UH sets
high academic,
athletic goals

Its strategic plan calls for investing
in its strengths to attract better students
and gain national recognition

By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

A highly ranked college sports program. A top 50 research library. A well-maintained campus. And an academic reputation that keeps local kids at home.

These are among the goals of a strategic plan that University of Hawaii-Manoa officials will use to guide the campus during the next decade until its centennial year in 2007.

Dean O. Smith, UH-Manoa interim executive vice chancellor, said one goal in the recently approved plan is for Manoa's 18 athletic programs -- seven men's, 10 women's and one co-ed -- to earn enough points to put it in the top 40 of the Sears Directors' Cup.

The Sears ranking awards points for athletic performance, and the overall champion is the institution that has a broad-based program with success in many sports.

Stanford University currently leads the ranking, with Manoa tied at 77th of 307 schools.

Smith said Manoa will focus on the sports it can do well without a long build-up time or major investment, as well as comply with gender equity requirements.

Also, he wants the athletic department to be independent by weaning it from general funds. About $1.5 million of its $15 million annual budget is general fund money.

"If we're going to be in this business, let's do it right," Smith told the Board of Regents last month. "This means a lot to the university, and it means a lot to the state."

Academically, Manoa officials want 10 programs or specializations ranked in the top half of recognized national surveys by the year 2007, with five in the top 25 percent.

Currently, there are no UH graduate research programs in the top quartile of the National Research Council ranking.

Its highest, oceanography, is in the 27th percentile, Smith said.

While Manoa has a good grasp of its academic goals, regent John A. Hoag wondered what programs it has targeted as its top five, and how these programs will get there. The plan shows priority will be given to astronomy, biomedical sciences, and conservation biology and evolutionary ecology.

Other priority areas include Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific studies, marine biology, ocean and Earth sciences and tropical agriculture.

And officials want to build Manoa's academic reputation.

"Our goal is to position Manoa as the first choice for residents so that when they talk about Manoa as a campus, it's not considered the booby prize; (meaning) you have to attend because you can't go somewhere else," Smith said.

Specifically, the plan includes these goals:

An enrollment of 18,000 to 20,000 students, up from the current 17,000.

Plans are to attract more top local students and expand mainland and international recruitment.

Strengthen Pacific and Asian programs, such as coordinating Hawaiian language with Hawaiian studies, and being the best school nationwide for Pacific Island Studies.

Rank in the top 50 of public universities in extramural training and research funding.

UH ranked 73rd last year with $89 million, but needs $133 million to reach the top 50.

Rank in the top 50 of American university research libraries.

It is 77th in total holdings; 46th in the number of volumes, but 100 out of 107 in the number of volumes added.

Manoa must invest $14 million yearly in the library budget to meet those goals.

The current funding is $10 million.

Increase the repair and maintenance budget.

Manoa spends $1.6 million for campus upkeep but it needs $20 million a year to take care of the infrastructure.