UH recommends raising its tuition
The University of Hawaii is seeking approval this week from the UH Board of Regents to increase undergraduate tuition at its flagship Manoa campus over a three-year period starting in the fall of 2017.
Under the proposal, resident tuition for full-time undergraduate students would increase by $216 to top $11,000 for the first time. Undergraduate students at the Manoa campus make up nearly three-fourths of the student body. Proposed annual increases across the 10-campus system range from 0 to 2 percent.
The revenue generated from the increases would go toward modernizing campus facilities, which would indirectly address the university’s repair and maintenance backlog, university officials said.
“The proposal seeks to balance the fundamental objectives of maintaining affordability and access while beginning to address the university’s $500-plus million deferred maintenance backlog and capital renewal to ensure that our facilities are properly maintained,” Risa Dickson, UH’s vice president for academic planning and policy, wrote in a memorandum Friday to Board of Regents Chairman Randy Moore.
In an interview Monday, Dickson added, “It’s important to note that the money raised through the proposed tuition increase would only be used for projects that modernize student spaces, classrooms and laboratories. This would help address the deferred maintenance backlog, but that’s not the priority of the increase. The priority is to follow the UH strategic directions to build a 21st-century university that provides the absolute best and most modern learning environments for our students.”
UH is in the final year of a five-year tuition schedule that was supposed to ultimately raise tuition by more than 30 percent. The plan was approved in 2011, when UH faced drastic cuts in state funding. But under UH President David Lassner, the university last summer scaled back the increases built into the final two years of the schedule to keep tuition affordable. Officials said the decision reduced tuition revenue, which makes up roughly a third of UH’s budget, by an estimated $12 million.
Costs to repair facilities total $503 million across the UH system — up from $460 million three years ago — with most of the work needed on the aging Manoa campus. University officials said the backlog, which dates back more than a decade, continues to grow because the university hasn’t received sufficient support from the state in past years. But this past legislative session, the university received approval to issue up to $30 million in revenue bonds to begin addressing the backlog.
Annual full-time tuition at the Manoa campus is $10,872 for the 2016-17 academic year. The recommended increases for that campus would amount to a 2 percent tuition hike for the 2017-18 academic year, or $11,088 for full-time undergraduate residents; a 1.9 percent increase the following year to $11,304; and a 1.9 percent increase to $11,520 for 2019-20.
Full-time graduate students at Manoa would pay $312 more a year in tuition under the proposal, but no increases are recommended for professional schools, including the business, education, nursing, law and medical graduate programs.
For students at the West Oahu and Hilo baccalaureate campuses, UH recommends undergraduate tuition stay flat at $7,200 for the 2017-18 year and increase by 1 percent a year — or $72 annually — in the following two academic years.
The seven community college campuses would see the smallest dollar increases under the proposal. Tuition for full-time students who are residents of the state would hold flat in the first year at $3,024 before increasing by $60, or 2 percent, annually in the following two years.
By comparison, a recent survey by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, of which Hawaii is one of 16 member states, found tuition and fees for resident undergraduates at public four-year institutions in the WICHE region averaged $8,081 in 2015-16, up 2.7 percent from the year before.
The Associated Students of the University of Hawaii, the student government representing undergraduates at the Manoa campus, passed a resolution this spring opposing the tuition increases and calling the move “premature.” The group contended in its resolution that tuition increases should be a last resort and called on the university administration to “explore other areas to reallocate the budget to mitigate costs.”
“The ASUH believes that it is important to keep considering both the cost and quality associated with providing an education to the students here at the University of Hawaii, and that the current cost structure is approaching the point where it might not be as valuable pursuing an education here,” the resolution said.
Thirty-eight percent of undergraduates at Manoa have taken out federal loans at help pay for college, and students graduate with a median federal loan debt of $19,509, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Under the tuition plan, increases to tuition at the Manoa campus would generate an estimated $2.36 million in 2017-18, an estimated $4.72 million the following year and an estimated $7.08 million in 2019-20.
Dickson said the projections assume enrollment would hold steady across the campuses.
