UH Mānoa’s oldest college adds ‘resilience’ to its name to reflect vision, mission

The University of Hawai’i at Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources has officially changed its name to the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience, in a step that its dean, Parwinder Grewal, says will better reflect the college’s mission and vision.

“This update embodies our college’s commitment to fostering resilience across individuals, communities, economies and ecosystems, emphasizing its focus on sustainable agriculture, climate change adaptation, and family and community well-being,” said Grewal. “We at CTAHR define human resilience as building individual, community and environmental endurance in the face of challenges such as climate change.” 

The College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience aims to lead research and educational initiatives that help prepare Hawaiʻi and the Pacific region to respond to and recover from climate-driven impacts to agriculture and communities. 

“Our programs are centered on enhancing the human condition through a comprehensive approach to building resilience in agricultural and natural systems in the face of climate change,” said Grewal. 

The process to change the name, which retains the college’s well-known acronym, CTAHR, began shortly after Grewal started as dean of the college in March 2024. He had a series of meetings with faculty, students, staff, and alumni who all supported the name change proposal. A survey conducted among CTAHR faculty, staff, students, alumni and stakeholders found that more than 67% of respondents endorsed the change, with more than 72% agreeing that “human resilience” better captures the college’s mission and values. 

The mission of several of CTAHR’s departments already reflect the name change such as the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, which conducts research and teaching programs on individual and family resiliency. The Department of Human Nutrition, Food, and Animal Sciences focuses on research and academic programs in human nutrition and dietetics, to enhance nutritional health of individuals, children and families. The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management explores human dimensions research through the relationships between humans and the natural environment for improved human management decisions and policy creation. CTAHR’s extension programs focus on improving economic, social, and health and wellbeing of individuals, families and communities and offer youth development programs such as 4-H to build te enage resiliency.

The school will be changing its signage and webpages over the coming months to reflect the name change. “Human Resources” was added to the then “College of Tropical Agriculture” in 1978 when the college merged with the UH Hawaiʻi Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, which was dissolved in 1999. The meaning of “human resources” has since shifted from resources for people, like healthy food and clean water, to primarily being associated with business and personnel management.

CTAHR was the very first college at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa when it was founded in 1907 under the Morrill Act as a land-grant college of agriculture and mechanic arts. The flagship campus now has 17 colleges and schools.