Testimony by Rose Tseng
Chancellor of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo

Presented before the Senate Committee on Education and
The House Committee on Higher Education
January 14, 2008
Hawai‘i State Legislature
Honolulu, Hawai‘i

Aloha. Chair Sakamoto, Chair Chang, Members of the Senate Committee on Education and of the House Committee on Higher Education, I thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo.

On behalf of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, I would like, first of all, to express my sincere appreciation to you for your investment in UH Hilo last year. Your support enables us to meet our commitment to offer our students excellent academic opportunities while making significant contributions to the economy and professional workforce on the island of Hawai‘i and throughout the state.

UH Hilo has evolved into a comprehensive university, with 36 baccalaureate and six master degree programs in liberal arts and professional areas. Yet UH Hilo preserves the ambiance of a small private college.

The positive difference is that UH Hilo is committed to being accessible to students of many varied and diverse backgrounds. Many of our students are the first in their families to attend college; many are holding down full-time jobs and raising children at the same time that they are pursuing college degrees; and many are from underserved rural communities of our island and state.

Our students are commuters and dormitory residents, on-campus learners and distance learners, recent high school graduates and nontraditional students, local students, mainland American students, and international students from Asia, Canada, Europe, Central and South America, and the Pacific islands.

We have established ourselves as a leader in studies of the natural environment and of the cultures, histories, and languages of Hawai‘i and across the Pacific basin.

Our faculty are excellent teachers and researchers dedicated to offering our students a transformative educational experience through our student-centered approach, our island’s natural learning laboratory, and the integration of science, culture, and technology. We graduate independent and critical thinkers, entrepreneurs, lifelong learners, and lifelong contributors to society.

UH Hilo’s excellence was recognized by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) when our accreditation was reaffirmed for ten years, taking us to 2014. WASC commended us for our “bold vision of service to the Hawaiian community,” and our efforts to “transform from a liberal arts college to a comprehensive university that serves the workforce needs of Hawai‘i.”

We are achieving major milestones this year. Some of the highlights are:

• Our headcount enrollment of 3,600 students is the highest in the history of UH Hilo. The student body has grown nearly 40 percent since 1997.
• The College of Pharmacy’s inaugural class of 91 students began working toward their degrees last fall.
• We have added a bachelor of business administration in accounting and a bachelor of science degree in marine science.
• With positions the legislature granted to us last year, we have hired six new faculty in Nursing and four faculty in Education. With this added capacity, we are able to help address workforce shortages in these areas.
• Teaching and research grants increase every year and now top $20 million, a dramatic increase from about $3 million in 1998.
• The Student Life Center is scheduled to open in April of this year. We will finally be able to provide the exercise and fitness activity that our students so badly need.

You have worked together with us. It is through your good support that we are able to continue our forward momentum and create exciting educational, cultural, and economic opportunities for our students and our communities.

We celebrate each new success. At the same time, we continue to be challenged in our operations and services, primarily because our level of funding has not kept pace with our enrollment growth. This has resulted in serious shortfalls in a number of important areas. In addition, our campus infrastructure is insufficient to ensure the safety of our students and of members of the public who use our facilities.

First of all, funding for the ranger program in the Mauna Kea Science Reserve was eliminated by the 2007 Legislature. These positions are critical if the university is to protect public safety as well as the natural and cultural resources of the mountain.

Safety and security challenges on campus are just as pressing. For example, the library, which is open to students and the general public, has experienced an increasing number of such serious incidents as fist fights, threats, and thefts.

We take safety and security very seriously, and with our limited funds, we have taken a number of measures: we have security guards on campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and we have emergency call boxes and an emergency Internet communication system. However, every area of the campus would be made safer if security management, emergency response, and disaster preparedness were brought together into a comprehensive safety program under a permanent safety director.

In addition, UH Hilo’s extremely limited physical and mental health care services are not sufficient to meet the needs of our growing student body. Female students report high rates of violence and stalking. The campus has no capabilities to address serious mental health problems, even though the impact that students with psychiatric problems can have on others can be very destructive. Nor do we have a program to prevent substance abuse.

Our small student health office serves over 3,600 UH Hilo students and 2,000 Hawai‘i Community College students. Part-time physicians work only a combined total of four to ten hours per week. All other services are provided by one full-time nurse. Student Health Services had over 6,900 visits in the 2006 calendar year. Please keep in mind that UH Hilo provides health services that students cannot obtain from the community at large, with its shortage of physicians and the great difficulty in finding a physician willing to take new patients.

UH Hilo is a growing university, expanding those programs that use science labs and field studies, which can be hazardous if the risks are not strictly controlled. Expanding graduate studies and research programs mean that faculty and students will encounter hazardous materials and field situations more and more often, so our capacity to manage these risks needs to grow along with these flourishing initiatives. Also, our horticulture and animal science programs are using outdated and deteriorating farm equipment, which does not meet modern safety standards.

Lastly, we lack permanent faculty positions to deliver instruction for the master’s degree in Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Sciences. Six positions were initiated with federal funds, with the understanding that the university would eventually take responsibility for them. The federal funding has ended. This master’s program serves our students as a gateway to careers in conservation biology and environmental sciences.

Our requests for specific positions, current expenses, and equipment are listed in our budget request. To summarize, we badly need:

• Reinstatement of funds to pay the five rangers on Mauna Kea
• Staff to provide campus security and emergency response
• Staff and equipment to provide field study safety, environmental health, and safety education
• Staff for health and mental health services, health education, and substance abuse prevention as well as funds to pay a psychiatrist on an as-needed basis
• Funds for agricultural equipment and one position to ensure safety at the Pana‘ewa instructional farm
• Permanent faculty lines for six faculty members in our Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Sciences master’s program.

In conclusion, your support last year was badly needed and brought much relief. We thank you again and again for making it possible to begin to address many pressing needs of our growing student population. Now we need to consolidate our gains and build on the progress made in the past few years. I look forward to working together with you to transform UH Hilo into a world-class comprehensive university for our island communities, the state of Hawai‘i, and beyond.