"I don't want any more tuition increases until more studies are done into the cost of living." C. Mamo Kim ASUH President

Tuition may be on the rise again at the University of Hawai`i.

At a recent Board of Regents workshop, the UH administration presented tuition options for the 1998-9 academic year, in addition to proposals for statuatory and BOR policy changes.

Tuition could increase as much as 5 percent a semester, depending on which plan the BOR adopts.

Option "A" calls for an increase of $36 a semester at UH-Manoa. UH-Hilo and UH-West O`ahu tuition would increase by $24. UH community college students would have to pay $12 more. Graduate school tuition would increase by $48, and medical school tuition would jump $108. These increases would allow UH to generate $1.6 million more in revenue in 1998-9 and $2.3 million more in 1999-2000.

Under option "B," UH-Manoa students would pay an extra $48 a semester, and graduate students would pay an extra $60. UH-Hilo and UH-West O`ahu tuition would see a $36 increase, and medical school students would face a $120 increase. This option would generate $3 million more in revenue in the 1999-2000 academic year.

Law students would not be affected by this proposal, since the BOR approved a five-year tuition increase schedule for the law school last year.

Colleen Sathre, vice president for planning and policy, said the earliest the BOR could take action on the administration's proposals -- which were to be finalized late last week -- is next spring.

Sathre said a series of briefings and public hearings will begin in November.

"With either plan the board chooses, tuition is low and it will remain low," she said. "The university is still an extraordinary value."

However, C. Mamo Kim, president of the Associated Students of the University of Hawai`i, disagreed.

"I don't want any more tuition increases until more studies are done into the cost of living," Kim said.

"Two separate surveys have put Hawai`i and Honolulu way down on a list of the best places to live because of the cost of living," she said. "How can they say we're lucky?"

Kim acknowledged that the proposed increase is considerably less than the 72 percent tuition hike UH-Manoa students have seen over the past two years.

Kim said the BOR had been thinking of increasing tuition for years but never did.

"When crunch time came, one group had to bear the entire burden," she said.

The administration also proposed that the BOR lobby the Legislature to change the law that sets nonresident tuition.

Under current law, out-of-state tuition must be at least double resident tuition. However, the administration has proposed that statute be repealed.

Kim said she does not think that is a good idea.

"We shouldn't be giving them tuition breaks," she said. "We should be giving our people tuition breaks."

"I might be totally off-base here, but if you have a really good college, people will come. If we have as good of a program as they say we do, it should be higher than twice," Kim said.

More information is available from the Office of the Vice President for Planning and Policy web page at: http://www2.hawaii.edu/ovppp/

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