House Standing Committee on Higher Education

Good afternoon. It is 2.27ish on March 19th. We are in room 309. This is the Committee on Higher Education convening our resolutions hearing. Thank you, Chair, for this opportunity. And we'll just jump right in and get started. First up on our agenda this afternoon is HCR 31 and HR 30.

We have one person signed up to testify in person. Koby Chalk, please come forward.

Chair Garrett, Vice Chair Amato and Members of the Committee. Koby Chalk. On behalf of the Alzheimer's Association, we stand on our written testimony in support. I just want to kind of address to the best I can some of the concerns from the University about federal funding.

So, of course, it's a little unprecedented in terms of budget or cuts across various sources of funding. But we'd just like to highlight that the Alzheimer's Association is a nonprofit organization that is also bipartisan or nonpartisan rather. And across several different administrations, funding has increased.

You see in this graph here that every year it has gone up and. Well, this past results don't show what will happen.

Coming up, what we're asking for in this resolution is simply that the University explore the feasibility, assuming the funding is still available in the next year or two, on how we can take next steps to pursue establishing an Alzheimer's disease research center.

We're not asking for it to be established right now, but I think in the next year or two, this study will guide future steps and allow us to pursue this with the funding that is available at that time. Thank you, Europe. Thank you.

So I apologize. I realized I made a mistake. I forgot to say, to read off the measure title before beginning. So I'll just back up real quick.

Requesting the University of Hawaii to explore the feasibility of establishing an Alzheimer's disease research center and identify the requirements for receiving federal funding from the National Institute on Aging for Alzheimer's Disease research. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify on these two resolutions? Seeing none. Members, are there any questions? Seeing none.

All right, we'll move on. Up Next, we have HCR 73, HR 66 urging the University of Hawaii President and Board of Regents to establish a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at the University of Hawaii Maui campus. Up first to testify, we have Della Taraoka from University of Hawaii System on zoom. In person. Welcome.

Thank you for being here today. Can you see if Lauren Nagle is on zoom?

Lauren Nagle is the Vice Chancellor of Academic affairs at Maui. So I'm not sure if she wants to way in, but we have actually already started this process. So it's gone past the initial approval and we've put it into our process for approving a new curriculum. Okay.

Laura? zero, yeah, and she has one of her nurses with her too. Maybe if you guys have questions, you can ask them since they're here. Thank you.

Thank you, Lauren. Please go ahead.

We're here to answer any questions.

Okay, let's see. We have testimony from one other individual in support from the Healthcare Association of Hawaii. And that is all who has signed up to testify. Member, are there any questions? I have a question for, uh, if I may, please. So where in the process are you of implementing this program?

And is it essentially that you're stating that these resolutions are no longer necessary because you've already started the process? Is that what I'm hearing in. In summary, we've started the process, right?

Yeah, in a sense, yes. Laura, you guys put together the ATP, correct? Yeah. So the first step is you asked to get authorization to plan. That was approved. So now they will put a more detailed, you know, what the program is going to require. But I think they've been working on it for maybe a couple of years.

Yes. And we have all the curriculum ready to go. We're just waiting for the official process to move through.

Okay, so when do you think that will actually happen? When can we expect the program to be offered to students?

We're being very ambitious. We would like to offer fall 2026.

Okay, thank you.

Excellent.

Okay, Members, any questions? No. Seeing none. I guess we'll move on. Next up, we have HCR 96, HR 92, urging the University of Hawaii to evaluate and export expand its current mental health services for students. And up first to testify, we have the University of Hawaiian system via zoom or in person.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair. Members of the Committee, Deborah Helbert, Vice President for Academic strategy. We'll stand on our written testimony. And Associate Vice President Farag should be online to answer any technical questions you might have. She leads our student support services as well as works with student basic needs. Thanks.

And is there anyone else wanting to testify on these resolutions? Seeing none. Members, are there any questions? We will move on. All right, we're moving quickly today, Members. I like that.

