One day soon, expect Kaua’i Community College to become the University of Hawai’i at Kaua’i. It’s part of UH president Evan Dobelle’s one-university, 11-campus master plan for incorporating the existing university and community college campuses and new ones he hopes
One day soon, expect Kaua’i Community College to become the University of Hawai’i at Kaua’i.
It’s part of UH president Evan Dobelle’s one-university, 11-campus master plan for incorporating the existing university and community college campuses and new ones he hopes will be built.
UH has untapped potential, Dobelle said, and one way is to improve the image of the community colleges. If they no longer have the “stigma” of two-year schools that comes with their name, they can attract more out-of-state and foreign students – provided, however, that student housing is added, he said.
KCC, for example, is already a “de facto” four-year school by virtue of its distance learning capabilities and offering bachelor’s degrees in various fields.
“If you already are that (a four-year school), why don’t you say that?” he asked.
The housing will take longer, but the change of KCC’s identity to UH-Kaua’i could happen as soon as two months, he suggested.
KCC already offers university-level courses and could, with the right marketing, be a more attractive higher-education choice, Dobelle said.
“So many people come to Hawai’i for vacations and weddings. Why not come to be college students?” he said. “But we’ve got to give them places to live.”
Expanding the UH system, including student housing, can generate jobs statewide, he added.
Dobelle was on Kaua’i yesterday for an all-day retreat with KCC’s administrators, followed by a dinner at the college last night with them, local community members and Lieutenant Governor Mazie Hirono. Another meeting with campus leaders was planned for this morning before Dobelle returned to Oahu.
During their retreat at a cabin in Koke’e, Dobelle said he had told KCC administrators that he wanted them to be more creative and become less “overworked and underfunded” and bogged down in bureaucratic red tape.
Since becoming UH’s president earlier this year, Dobelle has made headlines statewide by, among other things, calling for new four-year campuses and a new film school and suggesting that a new stadium be built for the football team.
“We’re big business, and we can get bigger” without adding to UH’s $850 million budget, he said, adding, “If I’m not thinking big, who will think big for us?”
Editor Pat Jenkins can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) and mailto:pjenkins@pulitzer.net
Staff writer Paul C. Curtis contributed to this report.
