Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Higher Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 1064 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the University of Hawaii to enable the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management of the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources to hire faculty with expertise in resource management and conservation.

Pursuant to prior concurrence with the Chair of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, your Committee has amended this measure by replacing it entirely with the contents of SB 906. SB 906 was heard jointly by your Committees on Higher Education and Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs prior to your Committee on Higher Education's hearing on SB 1064. At the joint hearing on SB 906, the chairs of your Committees noted that the title of SB 906 was in conflict with the intent and contents of the bill, thereby rendering it defective. Your Committees felt that improving governance of the University of Hawaii's Community Colleges is a matter of great importance and therefore agreed that the measure should go forward with technical amendments in the form of SB 1064.

This measure proposes a constitutional amendment to establish the University of Hawaii Community College System as a separate and independent entity with its own Board of Regents, require the members of the two boards of regents to be appointed through selection commissions, and require the members of the two boards to serve ten-year terms.

Testimony in opposition to this measure was received from the Hawaii Government Employees Association, while the University of Hawaii provided a concerned response.

Your Committee finds that while there are economies of scale in maintaining the community colleges as part of the University of Hawaii System, there is no assurance that the community colleges will always receive equitable financing or be held accountable for their programs and use of taxpayer money. A separate board dedicated to managing the community colleges would be tasked with this specific responsibility and held accountable for their actions.

Also, as the "step-children of Manoa", community colleges have not been the driving force behind the policy of governance by the Board of Regents. As a result, the latest change to the management of the community colleges has resulted in each campus being given near complete autonomy and is now headed by its own chancellor. This change has arguably been a bane to the financial and programmatic survival of the community colleges.

The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (ACCJC) is the body responsible for accrediting community colleges. In a January 31, 2005 letter to University of Hawaii Interim President David McClain, the ACCJC was highly critical of the reorganizations that have occurred since 2003. By way of background, then President Evan Dobelle moved to eliminate the Office of the Chancellor for Hawaii's community colleges and created a structure of seven colleges reporting directly to the President of the University. The ACCJC's letter stated, ". . .confusion continues about the respective roles of campus and system administrators in determining campus priorities, and this lack of distinction continues to challenge the ability of each college to meet accreditation standards." The ACCJC further stated, "The Commission remains concerned that a lack of clarity persists about operational decisions distinct to the role and mission of the community colleges within the University of Hawaii system."

Following its November 15-18, 2004 visit to the University of Hawaii, the ACCJC issued a 15 page report on the reorganization of the University of Hawaii Community Colleges. Their report identified four concerns specifically in the areas of:

• The delegation of personnel functions to the individual campuses and continuing the role of the personnel function at the system level;

• Development and implementation of a regular assessment of institutional effectiveness;

• The role of the governing board as a policy making body; and

• Staffing and funding of the University system structure that resulted from reorganization of the community colleges that began in May 2003, including the elimination of the position of Chancellor for Community Colleges and the restructured reporting lines for the colleges.

Excerpts from this report highlight the need to establish a dedicated single governing body with a chief executive solely responsible for the management and direction of the community college system.

Specifically, the report says:

• Page 5: "Because the University reorganization did not clearly give the Associate Vice President authority over the colleges in the areas of his responsibility, his staff are concerned about whether they have the authority to do what needs to be done. The unit's claim that it 'coordinates' the colleges in areas of its expertise are apparently true only when colleges agree to be 'coordinated'."

• Page 6: "The President communicates with his immediate staff, the University System-wide Support staff; the Associate Vice Presidents for Community Colleges are one reporting level lower in the organizational structure and are not always getting or giving key personnel information."

• Page 8: "The Council of Community College Chancellors is delegated responsibility for implementing changes . . . The Council tends to share information more than make decisions, and staff of the Colleges told the (ACCJC) Team bluntly 'it is not a decision-making body' . . . The inability of either council or of a super-ordinate to decide how the colleges might collectively approach at least core elements of program review, result in each college pursuing its own local strategy or, as in some cases, not acting at all on this matter."

• Page 11: "The (ACCJC) Team's view is that as a state system-wide board, the Board of Regents needs to be prepared to devote sufficient time and attention to the issues of community colleges' educational quality and program improvement . . . The Team urges the Board of Regents, the University of Hawaii President, and the Community College Chancellors, to explore how the Board of Regents can be organized to fulfill its responsibilities to the specific community college mission."

• Page 12: "The Commission's original concern…was that the Community College System-wide Support services be identified and maintained at a level sufficient to support the Community Colleges. The Team believes it is clear that the reorganization (first or second) has not established a clear organizational structure with clearly defined roles or authority and responsibility between the colleges and the system that effectively supports the colleges in their mission and function."

Your Committee finds that perhaps the ACCJC's report is best summed up in one statement by the reviewers, "The Team believes that the State will find it very challenging to continue to operate the Community College system without identifying a clear 'head' of that system." The Board of Regents has adopted a "change as you go" attitude in managing the reorganization of the Community Colleges with respect to that of the University of Hawaii system. Your Committee finds that while the University is working at yet another reorganization at a cost of $1.5 million, there is still a lack of commitment on the Board of Regents part to return the Community Colleges to an efficient and well managed system that it once was under a single system wide Chancellor.

Finally, your Committee recognizes that the community colleges not only enroll the majority of all students in the University of Hawaii system, they enroll an even larger majority of students whose place of residency is our State. The need for the attention from this body is further increased by the high proportion of such students who are the first in their family to attend college and the large numbers of such students that are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Your Committee finds that the University of Hawaii system as it is presently organized places the needs of these students last.

Your Committee believes that the findings contained in the ACCJC report reinforces the need to establish a separate board of regents to manage the University of Hawaii Community Colleges. Your Committee also finds that in light of the fact that University Presidents may come and go, it is the responsibility of this Legislature to ensure that no harm is done to the governance and management of this institution for the welfare of Hawaii's people and economy.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Higher Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1064, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1064, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.