Up Next we have HCR124 and HR120, encouraging the Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language of the University of Hawaii at Manoa to further provide learning resources and opportunities that promote Hawaiian language and culture. Up first to testify, we have Lindsay Garcia from the. zero, no, that one should be removed. Let's see.

We there we have no one signed up to testify and support. So therefore, Members, there's no one to ask questions of. Is there anyone on Zoom? No. Did I miss one? Did I do what? Did I skip them? Okay, moving on.

We're going to hear HCR 97 HR 93, urging the University of Hawaii to implement a Homeless Student Stability and Housing Resource Program to address the issue of housing instability. First to testify is. Uh.

Good afternoon again. We're happy to submit our testimony and stand on our test written estimation for this resolution as well. Again, Associate Vice President Farah Gomes should be online to answer any sort of questions you have have related to our student basic needs initiatives. Thank you.

Members, do you have any questions? I actually have a question. If she's not online, perhaps you can answer it for me. Thank you. So the student basic needs assessment that you've been conducting, I've been looking into it a little bit. How much is really including what's occurring on the neighbor islands.

So we've just done a system wide assessment that would include students from all of the campuses. We also have a student Basic Needs action plan that includes actions for all of the different campuses on all of the different islands. So we are trying to be comprehensive and system wide in our approach.

And when do you expect that report to be released? I think it's said this fall, approximately.

So the data collection is still, I think, just closing up. Either or just closed up. Yeah, ended Friday. And so I think the idea is to try to process that data over the next few weeks or months and have that report. I'm not sure of the date.

I'll have to confer with Farrah, but I think summer or fall.

Okay. And may I please request that you circulate that report to the Members of the Committee? Certainly. Thank you. Thanks. Members, are there any other questions? Is there anyone else that would like to testify before we move on? Seeing none. Members. No questions.

All right, so moving on, we're going to hear HCR195, HR188, requesting the University of Hawaii system to establish a Veterinary Medicine Expansion working group to explore the feasibility of developing a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program at Windward Community College. This one actually received the most testimony of all of them. So let's see.

Up first to testify, we have Deborah Halbert.

Good afternoon again, Deborah Halbert, Vice President for Academic Strategy. We stand on our written testimony. We would encourage the Committee to look at the substance of this resolution because of the fact that Windward Community College would not be the ideal location for a doctoral Program in veterinarian science.

However, in terms of looking into this as a system, we would certainly be willing to do that and work system wide to do so.

Thank you for your testimony. And that is all I have to sign up to testify on these two measures. Members, we received testimony and support from 13 individuals and groups, including the Hawaiian Humane Society and support, the Animal Interfaith alliance in Britain, Kauai Humane Society and a number of individuals in support. Members, are there any questions?

Did I miss one? All right. Seeing none, we'll be Moving on to HCR125. Excuse me. HR121 requesting the University of Hawaii to prioritize a capital improvement project to construct Halau o Kawaihuelani. And up first to testify, we have Kaoni Shizuma, an individual in support and no one in person.

So, Members, I apologize, there's no one to ask questions of. And so we'll be moving on. And let's see. Finally today. Let's see. We did that one.

We have HCR 196, HR 189, requesting the University of Hawaii Community Colleges to develop a comprehensive list of bachelor's degree programs that directly align with job opportunities and industry needs within their respective regions of service. And up first to testify in person, University of Hawaii providing comments.

Aloha. Della Teraoka, Interim Vice President for the Community Colleges. We did submit comments because we weren't exactly clear what you're urging us to do, but we are happy to work on a comprehensive list of what would be not just bachelor degrees, but any certificate or associate degrees that would be appropriate to align with job opportunities. Thank you.

Thank you. We also received late testimony from the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly. Thank you. And we received comments from Della Teraoka from University of Hawaii as well. Yeah. Oh. I apologize. I don't think I've actually met you. It's nice to meet you in person. And so that's all we have for testimony there. Members, are there any questions? Seeing none. Let's see. Take a brief recess for just--yeah.

