Repaying $1M loan still up in air for UH

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

It has yet to be determined how much of a $1 million loan to bail out its budget deficit from two years ago the University of Hawai'i athletic department will have to repay — and when.

Athletic director Herman Frazier said through a department spokesperson that, under terms of a renegotiated agreement, athletics will make its initial payment of $200,000 by June 30, which is the end of the current fiscal year.

"Everything else after that will be determined after the audit (of the 2003-04 fiscal year)," sports information director Lois Manin said. She said the audit was due out in the next few months.

The athletic department was granted a $1 million interest-free loan by the Manoa Chancellor's office after it incurred a $1.4 million deficit in Frazier's first year, the second of three consecutive deficit years sustained by athletics.

A $1.43 million deficit the previous year emptied the so-called "rainy day fund" reserve account maintained by the athletic department.

When he first granted the loan, Chancellor Peter Englert said the department was put on a "payback schedule." Under its terms, athletics was to have paid $200,000 the first year and $400,000 each in subsequent years.

Manin said Frazier was able to renegotiate the agreement about six months ago.

Englert said he doesn't believe athletics will be self-sufficient this year, "but I'm pretty sure that (in the future) we will have come to a point where the department has to be self-sufficient."

David McClain, UH Interim President, said the loans are a matter between Frazier and Englert but he believes, "there is a role for (state) general funds or public money," because of the values reflected in competition and relevance to the community.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.