Preliminary Recommendations on Prioritization
September 8, 2009 
Aloha!
On behalf of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee, I am providing an update on the committee’s progress and preliminary recommendations based on discussions over the summer. We are now on Step 7 in the prioritization process as described at the Prioritization Process Webpage. The comments have been informative and helpful, and I ask for campus feedback on these preliminary committee recommendations with our online comment form. As the process continues, I look forward to on-going consultation.
The Chancellor’s Advisory Committee is charged to advise me on advancing our campus prioritization process and includes representation from the faculty, staff and administrators at UH Mānoa, as well as community and UH System members (Prioritization Process Webpage). The committee recognizes that this campus prioritization has taught all of us a great deal about our institution, including the volume and complexity of our activities. Most importantly, self-examination of this nature has already stimulated changes; this is a credit to the "mindpower" available here to determine how best to improve our learning and research environments. So, mahalo to the many folks who have invested intellectually and emotionally in the development of strategies to move UH Mānoa forward.
The Advisory Committee met throughout the summer to study the recommendations from the campus prioritization process and consult with the Vice Chancellors (VCs) regarding campus–wide areas for investment and maintenance, as well as areas for consolidation, reorganization, reduction, or elimination (all of the campus recommendations being reviewed are available on the Prioritization website). As indicated in my August 12, 2009 Campus Budget Update, the Advisory Committee continues to meet, in conjunction with the Budget Workgroup, to examine and focus on academic priorities in the context of the severe UH Mānoa budget reductions. While both groups had separate charges, the budget situation has forced us to maximize our limited resources most effectively, in addition to looking at opportunities to generate more revenue.
A number of points have emerged from the Advisory Committee's deliberations:
- general endorsement of the recommendations from the VCs and the schools/colleges (with special attention to those recommendations which differed between schools/colleges and committees advising the VCs);
- strong endorsement of the preliminary recommendations of the VCs on changes to consider in the near future;
- need for additional analysis by the schools/colleges on the large number of efforts listed in "maintain" category;
- greater impacts reside in the proposed reorganizations and those should be proposed for immediate implementation since that process takes time; and
- generation of new sources of revenue requires increased campus autonomy to accomplish the required changes.
The preliminary recommendations of the Advisory Committee below, with a limited number of examples, are presented in the context of UH Mānoa's strategic plan, "Defining Our Destiny."
Meeting the goals of UH Mānoa to serve as:
A. A destination of choice for great students, faculty, staff, the citizens of Hawaiʻi and beyond.
Enhancing student success is a high priority for UH Mānoa, so the committee supports investments/actions to strengthen the student learning experience, particularly for undergraduates. Examples to accomplish that outcome include:
- Accomplish strong Enrollment Management through reorganizing units, including Admissions and Records, Financial Aid, and School and College Services.
- Ensure clear straightforward articulation/transfer agreements to promote student access to UH Mānoa. (Note that reorganization to strengthen Enrollment Management needs to happen first to make these efforts most effective.)
- Increase coordination of counseling and health services through a merger of the Counseling & Student Development Center with the University Health Services program.
- Complete the proposed Campus Center renovation/expansion/construction project, which includes a new student recreation center.
- Provide ready access to high demand core courses by eliminating low demand courses, certificates, and majors: a number of specific examples with low enrollments were identified in the VC recommendations and supported by the committee. Continue to evaluate identified certificates that require faculty time but are not well subscribed.
- Ensure intellectual critical mass by consolidating majors/programs. The committee supported maintaining the Marine Option Program through a merger with Marine Biology to strengthen both programs and improve administrative efficiency. NOAA has also generously provided resources to support this endeavor.
- Support the current discussion and consultation process for the reorganization of the Arts & Sciences to determine the direction needed to accomplish a strengthening of the general education core programs, fostering of integrated curriculum, and economizing on administration.
- Merge smaller units with larger, related schools/colleges to strengthen impact and economize on administration. The committee supports the reconsolidation of the School of Travel Industry Management with Shidler College of Business to enhance UH Mānoa's service to the tourism industry in Hawaiʻi and strengthen the impact of TIM's significant ties to the business economy. We will develop criteria for organizational structures that best support faculty/staff/students and maximize resources to examine schools with low critical mass.
- Maximize opportunities for student internships to provide knowledge and experience for enhanced student success.
- Focus on academic initiatives that enhance a distinctive UH Mānoa undergraduate experience, involving critical thinking and leadership development.