Okay, this is the Committee on Higher Education. Are you guys ready? Committee on Higher Education reconvening for decision-making. Up first, we have HCR 31, HR 30. At this time, you know, in testimony, UH had expressed concerns about the instability of federal research funding streams.

However, if we wait for a more--as they said--appropriate time, then we will be missing a critical opportunity to begin this important work and we will be potentially negatively impacting the longevity of all kupuna, not just those in Hawaii. So for these measures, I'm recommending passage as is. Chair for the vote.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Members voting in tandem on HCR31 and HR30. Vice Chair's recommendation is to pass as is Chair and Vice Chair vote.

[Roll call]

Thank you, Chair. Moving on to HCR7300, HR66. You know, having more bachelor's degrees at UHMC is long overdue. I appreciate that. UH is really working on this. We need more pathways. We can't call Maui a UH Maui College. We tried to move away from the community college label, yet we lack programs. So thank you.

I'm appreciative for this, and I recommend that we pass it as is.

Okay, thank you, Vice Chair. Members voting in tandem on HCR 73 and HR 66, noting the recommendation is to pass as is, noting the excused absences of Representatives Capella and Sayama, who will be known to excuse for the duration of this hearing. Is there anyone voting with reservations or no. Seeing none. Recommendation adopted.

Thank you, Chair. Moving on to HCR 97. HR 93. Sorry about that. Let's see. Moving on to HCR 124, HR 120. I would like to amend this excellent measure to include that we send a certified copy of the resolution to the Director of the Kavai Huelani Center. My mistake. Thank you, Chair. My mistake.

We're going on to HCR 97, HR 93.

Thank you.

Moving on to HCR 96 and HR 92. First, I'd like to say thank you, Chair Garrett. This is an important reso. I was proud to put my name on it, and for this one, I'm recommending that we pass it as is Chair for the vote, please.

Okay, thank you. Members voting in tandem on HCR 96 and HR 92. Recommendation is to pass as is. As is. Anyone voting with reservations or no, Seeing none. Recommendation adopted.

All right, then. Moving on to HCR 97. Let's see. I think we're back on track now. There we go. HCR 97, HR 93. My recommendation is that we pass this one as is. And Chair for the vote, please.

Okay, thank you. Members voting on HCR 97 and HR 93. Any reservations or nos. Seeing none. Recommendation adopted.

Excellent. Okay, moving on to HCR124, HR120. So I would like to amend this to also include sending a Certified copy of the resolution to the Director of the Kawaihuelani center of Hawaiian Language of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Members, any comments or questions? Seeing none, please chair for the vote.

Sure thing, Members. HCR 124, HR 120, recommendation is to pass with amendments. Any reservations or nos. Seeing none, recommendation adopted.

Thank you. Moving on to HCR125, HR121. I recommend that we pass this this RESO for technical amendments for clarity, consistency and stability style, as recommended by HMSO. And Chair, please, for the vote.

Sure thing. Members voting on HCR 125, HR 121. Recommendation is to pass with amendments. Any reservations or nays? Seeing none. Recommendation adopted.

Thank you, Chair. And moving on to our final group this afternoon, HCR196, HR189. While I recognize UH's concerns of a potential bias based on industry pressures, this resolution, these resolutions are a necessary first step to create a baseline of relevant career pathways.

And while UPA seemed neutral, and we do hope for more professors, particularly on Maui, I would like to amend this excellent resolution from our Majority Leader Quinlan to ensure that UHMC is included in the list of schools required to develop a list of bachelor programs that align with job opportunities, which is a conversation I had with President Hensel recently backing up to HCR195, HR188.

I apologize for my spreadsheet today, but you know, this one actually received the most testimony of all the resolutions. And like so many, I also care about animals. This is an important first step in beginning to address the shortage in the animal care field.

So I recommend passage with adoption of one of UH's suggested amendments, specifically the recommendation to add a representative from UH Hilo, from their established veterinary education program to this working group. So, Chair, please, as amended.

