OK, first of all, it's not Duke Aiona's fault.

The University of the Pacific alumni magazine arrived in the mail this week. It was pretty much the same stuff: Go, Tigers. Send money. Rah rah rah.

And then, on Page 13, a smiling picture of UOP class of '77 grad James "Duke" Aiona with the headline: "Governor of Paradise."

Did we miss something?

The profile on Aiona starts with that running leap off the edge of reality and keeps tumbling for two more pages.

Some highlights:

"Since 2002 when the pair were sworn into office, Hawai'i's economy has become more stable, thanks to the administration's strong focus on strengthening and diversifying economic factors."

The problem with that sentence goes beyond the awkward writing.

"Being away from Hawai'i and the 'aloha spirit' proved difficult at first for Aiona. But as he got to know other Hawaiian students, as well as the large international student population, Aiona slowly began to adjust to life away from his native land."

Surely the lad from Hawai'i got to hang with nonminority students as well.

"When Aiona came to Pacific in the early 1970s, Pacific had just started its first real efforts to recruit Hawaiian students. Then dean of admissions Les Medford thought Hawai'i was an untapped market full of talented young people ready and willing to go stateside for a college education. ..."

Wait, Hawai'i was a state in 1970, right? Maybe the news hasn't traveled to Stockton, Calif., yet.

Then there is this quote from an associate provost of enrollment at UOP: "Many Hawaiian students who attend Pacific are very well prepared for a college education, thanks to their background at some of the best prep schools in the nation."

Yeah, and some of us scrubs from public school are actually employable as well.

"Aiona feels that Hawaiian students attending college on the mainland have it a lot easier today. 'Back when I went to school, there was just a handful of Hawaiian students at mainland universities.' "

A handful? In the 1970s? Please! Thousands of us "natives" have been packing warm clothes and rice pots for a long, long time.

"Today, more than 172 Hawaiian students attend Pacific and 755 are alumni. Second only to California in terms of home states for Pacific students, Hawaiian culture has become more and more prominent at Pacific."

Then the article goes on to describe the annual lu'au. No pictures of Hawaiians studying, only dancing.

So who's at fault for this familiar brand of ignorance? It is the fault of a university that educated hundreds of Hawai'i students, Hawaiian and otherwise, but didn't learn much from them.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.