AAS Passes Resolution Supporting Kamehameha Schools

On Nov. 10, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) passed a resolution in support of Kamehameha Schools, following an Oct. 20 lawsuit filed by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) that challenges the schools’ 140-year admissions policy, which gives preference to Native Hawaiian children. 

Kamehameha Schools — a private school system comprised of 30 preschools and three K-12 campuses — is operated by a private, charitable trust established by Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s 1884 will. The school system educates over 5,000 students, with 80% of them receiving financial aid, and has an endowment of over $15 billion. Kamehameha Schools has faced two federal lawsuits regarding its admission policy in the past and settled both. 

The lawsuit was brought by SFFA — an organization that successfully sued Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, leading to the Supreme Court’s ruling that race-based affirmative action policies were unconstitutional — and claims that its admissions preference to Native Hawaiian applicants is “blood-based discrimination.” 

The lawsuit stated that from 1966 to 2009, only two non-Native students were admitted to Kamehameha Schools, and argued that though most applicants are Native Hawaiian already, “non-natives do not apply because they understand that their odds of admissions are zero.” 

Many Hawaiians view indigeneity as more than just a racial category. “Native Hawaiians are a political entity,” Hawaiian Council CEO Kuhio Lewis told Hawaiian News Now. “We are recognized in over 150 federal statutes and many other forms of recognition, so we are not a race. We are a political class of America.”

Kamaha’o Halemanu ’29 is an alum of Kamehameha Schools and brought the resolution to the Senate floor. In an email to The Student on Tuesday, he said that the school system was an invaluable resource to preserve Indigenous culture and equity, given the centuries-long oppression and systemic disenfranchisement Native Hawaiians have faced.

“It is because of [Pauahi’s] vision that I, a Native Hawaiian, can attend a school like Amherst College. It is because of her vision that I was able to learn the Hawaiian language, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, history, and culture,” Halemanu wrote. 

He also questioned why SFFA, which is based in Virginia, was getting involved in an issue specific to Hawaii. “What I wish people understood is this: Kamehameha Schools is an indigenous institution fulfilling a Princess’s will to ensure that Hawaiians survive in our own homeland. And now that task is being questioned by an organization with no connection to Hawaiʻi, no knowledge of our history, and no regard for our future: The Students for Fair Admissions.”

Former AAS Senator Jeb Allen ’27 opposed the resolution and wrote an email last Wednesday in response to the AAS email announcing the resolution.

“I’ve received news from Students for Fair Admissions that they are trembling in their boots at the moral authority of a 1,900-student liberal arts college standing in solidarity with an obscure K–12 Hawaiian school for illegally prioritizing race in admissions, and are dropping all charges,” Allen wrote. “Should the student government feel inclined to address more of the world's dire issues, might I suggest issuing a statement additionally standing in solidarity against capitalism, oppression, and cruelty?”

In the resolution, AAS noted that it had established stances on political issues in the past and thus felt comfortable using “its collective voice to advocate for justice” regarding the Kamehameha Schools.

AAS stated the issue was relevant for Amherst students to weigh in on because the lawsuit’s outcome “has significant implications for how educational institutions can honor specific indigenous claims and commitments, directly relating to ongoing discussions about affirmative action and institutional responsibility within higher education and beyond.”