UH regents approve
new rules for donors
to name buildings

The Board of Regents approved fund-raising guidelines that will allow a major donor to name a building on a University of Hawaii campus for the first time.

The guidelines are for the yet-to-be-built $25 million College of Pharmacy at UH-Hilo. Sixteen million dollars will allow a donor to name the pharmacy building.

The UH Foundation has drawn up guidelines for the naming of rooms and other interior spaces of buildings, but the guidelines did not include until now the naming of the building itself.

Student Regent Trent Kakuda was the only regent who voted against the pharmacy proposal at a meeting last month.

Former UH regent Momi Cazimero also opposes the naming of buildings by donors.

"The values of the public are what should be represented when we name buildings. It's not about who gives. It's about what who we are and what we value," she said.

The pharmacy college is still in the planning stages but is scheduled to open in 2007. The money to build the school is expected to come from a combination of federal funds and private donations, possibly from large pharmaceutical companies, UH-Hilo officials told the regents last year.

The naming of the building is included in the pharmacy school guidelines because the money raised will help construct the building, said UH Foundation President Donna Vuchinich.

"We're moving into a different environment where private investment will provide for facilities," Vuchinich said. "The reality is, if the state was going to build everything we wanted, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Besides the Pharmacy College building, there will be naming opportunities for the interior of the structure, with donation levels ranging from $1.5 million for a drug information center lab to $200,000 for the student lounge and $100,000 for a pharmacy display/information area.

Current board policy requires that if a building is named after a person, that person must have been actively connected with the university or established a national or international reputation of public service from Hawaii. It also states that buildings, other facilities, roads and programs will not be named for living individuals or, ordinarily, for those who have been dead less than five years.

Any donations and names would still have to come back to the regents for final approval, as would exceptions to the board policy.

Vuchinich said the foundation has no plans to allow donors to name buildings constructed with state funds, she added.

Money from other naming opportunities approved by the regents, including the new medical school, will help support programs and the maintenance of the building rather than actual construction.

"I understand there's a practical aspect of continuing the building of necessary facilities, and I want to respect that," Cazimero said, but she draws a line at the naming of buildings.

"People whose names are memorialized on our University of Hawaii buildings should also reflect achievers, who have lived our highest aspirations," she said.

At last month's meeting, the regents also unanimously approved a $16.6 million proposal for the naming of parts of the new Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Center in Hilo.

The $28 million astronomy education center is under construction and is scheduled to open late this year.

The center is largely funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and will house educational exhibits and information on research going on at observatories on Mauna Kea.

The facility in the University of Hawaii Park of Science and Technology will feature a planetarium, classroom, conference and library resource rooms, a gift shop, restaurant and 12,000-square-foot exhibition hall with exhibits on astronomy and Hawaiian culture that will highlight human exploration and voyaging.

Among the donation levels: $2.5 million to name the planetarium, $850,000 for the projection dome and D3 laser system, $40,000 for the mosaic floor in the lobby and $20,000 for landscaping in the canoe garden.