Appropriates funds for a student-run television station and programming at the University of Hawaii.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that with the introduction of a student-run television station and programming, the University of Hawaii has an opportunity to increase its communications footprint, provide a real community service, and demonstrate critical cross-platform and transdisciplinary leadership in the twenty-first century. A student-run television station would also serve citizens of the State and region by developing workforce personnel knowledgeable about Hawaii's culture, history, and politics, who would augment existing local television news coverage.

As the premier research campus in the region, the University of Hawaii at Manoa has the unique ability to package the knowledge and expertise of some of the foremost experts in the State, region, and globe on a wide variety of subjects, and disseminate this content to our immediate community and the world. Such activity has the potential to increase the visibility of the University of Hawaii and propel our faculty, students, and campuses into direct global competition for scarce funding and national and international awards.

In today's increasingly interconnected information society, fact-based media and journalism education are vital components of any robust university community. Beginning in the late 1950s, forward-looking post-secondary institutions began offering not just television broadcasting and journalism courses, but also launching full-fledged, largely student-run television stations that delivered news, information, and entertainment to the immediate university and general communities. A recent survey listed close to fifty student-run television programs at the post-secondary level, many of these at the community college level. In the past five to ten years, the pace for introducing student-run television stations and courses has accelerated exponentially as industry competition for coveted jobs has increased, and demand from students for this kind of experiential learning opportunity has intensified, and tangentially, institutions have necessarily invested in cable and fiber optic infrastructure for other communications and research purposes.

Today, student-run closed circuit cable and satellite television is a reality for intermediate schools, high schools, including Waianae high school, Kamehameha schools, and others, community colleges, and tier-one universities across the country and around the globe. An opportunity exists at the University of Hawaii at Manoa to further develop visual communications education by reinforcing digital television journalism, documentary production, oral historiography, and other fact-based news, information, and entertainment pathways for collaborative communications. The historical lack of commitment at the University of Hawaii for University of Hawaii student-run television and television production education will be further highlighted shortly when the nation's television industry is federally mandated to switch from analog to digital production and dissemination. Television digitalization will ultimately permit University of Hawaii-produced television news, magazine format shows, documentaries, and entertainment to be packaged and distributed globally through high-speed internet transmission. With the KTUH radio station already on air for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, all year long, the University of Hawaii at Manoa does have presence in the broadcast spectrum. In addition to this audio footprint presence, University of Hawaii student-run television would significantly impact the visibility and prestige of this great university, train our students and future entrepreneurs, and demonstrate community good will.

By leveraging existing University of Hawaii assets such as production instructors, University of Hawaii information technology and satellite infrastructure, college of social sciences media lab facilities, and access to integrated digital technology, and by adding a small number of key personnel, the University of Hawaii at Manoa is uniquely positioned to provide the integrated, disciplined experience demanded by today's student, and in so doing realize tremendous synergies and new opportunities that will the benefit the University of Hawaii and the general community. With the already strong emphasis at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in developing flexible fact-based writing and research skills and multimedia abilities, a natural opportunity exists to leverage student writing and creativity across the information and digital spectrum. A real opportunity exists to involve the broadcast and multimedia industries in the introduction of these fields of study to the University of Hawaii at Manoa repertoire. Industry professionals, like our University of Hawaii students, are deeply interested in contributing time and resources to the development of those programs. The addition of a coherent, experiential television production component will allow for synergies across digital platforms and will address student needs and ambitions from nearly all the University of Hawaii system disciplines and departments.

University of Hawaii student-run television will increase the visibility of the University of Hawaii at Manoa and University of Hawaii system brands, extend the university footprint, create relevant social interaction with the community and other campuses throughout the Hawaii P-20 educational system, and help develop a generation of versatile and competitive students. An inclusive, forward-looking strategy will create clear pipelines from K-12 to baccalaureate level and beyond. Students in K-12 can be involved in both intuitive and material ways with post-secondary destinations and expectations. Our public university needs to lead by example. Several P-20 schools are already involved in producing, broadcasting, and cablecasting news and information. University of Hawaii student-run television can function as a central repository for the best of Hawaii P-20 film and video productions with modular and expandable on air programs.

University of Hawaii student-run television has a unique opportunity to differentiate itself from other news, information and entertainment services in the Hawaiian islands and in the world. With its young demographic of ambitious, forward-looking, multicultural, and indigenous students, and access to the foremost experts in the region on local and global issues, University of Hawaii student-run television is situated to offer a fresh and important perspective, and to lead by example. At the same time, students will gain valuable experiential learning opportunities that will prepare them to better engage in and influence the professional, industry-side of our global information society.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $1,000,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007, for upstart, technology upgrades, equipment, supplies, and personnel for a student-run television station and programming.

SECTION 3. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the University of Hawaii at Manoa, college of social sciences, for the purposes of this Act.

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