The University of Hawaii's Board of Regents have announced that they will be putting a moratorium, or freeze, on new building projects for the next three years in an effort to combat existing repair and maintenance issues facing their 10 campuses. A previous report stated that the University of Hawaii system has approximately $487 million of deferred maintenance projects to address including approximately $407 million in projects on the main Manoa campus. Regent Benjamin Kudo, stated, "My concern was if we spent too much of our efforts to approve new projects, that it would somehow affect our ability to take care of the back of the house. We've neglected too long to take care of our physical plant."
David Lassner, the interim President of the University of Hawaii, stated, "Our facilities have degraded over many years of underinvestment. The Board of Regents and administration are committed to repairing and modernizing our facilities to support 21st-century learning and scholarship to benefit our students, faculty and the communities we serve. We hope to gain the support of the executive and legislative branches for this effort, as the University of Hawaii belongs to all of us."
David Lassner, the interim President of the University of Hawaii, stated, "Our facilities have degraded over many years of underinvestment. The Board of Regents and administration are committed to repairing and modernizing our facilities to support 21st-century learning and scholarship to benefit our students, faculty and the communities we serve. We hope to gain the support of the executive and legislative branches for this effort, as the University of Hawaii belongs to all of us."
However, the Board of Regents have put in the fine print 13 total new projects that would be exempt from this building moratorium. These project would cost a total of $170 million to complete and have raised some eyebrows with various members of the state government. Issac Choy, a state representative an chairman of the House Committee on High Education, commented, "Any projects that are not started yet should not be exempt until UH finishes all of their repair and maintenance, or else the moratorium is not meaningful."
Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 11-26-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
www.myhawaiicondo.com
www.myhawaiidreamhome.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
www.myhawaiicondo.com
www.myhawaiidreamhome.com
