Talk is intensifying about rolling back tuition increases at the University of Hawaii for local residents — and that’s good for students’ wallets. But let’s hope this isn’t an indication that UH leaders have hit an intransigent financial iceberg and are adrift on a clear policy for improving woefully dilapidated facilities over the system’s 10 campuses.
In October 2011, the UH Board of Regents approved a five-year plan for a 7 percent annual increase; this summer marks the end of a second year of increases. Come fall, a full-time undergraduate resident at UH-Manoa will pay $9,840 yearly, with another 7.5 percent increase in each of the two following years; in 2016, annual tuition would be $11,376.
So far, the increases haven’t hurt enrollment — and that’s both encouraging and a relief. In fact, the UH system is seeing record enrollment, at about 60,000 students.
Last year, though, UH administrators and regents revealed an aggressive plan to start tackling some $487 million in backlogged repairs and deferred maintenance over the 10-campus system; they sought the 2014 Legislature’s OK to float tuition-backed revenue bonds. But lawmakers rejected the plan, ultimately approving $50 million in state-backed general obligation bonds for next year toward facility repairs systemwide, a fraction of the $212 million in revenue bonds UH wanted.
Review of the tuition increases’ impact was expected midway through the five-year schedule. But certainly, collapse of UH’s facilities-repair plan has taken pressure off bigger-than-needed increases.
"I don’t think any of us, frankly, feel it’s going to be 7 percent," John Morton, UH’s vice president for community colleges, said last week. "Whether it’s zero, whether it’s 1 (percent) or it’s 2 (percent) or it’s 3 (percent), it has to be set."
To that end, UH campus leaders are being told to assume flat tuition rates — not the annual 7 percent hikes — when planning their operating budgets for the next two fiscal years. There are positives to this directive if:
» It helps and leads the various UH campuses to better, tighter budgeting. After years of controversies over dysfunctional facilities management (which Bachman Hall is now sorting through), high-priced administrators, and questionable construction and procurement processes, the fiscal-restraint message is a welcome one.
» A policy decision is made to roll back resident tuition, keeping costs affordable and keeping enrollment at, or near, its record high. Enabling local kids to remain incentivized and attracted to higher education is good for them, and for Hawaii’s future work force.
Further, review of the nonresident tuition policy is crucial. A new assessment found that UH granted $53 million in tuition waivers to nonresidents, and that only 24 percent of nonresident undergraduates at Manoa pay the full rate. It seems more dollars there could be coming UH’s way.
Ultimately, officials planning a tuition rollback must keep in mind why the increases were approved in the first place: to improve the quality of education for students and their experience at UH. Rollback cannot mean a backslide in any aggressive plan to improve UH facilities and tackle backlogged repairs. That dilapidation still exists and will only worsen with further inattention.
UH leaders need to work quickly to overhaul Manoa’s troubled facilities division, to ensure it can handle the enormous workload ahead. A refreshed UH administration under new President David Lassner, together with the Legislature, must ensure that learning and facilities in the UH system get the attention and funds they sorely need.
