The University of Hawaii at Hilo is scaling back its noncredit community course offerings starting this summer.
The change is part of its plan to reorganize its College of Continuing Education and Community Service to a more “narrowly focused mission,” said Ken Hon, interim vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, on Wednesday.
CCECS, established in 1971, operates for-credit “Summer Session” courses for UH-Hilo students, along with non-credit personal and professional development classes open to the public.
It also encompasses the North Hawaii Education and Research Center, the English Language Institute and Hilo SeniorTech courses for seniors.
The reorganization plan calls to move Summer Session classes into UH-Hilo’s individual academic colleges.
It also calls for non-credit personal development offerings to be consolidated to just those that have “a strong identity with the university” or “provide an important service to the community that they can’t get anywhere else,” Hon said.
The college will continue offering “classes like (outrigger) canoe paddling and (American) sign language,” Hon said. “We’ll be a little more focused on the classes we offer so we won’t have as broad of an array as we’ve had in the past.”
UH-Hilo’s draft summer 2018 schedule lists 20 non-credit personal development course offerings, slightly fewer than half of spring 2018 offerings. The draft schedule includes Japanese conversation, hip-hop dance, Wing Chun kung fu, yoga and taiko drumming.
It doesn’t include any professional development courses, though Hon said the campus plans to partner with Hawaii Community College to continue offering them.
A final summer 2018 schedule will be posted by April 27.
Hon said the non-credit personal development courses often are costly to provide because many enroll fewer than 10 students per class. He said UH-Hilo is the only four-year college in the UH system that offers them and they are “not the primary function of the university.”
HCC ceased offering personal development classes about two years ago and now offers mainly workforce training courses.
Hon said the reorganization also was motivated by a change to the federal Pell Grant program, which now allows students to use Pell Grant funds during summer school. More students might take summer classes as a result of the change — about 45 percent of UH-Hilo students qualify for Pell Grants, which are awarded to low-income students.
Moving summer classes back to individual colleges is hoped to increase additional tuition revenue for the academic colleges and bolster summer course offerings.
As part of the reorganization, NHERC and the English Language Institute will break off as independent units starting July 1. SeniorTech will remain part of CCECS unchanged.
Changes will take about a year and Summer Session will not move back to academic colleges until summer 2019.
Hon said no employees are expected to lose their job, though the changes could mean some positions are reshuffled.
“My intention is to keep everyone employed,” he said. “I intend to have everyone in CCECS employed if they want to be.”
He said CCECS also eventually might be renamed and become a “center” rather than a “college” because “we’re moving the academic component.” He said he ultimately would like to refocus CCECS on its “original mission” of “community engagement and community service,” such as by developing more community-based projects.
“I think this is an opportunity,” Hon said. “I know some people will be disappointed. But I hope they also see it as an opportunity for the university to be a better partner in the community.”
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.