HILO >> The University of Hawaii at Hilo is proposing a 48 percent tuition increase for its freshman and sophomore students, effective this fall. UH-Hilo proposes rise
in tuition this autumn
Ikawa resigns as UH regent to focus on business
By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.comBut even with the increase, those students will pay "substantially less" than they would at comparable universities, said John Whittaker, vice chancellor for academic affairs.
Freshman students who are already enrolled will be "grandfathered," meaning they will not pay the full increase, although they will pay a 7.5 percent increase that was approved three years ago.
And higher tuition will also mean increased financial aid packages where appropriate, said Keith Miser, vice chancellor for student affairs.
The need for an increase arises because UH-Hilo is the only campus in the UH system that has tuition rates for freshmen and sophomores that is lower than tuition for juniors and seniors, Chancellor Rose Tseng told UH regents yesterday.
Under a schedule of gradual increases approved in 2000, the difference was supposed to be eliminated by the 2009-2010 school year, Tseng said.
But a new universitywide student information system makes it too costly to maintain the two-tier system at UH-Hilo, she said.
Under the proposal, all full-time, resident students at UH-Hilo, except those who are grandfathered, will pay $1,188 a semester. Grandfathered students will pay $864. Those rates are compared with the current $804 for freshmen and sophomores.
The $1,188 can also be compared with the $3,972 per semester nonresidents will pay.
Student body president Ginger Takeshita said she and students she knows generally consider the increase fair because it protects the grandfathered students and because the tuition will still be below the national average for a school of this size.
Although only UH-Hilo is affected, hearings will be held in all counties because UH-Hilo draws students from across the state, Tseng said.
Hearings will be Feb. 25, UH-Manoa Campus Center 307, 1-3 p.m.; Feb. 26, UH-Hilo Campus Center 306-307, 1-3 p.m.; Feb. 27, Kauai Community College Performing Arts Center, noon-2 p.m.; and Feb. 28, Maui Community College Laulima 225, noon-2 p.m.
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HILO >> A member of the University of Hawaii Board of Regents representing East Hawaii, Allan Ikawa, has resigned six months short of the end of his four-year term. Ikawa resigns as UH regent
to focus on running business
By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.comIn a Jan. 10 letter to Gov. Linda Lingle, Ikawa said he needed to focus on running his business, Big Island Candies.
Ikawa added that he felt obliged to express thoughts on the future of the university.
"One must be honest in communicating one's goals and expectations to others and practical in assessing what one can in fact afford to do," he said. "Commitments must be fulfilled on sound fiscal as well as philosophical bases."
Ikawa was not available for further comment.
UH President Evan Dobelle, at a regents meeting in Hilo yesterday, said he understood Ikawa to be saying the regents have a responsibility to foster creative, innovative programs. "We have to be sure we can pay for them," he added.
Dobelle noted that Ikawa had been chairman of the search committee that recruited Dobelle as president. "Allan will be missed," he said.
Bert Kobayashi, chairman of the Board of Regents, noted that Ikawa donated products from his company to numerous charities and runs a golf tournament. "I'm sure that his hands are full," he said.
Ikawa's is the second recent resignation from the board. In November, Michael Hartley, on the board less than four months, resigned in protest after Dobelle appeared in a television advertisement endorsing Democrat Mazie Hirono for governor.
University of Hawaii at Hilo
