UH-West O'ahu receives $1.9M grant
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
The tiny University of Hawai'i West O'ahu campus has just been awarded a federal Title III grant that's virtually as large as its entire annual budget.
The U.S. Department of Education has announced that $1.9 million will go to the small campus to rebuild and expand academic programs for the state's most under-represented student populations, specifically Native Hawaiian and Filipino students.
The campus, perched in temporary buildings on the edge of Leeward Community College in Pearl City, has an annual budget of approximately $2 million.
West O'ahu has the highest percentage of Hawaiian, part-Hawaiian and Filipino students of the three baccalaureate degree-granting campuses in the 10-campus UH system.
The grant would provide money to rebuild the campus' Hawaiian/Pacific studies program and expand its Neighbor Island programs. That expansion would include adding 20 distance learning courses. Almost 20 percent of West O'ahu enrollees live on the Neighbor Islands and earn their degrees through distance learning programs.
Additionally, it will provide outreach activities such as college readiness workshops, support services and career development internships.
The new grant is validation for a campus that has just gone through another emotional wrench when both its future and its very existence were unclear. In speaking of the financial problems of moving ahead with a new UH-West O'ahu campus in Kapolei at the October meeting of the UH Board of Regents, regent Ted Hong called on the board to shut down the present program unless the administration has a plan to finance a major four-year campus in Kapolei.
Hong's motion was quickly tabled, but it left uncertainty among the 800-member student body at West O'ahu, and student body president Xavier Foster led a protest demonstration a few days later during a visit by several board members.
During that visit, board chairwoman Patricia Lee reaffirmed support for the current campus, and Hong said he would be willing to listen to new proposals regarding a Kapolei campus that include a private developer. He said partnering with private development would release the state from a projected financial burden of $350 million over the next 12 years to build a three-phase campus.
The UH administration has prepared a plan that would include working with private developers to either lease or buy half of the 500 acres of state land set aside for the Kapolei campus, with the idea of creating a university "village" around the campus. But Hong is asking the administration to come back to the board with a developer ready to go.
In the event that did occur, the administration would still be required to go through a strict procurement and bid process.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
