dave Reeves urged. Homeless people can help themselves to an extent, he said, “but they cannot do it alone.”

The Mackey Marianist Lecture Series has been sponsored for 20 years by Chaminade, Saint Louis School and the Marianist Center of Hawaii. The twice-annual lectures are dedicated to the memory of Chaminade’s first president, Father Robert R. Mackey, SM.

Chaminade Professor Demonstrates Concepts of Heaven and Earth through Ikebana

When Fine Arts professor Yukio Ozaki creates art, it is as if he is in a sacred space.  A space of silence electrified by thought. Patient anticipation precipitates into a decisive idea that acts, causing material elements to move, form and change.

“Every art form started as a gift to God,” he said as he shook a banyan branch taller than himself during a recent demonstration of Ikebana for the Marianist Educational Associates (MEAs).

Ozaki paused. Despite the crowded room, he connected with a hidden quietness in himself. Decisively he stepped towards the large ceramic vase, held the branch to the ceiling and with a loud, cleansing breath, suddenly slammed the branch into the prepared vase. Stepping back, he determined that it was good.  “A gift to God,” he proclaimed and named it.

Keeping in mind the requested “heaven and earth” theme, Ozaki created three unique floral arrangements.

Early that morning before the demonstration, he completed his first arrangement. Using flowers from the field tied to the tip of a bamboo branch, he fastened the bamboo to a palm tree near Henry Hall. The arrangement presented itself to the heavens like a banner. It heralded creation without fanfare or need for human approval.

The second arrangement was the banyan branch placed into the vase with a robust spirit.

During the third arrangement, Ozaki interacted with the audience, answering questions and sharing his method.  Discussion ensued on the differences between Western and Japanese perspectives made evident through decisions in the creation process. As he taught, he sorted through his collection of yard cuttings and scrutinized with a hidden agenda.  Chosen pieces were pruned for structure and line. Ozaki navigated his way through light and space, creating balance with placement. He deliberately ordered along dark branch lines intermittent moments of orange seed pods, green teardrop leaves and gray lichen grasping at banyan bark.

When he was young and still living in Japan, Ozaki considered teaching Ikebana as a possible career choice but found that was not the right fit for him. “When I quit lessons from my teacher in Ohara School of Flower Arrangement system in 1966, I thought I wasted more than five years of my life trying to become a flower-arrangement teacher to make a living. But the intensive training gave me an incredibly comprehensive foundation in aesthetics, material, design, history and culture,” recalled Ozaki. “The most profound philosophy I learned from my teacher was: ‘don’t arrange with your hands; arrange with your feet.’ By that, she meant: ‘Know where you can get the right material at any time when you need it’.”

Working with Ikebana taught him something else.  It revealed how he did not want to teach.  Consider it part of the pruning process.  His early career experience and what he thought of as failure shaped his style of teaching.

“Now, in education, I don’t teach. This is very different from the way I learned flower arrangement. It was always very painful to see my teacher take apart my arrangement in lessons and change my work so completely to her arrangement,” he shared.

Later in a sculpture class at the University of Hawaii, he felt validated when his professor said, “There is nothing more awful than seeing an instructor in the students’ work.”

The beloved teacher shared on his calling as a teacher. “I am convinced that God gave me a second chance in life through becoming an educator at Chaminade. I’m so blessed that there was a purpose for someone like myself,” said Ozaki modestly.   “It has been my educational motto that I facilitate my students’ learning, not teaching.”

His teaching manner connected with faculty in the room. “As I watched you carefully and thoughtfully prune the branches and leaves and flowers during the Ikebana demonstration, I realized this is how you teach,” wrote Joan Riggs, director of the Environmental + Interior Design program, in a thank-you email. “You meticulously examine your students’ work and guide them to discover and to discern what is relevant and meaningful and what can be discarded or re-used in a different way. I see all of this as an effort to seek the beauty and wonder of God in all things and circumstances. Your resulting arrangement was unique, interesting and thought-provoking. I see this in you and in the work your students produce.”

Ozaki joined Chaminade’s faculty in the fall of 1986 and continues to teach ceramics and 3D-design. Since 1973 he established himself as an artist mainly in the medium of ceramics and wood. His artwork has been exhibited in museums and in prestigious art exhibitions nationally and internationally, as well as in Hawaii.

Named as a Living Treasure of Hawaiʻi by Honpa Hongwanji of Hawaiʻi, Ozaki is not only a renowned artist, he is a renowned teacher. He was the first recipient of the Fr. Bolin Faculty Scholarship Award and recognized nationally by the Carnegie Foundation as Professor of the Year. He received the Chaminade Award for Commitment to Marianist Values as well as the Outstanding Tenured Faculty Award.  In 2005, he inspired the addition of the Jean E. Rolles and Kiki Tidwell Ceramics Studio and Sculpture Garden between Eiben Hall and the Sullivan Family Library.

