HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

85

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

REQUESTING the department of budget and finance to study the FEASIBILITY Of MAKING THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT HILO AN INDEPENDENT INSTITUTION.

 

 

WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii at Hilo started as a two-year campus in 1947 and became an accredited four-year liberal arts college in 1969; and

WHEREAS, during the intervening years, new leadership and a new comprehensive strategic plan have been initiated; and

WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii at Hilo is now nationally ranked in the top ten per cent of small public universities and has a student population growing toward three thousand three hundred students at a growth rate of twenty-five per cent over the prior five years; and

WHEREAS, the curriculum of University of Hawaii at Hilo, once limited to vocational training and four majors, has grown to encompass more than twenty-five major disciplines and masters' degree programs in more than five areas; and

WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii at Hilo now generates in excess of $140,000,000 in annual revenues and, as an applied research center and "living laboratory", serves as a primary contributor to the economic engine of the island of Hawaii; and

WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii at Hilo has developed additional infrastructure of more than one hundred thousand square feet of classroom, laboratory, and facilities -- all without an increase in its operational budget; and

WHEREAS, in spite of steadfast and widespread community support for this important academic and socio-economic resource, annual commitments from the University of Hawaii system continue to fall, the arrearages now calculated in excess of $10,000,000 per annum; and

WHEREAS, funding for student and faculty support for University of Hawaii at Hilo should be line-itemed through a formula-based amount on par with the funding provided to the University of Hawaii at Manoa or other facilities of the University of Hawaii system; and

WHEREAS, with the dynamic trends and extensive support shown during the last ten years, it is appropriate to consider the establishment of an independent, comprehensive land-grant college; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2004, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Budget and Finance is requested to study the feasibility of establishing the University of Hawaii at Hilo as an independent educational institution separate from the University of Hawaii system; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department is requested to submit its findings and recommendations, including any necessary proposed legislation, to the Legislature not later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2005; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Finance, the Chairperson of the Board of Regents, the President of the University of Hawaii, and the Chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:

UH Hilo; Study