Your Dec. 27 editorial called for the University of Hawaii faculty to take a 5 percent pay cut to help the state of Hawaii meet its fiscal crisis (”;UH faculty needs to grasp reality,”; Star-Bulletin). This would not preserve the quality or increase the cost-effectiveness of the university.

UH has a different financial structure from the other units of state government, and is not completely dependent on state funds. It is a large operating business that has three revenue sources: tuition, federal funds and state funds. Only state funding has decreased; revenue from tuition and federal funds has remained stable and is even rising.

As with any business, when revenue decreases, UH must increase revenue and/or decrease expenses to maintain a balanced budget. It can be done without gutting academic salaries and the academic infrastructure.

The state Legislature has allocated $10 million for planning the UH-West Oahu campus. This campus has no educational justification. The Legislature should delay or cancel the planning for West Oahu campus and transfer that money into UH's operating funds.

Next, cut the UH administration. When I arrived at UH 38 years ago, there was no chancellor's office at Manoa. Now that office consumes $10 million a year and the number of administrators has quadrupled while the number of students has decreased. In the same period, my own department, for example, has decreased from 37 professors to 17.

Consider the University of Michigan, a public institution that is stable, even in this economy. It has the highest in-state tuition in the nation in a relatively poor state, $12,000 per year. When U Michigan saw state support dwindle, it chose independence by raising tuition.

Today, U Michigan is the third-best state university in the country and ranks 27th among all U.S. universities. UH by contrast, is ranked in the third tier academically and is below the median in tuition and faculty salaries.

Our state gets what it pays for. The state of Hawaii with its poor administration has harmed our public schools with low salaries, poor administration and furloughs. President M.R.C. Greenwood and the state of Hawaii should not erode the quality of UH with harmful and unnecessary cuts to faculty salaries.