Regents focus on progress
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
The University of Hawai'i attempted to kick itself into warp speed yesterday as the Board of Regents moved quickly to respond to rebukes from a senior accrediting agency, and to act on a number of lagging initiatives.
"We're really focused on moving forward," board chairwoman Patricia Lee told her colleagues as they voted to retain her in the leadership position for a second year and re-elected Kitty Lagareta as vice chairwoman.
Calling recent events "difficult times," Lee nonetheless expressed great confidence and trust in acting president David McClain as the board voted to re-authorize the administration to hire managers. Former President Evan Dobelle gave up control to the board last October under a mutual agreement.
McClain launched his own agenda yesterday for the coming year and said the university would likely recommend a tuition increase through 2011, although the administration is a long way from any decisions about how much it might be.
Manoa is in the midst of a five-year, phased tuition increase of approximately 3 percent per fiscal year through 2005-06 that raises the cost of one year of undergraduate study at UH-Manoa from $3,024 for Hawai'i residents at the inception to $3,504 by 2006.
McClain told the board that if tuition increases are suggested in the years after 2006, they will also include substantial aid for students in need. "We'll put a big slice of our tuition increase into financial aid," he said.
A workshop in August will begin to address tuition amounts, along with looking at what the university hopes to seek in the coming legislative session. McClain expects to ask for a 5 percent to 6 percent across-the-board increase in operating expenses — parallel with the growth of the economy — plus money to pay for salary increases.
McClain noted that besides the prospect of raising tuition, UH has to "fix the store" by making sure buildings are in good shape to continue to attract students. That means giving immediate attention to the university's $160 million in deferred repairs and maintenance, he said.
Professor Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, on sabbatical leave as director of the Center for Hawaiian Studies and speaking for Native Hawaiian students, said that if the regents raise tuition, they should match the increase with more scholarships.
"Every single major in the Hawaiian studies department works part time and sometimes full time, and many have children," she said.
Third-year biology student Nancy Bernal, 20, said she wouldn't mind seeing tuition go up again, especially if the money went to improve campuses and programs for students.
"I think it's extremely low," she said of current tuition. "It's pennies compared to (what it cost for) high school."
Bernal said she's already considering applying to medical school and even that tuition is lower than what her family paid for her to attend one of Hawai'i's private high schools.
In discharging a number of task forces, and in handing back authority for hiring managers to acting president McClain, the board was responding in great part to a letter of rebuke received a week ago from the agency that accredits four-year campuses.
The action letter from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, received by UH on July 9, noted that the agency's concerns continued to be serious enough to threaten accreditation of the three four-year campuses in the UH system. It pointed out that Manoa, in particular, had been "stymied" in its progress this past year.
The WASC letter put some of the blame for that stalled progress not only on the relationship between the board and Dobelle, but also on the relationship between the board and the campus over staffing requests.
The action letter is a follow-up to the commission's report of three weeks ago that said the dysfunction in the UH system threatened accreditation, with the commission blaming both the board for micromanaging the system and Dobelle for being "distant" and failing to take an active leadership role.
While the action letter was not specific, one ongoing issue at Manoa has been the authority of interim housing director Margit Watts to move forward to manage the housing situation, which this week reached crisis proportions with 1,400 students on the waiting list at Manoa alone.
Only with yesterday's authority for hiring returned to the administration can the housing position be finalized. Among other things, Watts has not been paid for her additional duties as housing director since her appointment last October.
WASC also scheduled a return visit to campus this fall, as well as another return in the fall of 2005 to check progress.
With the board backing rapidly away from charges of "over-involvement" in administrative matters, and expressing trust in McClain, there was a powerful sense of action yesterday, especially with its authorization of capital improvement director Jan Yokota to seek proposals from private developers for Phase 1 of a four-year West-O'ahu campus in Kapolei; a new Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i next to the new John A. Burns School of Medicine in Kaka'ako; and projects that could either renovate or rebuild existing dorms. The hope is to add additional rooms by the fall of 2006.
In other action, the board:
• Approved the appointment of Rockne Freitas as chancellor of Hawai'i Community College on the Big Island.
• Approved some increases in admission charges at the Waikiki Aquarium, including raising the fee for residents 18 and older from $4 to $6 but reducing the fee for children of ages 5 to 17 from $2.50 to $2 to make the aquarium more accessible to families.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
