Honolulu Community College is one of eight units in the UH Community College system, an integral part of the University of Hawaii system. The Main Campus of Honolulu Community College, a short distance from the heart of downtown Honolulu, occupies over twenty acres on Dillingham Boulevard in the Kalihi-Palama area. The College also has facilities at Honolulu International Airport for the Aeronautics Maintenance and Commercial Aviation programs, automotive and heavy equipment maintenance shops, and the Marine Education and Training Center at Sand Island.

The College currently offers the Associate of Arts, Associate in Science, the Associate in Applied Science, and the Associate in Technical Studies degrees as well as shorter certificate programs in more than twenty technical-occupational areas, integrated with a strong liberal arts

program.

Students receive instruction in small classes taught by well-credentialed faculty who are dedicated to excellence in teaching.

The mission of the college includes serving the Pacific Rim as the primary technical training center in areas such as transportation, information technology, education, communications, construction and public and personal services, maintaining a multicultural environment where ethnic and gender diversity is appreciated, respected and promoted, and providing an opportunity for students to gain an understanding and knowledge of the Native Hawaiian language, culture and values.

The college has been offering distance education courses via TV cable since 1992 and currently offers more than fifty different courses via cable, internet or combination of the two.

The AMS ocean studies course will be offered online in Spring 2009. The course fits nicely into our existing course structure. The University of Hawaii has offered a course in introductory Oceanography since the 1970s. HCC initiated a laboratory component in 2005, but neither has been offered online.