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UNDERFUNDED. That's the word the highly respected Princeton Review used to describe the University of Hawaii in its 2000 edition of "The Best 331 Colleges," a widely followed guide to American colleges and universities. UH pays price for
underfundingAnd by rejecting a tuition increase, the UH Board of Regents has done nothing to improve an embarrassing situation that should be of vital concern to every resident of this state.
UH is not only our predominant educational and cultural institution, but a key economic factor in attracting new high-tech businesses to Hawaii.
Yet a student arriving in Manoa will find a tired and shabby campus with peeling paint, chipped cement, cracked walls, rusty railings and scrubby grounds. If the student is lucky, his or her professor hasn't yet departed for a higher-paying job on the mainland.
This is a shame, because Princeton also noted UH's "prestigious reputation in many fields." A research breakthrough with cloned mice, for example, gained the university well-deserved international acclaim.
Programs in marine science, astronomy, travel industry management, business, tropical agriculture and aquaculture, and Asian and Pacific studies, to name a few, are considered among the best in the country.
And at what price? An incredible bargain. According to the Review, of the 331 schools presented, UH is less expensive than 273.
Unfortunately, some regents have apparently never read the Princeton book, walked the campus lately, heard the exceptional things UH has accomplished or considered the extra-low-cost tuition that it charges.
Otherwise, why would they have caved in so readily to protesting students? Do any other trustees in the nation so readily bow to student input when deciding tuition increases?
Obviously, what is needed is a board with the courage to say, "We don't care how loudly you scream. Our mission is to improve this university."
And the students? I can't blame them for flexing their muscles; I protested myself on the same steps of Bachman Hall some 30 years ago. But is it truly in their best interest, and the best interest of part-Hawaiian students, to perpetuate a scruffy campus with underpaid professors and reduced programs?
And what about representatives of the UH administration? While they are to be applauded for recommending the tuition hike, they should be doing a far better job of recruiting, which may help their budgetary problem.
UH has been steadily losing students, while enrollment at Hawaii Pacific University has never been higher. Heald College, which emphasizes neatness in both its campus and its kids, is able to attract low-income students at a tuition which is three times that of Manoa.
One more thing about the Princeton Review. It offered the 331 schools a golden opportunity to describe the best things about their programs. You guessed it: UH was one of only four that failed to say a single word.
C. Richard Fassler is the vice chairman and
treasurer of the Manoa Neighborhood Board.