Quietly, almost out of view of the public eye, the State of Hawaii legislature came through this week for the athletic departments at the University of Hawaii and Hawaii-Hilo with a $3 million appropriation for travel and other expenditures.
It is money the public may never notice because it isn’t going to new facilities, more teams or more coaches, but it is money the two schools’ athletic departments desperately need.
“This is a major, major development for us,” said UHH director of athletics Pat Guillen, “it’s hard to put in words how this will not only make a big impact in our most serious expense, but also, how it will take pressure off our whole staff, coaches and everyone else.”
It started out as Senate Bill 83, which necessitated “five or six trips” to Oahu by Guillen who testified before various legislative groups on the need for financial relief. UH-Manoa and UHH had asked for $3 million from the state to address issues such as travel costs, which for each school, is far beyond what other schools in their respective divisions have to spend.
The bill made it through two readings over four months and then appeared stalled when the Finance Committee refused to hear it. At that point, it could have reached a dead end, but legislators in both the house and senate saw the need and just appropriated the money, under House Bill 1700, for the schools to spend as they see fit.
It won’t be a 50-50 split by any perspective.
“Manoa’s budget is 10 times what ours is, but whatever we get will be a help,” Guillen said. “I’ve been told this is the first time the state has ever done this and I’m just hoping it becomes permanent so we don’t have to go through this every year.”
UH Hilo had originally requested $560,000, while Manoa requested $3 million, and it remains unknown precisely how the money will be split, but since Manoa’s request was equal to the total expenditure, it is presumed Hilo might get somewhere in the $250,000 to $275,000 range while Manoa will receive something the neighborhood of $2,750,000.
“I was sort of holding my breath and crossing my fingers that Governor Ige would help out,” Guillen said. “He has veto power but he just signed off on it so the biggest hurdle was cleared.”
The exact split will be determined in August by UH President David Lassner who will enact a plan and send it along to the school’s Board of Regents.
Manoa athletics director David Matlin said travel costs a year ago, which was an average of $1.2 million above what mainland schools considered UH peers had to pay.
“We have our Big Island legislators to thank and more than anyone, we need to proudly recognize the work of Jerry Chang (director of University relations), for all the time and effort he put in. I don’t know that this would have happened without his work,” Guillen said.
The money will not sit around waiting to be spent.
“I’m going to assume it will all go to travel, whatever it is we finally get,” Guillen said. “It’s a situation where we’re really under water and need this, basically, to continue.”
