UH weighs higher
housing fees

The regents are told $27M
is needed to pay for overdue
maintenance at dorms

The University of Hawaii will look at whether to increase student housing fees to pay for a $27 million backlog in repairs and maintenance at aging dorms.

UH President David McClain told the Board of Regents his administration also will examine whether the university should set aside a percentage of the fees for repair and maintenance.

The current housing fee schedule at UH-Manoa runs until 2006, when new fee increases could take effect.

Housing fees at UH-Manoa for this academic year range from $2,903 for a shared room at Johnson Hall to $5,524 for a single room with bath at Hale Aloha Lokelani, Ilima.

UH-Manoa is also soliciting proposals from private developers to rebuild the Frear, Johnson and Gateway House dorms. Fees for the new buildings have not yet been set. Five finalists were selected for the project: Actus Lend Lease LLC and Allen & O'Hara Development Co.; American Campus Communities; KUD International and Capstone Development Corp.; Manoa Student Housing; and Student First Campus Communities and Leo A. Daly Inc. A new dorm has not been built on campus since the 1970s.

The discussion on housing fees followed a presentation on an audit of the University of Hawaii's bond system.

The university borrowed $20 million from the housing fund to pay for the new Banner student computer information system.

Auditors told the regents that the bond system is solvent and that the university has been paying back the housing fund, with interest, for the loan.

UH is also looking at state bonds to finance a backlog of about $58 million in deferred maintenance throughout the 10-campus system.

Regents questioned McClain about changing policies so that UH does not get into the position again of deferring repair and maintenance until it becomes a crisis.

The regents also approved a plan to reorganize the UH-Manoa chancellor's office, despite concerns about an additional $2.8 million in administrative costs.

The decision comes five years after the UH-Manoa Faculty Senate passed a resolution asking for a separation between the offices of UH president, who is responsible for administering all 10 UH system campuses, and the chancellor at UH-Manoa, which is the largest campus in the system.

UH-Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert said the reorganization plan comes after more than a year of consulting with various constituencies on campus.

But he noted, "Consultation does not mean consensus."

Student regent Trent Kakuda voted against the plan, citing the additional administrative costs, and wondered if the decision to separate the offices should be revisited.

Kakuda said he was concerned about where the money to pay for the reorganization was going to come from.

Former student Norman Kukona told the regents his calculations based on salaries reported to the Legislature showed that management costs at the UH system and the various campuses have gone up by more than $5 million since 2000.

But Board of Regents Vice Chairwoman Kitty Lagareta said it was unrealistic to expect that creating the additional office would not come with additional costs.

"There is a cost, and to move forward we have to pay that cost," she said.