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University of Hawaii-Manoa officials will consider enlisting private developers to help end the shortage of dorm rooms.
The university's Board of Regents yesterday told Jan Yokota, UH director of capital improvements, that she could start looking for qualified private developers to lease land from UH, build and finance a dormitory and possibly manage it once it opens.
"We need to do something different and think out of the box," said regent Jim Haynes.
About 1,400 students are on the waiting list to get housing for the upcoming semester, which begins in about six weeks. Besides the Manoa campus with about 3,000 beds, UH-Hilo and Kapiolani and Maui community colleges are facing housing shortages.
All the dorms were built and are managed by UH. Having a private developer build a dorm would be cheaper for the state, provide more space for students and probably speed up the process, said Yokota.
UH officials are looking at renovating Frear and Johnson halls and the International Gateway House, which could add almost 800 spaces for students, but that would take at least two years to finish. Frear and the International Gateway House are vacant.
"We are trying to look at long-term strategies for residence halls, but we also need to think short term," Yokota said.
Any private developer would need to have experience in constructing, financing and managing student housing at other colleges and universities, Yokota said.
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