Comments on: Proposed modest tuition increases to fund needed maintenance

By: Man Minchew

Man Minchew — Sat, 12 Mar 2016 10:43:21 +0000

In 1997, the state paid 70 percent of the funding for tuition. This year the state contribution is 42 percent.

By: Douglas KY Wong

Douglas KY Wong — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 22:06:04 +0000

It is amazing how many admin positions there are and how much some of them make. No wonder Gov. Ige says what he says. Need to consolidate positions and pay according to responsibility.

By: joe

joe — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 03:26:16 +0000

If your going to increase the tuition at least lower the textbook costs….

By: Christa H

Christa H — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 02:59:00 +0000

In reply to Leo. That is how spin works. Students at ��Ƶ are just a number and a resource to extract dollars from. Shame on the ��Ƶ administrators, and you wonder why the reputation of ��Ƶ is going downhill so fast in our community.

By: ��Ƶ News staff

��Ƶ News staff — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 02:47:09 +0000

In reply to Leo. As noted in the article, "The proposed schedule covers the period from the 2017–18 through the 2019–20 academic years with annual increases ranging from zero to 2 percent."

By: C Lynn

C Lynn — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 02:10:25 +0000

The ��Ƶ Facilities are State facilities, and deferred maintenance should be paid for by the State! The State Legislature has repeatedly cut funding to ��Ƶ in the past few years, and so it is the State that needs to step up, and pay for these needed repairs and maintenance expenses–not the students! I have two daughters attending ��Ƶ Manoa, and I can tell you that it is struggle enough to make their monthly tuition/room/board/fee payments as it is…any increase will be impossible…and to repair buildings, is really untenable. I completely fail to see why this selective tax to repair ��Ƶ facilities should be burdened only by the students/parents of ��Ƶ!

By: Kaia

Kaia — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 01:04:49 +0000

The cost of education is already too high. A lot of students are struggling to pay for tuition now and this will be the final nail in the coffin for some of them. You are crushing dreams and defeating the purpose of education.

A decent institute wouldn’t push their students into debt. They would recognize that higher education isn’t mainly a personal investment; it is a PUBLIC good.

Don’t let the students suffer for the inadequacies in the administration.

I wonder how much your salaries are?

By: Leo

Leo — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 00:59:14 +0000

I like how they say tuition increases of 2% or less when the tuition increase for resident undergraduates at uh manoa from current to 2016-2017 is a 5.1% increase. Do they think we can’t see a 500$ difference on 10,000$ and see that is not 2%?

By: Bob smith

Bob smith — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 23:56:49 +0000

Rise tuition, as a ��ƵM current student I can say for what? The spend the money on more useless things? This campus unlike many campuses on mainland does not have a police department,it’s simply “public safety” in other words mall cops. Yet they spent about 100k on new Dodge Chargers for what? To chase moped thief’s? All they ever do when a situation is out of their control is call HPD. Even my Junior college had its own Police Department. How it is that this UNIVERSITY does not, but still spends OUR tuition on such equipment that can’t even be utilized properly by “public safety”. Secondly the food establishment’s on campus, want to make more money instead of increasing tuition for department heads to get the pay raise they always complain about. How about you keep the food establishment’s open past 2 pm! It’s incredible how we have 11 chain location on campus out of those 11 two are open late and by late i mean past two but not till 5.Really? Only thing open till about ten is Starbucks. That’s unheard of, and quite a joke when you go to a university on mainland that has not only establishment’s but the Cafeteria is open late. Furthermore everything on campus is closed on weekends!? Like how do you expect to make any revenue open what 8-2 M-F closed weekends? And then they cafe has 10-1 5-7:30 hours. I’m not sure this border understands that THIS SCHOOL HAS OUT OF STATE STUDENT’S. NOT ALL OF USE ARE FROM HERE WE DON’T HAVE THE LUXURY OF GOING HOME ON WEEKENDS! There is very little food establishment’s walking distance from campus and they encourage eating that cafe food “sponsored by sedexo” but they keep everything closed. How about you stop worrying about how to squeeze money out of the students to get your self a pay raise,and start figuring our priorities. Maybe propose to the state for i don’t know a tax increase. I mean just an idea or idk keep food services on campus open passed two pm, i don’t maybe they they are open later who know’s you might see some income and then oh look at that they make money and since they are on campus you can you know maybe raise the rent to be on your campus. Would you look at that. Economics and strategizing,and more job hours actually helps who would of ever guessed.

By: Courtney

Courtney — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 23:56:49 +0000

In reply to ��Ƶ News. Apologies from a man who is a paid to be the voice of the ��Ƶ admin. I am afraid Dan is just a spin doctor trying to make the ��Ƶ admin look good and dig himself out of a hole with that apology. His comments really do show ��Ƶ admin in their true colors though.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 22:21:04 +0000

It’s OK Anita, you can always do like Dan Meisenzahl suggests and put it on your credit card! He might have apologized for his earlier statement, however, his comments sum up the real issues at ��Ƶ. Administrators treat students as cash cows that can be milked to make up for incompetent budgeting decisions and pay too many administrators too much money for doing poor jobs.

