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The question at the centre of this 1994 episode was whether the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law admitted students fairly and in keeping with the institution's founding mission to serve Hawaii residents. Joanne Punu, the school's assistant dean for admissions, explained that decisions rested on three roughly equal factors—academic record, community service, and personal qualities—and defended the faculty's choice to cap non-resident enrolment well below the university-wide ceiling of 20 per cent. Dick Miller, the school's dean emeritus and an original faculty member, provided historical context: the law school was created in part to give local residents access to legal education at a time when mainland institutions were effectively closed to many of them. Both guests acknowledged that UH graduates competed well against those from mainland law schools, and Miller disputed press characterisations that the admissions process was anything other than a rigorous selection among many qualified applicants.
Transcript
Read or download the full transcript (.txt). Speaker labels were assigned automatically and may contain errors.
Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.