Manoa Faculty Senate Committee on
Administration and Budget Meeting Minutes
September 4, 2008, 11:00 p.m., Hawaii Hall 208

Present:  Ross Christensen, Shirley Daniel, Bob McHenry, David Sanders, David Duffy, David Chin, Matt McGranaghan, and Mary Tiles UHM Faculty Senate liaison

Excused:  Judith Inazu, Tricia Wright, CN Lee

Invited attendees:  Vice Chancellor Kathy Cutshaw

The meeting was called to order at 11 a.m.  VC Cutshaw provided an update on the following issues: 

Current budget climate:  The Governor has put a freeze on expenditures for travel, hiring, equipment purchases over $10,000 from general funds, tuition and RTRF.  UH is working on getting an exemption from this restriction, which affects all state agencies.  Instructional vacancies are exempt.  The state is projecting a $900 million shortfall for this year due to the economic downturn.

The committee inquired about the cuts to the library budget.  VC Cutshaw indicated that a Process Planning Committee to help with budget priorities is still not convened yet.  The Chancellor has said her decisions will be data driven, but nothing is in place to support that. 

VC Cutshaw asked to be able to use CAB as a resource for discussing the budget cuts, and the committee agreed to serve as a sounding board and resource to her for the current time. 

Faculty housing:  Site assessments for potential housing have been completed.  The most feasible site is on Woodlawn.  VC Cutshaw will now ask for planning money for the project.  We will still need to assess the flood plane issues, etc.  There is consideration of including a road to connect the housing directly to campus, which would relieve traffic congestion into Manoa Valley along University Avenue.  Also considered is a childcare center.  

The issues with the Waihila ridge site include the fact that this location is ceded land, so an appropriate portion of the rents would be remitted to OHA which might make the rental income streams to UH not adequate to fund the debt required to finance the project. 

The faculty mortgage assistance program is still in discussion with a local bank.  The UH would put up $1 million which would leverage another $1 million to collatoralize the down payments for faculty home loans of 100% of the property cost. 

The committee discussed various options to address faculty housing including longer term stays in the rental properties and mortgage assistance to help with retention and transition to home ownership. 

Biennium budget:  The biennium budget goes to the Regents later in September.  At this point, only CIP projects will be requested.  UHM’s first priority is the classroom building.  The following motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to forward to the Executive Committee:

The Committee on Administration and Budget asks the UHM Faculty Senate to consider a resolution to proclaim the UHM Faculty Senate’s enthusiastic support for the CIP request to build a new classroom building on the UHM campus to better serve students, faculty and the instructional mission of the campus.

VC Cutshaw left the meeting.

The minutes of the August 21, 2008 meeting were approved as corrected.

Old Business

CAB affirmed that the faculty housing policy was still in progress and thus tabled until the next meeting. 

CAB requested Mary Tiles to communicate with the Committee on Research about the proposed resolution requesting administrative commitment to improve research administration. 

The issue of tenure upon appointment for administrative appointees was discussed.  The committee believes there is a need to develop a policy to provide more appropriate guidance for UHM as the research campus on this issue, particularly with regard to the level of administrators who should be offered this benefit.  Mary Tiles will determine where in the Senate such a policy should be developed.  David Chin, Matt McGranaghan and Ross Christensen will form a subcommittee to address this issue. 

The committee discussed the URC process of distributing travel funds.  Mary Tiles will discuss with the Senate Executive Committee to consider how to address this. 

The meeting adjourned at 12:55 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Shirley J. Daniel

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