STORY SUMMARY>>>University of Hawaii chancellors delivered sobering news to House and Senate lawmakers Tuesday, describing how another round of budget restrictions will impact the system’s ten campuses statewide.
“When you stress a system this much this quickly, something's gonna break,” said UH Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw.
That breaking point came June 1 when Gov. Linda Lingle announced plans to furlough state employees three days a month for the next two fiscal years in order to save the state $688 million.
Because Lingle has no authority to furlough workers within the Department of Education or the University of Hawaii, the governor restricted spending to those departments by an equal amount. For the University of Hawaii system that meant $54.1 million less for fiscal year 2010, which starts Wednesday.
UH President David McClain told Khon2 each of the system’s ten schools would deal with budget restrictions differently. At UH Manoa, by far the system’s largest campus with 20,000 students, some critical services could be reduced.
"So the services would be cut,” Hinshaw told lawmakers. “The library access, hours, classes, access to things like counseling - things that students need to be successful.”
Chancellor Rose Tseng of UH Hilo is considering a plan to consolidate classes whenever possible. She said the school may also scale back mentoring programs that reach out to the Big Island’s disadvantaged youth. Such a move she said could impact the state’s economy for years to come.
“If we don't have enough of these students who have technical skills (and) who have an understanding of the global economy, I think Hawaii is going to be in bad shape,” Tseng said.
And while the university’s ten campuses must find millions of dollars in savings, they must do it in the face of record enrollment as students stay closer to home and adults head back to school to sharpen their job skills. The university expects overall enrollment to rise 15 percent this fall, with the largest increase coming at community colleges.
“Right now that year to year comparison is 25 percent more students registered then last year at this time and that's across every single community college campus,” said John Morton, University of Hawaii community colleges vice president.
Morton said an infusion of federal stimulus funds would allow the state’s seven community colleges to offer enough classes to meet the demand, but he worried what may happen the following year.
“If all the classes are gobbled up by the continuing students (then) I've got no classes for new students - a year from now I've got a disaster.”
The latest round of UH budget cuts is on top of $46 million worth of restrictions imposed earlier this year by lawmakers, who were forced to trim $2 billion from the state's budget because of falling tax revenues.
With UH earmarked to receive $22 million in federal stimulus funds, McClain said the overall impact to the system would be about $76 million less for fiscal year 2010. He said the impact of the budget cuts on the university would depend in part, on how much faculty and staff are willing to give up in ongoing contract negotiations with the state.
McClain estimated 40 percent of the university’s savings would be found through the collective bargaining process with the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly (UHPA).
“The outcome of those discussions will influence what else we have to do,” said McClain, “so it's hard to say exactly what we'll need to do programmatically.”
UHPA’s contract expires June 30, along with three other public worker unions - HGEA, UPW and HSTA. All four unions are currently in negotiations with the state, with potential furloughs and layoffs a central theme in the talks.
On Thursday Honolulu Circuit Court Judge Karl Sakamoto is scheduled to hear a motion by two of the unions, who are asking for a temporary restraining order against the governor's furlough plan.
Here’s a breakdown of what the latest round of budget restrictions will mean to individual UH campuses for fiscal year 2010:
UH Manoa - $30 million less
UH Hilo - $4 million less
UH West Oahu - $1 million less
Community Colleges - $14 million less
Andrew may be reached at ph. 368-7273.