“The amount generated from the proposed increase is going to be dedicated for the purposes of modernizing facilities, regardless of what happens to enrollment,” she said.
Approximately 230 individuals attended 13 public meetings on the tuition proposal between March and May, and 52 of the attendees gave oral or written testimony.
“The majority who testified opposed the tuition proposal. Their primary concerns were affordability and financial hardship,” according to a memo by Dickson. “A few objected to the use of tuition for deferred maintenance. Other feedback included requests for transparency in how funds from the increases will be spent, and consideration of ways to reduce expenses rather than raising tuition.”
31 responses to “UH recommends raising its tuition”
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A $216/year increase after dialing down scheduled increases in recent years seems very reasonable. I suppose ASUH feels it must oppose any tuition increase, but steady increases to keep up with needs and inflation is the responsible way to go.
Tuition is being increased to pay for the exorbitant salaries of the many, many administrators UH now has and all of the of highly paid researchers at the Cancer Center and other institutions affiliated with UH who cannot seem to support themselves on grant money, as those at other universities do. Tuition costs at UH are higher than the median at public universities nationwide, while the academic ranking is falling because the administration prefers researchers over academic professors. Students are no longer the reason for the university to exist; they are a cash cow for the school’s administration.
Yes UH, DOE AND the Rail project are all total failures.
hey! UH is a fine university. We students contribute a great deal to the health of the state. I am ok with the tuition hike if it improves academic facilities.
Go jack yourself. Only an insane despicable person would infer all UH students and graduates as total failures.
Tell me all the other public universities who support themselves on grant money.
Check out schools on the mainland and UH is a bargain. Its time for UH to operate its programs by tuition hikes instead on relying on the taxpayer.
It’s about time. The current UH tuition is too low. UCLA will cost $70,000 this year for a student from Hawaii. Students who smoke will pay over $3,000 a year to buy cigarettes. So what’s a $300 + tuition increase?
You can’t compare out of state with in state costs.
I agree with the increase. Now, only serious students will think about a 4 year college instead of just treading water. More students should start at the community college arena and move over to Manoa when they are ready to choose and are ready for their Major!
An increase to fix facilities may seem reasonable but they say the same thing every time. Then nothing changes. Then UHPA asks for raises. Things that were broken when I graduated from UH in 1970 are still broken. The same paint is peeling off of the walls. Dorm students are charged for the same carpet stains every year. This is the same as the reason to raise gas taxes to fix the roads. Then nothing happens.
Back then UH wasn’t that broken. Heck when i started it was $2,000 a semester. which I think is incredibly reasonable.
I believe back in 1970 the tuition was less than $500 a semester. UH was over subsidized for the longest time. UH is still a bargain compared to most primary State universities. Both me and my wife are proud UH alumni and make sure we contribute a little every year. The education we received from UH has been worth over thousands times what we put in as we are both retired professionals fortunate enough to enjoy our golden years of comfortable retirement. We both came from poor backgrounds in Kalihi and UH was about the only higher education option back then as we were not in a financial position of even dreaming of going away to college. Lot of things happened and are happening (and lot of it good). Most of my friend’s children attended or are attending UH and vast majority of them are turning out fine as engineers, accountants, etc. I’ve been blessed to have the means of offering my children options of going away, which both of them did do, but I would have been totally fine if they had chosen UH. One of the main problems with UH is that large number of successful graduates don’t give a cent back. Hopefully you’re not in that camp. Before knocking UH, first ask what you’re doing to improve what I consider is still a fine university.
Me and my wife pretty much did as you and yours did. My children attended UH also and all have advanced Degrees, except me! Without the VA, there would be no college opportunity. UH is a good school and giving back is essential. We all give to the Program of our choice. Thanks for giving and the great comment!
Thanks, I know you find me over the top at times but, as they say, can’t be sarcastic with being smart, and UH helped me become real smart, and I’m sure you’re smart too, but not quite as much as me.
Don’t you know that most all of the senior level city and state engineers went to UH? Those engineers are the ones who designed, built,and are responsible for UH facilities, roads, water systems, sewers, probably even rail, and even design reviews of all those high rise condos. Isn’t it odd that those are among all the things in Hawaii that are broken?
