The community will get to weigh in on the University of Hawaii’s proposed tuition plan at three Big Island public meetings which start next week.
The community will get to weigh in on the University of Hawaii’s proposed tuition plan at three Big Island public meetings which start next week.
Under the three-year plan, tuition increases are capped at 2 percent systemwide each year. Students at UH-Hilo and Hawaii Community College would pay the same tuition in the first year as the year before, and $72 more each year in the second and third. The plan would begin in the 2017-18 school year.
UH officials say modest increases aim to attract more students — resident and nonresident — to the UH system. Statistics show enrollment at nearly every UH campus has declined in recent years.
Most of the money generated from the additional tuition revenue would be used to address a half-billion-dollar maintenance backlog at the Manoa campus. Tuition funds raised by UH-Hilo students would be saved for the campus’s future maintenance needs.
“UH-Hilo isn’t in nearly the same situation as Manoa,” university spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said. “Its deferred maintenance is really a fraction of what the situation is at Manoa. It’s still in a really manageable position so the thought is, use the money to create almost like a rainy day fund to make sure that, as issues come up, we’re able to address immediately as opposed to getting into the situation we’re in at our flagship campus.”
Officials will take public input into account when drafting an amended tuition proposal later in the spring, Meisenzahl said. In June, the UH Board of Regents is slated to approve a final plan.
The three Hawaii Island meetings are among 12 happening around the state through May 5.
The first meeting, in Kona, starts at 10 a.m. Tuesday at HCC-Palamanui, Room A-102.
The two others are in Hilo on April 28. One starts at noon at HCC in the Kaneikeao Conference Room, Building 379, Room 1. The second starts at 4 p.m. at UH Hilo in the Hooulu Terrace, UCB 127.