{"id":97227,"date":"2019-05-23T15:21:20","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T01:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=97227"},"modified":"2020-08-07T13:48:09","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T23:48:09","slug":"mahalo-john-morton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2019\/05\/23\/mahalo-john-morton\/","title":{"rendered":"Mahalo John Morton for almost 50 years of service"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_10041\"  width=\"676\" height=\"380\"  data-origwidth=\"676\" data-origheight=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TUm3sk4KvN4?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Mahalo John Morton for almost 50 years of service\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>A University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> career spanning almost 50 years is coming to a close for <strong>John Morton<\/strong>, the vice president for community colleges.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It is truly bittersweet to congratulate and thank John Morton on his retirement,&rdquo; said <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> President <strong>David Lassner<\/strong>. &ldquo;His contributions to public higher education across the islands have been remarkable and will be sorely missed. But after nearly 49 years of service, his retirement could not be more richly deserved. We thank [his wife] Willow for sharing John with <abbr>UH<\/abbr> and <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>, and wish them both all the best in their travels to come.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I guess I feel that I\u2019ve been fortunate to have just a fantastic, unexpected career,&rdquo; said Morton. &ldquo;When I first joined the community colleges in 1970, it was not an intentional act.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s when he started teaching chemistry and political science at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leeward.hawaii.edu\/\">Leeward Community College<\/a>, and has been committed to the colleges\u2019 social justice mission ever since. In 1984, Morton became the provost of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kapiolani.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr><\/a>, and oversaw the buildout of the new campus near Diamond Head.<\/p>\n<p>In 2002, he led the planning, development and implementation of <abbr>UH<\/abbr>\u2019s first unified student information system, and in 2005 Morton was named vice president of <a href=\"http:\/\/uhcc.hawaii.edu\/\">the university\u2019s seven community colleges<\/a>, with responsibility for up to 34,000 students in an academic year.<\/p>\n<p>That responsibility came with plenty of goal-oriented targets. Under his tenure, significant building projects such as the <a href=\"http:\/\/hawaii.hawaii.edu\/palamanui\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr> P\u0101lamanui<\/a> campus and the <a href=\"http:\/\/uhcc.hawaii.edu\/culinary\/\">Culinary Institute of the Pacific<\/a> were designed and constructed.<\/p>\n<p>Morton said, &ldquo;It takes a long time sometimes for these dreams to become realities, but you gotta be patient, you gotta be persistent, and it\u2019ll happen.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_97242\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-97242\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/system-1979-morton-j.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"350\" class=\"size-full wp-image-97242\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/system-1979-morton-j.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/system-1979-morton-j-93x130.jpg 93w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/system-1979-morton-j-214x300.jpg 214w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-97242\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Morton in 1979<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Championing access to education<\/h2>\n<p>Morton has championed access to community colleges through programs such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/tag\/hawaii-promise\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Promise<\/a>, which provides need-based last-dollar scholarships to qualified students, and a workforce education and training program called <abbr>HINET<\/abbr>, which stands for <a href=\"https:\/\/hinethawaii.org\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Nutrition Employment and Training<\/a> and provides assistance for food, transportation, books and other expenses.<\/p>\n<p>One of his big goals has been to improve college completion rates.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We\u2019ve been successful. We\u2019re more than double the number of graduates than we used to,&rdquo; Morton said. &ldquo;We\u2019re way more than double the number of Native Hawaiians. Twenty-eight percent of our enrollment is Native Hawaiian. We\u2019ve got campuses that are over 40 percent Native Hawaiian enrollment.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>He enjoys contact with students, especially at commencement ceremonies. A special one is held every four years on <span aria-label=\"Molokai\">Moloka&#699;i<\/span> for the <a href=\"http:\/\/maui.hawaii.edu\/molokai\/\"><span aria-label=\"Molokai\">Moloka&#699;i<\/span> Education Center<\/a>, which is part of <a href=\"http:\/\/maui.hawaii.edu\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Maui College<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I remember one in particular where a young woman was graduating. And then her mother was graduating and then her grandmother was graduating, all three in the same ceremony,&rdquo; Morton said. &ldquo;And to have that kind of an impact on a family across multiple generations, in a remote part of that county, I think really captures what community colleges are about and what they do to contribute to the state and its people.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>He says <abbr>UH<\/abbr> has an important role to play in the future of the state.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It\u2019s only from a collective effort of public policymakers, business and industry, and the university working together that we will be able to create the kind of economy and social structure that will allow <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> to prosper for all of our citizens.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Kelli Trifonovitch<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_97245\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-97245\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/system-community-colleges-office-morton.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-97245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/system-community-colleges-office-morton.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/system-community-colleges-office-morton-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/system-community-colleges-office-morton-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-97245\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Morton with the members of the Office of the Vice President of Community Colleges<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vice President for Community Colleges Morton has championed access to education, and one of his big goals in his 49 years has been to improve college completion rates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,12],"tags":[691,729,61,62,63,64,65,300,71,60,947,56,66],"class_list":["post-97227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-video","tag-administration","tag-administration-recognition","tag-hawaii-community-college","tag-honolulu-community-college","tag-kapiolani-community-college","tag-kauai-community-college","tag-leeward-community-college","tag-molokai-education-center","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-maui-college","tag-uh-system","tag-video-2","tag-windward-community-college","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97227"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124616,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97227\/revisions\/124616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}