Thank you. Members voting on HCR 195, HR 188, recommendation is to pass with amendments. Anyone voting with reservations or nay. Seeing none, recommendation is adopted.

All right, now back to the final resolution grouping of the afternoon. Let's see. I would like to amend this excellent RESO from our Majority Leader to include UHMC and list of schools required to complete a list of bachelor's programs with job opportunities.

I would also like to adopt HMSO's recommendations that this be amended for clarity, consistency and style. Please chair for the vote.

Sure thing. Members voting on HCR196, HR189, recommendation is to pass with amendments. Anyone voting with reservations or nay. Seeing none, recommendation is adopted.

Thank you, Chair. We are adjourned.

Good afternoon, everyone. Now convening the House Committee on Higher Education. Today is Wednesday, March 19th. It is 2:03 p.m. Members, we have one agenda item today, SB657 ST1 HT1. We received this bill from the Waterland Committee relating to the Center for Climate Resilient Development.

This bill appropriates funds for SOST within UH, Manoa to establish and operate a Center for climate resilient development, effective July 1, 3000 up first. Testifying in support, we have the UH system.

Aloha Chair Garrett, Vice Chair Amato, and Members of the House Committee on Higher Education. My name is Colin Lee. I'm here to testify in strong support of Senate Bill 657. The Director of our research group, Dr. Chip Fletcher, could not attend today's hearing due to a long standing conflict.

But I'm joined here today by several Members of our research group who are local climate scientists, researchers and graduate students whose entire job is to model sea level rise and climate change impacts, which ultimately go to support the resilience of our local communities and resilience of our local infrastructure.

You have our written testimony, so I won't belabor all those points. But our modeling, projections and research and data are used in a variety of state and local regulatory mechanisms for planning and policy decisions. Our research is entirely reliant right now on federal funding, which, as I'm sure you lawmakers well know is on tenuous grounds is the.

The New Administration continues to stop funding climate research and even try to claw back some of the money already allocated. Our research abides by the principles of climate resilient development, which formally means that we make it a point to work with underserved communities to develop an equitable approach to resilience planning for all of our local communities.

We also collaborate and maintain working partnerships with state and local agencies, departments, offices and individuals, lawmakers. And we sincerely appreciate your House Committee on Higher Education taking the time to consider this measure and are available for any questions that you may have. Mahalo.

Okay, thank you for coming on to testify. Up next, DLNR also in support.

Thank you, Chair, Committee Members, Michael Kane. On behalf of DLNR, we also stand in strong support. We are one of those departments that Colin mentioned that relies heavily on the research out of this Center for informing our policies and our decisions and also where we invest our limited funds.

We don't have any role models on how to deal with climate change or sea level rise. We go to conferences thinking we'll learn from other states and the other states are looking at us. We're actually ahead of a lot of them or most of them.

So we think it makes sense to have the center be locally controlled and locally funded since we are in the forefront of this. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify? If not, we'll switch over to Zoom. Is Emma Heidenreich on Not present. Thank you. She had testified. Submit testimony and support. What about Dr. Keone Dudley is present.

Okay. Can you hear me now?

Yes, go ahead, Dr. Dudley.

Okay. I just, I, I have submitted testimony and I am in very strong support of this bill.

I think that with what's happening in Washington, this is going to be all the more important and I very, very strongly ask you to get behind this move and to support this bill. Thank you very much.

Okay, thank you very much. Is there anyone else on Zoom? Seeing none. Members, any questions? Senate Bill 657 HD1 I have a question. Yes, Rep Kila.

University of Hawaii.

I understand the importance of these kind of measures. I'm just trying to. So I Chair the Transportation Committee and a lot of our messaging has had to change within the state.to just conform with what federal folks are. I mean, we just have to get creative, right?

So it's no longer sea level rise and climate change, it's fortification and protecting land resources in the state. Knowing that we kind of serve as this military hub for the Feds.

I'm not saying I'm supportive or against that, but I'm just curious, as you navigate this space the same way as we are, are there talks of doing this work without flagging? I mean, knowing what the feds are asking in that, does that make sense?

