Report Title:

UH Hilo; Appropriations

Description:

Appropriates funds to the University of Hawaii at Hilo. (HB3173 HD1)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

3173

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2006

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT HILO.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the University of Hawaii at Hilo (UHH) offers high-quality undergraduate liberal arts and professional programs, with selected graduate degrees, in an incomparable natural and cultural environment. It is an invaluable resource for those who live on the Big Island or intend to move there. Its programs are critical to Hawaii County, which has the highest unemployment rate among the four counties. To continue to provide such services and expand them for the residents of the Big Island, the legislature finds that UHH needs funding in a variety of areas.

To enhance the employability of students and alumni, UHH needs to expand job development and placement activities by increasing career counseling services and job development and student-employment employer-recruitment activities.

One area of employment that is currently facing a workforce shortage is in pharmacy. UHH has proposed to establish a college of pharmacy to provide residents the opportunity to become licensed pharmacists. To accomplish this goal, startup funds are needed. Tuition funds will become available once the college of pharmacy has been established and has accepted students.

UHH recognizes is important responsibility to the native Hawaiian community. While UHH has experienced unprecedented growth in student enrollment during the past six years, the number of native Hawaiian students has gradually declined. Recruitment efforts are needed to target native Hawaiians and other local students. In addition, the college of Hawaiian language must be funded to provide for meaningful growth in this area of study, which is vital to our state, especially to native Hawaiians on the Big Island and statewide. In addition to attracting more native Hawaiians, UHH must be able to increase native Hawaiian student retention and graduation rates.

In an effort to reach out to areas of the Big Island beyond Hilo, the North Hawaii Education and Research Center provides a unique and important piece in the economic recovery plan for the North Hawaii regions from Laupahoehoe to Waimea and Waikoloa. This invaluable resource will facilitate access to higher education and community outreach and provide a university presence in North Hawaii for community service and research.

To address the needs of rural areas, the Entrepreneurship Training and Technology Management program in the College of Business and Economics provides training in the management of small enterprises and business startups that are best prepared to contribute to rural areas. By expanding this and related programs, the College of Business and Economics can become the state's premier center for small business and entrepreneurship education and dramatically improve and increase opportunities in rural communities. In addition, the UHH Small Business Development Center provides quality and effective programs to increase entrepreneurial knowledge and skills.

In 1975, the College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resource Management opened its doors to prepare students to understand the basic factors involved in the various areas of agricultural sciences from production all the way through sales. Ongoing and increased support for this fundamental program has and will continue to enhance agriculture on the Big Island, providing jobs while conserving the rural nature for which the island is known. Hilo's location provides unique opportunities for hands-on experience and a direct knowledge of working agricultural businesses.

Another opportunity that UHH provides for students is women's sports. Currently, UHH funding is inadequate to comply with Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Additional funding will not only bring UHH into compliance with Title IX but also provide new participation opportunities in athletic programs for women at UHH, adding three additional team sports for sixty female participants and expanding athletic and educational opportunities for the young women of Hawaii.

The nationwide teacher shortage had a dramatic effect on Hawaii as well, especially in areas on the Big Island. It is therefore urgent that UHH programs geared toward training teachers be expanded and strengthened.

In Hawaii, the 2005 projected shortage of registered nurses is one thousand five hundred eighteen, and this is expected to grow to two thousand two hundred sixty-seven by 2010. The nursing shortage is exacerbated by the increasing numbers in our aging population. Hawaii's population is aging faster than the rest of the country. Between 2000 and 2020, the number of people age sixty and older will increase by almost seventy-five per cent. Because Hawaii's registered nurse workforce is also aging, an increasing number of registered nurses are anticipated to retire. Accordingly, the significant shortage of registered nurses is expected to worsen dramatically.

Nursing schools are the gateway to the "nursing pipeline." A main factor to bolstering the supply and lessening the effects of the nursing shortage is dependent on the educational capacity of nursing schools. In the fall of 2005, three hundred fifty-five qualified applicants were turned away from the nursing programs at the University of Hawaii.

The legislature finds that key factors to increasing the educational capacity of the state's nursing programs are:

(1) The number of faculty and support positions to admit additional students;

(2) The ability to educate, recruit, retain, and compensate qualified faculty; and

(3) The available physical infrastructure and learning resource opportunities to support growing demands.

The legislature finds that ongoing support and a strategic public sector approach is necessary to sustain a robust, qualified nursing workforce to meet Hawaii's health care needs into the future. The University of Hawaii's nursing programs have a plan to increase educational capacity for nursing and dental hygiene but funding must be allocated to support implementation of the plan.

In addition to providing educational programs for students, UHH must also provide for student services. Enrollment has increased 25 percent from 1997 to 2003 but staffing levels for the office of student affairs have not increased at all. These student services are critical to ensure that the students are able to take full advantage of UHH programs and opportunities.

Finally is the need to address ongoing cost factors such as utilities. With recent expansions and expected future expansions of the buildings providing additional occupied space, the cost of utilities has and will continue to rise. It is critical that these costs are directly and adequately funded, making certain that they are not funded from other programs.

The purpose of this Act is to provide funding for UHH to continue providing current programs and to enable the administration to expand in needed areas, especially those areas that will provide:

(1) Its students with opportunities for employment;

(2) The community with a solid workforce in needed professions; and

(3) Address many of the needs of the native Hawaiian community.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $           or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007 for the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the University of Hawaii for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2006.