Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
By COLIN M. STEWART
Tribune-Herald staff writer
University of Hawaii at Hilo students face a 28 percent housing rate increase over five years if Board of Regents members approve a proposal before them on Thursday.
Also set for a vote is a proposal to set housing rates for Phase I of UH-Hilo’s University Village, which is scheduled for groundbreaking in the spring of 2012 and would be ready to open in the fall of 2013.
The campus-wide increase would see the rates at each of UH-Hilo’s on-campus facilities jump by 5 percent each year from the fall of 2012 through the fall of 2016. The proposal represents Hilo’s first housing rate increase since 2007, said University Relations Director Gerald De Mello.
“There’s an option to return to the board for approval to make adjustments to the rates after three years, if warranted,” he added.
De Mello said the increases are necessary, in part, to help fund the construction of Phase I of the Hilo campus’ University Village. The additional revenue would also be used to provide enhancements for educational, social and cultural programming, as well as covering additional costs associated with maintenance and providing more utilities, salaries, services and supplies for the new housing.
The construction of University Village, which is expected to provide about 300 new beds, will go a long way toward relieving a housing shortage that has held the campus back when it comes to attracting and keeping students, officials have said.
“With a record enrollment of over 4,100 students in Fall 2011 and a considerable number of new academic programs in the pipeline, UH-Hilo’s present residential capacity is only 622,” reads the proposal before the Board of Regents. “Constructed in 1989, Hale Kehau was the last facility to be added to the campus.”
In December, Gov. Neil Abercrombie released $16 million in funding. The total price tag is $32 million, administrators say, with the campus planning to raise the other half by obtaining revenue bonds. The debt service for those bonds would be repaid through housing fees.
“In the present economic climate, we cannot provide this important educational amenity without passing on a fair portion of the costs to our students,” the proposal reads. “While we recognize that new construction will bring added value to the educational experience of our students, we are also mindful that many of our students cannot afford substantial increases in housing costs.”
Approximately 35 percent of UH-Hilo students are eligible for Pell grants, which are only provided to students in financial need. That number represents the highest within the UH system.
Meanwhile, 50 percent of the school’s students come from families that meet the federal definition for low-income, and about 70 percent of the students receive some form of financial aid, including need- and merit-based sources.
Current UH-Hilo on-campus housing rates range from $1,388.29 per semester for a double-occupancy room in a traditional residence hall to $4,283.38 per semester for a single-occupancy, one-bedroom apartment unit. Those rates would increase to $1,458 and $4,498, respectively, in the fall of 2012. They would increase 5 percent each year, eventually reaching $1,772 and $5,467, respectively, by fall 2016.
Meanwhile, University Village rates would range from $3,250 for single occupancy in a four-person suite and $3,500 single occupancy in a two-person suite, upon their opening in fall 2013.
They, too, would increase by 5 percent each year, to $3,762 and $4,052, respectively, by fall 2016.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.