Guiding the University of Hawaii in its role as the sole provider of public higher education in the islands is a set of strategic directions that aim to effectively align academia with community needs across the state.

Chief among them: educating more students, advancing the economy through research and innovation, and tackling facilities-related challenges. Interwoven in the directions is a commitment to green-minded sustainability, and functioning as an indigenous-serving university — with focus on Native Hawaiians.

That’s the big-picture backdrop as UH leaders now pitch biennium budget priorities to the 2019 Legislature.

In a recent Star-Advertiser editorial board meeting, the UH system’s president, David Lassner, and other top administrators highlighted ongoing initiatives as well as funding requests, which range from expansion of the Hawaii Promise Program for cash-strapped students, to a pricey roster of planned capital improvements.

The UH Board of Regents has approved a request seeking $26.7 million in additional general funds for the next fiscal year, and $27.2 million for the 2021 fiscal year for various programs across the 10-campus system. The largest item on this operating budget list is $19.7 million, each year, for Hawaii Promise, a “last-dollar” scholarship program.

The money would come on top of the university’s annual base budget for the system, which is about $1 billion.

Established as a community college pilot two years ago, proposed funding aims to grow Hawaii Promise to include four-year universities, which carry higher tuition costs, said John Morton, vice president for UH community colleges.

“Basically, the whole idea came as a response to the ‘free college’ movement across the country,” Morton said. More than one dozen states offer two years of tuition-free community college to high school graduates meeting eligibility requirements.

Expanding ‘last dollar’ grants

Hawaii Promise offers scholarships to students with demonstrated need who qualify for resident tuition, have GPAs of 2.0 or higher and are taking at least six credits per semester. The money is awarded after all other funding sources are exhausted, including federal grants.

During the program’s first full year, it covered unmet needs for tuition, fees, books and supplies for 1,500 students, Morton said, noting that, as a group, recipients completed more coursework, earned higher grades and had higher retention rates than peers. The proposed bump in funding, which would assist more than 5,000 students, holds potential to spur enrollment, Morton said.

At the university system’s flagship campus, UH-Manoa, baby boomers took enrollment to its highest-ever point — 22,371 students in the early 1970s. Since then it has been in slow decline, mostly — aside from the ups and downs tied to factors such as birth rates and the economy.

A few years ago, Lassner announced an initiative to increase enrollment and retention figures at that campus, setting a headcount goal of 20,000. UH-Manoa had dipped below that mark since fall 2014. Last semester’s enrollment, however, signaled that the ongoing effort is making progress.

Recruitment and retention

The overall fall enrollment barely budged upward — an increase of less than 1 percent, to 17,710 students. But included in that count is the largest-ever freshman class in the university’s history, 2,209 students.

Systemwide, a total of 51,063 students were enrolled at UH campuses at the start of the 2018-19 year. That’s a drop of slightly more than 1 percent from fall 2017.

But that’s also the smallest overall decrease in the six years following the great recession, when enrollment spiked upward. Now, due in part to the strong economy’s job options, enrollment is down at at some campuses.

“The community colleges have the biggest challenge because they’re the most sensitive to the economy. So a great economy is bad for enrollment. Those students often go into the work force,” Lassner said.

Even so, within the next few years, it’s estimated that nearly two-thirds of jobs in the United States will require post-high school education and training. And the forecast for Hawaii sets that bar slightly higher. Amid rising workplace demands, the UH is stepping up recruitment and retention.

“There’s a science of enrollment management,” Lassner said. “It’s a mix of things. … It’s being systematic about how we go into local high schools. It’s continuing to work with the community colleges on transfers; that’s an area where we still have a lot of room for improvement. It is also where we go on the mainland and internationally in terms of targeted recruitments.”

He added, “One of the things we’re doing differently, just this year, is we’re integrating out alumni outreach with our recruiting” at receptions for accepted-student in key areas like Southern California. So, in addition to meeting faculty members and administrators, prospective students can connect with mainland-based alums.

Another factor that could put a dent in enrollment: shorter paths to graduation.

“We talk about enrollment as a measure of how we’re doing. It’s important because that’s our input. But most important … is our output, our graduates,” Lassner said. Between 2010 and 2018, UH-Manoa nearly doubled its overall four-year rate, rising to 35 percent.

Especially encouraging, he said, are gains among Native Hawaiian and Filipino students. Since 2010, when just 10 percent of first-time freshmen of Hawaiian ancestry picked up a bachelor’s degree within four years, the “on-time” figure has tripled — topping 32 percent in 2018. During the same time frame, the figure for Filipino students more than doubled, to 38 percent.

In 2017-2018, nearly 270 Filipino students and 283 Native Hawaiian students graduated, wrapping up undergraduate degrees in four or fewer years.

