UH officials looking for ways to soften blow of tuition hike
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
The University of Hawai'i administration has pledged to take into consideration student opposition to the proposed tuition increase as it formulates a final proposal to take to the Board of Regents at its May meeting.
"The administration is considering the rate of the proposed increase — the 'too much too soon' opposition," said Linda Johnsrud, interim vice president for planning and policy.
"The vast majority of testimony was in opposition," Johnsrud told UH regents in their most recent meeting. "But there have been students who have said UH is a bargain compared to the Mainland."
UH is proposing more than doubling tuition by 2010, with the first increases going into effect next year. The increases are designed to bring UH more in line with average costs at Mainland public and community colleges and help pay for critical needs at the 10 UH campuses, including adding classes, reducing class size and improving classrooms and pay differentials to retain faculty.
Annual tuition at UH-Manoa is about $3,500 and would rise to around $7,800 annually, while community college tuition would rise from about $1,470 to around $2,670 under the proposals.
Opposition has also come to the proposed $10 per credit technology fee that would have been standard throughout the system. The administration was asked to look at a lower fee for community colleges. The fee would help pay the cost of providing technology services for the computer-oriented education system.
As Johnsrud and other top administrators evaluate testimony from several hundred people during public hearings at each campus and 28 briefings to groups throughout the state, they say they'll be looking at points opponents raised, including: access for low-income students, a cost-of-living differential, cost-saving measures, use of the increased revenues, and the potential effect on enrollments.
Johnsrud also told regents administrators will be looking at whether they can also address the "gap group" — people who make too much money to qualify for financial aid, but can't afford the proposed tuition increases without help. Under the proposals financial aid will rise from the current $4.8 million to $20.7 million by 2010. As well, the UH Foundation is launching a drive for an additional $10 million student scholarship fund.
In other business at last week's regents meeting:
• Regents approved an increase in Maui Community College housing fees for the first time in 11 years, from about $250 per month now to about $350 per month next year and $400 per month the following year.
• Chairwoman Patricia Lee appointed a task force to embark on preparations for a presidential search which could take as long as a year. David McClain is to serve as interim UH president through that time.
• McClain announced that in June he will bring to the regents a proposal to create a new vice president for community colleges position to serve as an advocate for those colleges and give coherence to concerns on those campuses. Additional costs will be no more than $90,000, he said. "Because we have a system of community colleges, we do need a chief executive for that system," he said.
• The university has earned $240 million in research and training grants in the past nine months, about 1 percent less than by this point last year. The volume of grants submitted by UH researchers is up — "one of the indicators of things being back to normal" after the October Manoa flood, said Jim Gaines, interim vice president for research.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
