HONOLULU (AP) — University of Hawaii officials are planning to raise tuition to help pay for hundreds of millions of dollars in neglected maintenance.
HONOLULU (AP) — University of Hawaii officials are planning to raise tuition to help pay for hundreds of millions of dollars in neglected maintenance.
University President David Lassner’s administration presented the tuition proposal to the Board of Regents this week, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported (https://bit.ly/1VDCJ24). The three-year plan would increase tuition by no more than 2 percent annually and would follow two years of 5 percent tuition hikes in the current school year and 2016-17.
Under the proposal, students at the university’s Manoa campus who are Hawaii residents would be paying $1,176 more in the 2019-20 school year than what they are paying this year. Resident undergraduates at UH Hilo and UH West Oahu would face slightly smaller increases.
From 2017-18 through 2019-2020, tuition for full-time Manoa resident and non-resident undergraduates would grow by $216 each year. Graduate students would see a $312 increase during that time.
Resident undergraduate and graduate students at the other campuses would not have to pay more during the first of the three years. In 2018-19 and 2019-20, those students would see a 1 percent tuition increase each year, totaling $72 for undergraduates and $120 for graduate students.
“We’re still affordable. You can go to UH Manoa, put it on a credit card and graduate like you just bought a brand-new car,” UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said. “You can pay $30,000 in debt down over time considering the amount of money you’d make over your lifetime with a college degree. It’s still a fantastic deal.”
UH officials said the tuition proposal comes as the university is trying to catch up on a deferred maintenance schedule that has resulted in a $503 million backlog.
“The tuition proposal is rooted solely around the modernization of campuses,” said Kalbert Young, UH vice president for budget and finance. “This is not looking to fund on the operational side.”
The proposed tuition hikes will be open for public comment starting in March.