UH tuition freeze effort abandoned but Senate moves financial aid bill

Lawmakers this week shelved legislation that was aimed at freezing tuition at University of Hawaii campuses but advanced a measure to subsidize tuition for needy UH students.

House Bill 424 initially proposed reinstating the university’s president as its chief procurement officer for construction contracts. But the bill was altered after it crossed over to the Senate, and language was inserted to also prohibit the Board of Regents from raising tuition for an unspecified period.

The amended measure had been endorsed by the Senate committees on Higher Education and Government Operations. However, the Ways and Means Committee, the bill’s final referral in the Senate, deferred the measure indefinitely at a hearing Tuesday. Ways and Means Chairwoman Jill Tokuda said lawmakers could not reach agreement on the bill’s language.

The university testified against the parts of the bill that would cap tuition increases. Tuition and fees revenues make up roughly one-third of UH’s budget.

“Eliminating any tuition increases at the university is not a realistic means to fund a government operation,” Jan Gouveia, UH’s vice president for administration, and Kalbert Young, chief financial officer, said in joint written testimony. “Tuition rate increases already go through a rigorous public notification and communication process, which are subject to the open meeting requirements.”

They added, “With general fund declines during the last recessionary (economic) cycle from 2009 and increasing costs, tuition revenues have been essential to maintaining operations. … Although tuition rates have increased, UH continues to be an affordable option compared to other public universities.”

Annual full-time resident tuition is $10,872 at the flagship Manoa campus and $3,024 a year at community colleges this year. Last summer the regents voted to hold tuition flat across the 10-campus system for the 2017-18 academic year and raise tuition annually by 2 percent at Manoa and by 1 to 2 percent at all other campuses the following two years.

The University of Hawaii Student Caucus, which represents 49,000 students systemwide, also opposed HB 424’s proposed tuition freeze, citing concerns about how the university would make up any budget shortfalls.

“With college enrollment down across the nation and the ever-increasing cost of living, especially in Hawaii, we think that incremental tuition increases should be expected and could even be considered as necessary to maintain the infrastructure and health of the college campuses throughout the system,” student Kelli Acopan, vice chairwoman of the organization, testified. “We alternatively support realistic and reasonable increases with a process that is transparent and open to student input and feedback.”

Members of the Ways and Means Committee voted, meanwhile, to advance HB 1594, which would establish a state-funded scholarship program called Hawaii Promise to assist resident students who have exhausted all other financial aid, including federal grants and scholarships.

The House version of the bill had proposed helping only community college students initially. University data for last academic year show there were close to 1,100 UH community college students statewide who were left with an average unmet need of $295 in direct costs, which include tuition, fees, books, supplies and transportation. The overall unmet need across the community colleges was $1.8 million for the 2015-16 school year.

Tokuda said the Senate draft of the state budget included a $1.8 million appropriation for the scholarship program.

The latest version of HB 1594 as amended by the Senate Higher Education Committee, however, would cover undergraduate students at all UH campuses, which the university has estimated would require a $13.5 million investment to subsidize some 4,200 students. If the measure passes out of the full Senate, it would then head to conference committee, where House and Senate negotiators will hash out the differences.