The University of Hawaii Board of Regents got some good financial news yesterday, learning that researchers brought in $414 million last year and that the UH Foundation raised more than $336 million after its recently concluded six-year Centennial Campaign.

But the money will not do much to offset the need to cut $155 million from the general fund budget over the next two years.

UH President David McClain said he plans to announce proposed pay cuts for top leaders at the 10-campus UH system as early as today.

McClain briefed the board behind closed doors on the status of collective-bargaining negotiations and the proposed executive pay cuts, but said afterward that there were some details that still need to be worked out.

“;Clearly we want our executives to lead the way,”; McClain said about the pay cuts.

He said the university is negotiating pay cuts with public worker unions, but UH is also reducing elsewhere and trying to run more efficiently to deal with the budget cuts.

Researchers and staff whose salaries come from federal funds and other sources will likely not see their pay slashed, McClain said.

“;We want to reward the entrepreneurial spirit,”; McClain said.

  University of Hawaii President's Final Meeting

 

UH President David McClain welcomed his replacement MRC Greenwood who takes over next month.

[ Watch ]

 

UH Vice President for Research Jim Gaines told regents that UH researchers brought in $414 million in grants in the fiscal year that ended last month, a $46 million increase over 2008. Research at UH has been growing about 9.7 percent a year over the last decade, he said.

Gaines said about 3,000 jobs at UH are funded through research money. He said as long as those jobs are not affected by the budget cuts, the university is on track to bring in even more money this year.

Those funds, however, are committed to research and will not have much effect on the general fund budget cuts, Gaines said.

Regents also learned yesterday that the University of Hawaii Centennial Campaign raised more than $336 million in donations and pledges from 92,252 donors.

UH Foundation President Donna Vuchinich told the regents that $282 million in donations and $54 million in bequests were raised during the six-year campaign to celebrate the 100th birthday of the university.

Vuchinich noted that the $282 million in donations funds salary endowments for 74 professors and created 705 new scholarship funds for students.

The campaign was particularly successful in getting alumni to give back to the university, she said, raising UH's alumni giving rate to an average of 16 percent. Prior to the campaign, UH-Manoa alumni giving was at 11 percent, and very few community college graduates gave any money, she said. During the campaign, about 20 percent of UH-Manoa alumni donated, and the giving rate for the other campuses ranged from 9 percent to 15 percent.

“;People are generous and they are giving back,”; she said.

Vuchinich said the UH Foundation has not been immune from cutbacks and has had to lay off 14 people and eliminate 18 positions. Staff members have also taken pay cuts and furloughs because of the economy.

But she said the foundation has developed a strategic plan for the next five years and is planning on starting another capital campaign in two years.

Vuchinich said the foundation hopes to raise $60 million a year for UH by 2014, up from about $40 million last year, and increase the value of the endowment to more than $200 million.