Students not pleased with proposed tuition hikes

HILO — Earlier this year, when officials first pitched the University of Hawaii’s new tuition proposal, they hoped students would view the plan’s relatively modest increases as a relief.

“I hope (the plan) is a welcome surprise for students,” Risa Dickson, UH vice president for academic affairs, said in February after presenting it for the first time to the Board of Regents.

But when Dickson presented that same plan Thursday at Hawaii Community College, it didn’t appear to be all that welcome. Several of the roughly 30 students and faculty in attendance held signs or wore T-shirts opposing increases. A large, spray-painted sign hanging on the wall read “Got Debt?”

In all, around 15 people testified against tuition increases at the roughly two-hour meeting, which was one of 11 held statewide this spring to gather feedback before regents convene next month to make revisions. A second meeting was held at UH-Hilo later in the day.

“For us, we see administration making hundreds of thousands of dollars, living a very comfortable life,” said Ryu Kakazu who said he was a recent UH-Hilo graduate. “For me, it’s almost offensive to see this presentation being focused on this idea of, ‘It’s either (students) pay it or we get it from the state.’”

“Tuition increases are one option, but I feel like there are other options that need to be explored other than pinning (increases) on those of us who are working three part-time jobs,” added Sophia Benacquista, who said she’s a student at the HCC Palamanui campus.

As proposed, the three-year plan would start in the 2017-18 school year. In the first year, UH-Hilo and HCC resident and nonresident students would pay the same amount as the year before, and in years two and three, both would pay $72 more each year. That equates to 1 percent and 2 percent increases for UH Hilo and HCC resident students, respectively, and even smaller increases for nonresident students at both schools.

Tuition revenue would be used to address deferred maintenance, largely at the Manoa campus which currently has approximately a $500 million maintenance backlog.

Money generated at UH-Hilo would be used to establish “sinking funds” for capital renewal and maintenance, Dickson said Thursday, and money generated at the community colleges would be used to eliminate a smaller deferred maintenance backlog by the third year.

By 2020, the plan would put UH tuition rates on par with — or closer to — peer institutions, Dickson said. Administrators hope to draw more students to the system, which has suffered declining enrollment in recent years at nearly every campus.

But those at the meeting Thursday said the plan didn’t do enough to factor in Hawaii’s cost of living. Attendees criticized comparisons to other high-cost parts of the country.

“We’ve already had 4 to 5 percent increases for the last four or five years,” said faculty member Claudia Wilcox-Boucher. “Many of us have already swallowed a 20 percent increase (in tuition over the years). It’s hard to talk about San Francisco (for comparison), if you live here on this island, we don’t have mass public transportation, we have subdivisions that don’t have water or lights or things you expect in other areas.”

“We’ve already (had) $700 (in total) increases in the past four years,” added student Asia Olsen. ” … Seven hundred dollars doesn’t seem like much for someone who has a really good paying job, but (many) of us here are below the poverty line … increasing tuition is definitely a barrier.”

Dickson said feedback from the meeting would be shared with regents. The board is expected to finalize a plan in June.

Statistics show in the 2014-15 school year, UH four-year students graduated with $22,221 in debt on average, and community college students, $12,152 on average. In 2009-10, those numbers were $16,665 and $9,613, respectively.