The University of Hawaii has revealed the latest proposed draft for new Maunakea administrative rules in advance of meeting of the Board of Regents next week.
The administrative rules, which govern how UH manages the more than 11,000 acres of land it leases on Maunakea, have had changes pending for over a year, with two rounds of public hearings on proposed changes being held throughout the state since late 2018.
This newest draft, which will be the draft considered by the UH Board of Regents at a meeting Wednesday in Hilo, differs only in subtle ways from a draft that was the subject of public hearings in June.
Among the changes since the June draft are an extension of the deadline to seek an appeal for a violation of the rules (increased from seven to 15 days, after concerns were raised by the American Civil Liberties Union), a clarification of how long an offender can be excluded from Maunakea lands (“until the violation has been corrected,” according to the final draft), and a provision including vaping and e-cigarettes in the rules’ prohibition of smoking.
Most of the remaining changes seem to be amendments to language that was previously ambiguous or confusing.
The changes will be discussed at a meeting of the Board of Regents on Wednesday at UH-Hilo.
The regents also will rule on a resolution by a permitted interaction group investigating the governance of Maunakea and a request for about $900,000 to repair damage to one of the buildings serving UH’s 2.2-meter telescope on the summit.
The full proposed changes to the rules can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/yyrxbcld
See Friday’s Tribune-Herald for more on this story.