The University of Hawai'i system continues to build on last year's record enrollment while battling budget cuts imposed by the governor and state Legislature.
Enrollment is increasing about 20 percent systemwide, according to Louise Pagotto, Kapi'olani Community College vice chancellor for academic affairs.
"Some campuses have more, some have less," said Pagotto.
Much of the rise in enrollment is concentrated into the seven UH community colleges, which have seen a record 28 percent increase since around this same time last year, according to John Morton, vice president of UH community colleges.
While the UH system as a whole is experiencing a surge in enrollment, UH M?noa's freshman class has the smallest number of students at the university, according to Morton.
"M?noa enrollment will grow as the students move through the (community colleges) and transfer in. It's too early for that to have happened yet," said Morton in an e-mail.
UH M?noa is not expecting an increase in enrollment next year, according to Kathleen Cutshaw, UHM vice chancellor for administration, finance and operations.
"Given the economy, this is good news. ... In difficult economic times we might expect students who were planning to go to college on the mainland to change their minds and either go to M?noa or a local community college, depending on their individual financial situation," said Cutshaw in an e-mail.
Gene Awakuni, chancellor of UH West O'ahu, explained in an e-mail that UHWO is projecting a 15 to 20 percent increase, or about 200 more students, over their fall 2008 enrollment, which was about 1,200.
Budget Cuts
Awakuni said because of the budget cuts, UHWO had to "freeze hiring new faculty in certain key disciplines."
As a result, professors will have to teach more courses and the university planning to hire more lecturers to teach general education courses, according to Awakuni.
"This works on a short-term basis but will clearly be problematic in the long term," Awakuni said.
The Legislature has slashed UH's budget by about $46 million, in addition to Gov. Linda Lingle's $50 million cutback; UH will collect about $22 million in federal stimulus money to help soften the blow.
UH M?noa will be taking on about $34 million of the Legislature's budget cuts for the 2010 fiscal year, which begins next month, and about $30 million of Lingle's cuts, according to Gregg Takayama, UHM director of communication and government affairs.
The budget cuts amount to about a 17 percent reduction of UH M?noa's $260 million budget for the 2009 fiscal year, according to Takayama.
About 70 to 75 percent of the money UH receives from the state government goes to employee salaries.
"How do you make that (cut) without affecting the people who work here?" asked Takayama. "The answer is you can't."
Economical Consequences
Because the number of recent high school graduates has in fact decreased, Pagotto said the enrollment jump is likely from people coming in from the battered economy looking to add to and improve their skills.
No matter what condition the economy is in, the decision to invest the time and energy into school versus using that effort to get paid working is always available, which is what economists call the "opportunity cost."
"In a recession, the opportunities are fewer so people have greater incentive to forego the alternatives and make the investment in intellectual capital," said James Moncur, UHM economics professor, in an e-mail.
Chung Lee, UHM associate economics professor, said in an e-mail that the training and skills a person obtains from going to school defines human capital. Because of the shaky economy and its effects on the job market, people may be choosing to go to school to improve their human capital, which will help them find more promising employment after the economy rebounds, according to Lee.
Moncur said that UH M?noa tuition has been rising a little faster than other UH system schools, so students might be opting for the community college route to save money. Students could also be factoring in the cost and time of transporting to UH M?noa, Moncur said.
Both economists pointed out that tuition is cheaper at community colleges than at UH's four-year campuses.
Community college react
Angela Meixell, chancellor of Windward Community College, said that community college enrollment "historically always goes up when the economy is down."
Meixell has a few possible reasons for the record enrollment spike, one being that with the economy knocking out jobs, people who are not working turn to school to gain skills. Students already in school may be staying longer because of bleak job prospects. Perhaps UH community colleges have been focusing more on the recruitment and retention of students, as well as more marketing.
The challenge for UH lies in the near $100 million in budget cuts the university system is facing under Lingle's and the state Legislature's spending plans.
Pagotto said that all of the community colleges are looking for ways to accommodate the surge in students and that KCC is going to try to add more course sections and online courses while keeping class sizes reasonable.
"You don't want to squeeze people out of education," Pagotto said. KCC is trying to find more classrooms to host the additional courses, according to Pagotto.
"It's kind of difficult because the facilities are maxed out at prime time," Pagotto said.
After last year's record increase, Meixell said WCC tried to fit more students into classes, but "this year we're going to have to add classes."
Meixell said WCC may have to tap into the half million in enrollment growth money that the state Legislature set up.
"Enrollment growth money was a program that allowed community colleges to subsidize the cost of classes," Morton said in an e-mail. "Community college tuition is too low to pay for even the marginal cost of a class, so without subsidy we can't add classes to accommodate the students. The enrollment growth money provided by the Legislature provided that subsidy and basically underwrote the 19 percent growth over the past two years."
The $22 million in federal stimulus funds will also partially help UH to combat the state's budget cuts.
"We will use the federal stimulus money in the same way to underwrite adding classes to meet this surge," Morton said.
Pagotto said that there has not been any analysis conducted yet to determine the demographics of the increase in students, but that one will be "after the process is complete."
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