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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, July 17, 2002

Dobelle calls for unity in detailing plans for UH

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

Hawai'i's business leaders must insist that a secure financial future for the University of Hawai'i is high on the list of priorities in this fall's political campaign, UH President Evan Dobelle told 800 top community leaders yesterday.

President Evan Dobelle praised his staff for helping UH get half a billion dollars from the Legislature this past year — as much as in the previous nine years combined.

Advertiser library photo • January 2002

"We are deeply grateful for the commitment our elected leaders have shown over the last year," Dobelle told the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawai'i, the platform from which he announced his ambitious first-year plans a year ago.

"But this down payment cannot stand on its own. The investment in our state's future must be robust and continuous."

Ticking off a string of accomplishments with ringing statements of "It's done," he nonetheless acknowledged criticism he has received in recent days. Calling for Hawai'i people to stand together to make the university, the economy and the state a better and stronger place for all, he said:

"You cannot listen to naysayers ... to those who tell you all the reasons it can't be done ... to those who would bury you in a mountain of criticism and excuses.

"Let's stop blaming one group or the other," he said. "We have challenges ... let's fix them."

Dobelle was seated at the same table as state Sen. Cal Kawamoto, D-19th (Waipahu, Pearl City), who has been critical of the president for the cutbacks in size in three potential sites for a West O'ahu campus, as well as the awarding of the contract for the new Medical School in Kaka'ako to Hawaiian Dredging, a company no longer with local ownership. The 100-year-old company was sold to Kajima USA Inc. a month after being awarded the UH contract. The parent company is in Japan.

"We still need to give construction jobs to our local or state contractors and the local trades and the individual craftsmen and our engineers and our architects," Kawamoto said yesterday. "All I'm saying is they should use local trades and local residents because we're putting up a fair share of the money."

But the senator said he liked Dobelle's speech. "The speech was great, fantastic," said Kawamoto, who also shook the president's hand. "There's no doubt about it, he did some work."

During his speech, interrupted nine times by applause, Dobelle laid out three new initiatives in the coming year, including:

  • Establishing a secure, accountable, community-engaged revenue base, along with enhanced fund-raising by the UH Foundation and a greater tapping of UH alumni — more than half of whom report they've never been asked to contribute.
  • "Going global" with a University of Hawai'i presence throughout Asia, including in China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and India. These will be "significant partnerships," said Dobelle, "that will signal to every student from the Ivy League to the Pac-10 — if you want to understand where the world will be in your lifetime, come to Hawai'i for at least a year, if not your whole college education."
  • Commitment to a partnership with Department of Education Superintendent Pat Hamamoto and other educational leaders "to begin to create the outlines of a Pre-K-through-20 integrated system of learning."

An "education summit" this fall will bring together educators from around Hawai'i "to build the bridges of cooperation that will connect every classroom in this state," he said.

Dobelle also lauded his staff for a year of accomplishments, that included:

  • An independent bond rating for the UH to pay for the Health and Wellness Center in Kaka'ako that breaks ground in 90 days, is expected to create 1,100 permanent jobs and 600 to 700 construction jobs, generate $100 million in new tax revenues and an additional $300 million in purchasing power.
  • A budgeting year in which the university will end up $700,000 in the black.
  • Half a billion dollars from the Legislature — as much as the previous nine years combined.
  • The imminent arrival of new Manoa chancellor, Peter Englert, and new athletic director, Herman Frazier.
  • Serious negotiations underway for an international US-China Center in Hilo.
  • A 23 percent increase in student applications for the fall.
  • A fall recommendation to the Board of Regents for a permanent site for the West O'ahu campus.

But the latter is a point that still rankles with Kawamoto, who said later that a West O'ahu campus smaller than 900 acres was "cutting down on our dreams." The only size reduction he could agree to, said Kawamoto, was a campus of 300 acres — equivalent to UH-Manoa. But he also said he will introduce a bill next session asking the Legislature to float $200 million in general obligation bonds to pay for the infrastructure base for a 900-acre campus.

At the same time, Kawamoto acknowledged that after working on this project for 25 years, "this is the closest we've ever come," to seeing its completion. The three sites under consideration now are 320, 59 and 27 acres.


Correction: Construction of the John A. Burns School of Medicine will bring with it an expected 1,100 permanent jobs and 600 to 700 construction jobs. In a previous version of this story, University of Hawai'i president Evan Dobelle mistakenly said 6,000 new jobs would be created.