New UH science
center flawed

‘Classes can't be taught’ in the facility
due to layout and money woes

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

Many researchers are refusing to occupy a long-awaited University of Hawaii science facility because they say it has serious problems.

Dedication ceremonies were held today for the $48 million Pacific Ocean Science and Technology Center.

John Sinton, Department of Geology and Geophysics chairman, said, "The bottom line is we can't teach in the building, and much of the research that was planned for the building also can't be done with the present conditions."

Sinton cites three major issues:

No furniture in any instructional areas, "so we have marvelous new, completely bare, instructional spaces." More than $600,000 in new computer equipment for students can't be set up or ordered because there's no place to put it.

About $116,000 worth of new teaching microscopes are in storage until instructional spaces are finished, he said.

"Unless money materializes magically somewhere, classes can't be taught in the fall there," said C. Barry Raleigh, dean of the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology.

But classrooms in the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology are to be renovated, he said. "So we're kind of caught. We don't quite know what to do."

The UH has been turning the air conditioner off in some rooms every night and on weekends to save money although computer, graphic, analytical and other equipment requires 24-hour climate control.

UH spokesman Jim Manke said it was agreed last week to turn the air conditioner on 24 hours a day while a cost analysis is done and a plan is formed to handle equipment problems. It was to start Monday, but Sinton said it didn't.

Some laboratories can't be used because of such flaws as no hoods to exhaust acid fumes; air-handling systems directly over spaces designed for vibration-sensitive instruments; and metal fixtures in rooms that must be metal free for high-precision metal analysis.

Eugene Imai, senior vice president for administration, today said he was aware only of the air-conditioning and furnishing issues and they're related to "not having enough money."

The Manoa campus is short $1.1 million in its budget for this fiscal year, with about 1 million square feet of new facilities and no maintenance or utility funding increases, he said.

Money wasn't approved for furnishings, so programs moving into the building must scrape together money to outfit offices and labs or use old furnishings, he said.

Sinton also lists a lot of small deficiencies, such as water taps with no sinks and vice versa. "We can live with some of these, but the more fundamental problems are preventing moves."

Planning delays and money problems have plagued the state and federally funded ocean and technology center from the start.

About half of the faculty members and students have moved or plan to move into the building, while others are waiting for issues to be resolved, Sinton said.

Tenants include earth sciences, ocean engineering, natural energy, planetary research and other School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology programs.