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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, January 30, 2003

UH autonomy bid gains backing

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

Full autonomy for the University of Hawai'i could move forward as early as this year, according to Gov. Linda Lingle, who has said repeatedly that she fully supports autonomy for the UH system — with financing levels higher than they are now, but within what the state can afford.

Gov. Linda Lingle has said repeatedly that she fully supports autonomy for the UH system.

UH President Evan Dobelle said the university is prepared to go forward as an autonomous and entrepreneurial institution.

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A limited autonomy measure was approved by voters in 2000, but it only provided UH with financial flexibility and power to award and control construction contracts. The full autonomy touted by Lingle would mean the UH system could set its own priorities with financing from the Legislature — minus constant legislative oversight — in a move that would make the UH system as independent as the state judiciary.

With that type of flexibility, the system would be able to move quickly to float bonds to construct buildings — such as dorms and biotech research laboratories — to increase student enrollment, boost the economy, bolster the job market and construction industry, and attract new federal research money.

But a constitutional amendment that moves beyond the one approved by voters three years ago will be needed for complete autonomy.

"Over the past 10 years the percentage (of state money the university receives) has gone down drastically and we need to start going in the other direction," Lingle said last week. "It's gone from about 13 percent of the state budget 10 years ago down to 8 percent now, and that's just not going to help us get out of the condition we're in.

"So we need to start to reverse that, but we need to do it in a responsible way that reflects what our real revenues are and what we can sustain for the long term."

Applauding her statements, UH President Evan Dobelle said the university is prepared to go forward as an autonomous and entrepreneurial institution.

"I'm excited about the potential, and I hope she and the Legislature would come to an agreement," he said.

But he also said true autonomy for the 10-campus university system would have to come with a guaranteed revenue stream.

"You can't put the University of Hawai'i in a lifeboat without any food and water. Either you're for the UH as an economic engine, and give us a percentage of the state budget that we had and let us do our job, or not."

Rep. Robert Nakasone, D-9th (Kahului, Pa'ia) has introduced a bill to give full autonomy to the university, including making the university system self-sufficient and self-supporting by turning over some state lands on each island to UH control to generate income.

"I think the university can be run without their hands tied down," said Nakasone. "That's the intent of this concept. Let them be accountable in their total operation, just like a business." But he sees the need of "transition" years and state help with the construction budget as well as floating bond issues.

Elements of autonomy also are contained in other measures, including bills submitted by the governor's office to enable UH to create its own civil service system, handle its own collective bargaining and float bonds without a limit.

Rep. K. Mark Takai, D-34th (Waimalu, Newtown, Pearl City), chairman of the House Higher Education Committee, said that while he, too, wants the "conversation" about autonomy to begin, he questions whether the timing is right to actually take that action.

"Before we embark on discussions on what more we provide to the university, we need to step back and study what the university has done so far with the constitutional powers provided three years ago," he said.

Lingle said under her vision of autonomy, a budget for the university could be decided upon either as a percentage of the overall state budget or as a lump sum decided by the governor and Legislature, according to "how much each year we can afford to spend on higher education."

That amount would then be turned over to UH to use "as they see fit," she said.

"As legislators, and as a governor, we say in advance, this is how much we can spend, and now the responsibility is yours," said Lingle. "That is very important if the university is ever to take its rightful place in our state, and I think it can and it should."

Dobelle said any fixed percentage decided upon for the university would have to be considerably more than the present 8 percent. With an income amounting to 11 percent, 12 percent or 13 percent of the state budget, he said, the university would be able to take on its own collective bargaining as well as float its own bond issues, unencumbered by the state's debt ceiling.

"An increase of 3 percent (taking the total to 11 percent) would come very close to making us a first-class institution very quickly," he said. And it would provide a 6 percent increase for faculty, set in motion an eight-year effort to put UH salaries at the 80th percentile of Mainland peer institution salaries and allow UH to float and finance repayment of bonds for construction projects.

Even though Lingle is touting the benefits of UH autonomy, she leveled criticism at Dobelle in asking for raises for the faculty.

"If you want to do something like that, then you should be part of identifying where the money will come from," she said last week. "Just to say you're going to raise salaries really is not professional. You need to be able to come forward and say 'It's going to cost $30 million, and this is where we're going to get it.' The directors that I appointed, now they just wouldn't do something like that because they are aware of fiscal realities."