Here’s an interesting follow up to the post a few days ago on conditions at the state’s main airport in Honolulu.
Ka Leo, the student newspaper on the University of Hawaii’s Manoa campus, ran an editorial this week urging additional state funding to address the increasing dangers posed by dilapidated buildings and facilities on the campus.
The editorial noted that the budget allocated to the Office of Planning and Facilities, which is in charge of maintenance, is woefully inadequate.
According to Steve Meder, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for OPF, UH M?noa has only a budget of around $50 million to $55 million annually for repair and maintenance. Compare this number to the nearly $500 million worth of deferred maintenance the campus needs to address. This latter sum does not account for the funding needed for large capital projects, such as the construction of new buildings.
Meder estimated the Office of Facilities Management handles more than 1,200 work orders per month and 14,000 work orders per year. Of those, about 20 percent are emergency requests, according to Meder.
Fortunately, UH M?noa officials shut down access to the College of Education building before a serious accident happened. But what if there were a student or staff casualty? More importantly, what is going to assure students a severe accident will not occur in other rundown, overlooked buildings on campus?
And it’s my understanding that funds that could be used to address the backlog have been periodically raided by the UH administration to fund construction and operation of new buildings, dealing blows to the already inadequate attempts to catch up with the existing unmet needs.
Sound familiar?
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
give it another 30 years and UH’s West Oahu property and buildings will look shitty too. then UH can fund more construction of another new campus near Castle & Cooke’s Koa Ridge development in Central Oahu. screw maintenance; it reduces net income on a financial sheet.
UH Manoa has made some important improvements but still has a long way to go, and money is not the only problem. The minimalist “not my job” attitude has a lot to do with it, and there seems to be an awful lot of denial.
Let’s start with basics. Thousands of new students attend UH every year. Many have never been there before. The campus has a very confusing layout and includes a tangled mess of mismatched architecture, some very nice, some hideous. Yet simple signage or maps to help new students and visitors navigate the confusion are virtually nonexistent. UH simply ignored that obvious problem forever, and now seems to take the attitude that everyone carries a smart phone anyway so they can just look it up themselves. Except that everyone doesn’t.
Regarding larger maintenance issues, can anyone even recall an instance in which all the elevators at Hamilton Library were simultaneously functioning properly? And why are some pedestrian lighting poles along East-West Road powered by extension cords strung along the tops of the poles, with the wiring connections protected from the elements by plastic bags and duct tape? There’s been way too much of that kind of stuff, and sometimes it’s downright hazardous.
But to be fair, they seem to have finally got the formerly huge feral cat population under control somehow, and the lawns and grounds are well-maintained for the most part.
This is news? I went to UH in the late 1980’s and the place was already ‘bus up. Crawford Hall looked like the set for a horror movie, the place was creepy. Siclair Library was all run down, the roof would leak. There is always not enough money and too much red tape to keep up with the maintenance.
The problem of staff reduction is affecting support units as well as instructional units – and that also has a negative effect on maintenance. I’ve heard:
“Staff attrition in Facilities continues. In the period between March 2013 and July 2015 fifteen employees have either retired or have found new jobs elsewhere. They have not been replaced. In the Mechanical Section alone, at least four engineers have left, including the two most experienced. As a result, the remaining supervisory and planning staff has taken on extra work. What this means is that building maintenance projects are taking longer to come on line and that less attention can be paid to each building. Responsiveness to building problems is taking more time. There is a possibility that Manoa Facilities may merge with the system-level Office of Capital Improvements next year, but this is not yet certain.”
But billions going for a rail to nowhere. What that money could do for UH and our public schools.
shirley, according to you, one quarter of Oahu’s population lives in “nowhere”. we’ll have them all move into family homes in Kailua. you’ll love it. Kailua just loves outsiders.
Shirley, different pots: rail = city funds, UH and public schools = state funds
Ian Lind wrote:
“And it’s my understanding that funds that could be used to address the backlog have been periodically raided by the UH administration to fund construction and operation of new buildings, dealing blows to the already inadequate attempts to catch up with the existing unmet needs.
Sound familiar?”
Uh, yeah. Didn’t I pretty much say all that right here a few days ago? LOL!
While we are on the theme of UH admin squandering money that they receive from the legislature, one should note that this problem also manifests itself when it comes to hiring. For example, I’ve heard of the legislature providing funding for faculty positions specializing in some specific area. These positions are advertised, with interviews duly conducted. Strongly qualified finalists for the position can even be flown in, with air travel/lodging expenses paid for by UH. But after all that is done, some of these jobs are never filled and the vacancy is rescinded. Why? Who knows. No clear answers are provided to the applicants. They’re just told that process has been suspended and no one will be hired. Problem is, there are legislators who keep a tab on these things and are sometimes displeased with the way funding that is earmarked for a specific purpose is either unused or spent for something else. Senators like Donna Kim and Sam Slom aren’t shy about expressing their ire to the press about how UH admin spends the money given to them. But they aren’t the only lawmakers at the state capitol who feel that way.
The ultimate source of those money pots is the same: you and I, the taxpayers. Especially with the state skimming the rail tax.