Susan Kazama likes to go fast.
The new chancellor of Hawaii Community College said she took up snowboarding when she was 45 because she became bored with skiing.
“I just wanted to challenge myself,” said Kazama, who was born and raised in Hilo. “That’s part of the person I am, I like new challenges. What sort of 45-year-old is going to snowboard?”
Kazama — who became chancellor Friday after serving as interim chancellor since July 2023 — said the research and training she did to prepare herself for the slopes reflects her attitude toward her job: “You have to research it, you figure out what you need, and then you commit.”
Although Kazama declined to state her current age, she said she was part of the first graduating class at Waiakea High School in 1980, 44 years ago.
After high school, Kazama left the island to pursue a bachelor’s degree in psychology at UH-Manoa, followed immediately by a master’s degree in library science. Degrees in hand, she became a librarian at UH-Maui College and Honolulu Community College, before becoming the library director at Kapiolani Community College in 2001.
“Running a library was like running a mini-campus,” Kazama said. “You need to be organized, you need to be resourceful, you need to not know everything, but you need to know where you can find that information.”
Therefore, she said, it wasn’t a great leap to become interim vice chancellor for academic affairs at Kapiolani and Honolulu community colleges, and from there another short leap to interim chancellor at Hawaii Community College, back on the Big Island.
“It was a great opportunity to come back home,” Kazama said.
In her new position, Kazama acknowledged that she needs to address a number of ongoing challenges facing the college. In particular, she said, she has been focused on filling several staff and faculty positions that have been empty since the COVID-19 pandemic.
And, she said, she needs to find a way to boost enrollment, which she said was 2,260 for the 2023 fall semester.
“Not everyone wants to do a four-year degree; not everyone wants to do a two-year degree,” Kazama said. “78% of our students stay here on the Big Island. That means they’re invested here, they want to remain here. So, we’re trying to upscale them to jobs that can give them a living wage. … We’re trying to shorten the time it takes to upscale their skill sets.”
Kazama said the number of college-age Big Island residents has dropped over the last several years. In order to keep young people on the island, she said she hopes to offer more dual-credit opportunities for high school students, allowing them to earn college credits while taking shop courses.
At the same time, she said she tries to see through the eyes of students to find out what they need. In some cases, that involves checking in on classes and participating in college programs; in other cases, it involves installing a sign on campus so incoming students actually know where the college is.
Part of the challenge of attracting new students comes from the need to expand the college’s offerings.
Kazama said the college’s agricultural courses will be expanded: While the college currently has a single acre on which culinary students grow vegetables, that plot will expand to 16 acres, and she added that she hopes to allow for livestock courses as well.
“We want to do more with farming, since I think 80% of our food is still imported to the island,” Kazama said.
Kazama added that farming and agriculture is near to her heart, since both of her parents grew up on farms, and her 96-year-old father still tends to a vegetable garden every day.
“My parents (are still on the island), I spend a lot of time with them,” Kazama said. “We’ve been finding the people here so warm and friendly. … It’s kind of amazing, how they embrace folks who come in. And maybe it’s because I grew up here, but I’ve just loved coming back here.
“One day, I flew out and I was coming back and told someone, ‘Oh, I’m coming home,’” Kazama said. “And then I realized, I’m calling Hilo home again.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
