UH Foundation seeks
changes in naming
policyProposed guidelines would make
it easier to honor large donors
The University of Hawaii Foundation, which is embarking on a massive fund-raising campaign to mark UH's 100th anniversary, wants the Board of Regents to make it easier to name buildings and classrooms after big-money donors.
"At every private school or private college you go to, everything has a name on it," said Donna Vuchinich, the foundation's vice president for development.
Public universities are starting to do the same as they become more dependent on private fund raising, she said.
"People like to have their names on things," she said at a regents' meeting yesterday.
According to proposed guidelines, a minimum contribution of a $10,000 endowment could allow a donor to name a fund for buying books. A classroom could be named by a donor for $50,000 to $250,000, a lecture hall for $1 million. But an entire building would require at least 50 percent of the construction cost and an endowment to pay for maintenance.
"With people who are giving this much money, they are interested in carrying on a family legacy, honoring a loved one, naming it for their mom and dad or for a child," she said. "People don't give this kind of money away unthoughtfully."
Vuchinich emphasized that the naming of buildings by donors will only be allowed on new facilities that are constructed with private money or in a private/public partnership, not buildings built entirely with public funds.
Current board policy allows for rooms and quarters in buildings to be named to honor major donors in "appropriate circumstances." But the policy also requires that a person has to be dead for at least five years before a building, road, facility or program can be named after an individual.
"If someone wants to give $20 million or $50 million for a new facility and they're not dead, we can't name it after them," Vuchinich said.
The current policy also requires that persons for whom facilities or programs are named have been connected with UH or must have established a tradition of public service, preferably in higher education.
At an informational briefing yesterday, student regent Trent Kakuda said he would likely vote against the proposed guidelines because he thinks buildings should be named after people with a connection to the university.
But Vuchinich noted, "If the state doesn't have the money and we have a private donor who does, should we not consider that?"
In coming up with the proposed guidelines, Vuchinich researched what other public universities do.
The proposed guidelines also note that in rare circumstances when a name must be removed from a facility, approval must be sought. Legal impropriety on the part of the donor will make the gift and naming subject to reconsideration by the Board of Regents.
The naming proposal comes as the foundation is ramping up its fund-raising efforts as part of a major campaign to mark the 100th anniversary of the university in 2007.
The foundation's Centennial Campaign is anticipated to raise $175 million to $200 million over the next five years for scholarships, programs, buildings and facilities on all 10 of the UH campuses.
Regents approved five themes for the campaign yesterday. They are: enhancing academic excellence, strengthening undergraduate education, promoting Hawaii's economy, maximizing the UH's mid-Pacific setting, and fostering the university's relationship with the community.
