Appropriates funding to the University of Hawaii college of natural sciences.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The college of natural sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa has a faculty that is internationally known for their expertise. They brought in $25,000,000 in federal dollars for the college last year.

One in ten students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is majoring in the college of natural sciences and since 1993, its enrollment has increased by sixty-six per cent. Funding, however, has decreased every year since 1999, forcing the college to cut positions, even as student enrollment increased.

Added to the funding crisis, is the rising cost of teaching in science laboratories. Major advancements in molecular analyses have shifted the focus from a cellular level to a molecular one, which requires equipment and reagents that are sophisticated and costly. Maintaining this equipment is also expensive. Adding to the challenges of keeping up with the new technological advancements, enrollment in several costly laboratory classes has doubled over the past several years.

The college of natural sciences desperately needs to restore abolished permanent faculty positions and update its laboratories so students can receive the lecture and laboratory classes they need and deserve at class sizes that foster active learning.

The college field of natural science has gone through an explosion in innovation in fields such as genomics and biocomplexity. There have also been major advancements in instrumentation such as polymerase chain reaction or PCR, sequencing, geographical information systems or GIS, and modeling on high-speed computers.

The college of natural sciences has lagged behind the rest of the nation in research and student output due to:

The dilapidated condition of its physical infrastructure has sent a message to the student population that the University of Hawaii is no longer the leader in cutting edge science that it once was forty years ago. The infrastructure, as it currently stands, is inadequate for fulfilling the University of Hawaii's strategic plan and commitment to undergraduate research.

The University of Hawaii is making a major commitment to research in the life science field with the development at Kakaako, Oahu. Building a new life sciences center on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus would bridge the life sciences undergraduate program with the job and research opportunities that will be available at Kakaako. This will encourage high school students from Hawaii interested in the life sciences to remain in the State because of the new learning and job opportunities that will be available.

This new life sciences center would integrate all of the classrooms, laboratories and faculty offices of the college of natural sciences into one building. This center would also facilitate graduate and faculty research, though its focus would be to include undergraduates as integral participants in research activities. Centers like this that involve undergraduates in innovative research projects have been highly successful.

The new life sciences center would become a place of excitement and a symbol to the nation and the world that the University of Hawaii college of natural sciences is the place for potential undergraduates to attend as well as the leader in cutting edge science.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $           , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007, for the University of Hawaii at Manoa college of natural sciences. The sum appropriated shall be for the following purposes:

1. Department of chemistry 4FTE $ 400,000

Department of mathematics 4FTE 400,000

Department of life sciences 4FTE 400,000

SECTION 3. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the University of Hawaii for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2006.