Due to commonplace setbacks such as inability to register for required courses, academic course credits lost in transfer from one school to another, and struggles to cover costs tied to enrollment, in recent years, national education policy experts have used benchmarks of six years to earn a bachelor’s degree.

UH-Manoa’s most recent six-year rate — 58 percent in 2016 — nearly matches the national average of 59 percent at public institutions.

Overall, Lassner added, “Our four-year rate is still bad, but doubling is how you improve it. If we drive it up by another 50 percent or so, we’ll be in a good place” among public universities.

Matching degrees with workforce

STEM-focused degrees (science-technology-engineering-math) are among the most in-demand throughout the UH system. Progress in the works in that direction includes establishing the Academy for Creative Media on the UH-West Oahu campus. A ground-breaking ceremony was held earlier this month for a $33 million building, which will serve as a link to complementary facilities and programs at other campuses and across the state.

The academy will further develop programs prepping students for work in the tech-centered creative economy, including careers within video game design and development, evolving film and television production, and assorted new media pursuits. Fitted with resources such as a two-story sound stage and an eSports room, the academy building will be the seventh structure on the young Kapolei campus.

“We see it as a great jobs pipeline,” Lassner said.

The university’s capital biennium budget requests $295 million for the 2020 fiscal year and $319.5 million the year after, with the largest chunk of funding — $290 million — tagged for systemwide “Renew, Improve and Modernize,” (RIM) projects that aim to address a worrisome backlog in repair and maintenance. Three years ago, it was pegged at $500 million, and has increased since then.

Dinging the UH for lacking a clear strategy for attacking the backlog, state lawmakers approved about half of its capital request for fiscal years 2018 and 2019. This year’s outlook is more optimistic, Lassner said. “We think that we’ve done our part, which is to clean up our (capital) program,” he said. “We think we’re as efficient and effective as anybody (Legislature-funded agency) in the state.”

Through RIM, Lassner said: “We track the deferred maintenance, but our goal when we go in to do a project is not just to return the building to the way it was when it was constructed in 1960, but to modernize it for what we need today.” He added, “We don’t want to focus solely on the deferred maintenance. We want to go in and replace the air conditioning and electrical subsystems and everything else while modernizing the classrooms and the laboratories and putting in sustainability improvements.”

Last year, Gov. David Ige signed into law a bill that allows the UH to take out $100 million in bonds to cover capital projects.

Renovating outdated facilities

Some of UH-Manoa’s most rundown buildings are now scheduled for either renovation or demolition. Among the largest projects: a request for $41 million to renovate Sinclair Library. Located near Campus Center, plans are underway to revamp the 63-year-old library as a “student success center,” designed to provide students with a comfortable place to study and collaborate and also include on-site student support services and academic advising.

Among other facilities projects in the proposed budget’s big-ticket lineup: Snyder ($55 million), Kuykendall ($2 million), Keller ($1 million) and Holmes ($37 million) halls at UH-Manoa; Honolulu Community College’s science building ($43.5 million); and pharmacy lab upgrades at UH-Hilo ($3 million).

Managing Mauna Kea

Legislators also are expected to weigh in on other university issues, including stewardship at Mauna Kea and planned installation of the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) at the site.

Fifty years ago, then-Gov. John A. Burns established the Maunakea Science Reserve and, through a lease with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, the UH was granted the authority to operate a 525-acre astronomy precinct on the 11,288-acre site. While 15 years remain on UH’s lease, a stewardship debate continues to simmer.

One side maintains that while the university has stumbled in its handling of the overall site’s natural and cultural resources, management is improving and that UH is committed to collaborative care of the mountain that some Native Hawaiians view as sacred. Last year, the other side, pushed unsuccessfully for a new management authority, envisioned as predominately Native Hawaiian in membership.

“We think we’ve done a very good job in improving our stewardship, very consistently year-over-year,” Lassner said. “We do not buy into this narrative of 50 years of mismanagement. We do accept that last century UH was 100 percent focused on building observatories, and not on the rest of the environmental and cultural stewardship that we are actively engaged in today.”

A recent internal UH audit of financial management found no irregularities in how entities involved in use and management of Mauna Kea lands account for revenue and expenses. The Board of Regents called for the review in February to evaluate the flow of university funds, lease payments and external dollars tied to management, education and other activities.

Responding to the audit, Lassner said: “What I learned is that, for me, it’s overly complex in terms of how we are managing the mountain.”

Rather than continue with two management teams — one tending to support services, such as snow plowing and visitor center operations, and the other environmental and archaeological monitoring and overseeing a ranger program, Lassner said: “It probably makes sense for us to consolidate with one entity that handles UH management of our responsibilities on Mauna Kea.”

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