In announcing the plan, U.H. President M.R.C. Greenwood noted the university system had sustained $86 million in cuts to its operating budget over the past two years. She said tuition increases were vital if the university was to survive.
“The modest tuition increases we are proposing are prudent, within the reach of our students, and absolutely critical to our long-term survival,” Greenwood said in an online posting on the university’s web site. “Our top priority with the increased revenue will be putting more money and resources into financial aid so that we can still accommodate those students who are willing to work and study hard for that increasingly important college degree.”
In the first year of the five year plan tuition and fees at UH Manoa would increase $264 per semester. At UH Hilo the increase would be $240 per semester, at community colleges $96 per semester and at UH West Oahu $458 per semester, a reflection of that campus’ start-up costs.
In the final year of the proposal, yearly tuition and fees at UH Manoa would reach $12,076 for Hawaii residents – a $2,976 increase from the current tuition of $9,100.
For non-residents annual tuition and fees at the Manoa campus would rise to $33,604 by the year 2017 — or $9,672 more than the current amount.
Many underclassmen at the Manoa campus were still finding out about the proposed increases when approached by Khon2.
“That’s definitely something that I wasn’t expecting,” said Haylee Nedblake, an out of state freshman who’s studying biology. “I’m not really glad to hear that,” she added.
In addition to funding repair and maintenance backlogs and providing more financial aid to students, tuition increases are also needed to help pay a six year contract for University of Hawaii professors and faculty.
Under a six year contract that was ratified in January of 2010, the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly took a pay cut of 6.7 percent in the first 18 months of the agreement. However the contract restored all of the pay cuts in 2011 and includes a pay back of all the money professors lost in three installments that began August 1. UH faculty will also see pay increases of 3 percent in 2013 and again in 2014.
The UHPA contract, considered generous when compared to those of other public worker unions, could fuel a sense of resentment among students if the tuition plan is approved by the Board of Regents.
“People are going to see it as unfair,” said UH Manoa junior and biology major Oliver Dwyer. “I think there will definitely be some kind of resistance or a lot of unhappy students.”
The university will begin briefing students on the proposed tuition increases the middle of next month. The chedules for those meetings are as follows:
- Sept. 16, 1 p.m., Windward Community College
- Sept. 20, 1:30 p.m., UH West O‘ahu
- Sept. 22, 2:00 p.m., Leeward Community College
- Sept. 23, 2:30 p.m., Honolulu Community College
- Sept. 28, 3:30 p.m., UH Hilo
- Sept. 29, 2 p.m., Hawai‘i Community College
- Sept. 30, 2:30 p.m., Kapi‘olani Community College
- Oct. 7, 3 p.m., UH Maui College
- Oct. 10, 3 p.m., UH Manoa
- Oct. 12, 3 p.m., Kaua‘i Community College
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See the original article at: KHON2 Developing Stories
