Editorial: More UH students a boon for Hawaii

Last summer, when student headcount at the University of Hawaii’s flagship Manoa campus was poised to continue a downward slide, the 10-campus system’s president, David Lassner, announced a push to bump up enrollment and retention figures.

He set a goal of hitting a headcount of 20,000 within three years. UH-Manoa had dipped below that mark since fall 2014. This fall’s enrollment breakdown, released last week, offers encouragement that the ongoing push is making progress.

While overall fall semester enrollment at UH-Manoa barely budged upward — an increase of less than 1 percent, to 17,710 students — settling in on campus is the largest-ever freshman class in the university’s 111-year history. The count of incoming freshmen jumped dramatically, by nearly 13 percent over last year to 2,209.

Stepped-up efforts to recruit homegrown scholars are apparently paying off as UH-Manoa’s freshman class includes a 10 percent increase in local students, bringing the in-state makeup to nearly 61 percent of the class.

Admissions officials have rightly increased engagement with local high school counselors and communications with students and parents — by way of old-fashioned brochures and new social media platforms. Such efforts are a must when competing with private schools and other public universities that are tenaciously pursuing talented students.

As the state’s sole public option for higher education, UH has an edge over many competitors in that its in-state tuition — $2,700 less than the national average for public universities — is a relative bargain for local students and their families worried about student debt while already contending with Hawaii’s high cost of living.

At UH-Manoa, residents pay roughly $11,100 for the underway school year. And the UH’s community colleges are among the most affordable two-year schools nationwide. Tuition for in-state students at Kapiolani Community College, for instance, is less than $3,100.

Lassner’s headcount goal is sensible as the campus has ample capacity to handle a significantly larger student enrollment, and almost half of its operational budget flows from tuition. Among the strategies in the works to retain students: offering attractive new degree programs, personalizing academic advising and better tracking of student trends.

Another must for student retention: modernizing aging buildings. Working in tandem with the Board of Regents, state lawmakers must find ways to increase funding for long-deferred maintenance that has left some buildings teetering on dilapidation.

Systemwide, a total of 51,063 students enrolled in UH campuses this fall. That’s a drop of slightly more than 1 percent from fall 2017. But it’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 seven campuses.

That’s concerning when weighed against a state projection that by 2020 at least 70 percent of jobs here will require some post-secondary education. In response, a collaboration between state agencies and the UH system is seeking to see at least 55 percent of Hawaii’s adults equipped with a college degree from either a two- or four-year institution by 2025.

The “55 by ’25” campaign is a step in the right direction for Hawaii’s future as are increasingly popular programs like “early college,” through which eligible students from as early as ninth grade can earn both high school and college credit by taking tuition-free college courses on their high school campus.

At UH-Manoa, baby boomers took enrollment to its highest-ever point (22,371) in the early 1970s. Since then it has been in slow decline, mostly. Aside from the ups and downs of birth rates and the economy, it’s heartening that there’s plenty the university can control in its effort to boost enrollment and student success.