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Congratulations to the Shidler College of Business, part of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

The Shidler College was ranked 19th out of all AACSB-accredited programs in a recent survey of international business programs, based on responses from deans and faculty at AACSB-accredited programs.

See this article in the Honolulu Advertiser called UH business school ranked internationally for additional details.

The other big university on the island of Oahu - and just to be clear, I don’t work at UH.

Related posts on billso.com

• 17 July 2008: State of Hawaii deletes email after 60 days
• 4 January 2008: Copper thieves kill Sugar Bowl cablecast
• 7 November 2007: New leaks close Hamilton Library
• 28 June 2007: Magoo’s is pau tomorrow
• 25 August 2004: Banner software implementation problems cause havoc at UH-Manoa
• 2 August 2004: Frear Hall sits dormant on UH-Manoa campus
• 16 July 2004: UH-Manoa has no short-term fix for dorm crunch
• 15 July 2004: Oahu students get low priority for UH-Manoa housing

The Honolulu Advertiser reports that University of Hawaii librarians and staff are pulling documents and books out of Hamilton Library. Heavy rains over the last few days have caused leaks in the building’s roof.

The library’s basement flooded in October 2004, causing extensive damage to computer systems, documents, and faculty offices.

Both Honolulu papers have added several blogs over the last year, so we are getting more local news and comments on their web sites.

Case in point: the Star-Bulletin’s So Necessary blog reported Tuesday that Magoo’, the fabled bar at Puck’s Alley near UH-Manoa, is closing its doors tomorrow. I don’t get to Magoo’s often, but it’s one of my favorite places and I’ll miss it.
There was a follow-up article in yesterday’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and a hint that new ownership may open their own restaurant in the same space next month. Magoo’s will use 10 vans to sell pizza around the island.

Kamahemeha Schools bought Puck’s Alley last year, and today the Star-Bulletin announced that Kamehameha schools has purchased the Varsity Theater across the street. The Varsity closed its doors last week, with a similar lack of advance notice. Expect construction, renovation, and new business in a year or two. Construction will finish soon at another Kamehameha property, the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, which may become a fourth campus for the schools according to another Star-Bulletin article today.

Both the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and the Honolulu Advertiser ran stories this morning about the proposed mass transit plan for Oahu. The environmental impact study will consider three routes, according to this scoping plan posted by the Advertiser. This map from the Advertiser lays out the route alternatives:

1. (in solid red) the City Council’s plan, which diverted the line through Salt Lake to get councilman Romy Cachola’s swing vote;
2. (in dashed red) the council’s plan with a loop through Honolulu International Airport; and
3. (in dashed blue) the plan that some city council members really wanted, going through the airport and bypassing Salt Lake.

Council chair Ann Kobayashi is still angry that the mayor is focusing on rail. However, the scoping study indicated that several modes will be evaluated, including “light rail, rapid rail, rubber-tired guided vehicles, and magnetic levitation and monorail systems”.

Neither newspaper mentioned that Kobayashi, along with Donovan Delz Cruz, Todd Apo, and Cachola, had announced in March that they would visit Amsterdam and Paris to visit high-speed bus lines built by Phileas Advanced Public Transport System of France. Their trip would be paid for by Phileas, and the plans were announced on the City Council’s web site and mentioned in the Honolulu Weekly.

UH-Manoa professor emeritus Tom Dinell wrote a good commentary about the rubber-tire bus alternative in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on February 4. Bus routes would be easier to reconfigure than a train, and the high-speed buses could also go into areas like Waianae and Mililani. Of course, these buses would need dedicated lanes in town, and the city must ban other vehicles from these lanes in order for the system to work well. The fixed guideway bus system should not become an “emergency lane” for city vehicles.

As much as I like the idea of trains, high-speed buses may be easier to install, use and maintain on this island. As Dinell pointed out, it’s much easier to replace a bus than a train when the technology improves.

Dkosopedia has an excellent summary of the Honolulu transit struggle in the 21st century, for readers who want to learn more.