RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, the purposes of the University of Hawaii's Community Colleges are to provide:

WHEREAS, the seven University of Hawaii community colleges are separately accredited institutions with separate faculty, administration, and campus budgets; and

WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii Board of Regents received a proposal in November 2002 for a University system reorganization that included the elimination of the Office of the Chancellor for community colleges; this reorganization was approved by the Board of Regents in December 2002 and was approved by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges through its Substantive Change approval process April 2003; and

WHEREAS, the University reorganization resulted in the creation of a Council of Chancellors reporting directly to the President; represented in this council are chancellors of each individual campus throughout the University system, including a chancellor for each community college; and the reorganization also eliminated the Office of the Senior Vice President and Chancellor for Community Colleges and reassigned the support functions of system community college staff to various system-level vice presidential offices; and

WHEREAS, a recent report by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) has placed six of the seven community colleges on a warning status because of its concern that the community colleges continue to lack an integrated system-wide program review, institutional assessment and improvement process that sets an expectation that campuses develop a culture and practice of assessment, and that supports improvement in the campus practice at the system decision making level; and

WHEREAS, the WASC Commission also found that the lack of clarity regarding the respective roles of campus and system administrators in determining campus priorities continues to challenge the ability of each college to meet accreditation standards because of confusion about operational decisions distinct to the role and mission of each community college; and

WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii Community Colleges are separately accredited institutions and thus are capable of correcting their own individual warning statuses by resolving the deficiencies set forth in the WASC report and by resolving the confusion of the roles of campus chancellors; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2005, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Legislative Reference Bureau is requested to study the feasibility of whether one chancellor for all of the University of Hawaii's community colleges:

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislative Reference Bureau is requested to consult with the University of Hawaii's Council of Chancellors, the Vice President for Administration or a representative thereof, the Vice President of Student Affairs for Planning and Policy, and one or more student representatives from the University of Hawaii Student Caucus; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislative Reference Bureau is requested to submit its findings and recommendations to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2006; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President and Chairperson of the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii, the University of Hawaii's Council of Chancellors, the President of the University of Hawaii Student Caucus, and the Acting Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Report Title:

UH; Study; Community Colleges Chancellors.