Posted on: Thursday, March 15, 2001
Tuition increase on UH agenda
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Staff Writer
The University of Hawai'i Board of Regents today will consider raising tuition about 3 percent annually for the next five years, a proposal that last year was turned back by student protests.
The proposal would raise the cost of one year of undergraduate tuition at UH-Manoa from $3,024 for Hawai'i residents to $3,504 by 2006. Regents will consider the increase at 3:45 p.m. at the Campus Center Conference Chamber, Room 220, on the Manoa campus. About 100 students statewide attended information sessions about the tuition increase, and some students will ask the board today to reject the measure. However, reaction has been mild compared with last year's.
Mamo Kim, president of the Graduate Student Organization at UH-Manoa, said the proposal would particularly hurt students who do not receive any form of financial assistance.
"People have to squeeze," Kim said. "They can't go to a movie, maybe, or they can't afford for their car to break down."
Graduate students, out-of-state residents and students at UH's nine other campuses would also pay more for tuition. The current national average for tuition and fees for four-year public universities is $3,362.
Community college students would not see any tuition increase for the first two years, but would have to start paying for school based on a per-credit-hour system. Students who take more than 12 credit hours a semester pay only for the first 12 hours now; under the new plan they would have to pay the cost of all of their credit hours.
Troy Baker, student body president at Honolulu Community College, said the plan would cause a hardship for vocational students in programs that require them to take 19-20 hours each semester.
According to Colleen Sathre, UH vice president of planning and policy, community college officials have said they will work with students faced with hardship.
The increase in tuition, as proposed, would raise $2 million to $3 million each year.
