Dobelle seeks $357 million for UH revival
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
True to his promise, University of Hawai'i President Evan Dobelle yesterday asked for no additional money to operate the UH system for the coming year, but started the long march toward making $357.48 million in capital improvement dreams come true.
In a presentation to the Senate Ways and Means and House Finance committees at the State Capitol, Dobelle and his leadership team listed an ambitious set of construction priorities for the coming year, including:
• $142 million to develop and launch a West O'ahu campus in Kapolei, even though a final site has not yet been selected.
• $53 million for long-overdue repairs and maintenance system-wide.
The requests have received the green light from Gov. Ben Cayetano and are part of his executive budget request.
According to the UH requests, $308 million would come from general obligation bonds, $48 million from revenue bonds and $1 million in federal money.
Dobelle said the plans "demonstrate priorities" for growth of the university system. "If you can't get the total," he said afterward, "(then) get 10 percent like last year for West O'ahu. Then when the economy turns and money comes, we'll be ready."
Ways and Means chairman Sen. Brian Taniguchi, D-11th (McCully, Mo'ili'ili, Manoa), seemed unphased by the size of the UH construction request but said later legislators will need more information about the Leeward population base, whom the campus would serve and what it would be like, among other things.
"Who's going into the university who's not being served?" Taniguchi said. "We need to see something other than the $150 million (budget request for UH-West O'ahu)."
The West O'ahu campus has fewer than 1,000 students.
Taniguchi said providing money to begin system-wide repairs and maintenance that have lagged for more than a decade, plus building new student housing at Manoa, are both priorities.
"If you talk about recruiting, then you need to build dorms. It's pretty clear," he said.
He notes that legislators would look in particular at Frear Hall, which has been closed for several years and which the university is considering demolishing to make way for new, innovative dorm space.
They will also take a close look at proposed expansion of the campus in Hilo, a place that's "going gangbusters now," Taniguchi said.
Expansion on the Big Island, he said, "is certainly good for the Hilo community."
In addressing legislators, Dobelle stressed that growth of the university would bring accompanying growth in the state, and Taniguchi agreed.
"Overall, the emphasis of the CIP budget is focused on facility renewal projects, projects to improve accessibility and services to students, and stimulate the state's economy," said Dobelle.
Taniguchi noted that construction of projects such as the medical school in Kaka'ako, to be called the Health and Wellness Center, serves to both "spur the economy ... and hopefully diversify the economy."
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
