The fact of the matter is that UH is at a crossroads. Excellence in education for all the people of Hawaii has been made a possibility, although public perceptions may lag behind reality.
We are now completing our 1997-2007 strategic plan, the first ever laying out system-wide goals in to the 21st century. In it, we seek to build on both the education excellence we offer and a number of other key areas in which our accomplishments already have been recognized.
The University of Hawaii, for example, aspires to be the premier resource for Asian/Pacific studies in the world. This has always been a goal at UH, but we are better prepared to reach it today than ever before.
We are already number one in English as a second language programs in the country, and offer our teaching and research resources to people throughout the Pacific Basin and Asia.
Our ocean sciences program is in the top five in the country in the amount of support that comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
And the university generally is recognized for having the best land-based astronomy operating in the world.
Our strategic plan protects those things which we do best and will gradually build our record of excellence across the board. This is a very important statement, but I think it is also time for the public to step back and ask some questions itself: What level of support can you expect from the state, and what should we be expected to do for ourselves?
UH needs to continue offering a quality education to each of the people in Hawaii who seek higher learning.
UH must continue offering peaks of excellence for all the people of Hawaii; this is a major attraction our state has to the rest of the world.
And we will become even more aggressive in raising private funds. We raised about twice as much last year as we raised when I became president four years ago.
Finally, we need to develop a social contract with the people of Hawaii. We need their support and help to achieve our goals.
Together we can do it.
I am confident we can raise $125 million or more in a five-year fund-raising campaigning if we persist. But we need a social contract that we can depend on the public for continued support, that a dollar will not be deducted from our appropriations for every dollar we raise privately.
Adjusting for inflation, and even including new tuition revenues, the UH budget allocation has dropped $65 million in the last five years.
In response, we've reduced expenditures and raised tuition.
When the reorganization is done, we will have closed two professional schools and reorganized our executive staff substantially to cut overhead. And the community colleges actually have terminated eight associate degree programs.
For what the university has done in the last two years, we should get a standing ovation from the public. California reacted to similar budget cuts by restricting access.
The University of Hawaii has made a commitment that we will keep our doors open, that we are going to continue to serve all the people of the state. That is a major policy decision from which we did not shrink and in which we take a degree of pride.
But we need agreement from our partners in the social contract I have described. We need it to build a quality institution to meet the needs of all the people in Hawaii, which also meets the needs of each of the people in Hawaii. I am confident that, together, we can do it.
I will look forward in the coming weeks and months to bringing you up to date more often on our specific accomplishments and challenges. Because only with your understanding and support, will we in fact do it.