Cut admin bloat and give students a break.

By: Tricia

Tricia — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 22:16:54 +0000

It’s a terrible idea to increase ��Ƶ Manoa’s tuition once again. It’s financially hard enough for every student to afford to go to college. If ��Ƶ Manoa needs more money to finance their maintenance needs, they need to figure out another way to get the money on their own like crowd-funding or car washes or fundraisers– anything, but soliciting money from students.

By: Tawanaka Kaupu

Tawanaka Kaupu — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 21:51:01 +0000

Even though Dan Meisenzahl responded to the criticism in the comments of the Star-Advertiser article, has ��Ƶ administrators forgotten about the price of living in Hawaii? Even if the tuition is considered affordable in comparison to that of other states and nations, we live in an area where the price of food, gas, clothes, etc. costs an extraneous amount. People can barely feed themselves and being a student comes with having to work 20 hours in order to receive state benefits (i.e. ebt). Which is still unlikely due to the fact that undergraduate students that are under the age of 22 are still considered by state law a dependent. Along with all of the crossroads of being a student, going through the problems of financial aid, all while trying to compensate a social life and work.

By: Anita Randall-Packer

Anita Randall-Packer — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 21:43:07 +0000

This is what ��Ƶ Hilo costs a Hawaii resident, there is no way a person can graduate without debt. You cannot work a full-time job, pay your living expenses and

ARCK Refund ACH Direct Deposit $4,448.50
FFGT Haw Student Government Fee $3.00
FFPU Haw Student Publication Fee $5.00
FFSA Haw Student Activity Fee $4.50
FT1 Haw Tuition Resident $360.00
GFAS Hil Student Govt Fee $24.00
GFBC Hil Media Broadcast Fee $23.00
GFCC Hil Student Campus Ctr Fee $28.00
GFHC Hil Student Health Center Fee $7.00
GFPU Hil Student Publication Fee $26.00
GFSA Hil Student Activity Fee $24.00
GFSL Hil Student Life Ctr Fee $78.00
GT1 Hil Tuition Resident UG $2,592.00

Term Charges: $7,623.00

By: ��Ƶ News

��Ƶ News — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 21:36:36 +0000

In reply to Pete. Dan Meisenzahl responded to this criticism in the comments of the Star-Advertiser article you are referring to with the following statement:

February 23, 2016 at 9:48 am I want to apologize for my quote in the article. The credit card comment was regrettable and an impractical suggestion for most. The point I was trying to make is that compared to the rest of the nation, ��Ƶ is still very affordable, even with these proposed tuition increases. I know the cost of higher education is a difficult burden for our students and their families and I never meant to be dismissive of that reality. Once again, I apologize. Dan Meisenzahl

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 21:31:36 +0000

So ultimately no actual maintenance will be done from the money that is collected. But instead will be used for maintenance backlog which is basically the debt the school has from the maintenance they’ve already done.

By: Andrew Gerren

Andrew Gerren — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 21:30:39 +0000

Definitely a struggle as it is. I don’t think the student should have to bear the burden of costs when the endeavor of college and paying for tuition is already hard enough as it is. Unless financial aid is willing to guarantee coverage it could be co suffered more widely.

By: Pete

Pete — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 20:39:14 +0000

Have a read of the article linked below. The official ��Ƶ spokesman, Dan Meisenzahl,(voice of the ��Ƶ administrators) states with reference to these proposed tuition increases: “We’re still affordable. You can go to ��Ƶ Manoa, put it on a credit card and graduate like you just bought a brand-new car,” ��Ƶ spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said. “You can pay $30,000 in debt down over time considering the amount of money you’d make over your lifetime with a college degree. It’s still a fantastic deal” Put it on a credit card? Yeah, that’s right put ��Ƶ Manoa students and the families of those students in more debit. The arrogance of the ��Ƶ administrators, who recently voted to give themselves a pay rise is unbelievable. Perhaps they should be taking pay cuts and start doing their jobs competently? ��Ƶ Manoa is a shambles and that shambles can be entirely attributed the incompetence that is repeatedly demonstrated by administrators. It just goes to show how little ��Ƶ cares about the community, its students and how out of touch they really are. http://www.staradvertiser.com/hawaii-news/tuition-increases-proposed-for-uh/

By: Christy

Christy — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 20:13:45 +0000

I hope that the dates and locations of the public hearings will be published. It seems unfortunate to increase the cost of tuition for students who are already struggling to finance their education. For some, this increase may make educational goals unreachable. Or, if they are able to attend, increase their already burgeoning debt…..There must be another area of the ��Ƶ budget that can be looked at for revision…..