For Ozaki, creating art and teaching are sacred spaces. Each is done as an offering to God.

Love You Then, Love You Still

More than 40 people celebrated their marriages by renewing their wedding vows on Sunday, February 12, in Mystical Rose Oratory.  The event was sponsored by Alumni Relations and Campus Ministry.  It has become an annual tradition at Chaminade in honor of Valentine’s Day and marriage.  Some of the couples were newlyweds while others have been married nearly 50 years. Alumni Relations director Be-Jay Kodama and her student assistant Arielle Regis cheerfully handed out red carnations and gave out prayer cards.  The renewal followed Mass with couples invited to come up to the altar.  Fr. Allen DeLong, SM, the presider, encouraged the couples to hold hands and look into each other’s eyes.  They each repeated the vows with a kiss to follow, as Fr. DeLong blessed them.

During refreshments, couples enjoyed each other’s company and remembered the proclamation of love and faithfulness made to each other in the past. Lots of hand holding with a few stolen kisses between bites of chocolate cupcakes continued, thanks to Alumni Relations. Later Kodama shared a Marianist thought from Our Marianist Heritage by Stefanelli (p.94) in light of Valentine’s day: “Father Chaminade insisted on the example of the early Christian Community….they had their quarrels and their battles.  But beyond that, they had so much to show forth to the world — a spectacle of love.”

Surely “a spectacle of love” — enduring love– would be an apt description of the couples participating in the wedding vows renewal.

Chaminade University Celebrates Founders’ Week

Banners with the images of Marianist founders, Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, Venerable Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon and Venerable Marie Thérèse Charlotte de Lamourous, held steady by the high winds, unfurled throughout Chaminade University’s campus. Banners of past founders and presidents of Chaminade University also heralded in the week. It was Founders Week (Jan. 23-28) and an opportunity for the University to celebrate its Marianist heritage, affirm its present day Marianist spirit and carry forward its Marianist values.

Honoring the Past

Monday morning, Campus Ministers set up a lei making station in the Vi and Paul Loo Student Center.  They stacked boxes of white and purple dendrobium orchids and threaded lei needles for students, staff, and faculty to craft together long garlands of flowers.  The garlands were completed in time for a simple draping ceremony at the Father Chaminade statue on the oval.  A simple prayer united the onlookers and gave pause. The group reflected on the rich Marianist past that preceded them.

Fully Present in the Here and Now

On Wednesday, the Chaminade family gathered at Mystical Rose Oratory for Mass and to honor three of its finest.  This was the 15th year that Chaminade University gave out its Heritage Awards. These awards, given annually to members of the faculty, staff and student body, who embody the Marianist spirit, give clear evidence that the Marianist charism is alive and well on campus.

 

This year’s awardees were:

  • Joan Riggs, associate professor and director of the Environmental and Interior Design program, who will receive the Chaminade Award, given to a faculty or professional staff member who has exhibited a continuous commitment to Marianist values in education;
  • Elaine Oishi, director of Administrative Services, who will receive the Marianist Award, given to a staff member who has exhibited a continuous and extraordinary commitment to the vision and mission of Chaminade University while drawing others into the collaborative community (Elaine was unable to attend due to health issues);
  • Jerri Gisela Francisco, vice president of CSGA Programming and Campus Ministry volunteer, who will receive the Founders Award, given to a student who has exhibited a commitment to Marianist values by outstanding generosity, respect for others, and spirit of faith.

Sowing Forward

Combining education and application, Campus Ministry on Tuesday presented an exhibit of Marianists doing good works globally. That afternoon the Chaminade community prepared food to serve to the homeless at Next Step Shelter in Kakaako, Honolulu. On Thursday, it was off to see the film Hidden Figures, which reminded students of social justice issues. On Friday, it was an Ice Cream Social, where Campus Ministry highlighted activities of involvement and civic engagement available to students and winners for the Founders’ Week photo contest were announced.

On Saturday, Founders’ Week culminated in service.  Faculty, staff, and alumni joined more than 60 students to outwardly express their Marianist Catholic values together. From sorting out clothes and household items at the Institute for Human Services to refurbishing furniture at Habitat for Humanity, from cleaning up the campus to cleaning out an ancient fishpond in Heeia, the Chaminade volunteers poured their energy into doing good works across the island.

The good works that the ‘ohana did that service day and participated in throughout Founders’ Week would continue to pay forward towards a rich Marianist future.