Tensions flared anew Wednesday in the first public meeting of the legislative season between University of Hawaii President David Lassner and some of his key critics in the state Senate, as UH administrators faced pointed questions over such problems as a dormitory that has stood vacant for seven years due to disrepair.

Hale Noelani, an apartment-style complex on the UH Manoa lower campus that contains 152 units with 530 beds, has not been renovated since it was built in 1978, and has been closed since 2017. It is one of five dormitory complexes on the UH Manoa campus that has not been renovated since being built in the 1960s or 1970s.

The UH Board of Regents in its latest budget request asked for $80 million for an overhaul of Hale Noelani, but Gov. Josh Green did not include it in his budget for the 2024 state Legislature.

State Sen. Donna Mercado Kim and Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, who respectively are chairs of the Senate Higher Education Committee and Senate Ways and Means Committee, suggested during Wednesday’s informational briefing that the dorm might still be open if properly maintained and a renovation request was made years ago when it could have been cheaper. They called the closure for seven years so far unacceptable.

“Why did you allow it to go that long?” Dela Cruz asked.

“I wasn’t personally aware of everything going on in student housing,” Lassner said.

“You’re also the chancellor for Manoa. How would you not know that those dorms have been vacant for seven years?” Dela Cruz said.

“Nobody brought it to my attention, and I didn’t ask the question,” Lassner said.

At another point during Wednesday’s informational briefing before both committees at the state Capitol, Lassner said: “If you want to go back and blame me, go ahead. It’s OK. We’re trying to create a plan moving forward. That’s our focus right now.”

Student housing services at UH operate under a special fund that is required by state statute to be self-sustaining and generate enough revenue to cover both operational expenses and capital investments. UH has 21 residential buildings offering 1,300 freshman beds and 1,800 nonfreshman beds, drawing an annual revenue of about $23.2 million.

Over the years UH overall has struggled to stretch a too-small budget for its diverse facilities, UH administrators said. “We previously relayed to you that our level of appropriation does not meet the minimum threshold. So we’re talking about having to maintain capital facilities for classrooms, administration and student housing,” Kalbert Young, UH vice president for budget and finance and chief financial officer, told the senators at the briefing.

But state Rep. Kurt Fevella challenged the university’s priorities in a six-minute-long stern lecture to UH administrators, apparently referring to a 2022 approval by the regents to spend $30 million to expand seating capacity at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex at UH Manoa to 17,000 seats. The $30 million project followed an $8.1 million project in 2021 that expanded capacity from 2,500 seats to 9,500 seats.

“If you guys could do that for Ching field, why couldn’t you guys do that for the dorms?” Fevella said.

UH officials have said the sports field expansion was necessary to meet the NCAA’s minimum attendance requirement of 15,000 fans for Division I football.

Lassner and other UH administrators in the briefing said that student housing until last fall was handled by a “completely independent operation” under the UH Manoa provost. But in a reorganization, student housing recently was given a stronger focus and brought under the UH system administration and assigned to UH Vice President for Administration Jan Gouveia.

Other dormitory complexes on the UH Manoa campus that have not been renovated since being built decades ago are Hale Wainani (constructed in 1979), Hale Anuenue (1978), Hale Laulima (1968) and Hale Kahawai (1963), according to a presentation to the UH regents last month. Officials said rebuilding a new facility in Hale Noelani’s place would cost $327 million.

In the December presentation, Gouveia and administrators outlined a number of challenges for the operation of the UH dormitories, including a chronic shortage of workers to handle repair, improvement and maintenance. Gouveia and Student Housing Services Interim Director David Akana said long-range plans for student housing are being developed. “We want our current and future residents to know that we are committed to improving the quality of our facilities and amenities,” Akana said in a statement.

After Wednesday’s briefing, a UH spokesperson said that significant improvements have been made since May 2023 to student housing facilities on the UH Manoa campus. They include new mattresses delivered to every student room; installation of more than 300 wireless access points to improve Wi-Fi service; repairs to 550 windows, 400 bed frames and 50 air-­conditioning units; and replacement of 75% of the restroom plumbing fixtures in Hale Wainani and the restroom exhaust fans in Hale Kahawai and Hale Laulima. More improvements are planned.

Student housing is just one area in which there are wide gaps between what the UH regents requested in their supplemental budget for the second half of the biennium and what Green included in his budget. State lawmakers Wednesday urged UH administrators to scrutinize spending not only on facilities, but on such areas as external space rentals, contracts, interim appointments and position vacancies.

In its capital improvement projects request, the UH Board of Regents asked for $331.5 million, including the $80 million for Hale Noelani. Green included $66.5 million in his budget.

For its operating budget request, the UH board asked for $56.3 million, mostly to restore general funds to pre-pandemic levels, and expand the Hawaii Promise scholarship program to help kamaaina students attend not just the UH community colleges, but the four-year UH campuses as well. Green’s budget included $28.6 million for UH, with only $3.7 million for Hawaii Promise.