B. A global leading research institution solving society’s problems.
Promote UH Mānoa's unique ability to create new knowledge and generate resources through research for the benefit of Hawaiʻi and beyond. Examples to accomplish that outcome include:
- Focus research initiatives in areas where UH Mānoa is uniquely positioned to excel, especially at this time, such as the Institute for Astronomy, the Cancer Research Center of Hawaiʻi and School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.
- Align and integrate programs with statewide impact into the academic mission, such as the Waikīkī Aquarium and Lyon Arboretum.
- Reorganize/restructure centers to enhance collaborations and new initiatives, such as Industrial Relations Center, Water Resources Research Center, Environmental Center, and Pacific Biosciences Research Center, including closure of Kewalo Marine Laboratory.
- Strengthen professional and graduate programs that serve critical state needs and make significant research contributions.
- Promote sustainability as a common theme for the campus as a whole (as well as Hawaiʻi); integrate such efforts into learning, research and engagement with the community.
C. A respectful, inclusive community that welcomes and nurtures diversity.
Emphasis should be placed on strengthening respectful partnerships with our host culture and international colleagues in improving the future of Hawaiʻi and the world. Examples to accomplish that outcome include:
- Improve the infrastructure for energy savings and campus planning to create a green campus and promote stewardship of natural resources. Support energy conservation initiatives such as "Mānoa Green Days."
- Grow the College Opportunities Program and its summer academic program, which successfully improves access to higher education for disadvantaged students.
- Reorganize international education programs to sharpen the focus of our efforts and strengthen leadership standing, especially with the Asian-Pacific region. In addition, the committee supported efforts to maximize current resources and generate new resources to support the campus activities.
D. Maximizing resources.
Implement operational changes to improve administration, reduce expenses, and enhance efficiency. Examples to accomplish that outcome include:
- Streamline administration by reorganization/merging of units, common activities, and schools/colleges, including closure of small units whose services and activities could be accomplished by existing units.
- Continue the ongoing reorganization of Duplicating and Mail Services.
- Reorganize the Environmental Health and Safety Office into the Office of the VC for Research.
- Merge Campus Security and Emergency Planning functions.
- Share personnel to achieve efficiencies in finance and accounting functions and campus support.
- Explore greater use of technology–enhanced learning (distance learning) to increase access to learning opportunities and achieve savings.
E. Generate new funds for investment in the campus and for the economic vitality of Hawaiʻi.
The campus needs the management flexibility to maximize revenue generation. The Committee recommended that the campus collaborate with the system offices and state legislature on this effort. Examples to accomplish that outcome include:
- Increased authority and responsibility for position control, financial management and procurement.
- Generate a roadmap for stimulating entrepreneurship, particularly through identifying and removing campus policies/procedures that block this activity, and support approaches that generate new revenue while controlling costs.
- Provide summer conferences, non–credit courses, short–term conferences, executive training, and academic partnerships to maximize use of learning and residential spaces.
- Reorganize Outreach College to drive entrepreneurial non–credit offerings that leverage the intellectual capacity of the campus and maximize its impact in serving local and extended communities.
- Explore differential tuition rates for professional schools as in peer institutions.
- Determine appropriate campus fees to match actual costs.
- Gain campus control of research technology transfer and campus licensing agreements.
- Expand and maximize facilities usage for rentals, such as Stan Sheriff Center, Andrews Outdoor Amphitheatre and student housing areas.
- Coordinate and strengthen fund–raising activities with emphasis on identified campus priorities.
Please send your feedback on the committee's preliminary recommendations to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Administration, Finance, and Operations by September 25, 2009. In addition, as mentioned in my August 12, 2009 campus budget update, a campus–wide forum is being planned to provide students, staff and faculty with the opportunity to share thoughts and ideas.
I will share the campus feedback to this message with the joint Chancellor's Advisory Group and Budget Workgroup and then decide on the recommendations to move forward for implementation. Each recommendation will move forward in accordance with established process, including consultation. The VCs will lead the implementation actions and conduct further reviews where needed — and work in leading, on my behalf, the joint advisory and budget workgroup. Further updates on the progress will continue to be shared with the campus by myself and the VCs.
It is clear that our campus community is thinking creatively and boldly in the effort to strengthen, not simply maintain, our academic excellence, even in the face of severe budget reductions. Some of the decisions will reflect issues of long standing that need to be resolved and that we should do; some are not what we want to do but must do because we simply cannot afford to continue all that we are doing and do it well.
Mahalo for your creative ideas regarding opportunities for UH Mānoa to both advance our academic priorities and leverage our limited resources,
Virginia S. Hinshaw
Chancellor