Many University of Hawaii scholarship athletes who live off campus should see a significant rise in their housing checks this year, UH officials said.
While the numbers are still being crunched, associate athletic director Carl Clapp said the result "could be as much as approximately $950 per year" for those on full scholarship who live off campus.
Scholarship athletes who live on campus will likely see a boost, too, but UH officials said the amount is still being calculated and a lot will be determined by which dorm they live in and other variables.
The change comes after football coach Norm Chow offered a suggestion to acting athletic director Rockne Freitas earlier this month and officials began reexamining the formulas by which the NCAA allows the school to compute housing allowances.
"I credit Norm for being a spokesman for the coaches and making some suggestions and the Manoa Chancellor (Tom Apple) for going along with us," Freitas said.
Chow said he "approached the athletic director his first couple of days on the job and he made it happen. Rockne’s No. 1 goal as athletic director is the same as mine, to make sure that our student-athletes are taken care of. He’s a very decisive individual where they are concerned."
Chow said, "We expect so much out of them that we need to take care of them."
Freitas said UH previously used an average cost to help determine its level of subsidy but chose an alternate method, one of several approved by the NCAA.
The change is expected to cost UH approximately $200,000 more per year, Clapp said. "But this is a student-athlete-based initiative."
Scholarship athletes receive their housing stipends spread over eight checks per year and some will be receiving as much as an additional $120 per check, Clapp said.
