Creativity could stretch dollars, chancellor says
Some $18 million earmarked for a new Hawaii Community College campus in Hilo would be the first capital improvement funds allocated to the college in 15 years, HCC Chancellor Rockne Freitas told faculty and staff members at a meeting Friday in the campus cafeteria.
"This happens when everyone in the canoe is paddling in the same direction and the time is right," said Freitas, who made funds for a new campus a priority when he took over as chancellor in July 2004.
The new HCC campus would be built on a 122-acre parcel on Komohana Street, replacing the existing Manono Street campus.
The state Legislature recently authorized $18 million over two years for the design and infrastructure of the new Komohana Street campus. Some $6.95 million will be spent the first year, $11.25 million the next.
Freitas lobbied hard for the money, said state Rep. Tommy Waters, D-Lanikai, Waimanalo, chairman of the House Higher Education Committee. He attended Friday's meeting along with Reps. Jerry Chang, D-Hilo, and Clifton Tsuji, D-Hilo, Keaau, Kurtistown.
"(Freitas) was in our office constantly," Waters said.
Freitas hopes to leverage the $18 million by partnering with the private sector in building new campuses in both Hilo and Kona, where classes are held in a shopping center. The Kailua-Kona campus situation is currently "untenable, unbearable," he said. "We're educating people in the shadow of McDonalds."
Meanwhile, students have been flocking to HCC in recent years despite a strong economy, which normally depresses community college enrollment. The increases also run counter to declining enrollments at community colleges elsewhere in Hawaii. HCC is the only community college to enroll more students this year than last, registering a 7.9 percent increase.
"We're the only community college to have gains two years in a row," Freitas said.
HCC's annual operating budget has risen to $7.5 million, about a $1 million increase over the past two years.
With approval expected from the university's Board of Regents, Freitas hopes to get started quickly on the new campus projects. "In two weeks I should be asking for (proposals) for public-private partnerships to move the campus forward," he said.
The former pro football player said he learned creative ways to use money for capital expenditures while an executive with Kamehameha Schools, helping to plan the private school's Keaau campus. For HCC, private developers would use the state funds to build facilities and lease them back to the university. That would get the campus built sooner at a lower cost, Freitas said. "The dollars will go a lot farther if we do it this way."
Freitas said the capital improvements would be the first for HCC since it the community college campus was separated administratively from the University of Hawaii at Hilo in 1991.
One last hurdle to overcome may be ensuring that Gov. Linda Lingle doesn't veto the capital expenditure. Eleven members of the Board of Regents were appointed by Lingle, he said, and even though a Democrat-dominated Legislature approved the funds, it doesn't concern him. "I don't see that as much of a problem," he said. "Anybody who comes here can see the need."
Hunter Bishop
can be reached at <mailto:hbishop@
hawaiitribune-herald.com>hbishop@hawaiitribune-herald.com.