Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1335, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to expand the current tuition waiver program within the University of Hawaii system.

Specifically, this measure:

Your Committee finds that it is increasingly difficult for students of Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian ancestry to afford college tuition. Although the University of Hawaii has celebrated its ninety-second year of existence with a student body that has grown and changed dramatically, one consistent fact is that Hawaiian students continue to be underrepresented within this system. Only fourteen per cent of University of Hawaii system students are Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian; twenty-five per cent of them drop out within the first two years for reasons that include rising tuition. As compensation or benefits from the University of Hawaii in return for its use of ceded lands for facilities such as the marine research facilities, Haleakala Observatory, and Maunakea Science Reserve, your Committee believes that it is necessary to offer tuition waivers to qualified students within the University of Hawaii who are of Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian ancestry and who could not otherwise afford to attend any college within the University of Hawaii system.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1335, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1335, H.D. 3, S.D. 2.