COLLEGE PROTESTS got a fresh face in 2005 when a new generation joined with older native Hawaiian and anti-war protesters whose activism dates back to the 1960s and 1970s.

A week-long sit-in by the Stop UARC/Save UH coalition at interim University of Hawaii President David McClain's office in May focused attention on a proposal for a Navy-funded research center at UH-Manoa.

A few months after the protest, the University Affiliated Research Center contract, valued at up to $50 million over five years for UH-Manoa, was rejected by the faculty senate over concerns over classified research, academic freedom, and legal and money issues.

Among the protest leaders and a main spokesman for the group was Ikaika Hussey, 27, a political-science graduate student at UH-Manoa.
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Hussey also is involved in other native Hawaiian issues. He is a leader and spokesman for Hui Pu, a group opposed to the so-called Akaka Bill, which would provide federal recognition of a native Hawaiian governing entity. In July he helped organize a sit-in at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, protesting OHA's support of the bill.

"I didn't think it was enough to just observe from a distance," Hussey said of his activism. "To hope for a better world, like Ghandi said, we have to be the change we want to see in the world."