Diversify with education, health industries

By Bob Dye
Kailua-based writer and historian

Gov. Ben Cayetano says this economic crisis dramatizes the need to diversify Hawai'i's economy. Past governors, too, made the case to diversify, he observes, but legislators didn't seem interested.

The University of Hawai'i at Manoa, where enrollment is on the rise, can regain its eminence. It is just one of the locally based higher-education institutions with potential to expand and stabilize the state economy. Advertiser library photo

The Big Five are gone. So, too, should be "the company town" mentality.

Here's where to diversify. Grow the education industry and the health industry to equal the size of our leisure industry. Support these three environmentally friendly "big businesses," and the economy will expand and stabilize. And they will help agriculture, our natural industry, because it's a major component of each of them.

Make Honolulu a "university city." As an urban center of considerable size and economic importance, it has in place potentially strong educational and cultural institutions. If nurtured, these institutions will spawn more research-cum-action organizations.

To list just a few of the major players in higher education and research here shows how important the education industry is to Honolulu's economy.

UH system

• The University of Hawai'i system has a budget of $800 million and employs 8,000 people. Last fiscal year, UH generated $219 million in research and training grants. That can be much higher.

• UH-Manoa can regain its lost eminence. An encouraging early sign is a 2.6 percent rise in enrollment, to 17,601 students.

• The UH medical school has been revived from near-death. On a budget of $17 million, it generates about $27 million in external funds. There is potential for much, much more. A biomedical research campus is needed. Fund it.

• The Institute for Astronomy, headquartered in Manoa, on a budget of $5.3 million, brings in $11.8 million in external funds.

• The law school is 80 percent "self-supporting." It turns away nine of 10 of those who apply.

• The School of Ocean and Earth Science, on a budget of $12.2 million, generated external grants totaling $50.3 million.

• The Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i has received a federal $14 million grant for a multi-ethnic study of 215,000 people.

• The College of Tropical Agriculture brought in $10 million in external grants.

• The UH Press, with more than a thousand books in print, has an annual budget of $5 million (only $340,000 of that are UH funds). Its 33 employees put out 70 to 80 new titles each year.

• Enrollment at West O'ahu rose by 9.4 percent, to about 730. It badly needs a new campus. Stop the political sparring, decide where to build it, and get to work.

• Honolulu Community College, home of the Pacific Center for Advanced Technology Training, can become a four-year technical institution granting baccalaureate degrees. This is a winner.

• Kapi'olani is expanding its celebrated Culinary Institute of the Pacific. It also has won national recognition for international programs.

• Leeward's focus is business and selected technology programs. It supports work force development and has an award-winning television production program.

• Windward opens its new performing arts center and "Imaginarium" science and astronomy building next month.

• UH Athletics is now more than 90 percent financed from ticket sales and outside revenues.

Private sector

• Hawai'i Pacific University, self-described as an "emerging" institution, has a student body of more than 9,000, of which 1,500 are enrolled in one or another of nine graduate programs. HPU employs 1,200 to 1,300 people, and has an annual budget of $75 million. It is located in six major buildings downtown, where it is the largest renter of space, and on a 135-acre residential campus in Windward O'ahu. A major expansion of both the Hawai'i Loa and the downtown campus may be anticipated within two years.

• Chaminade University has an annual budget of about $19 million. With 2,200 students, some of them in graduate programs, it employs 327 people. The master plan calls for seven new buildings.

• BYU-Hawai'i has 2,300 students, and 372 full-time employees.

Federal sector

• The East-West Center is an educational and specialized research institution whose focus is Asia-Pacific international relations. It employs 140 people and operates on a $22 million budget. It brings 1,300 visiting fellows to Honolulu each year, and gives 150 scholarships to international students to attend UH. The governor should urge the congressional delegation to magnify the EWC mission, especially in these times.

• The Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies is an international training institute. With a budget of $11 million, it now employs about 110 people. Since opening in 1996, it has trained 2,600 civilian and military fellows from 56 nations. With security a high-profile issue, its programs should be expanded.

The collective influence of these institutions, along with museums, publishing houses and others, can be greater than that of other corporate groups in the city. As they move to cooperation and interdependence, their collective economic power will intensify.

The legislature can hasten the shaping of Honolulu into an economically thriving university city by using a lion's share of the governor's billion-dollar fund to expand and strengthen our educational and research institutions. Legislators must support Ben's initiative.

Next week: A health industry