We have serious concerns about legislation recently sent to the governor. It includes a $47.9 million cut from the University of Hawaii’s budget over the next fiscal year, with similar cuts the following year. Some $35.6 million of the proposed first-year cuts are to come from the University of Hawaii-Manoa’s budget.

This is a vastly disproportionate amount relative to other campuses in the system. And Gov. David Ige agrees. At this crucial time for technology, scientific research and innovation, the Legislature has decided to eviscerate the budget of the only R1 research institution in the state! Clearly, more resources, not fewer, are needed in these troubled times. These cuts will assault the well-being of every academic sector of UH-Manoa.

And, the UH Economic Research Org projects the cuts will slam the state’s economy with an approximately $650 million loss over the next two years.

How did this plan get the Legislature’s attention without advisement from the university or the public? With recent increases in enrollment, and without the $37 million, UH-Manoa’s capacity to accept applicants of merit is hobbled, including many excellent in-state prospects whom we should expend every effort to recruit. With enrollment increasing, why diminish programs with draconian budget cuts?

The governor has pointed out that UH-Manoa is the only UH provider of distance-learning options in the entire state. These cuts will impair UH-Manoa’s capacity to meet growing demands for these programs. If fostering economic mobility through retraining and diversifying our economy are serious priorities, a $37 million cut to the state’s premier provider of higher education is inimical. Does the opaque agenda of the Legislature include downsizing the state’s university system? And to what end?

Cutting Hawaii’s single research university conflicts with the state’s core principle of valuing innovation. With $37 million less, cutting-edge research will be seriously obstructed. The pandemic has laid bare the need to diversify local economies well beyond tourism and construction. To effectively diversify, the state requires a robust retraining effort of which UH-Manoa is the primary provider.

UH is among the largest employers in the state. Such cuts severely impact all university assets. This decision is antithetical to our goals for economic recovery.

Respected economists believe that economies are jumpstarted and sustained by investment in people. For the largest university in the system, these cuts will adversely reduce staff, services, research and recruitment.

UH-Manoa has the largest enrollment, the most extensive international network and visibility, and the greatest volume of applicants. All factors that support increased investment in UH-Manoa. The Legislature’s budget cuts are misguided and precipitous. And, because they are not based on logic or sound economics, concern exists that these decisions may be based on cronyism.

All academic areas will suffer a setback from these cuts during our most daunting national crises. Now, more than ever, we must support education and research in areas like public health, medicine and virology. They take center stage in confronting this historic pandemic.

Those who have received a vaccine to protect against COVID-19 can thank a university team of virologists and other scientists. They can also thank the funders and policy makers who made the research possible. The huge loss of nearly $40 million will halt critical research and reduce access to academic and research talent.

Over years, UH-Manoa has been building programs in tropical medicine, oceanography, astronomy, electrical engineering, volcanology and evolutionary biology. Many of these departments are preeminent in their field. Considering this, any cuts are unsupportable.

And finally, these deep cuts to the UH-Manoa budget will adversely impact the Hawai‘inuikea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, the centerpiece of Hawaiian culture, language and history. Anything but increased support for this bastion of cultural growth is an indignity.

We urge the governor to resolutely reject the recent budget crafted by the state Legislature.