UH asks panels
for support

By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

Hoping to start off on the right foot, the state Legislature's money committees have begun looking for programs they can jointly support early in next year's session.

Some of them may deal with the University of Hawaii.

UH officials met yesterday with the House Finance and Senate Ways and Means committees at an informational briefing to discuss pressing higher education issues and what state lawmakers can do to help.

UH President Kenneth P. Mortimer said he is distressed about the public's perception that the autonomy granted by lawmakers to the university in recent years means the state wants to create a private university. Rather, he said, one of UH's goals is to serve the people of Hawaii.

With 62 percent of all 1996 Hawaii high school graduates attending the UH system, it is important that the university continues to focus on improving the quality of education on campus, he said. Other strategic goals include strengthening the university as the premiere resource for Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific affairs, and developing diverse revenue sources so it can respond to changes.

"The University of Hawaii of the 21st century has to move much quicker, not slower," Mortimer said.

Mortimer said the university is one of the state's major employers, generating $1.5 billion annually in direct and indirect economic activity to the state, resulting in $122 million in state and county taxes.

UH officials also rattled off a list of scientific breakthroughs for fiscal year 1998-1999, including the first successful cloning of multiple generations of mammals, the first successful clone of a male mammal and the first use of freeze-dried sperm to fertilize an egg.

Lawmakers responded with concerns about the UH-West Oahu campus at Kapolei, the recruitment of foreign students and the university's growing backlog of repair and maintenance projects.

Ka Leo O Hawaii