A couple of days ago, I emailed UH public affairs staff to request additional information concerning the governance issues raised by the university’s recent NCAA self study.
I received an automated response from former Star-Bulletin editor, Diane Chang, now director of communications for UH Manoa.
The University of Hawaii at Manoa campus, including the Media Resources office, will be closed through Monday, January 2, for the holiday season.
Then I recalled the university has been shutting down over the Christmas-New Year holidays, and during Spring Break, in a money-saving effort. Most offices and buildings are closed, and air conditioning turned off, apparently bringing substantial savings.
The UH website describes the closures.
Reduced Campus Operations
In support of continuing efforts to reduce energy consumption and recover cost savings, the University of Hawai‘i System offices and campuses statewide will be reducing or suspending operations on non-instructional days during the following time periods:December 17, 2011–January 2, 2012
March 24, 2012–April 1, 2012
Computer services, including the UH computer help desk, are shut down. Even the libraries are shut down. Students and faculty have to rely totally on digital access if they need library resources before January 3.
It’s a minor inconvenience for some. Faculty are between semesters anyway.
But what about the thousands of other UH employees. HGEA’s Unit 8 alone has over 2,000 members in the UH system. Are they furloughed? Forced to take vacation?
So I put the question to Gregg Takayama, director of community and government relations, UH Manoa.
Administrators (deans, directors, senior admin staff) are on duty unless they’ve taken vacation leave.
HGEA members are on administrative leave.
UPW members are at work unless they’ve taken vacation leave.
Does “administrative leave” means paid leave? I have to assume so.
Do energy savings really cover the cost of nearly two weeks of paid leave?
And is someone checking up to make sure those senior administrators are really on duty or on vacation while the rest of the system is shut down?
Bottom line: Does shutting down campuses during these periods really make economic sense?
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Fine example of how learning has been speared in this downsizing world. Hilo’s public library is sometime open three or four days a week and was closed on Mondays when kids up the street are in class. Hilo students essentially have no library access half or more of the time.
Has anyone seen the ridiculous TV ads about UH?
Some public relations firm must be making a mint.
The ad features certain UH cheerleaders prancing around. It includes underwater footage. At the end of this commotion, it simply says University of Hawaii.
Hello, who doesn’t know UH on this island?
Whichever administrator approved this stupid expense should be fired. This is frivolous
waste of taxpayers’ money.
Not sure if serious…
The same ads that are shown during UH sporting events to audiences on national cable networks?
The ads shown during UH sporting events is quite conventional.
But showing these ads on local TV on its own is questionable.
What is UH trying to do?
Increase the tuition, fees and then spend more money on frivolous ads to say UH is cool?
I think we are both too old (well me anyway) to judge the impact of the ads. UH has a reputation of being ‘uncool’. The ad is cool. Who would have thought this about Manoa? I am also apparently too old to understand how this links to education, but then there is a lot I don’t understand recently.
I’d give the administrators a pass. They may be on to something. I’ll have to ask my kids.
Back to your post re UH shutdown.
We spend a lot of time on campus attending UH sporting events and going to a variety of meetings, trainings, seminars, performances etc. As we were walking back to our car the other night after the Wahine basketball game, we were stunned to see that Sinclair was brightly lit although it was not open. In fact, we could see the red light from the security video camera on.
The security and parking garage staffers are working and, of course, workers in the Stan
Sheriff Center as well. But why keep the lights on in a building that is closed.
If I were a graduate student remaining in town, I’d bee furious about the libraries’ closing.
I can understand shutting down some of the facilities – but the libraries?
Perhaps the students/faculty might want to submit a formal inquiry to Senator Jill Tokuda and Representative Scott Nishimoto, chairs of the Senate Education & House Higher Education Committees, as to why this is happening.
Research comes to a halt too, as even the online access is shut down.
Lights at Hamilton stay on 24-7 on all floors though. Cannot shut them off.
Not true! Lights are programmed to turn off around midnight every night at Hamilton, and back on around 5am. Online access was NOT turned off – only interlibrary loan processing (because no staff available to do the work).
What they’re calling administrative leave was to my understanding actually so-called “supplemental time off” (STO), similar to furlough.
It is paid for, at least in part, by the years long pay cut we HGEA members have taken. It may be an inconvenience to some, but none more so than the workers who’d rather see our full paycheck.
On a side note, one wonders how much work is actually being accomplished by senior staffers without anyone to delegate to…
You can’t even pay for tuition during this “break”:
Online payments unavailable from 5 pm (HST) December 16, 2011 through January 2, 2012: Attention: In support of continuing efforts to reduce energy consumption and recover cost savings, University of Hawai’i campuses statewide will be reducing or suspending operations on non-instructional days from December 17, 2011-January 2, 2012. The “Student Account Home Page” (for online payments, payment plan sign up, eRefund sign up, etc.) will not be available from 5 pm (HST) December 16, 2011 through January 2, 2012.
Yes and it is a colossal pain in the butt!
The answer to your headline question is, no.
Compare: Hawaii Pacific University under
former Pres. Chat Wright held classes
8 am to 10 pm 6 days a week,
all year round.
Compare: Indiana University/Bloomington is
open and very active all year round
except one week in August, when
ordinary business is shut down so
the academics can get active sprucing
up the campus.
This union state is being left in the dust.
UH has something like a ten million dollar electric bill (probably more because of recent increases). Its air conditioning is very inefficient and primitive and shutting down buildings apparently saves big bucks which would otherwise have to come out of something else, like people.
Also I had always wondered why UH buildings are so cold if electricity is so expensive. I was told, that with primitive air conditioning, you have to cool the warmest parts to acceptable temperatures, which means the naturally cooler parts, like lower floors, are refrigerators, as primitive systems don’t do zones. Then it turns out that heating up the very cold air to non hypothermic levels is hugely expensive, assuming the primitive system could do it by zones, which it can’t.
UH is trying to redo the old air conditioning and to install solar panels (capital funds) to reduce running (G) expenses.
Per Takayama’s response and staffer’s comment, and trying to avoid HR/labor jargon like the infamous F-word:
When the State cut the UH budget, UH HGEA Unit 8 members were given a 5% pay cut and a roughly equivalent percentage of days off — 13 over the course of the year. These are taken during non-teaching periods to minimize impact on the instructional mission and also during periods when AC can be shut down to enable substantial energy savings. So these two weeks are essentially mandatory unpaid leave for staff. As “staffer” put it above, the staff would rather have their full pay and work the full year. (The day after T-Giving and spring break are also mandatory unpaid leave days for staff).
Non-unionized Executive personnel (“administrators,” per Takayama) were also given a 5% pay cut but get no additional days off. Hence Takayama’s comment that they are on duty if not signed out.
Only faculty are back to full salary.
Also, regarding computer services, per :
http://www.hawaii.edu/news/closures.html
networks, systems and services are available with monitoring by a skeleton crew.
Similarly the Office of Research Services which helps faculty get grants has a skeleton crew on duty to make sure proposals and other paperwork flows to federal agencies and other funders.