'We need a teacher corps,' Dobelle says
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
University of Hawai'i administrators and state lawmakers agreed yesterday that new and quick action must be taken to beef up the state's pool of teachers, nurses and social workers — perhaps by offering free tuition to up to 150 potential students in exchange for a four-year payback of service after graduation.
"We need a teacher corps," UH President Evan Dobelle told the House Higher Education Committee during a briefing on the university's new strategic plan.
"We're not growing our own. Fifty-one percent of teachers were hired from out of state."
The committee's chairman, Rep. Mark Takai, D-34th (Waimalu, Newtown, Pearl City), said he, too, wants something in place to solve the problem. He noted that the UH College of Education is turning away students because of the lack of faculty to teach them.
"I can't take faculty from one college and give them to another," said Dobelle. "I need new resources. At the same time we can't dismantle a great research university and take away research positions."
Yesterday's briefing on the strategic plan was one of two information sessions that administrators are offering legislators this week focusing on reorganizational initiatives on the 10-campus system. Tomorrow the same lawmakers will get a look at the financial picture for the next biennium, how UH hopes to move forward into world-class stature — and what that could cost.
Chief Financial Officer J.R.W. "Wick" Sloane has said it will take $99 million in the first year of the new biennium and $116 million in the second to carry out what the strategic plans call for to push UH up the ranking chart.
Dobelle told legislators that UH is spending $1.89 million a year less on administrative costs than it did 10 years ago. And he said he believes in paying top administrators "a significant amount of money, for significant responsibilities," instead of paying more people less money and asking less of them. Under the latter scenario, he said, administrators haven't been accountable.
The president said that while the four new vice presidents called for under the system reorganization plan will get salaries adding up to about $613,000, those costs will be offset by savings gained through eliminating 31 inactive administrative positions and one active position.
University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly President Mary Tiles said the faculty union is concerned about the increase in high-paying positions and wants to see detailed calculations.
Tiles said how to achieve the strategic goals is probably "the single most important factor in raising faculty morale on many of the UH campuses.
"The plans are ambitious and reflect where UH needs to go," she said. But she said it's clear the financial resources to carry them out are not available.
Dobelle said he would like to see 10,000 more students in the 10-campus system, bringing with them millions of dollars in economic growth to the whole state.
As such, UH could become not just an economic engine, but also a new clean industry for the state, he said. UH research grants alone have grown from $181 million in 2000 to $216 million in 2001 to $270 million in 2002.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