The state legislature made a mess trying to privatize the state hospitals on Maui in a failed attempt save money for the state. For years they have been cutting state funding for UH, in an attempt to privatize Hawaii’s state university. The public should expect more attempts at privatization, which means UH students will be paying more and more for tuition. Any families with small children should start saving money for college now if they expect to send their kids to UH, because it will cost a fortune by the time they graduate from high school.
That’s interesting, I didn’t know there was a movement to privatize the University. I would like to read about it, any chance you could give some links?
It’s “autonomy” and not “privatization”. Wrong word.
You are so full of it. The notion that funding is being cut to “privatize” a State university is beyond ludicrous. Darn, I hope no university wasted their money on you.
Look at the salaries paid to the UH faculty and administration! Look at the million dollar blunders made by the highly paid admin teams.
Those of you with no children in the UH system are quick to respond in favor of the tuition increase. Fifty thousand dollars for a degree is a very serious matter. Many residents who are struggling with high rent and mortgages have children who are somewhere in the education system. Will their children have to rack up student loan debt or will college be out of their reach?
Those who can pay for mainland tuitions or whose children get scholarships, good for you! The rest of us just plain do without.
The cost of living in Hawaii is super high. Many locals leave because of that.
As a student from the early 1970s, I object to tuition increases, when the money is used for UH fiascos, bad administrative decisions, nepotism, cronyism, favoritism, and pork spending.
There will always be inflation. And, the UH will teach our future political career politicians, on cost overruns, that will fund someone’s retirement funds.
Buildings will not be up kept, they will eventually decay and be demolished. It will be better to build from scratch, rather than maintain.
The UH keeps on forgetting, that its students need all of the financial help that they can get. Giving them funds and raising the costs, will not help everyone to graduate.
Blame that on the politicians and political insiders. UH autonomy was put into place to accommodate those special interest groups without accountability.
Autonomy is good. The Legislature wants to reward themselves with UH jobs when they more on from politics.
Autonomy is god, I agree. But The Legislature! Oh well.
Disturbing. Tuition is already too high. We have the highest cost of living.
The University is funded 47% by outside grants, gifts, and operating revenue it generates on its own– some of you apparently do not know this. The State pays only 25% of the University’s budget. Tuition covers the remaining 28% of the annual UH budget. What is alarming is that nationally, public funding of public colleges and universities is falling and tuition is rising or may need to rise to keep up with expenses. We are pricing many students out of a college education which is one of the major routes to upward mobility in the US as proven by statistics which actually show that a college degree is even more important to social mobility than it was 10 years ago. This is leading to the increase in economic inequality cited by Presidential candidates from Donald Trump to Bernie Sanders, both of whom propose more financial aid with the objective of free college eductions.
Thank you for such a fine post. If your numbers are correct, and I don’t doubt it is, it further accentuate the fact that tuition at UH is still a deal, given the fact that a person without a higher education is severely handicapped in finding a good job. Lucky, that in Hawaii right now, the construction boom is providing excellent jobs for trades people. Furthermore, even workers in the service industry, especially the tourism industry, enjoy decent wages because of the unions. The problem with disenfranchised whites and blacks that is so troubling is so muted here compared to large parts of the US. Affordable public education was one of the primary goals of the Democratic Party here as good education, until even into the ’60s was limited to a particular group and race. One only has to look at history of Punahou and even Roosevelt and McKinley schools to realize this. UH and it’s affiliated community colleges are still the only higher education option for many residents. On the other hand, the fact that so many young people now can afford to go to mainland schools is a testament to the success of UH in producing successful people who are now able to send their kids to the mainland. Ones who blindly complain about the tuition cost at UH are ill informed. There are many scholarships, grants, and work study program to alleviate some of the cost for capable students, beside the tuition for UH still being a bargain.
Yes,UH is a bargain. Personally, I had VA and a work/study job. Without that, I dunno!
Don’t forget Clinton. She’s determined to decrease, and not increase, costs of college….