I believe I understand the question, which is how do we continue this research without triggering some of these federal buzzwords? I do believe that there are a variety of conversations that we have internally and with folks.

You know, the reality is these climate impacts do on the ground take the form of things like the water table pushing up on buried infrastructure and continually having to improve water mains and electric lines where they're buried, et cetera.

So these are, you know, these are understood as climate impacts in the, in the realm of academics and science. Whether or not that is the driving monikers for those, for those impacts, they do have day to day impacts on our communities.

And you know, whether or not we believe that they are caused by certain factors, the reality is that we have to address them or they will, will ultimately negatively impact our local communities.

So we're investing in studies to lower the cost of impact on taxpayers by protecting their infrastructure.

I agree. That's one way to frame it. If you're familiar with, say the Hawaii Sea Level rise viewer, the data that underlies that those projections was developed by some of the folks sitting in this room.

And ultimately now those are when you're considering a special management area permit or getting a shoreline setback, or on Kauai, the sea level rise constraint District. These are things that our data is directly used to say how high up off the ground your base flood elevation is if it's greater than FEMA's.

It's also just to ensure that we don't have too much development in the coastal zone and ensure that we protect public space, public open spaces with the shoreline setback and view planes.

And ultimately, you know, in the times of a storm, having your lowest elevated floor out of that projected flood zone will keep the folks in our community safe until emergency services and first responders can get there.

And in addition, ensuring that these, you know, another example is ensuring that these shoreline setbacks have this good data to be able to rely on that project, where the shoreline position will be and where high waves will impact will allow us to keep those folks safe from those similar high wave events.

And you know, it's also important to consider every individual type of climate change impact. I've spoken about a few that are primarily driven by sea level rise, but each individual impact, whether that be high waves, coastal erosion, passive flooding, groundwater table rise, they'll all have their individual adaptation strategies as well.

You know, the way we prepare and respond to make a piece of infrastructure or a home more resilient to a high wave would be different than how we would prepare it to be resilient to say coastal erosion, although those two are obviously connected.

But I think that moving forward with this new Administration, we do have to remain vigilant. All of these, many of these, much of this will now be solely in the states purview to Fund and to continue doing.

And it ultimately will save the Department of Transportation money if, you know, if in the future we don't end up replacing the same bridge that goes out on CAM highway three or four times, or replacing and fixing a water main break, let alone, not to mention, you know, how many folks will have to sit in traffic for those delays and all the loss income and.

No, thank you. I just wanted to definitely hear that you folks are amending to. I mean, this Administration is not. Well, hold on, let me walk that back. Administration always changes and that's going to happen. I just want to. We Just respond accordingly. Right. I don't want to lie or deny the work that we're doing.

I just also want us to not have to be impeded by what's happening at the Federal Government to stop the amazing work that you folks are doing. Definitely hear your folks flexibility to that and you answered the question greatly.

Thank you Representative.

Yep, thank you. Thank you. J. You're welcome. Members, any other questions? Rep Evslin.

I have one more question for you guys. First off, thank you for all of your guys incredible work as you referenced like Celerexa, the work you folks did through modeling has been a game changer for Kauai in developing the constraint district and guiding future land use policy.

As an issue that we've seen again on Kauai was that we are having increasing very high intensity storm events like the 2018 floods which wiped out a, you know, shocking amount of infrastructure and housing on the north shore of Kauai.

Are you guys working on or have the capacity to do future modeling for those types of rain events that are not, you know, these thousand year events that are not contemplated in the FEMA flood maps that, that could guide future land use decisions along the lines of Celerexa?

Yes sir, we absolutely are. Researcher here with me today is actually her primary focus is pluvial flooding or rainfall flooding. And we've, we've recognized that this issue where FEMA 100 year design storms do not or happen much more often than 100 years and even more so. So that is definitely within the research that we're conducting.

We've done a lot of this research for the primary urban core here on Oahu and are almost complete with it in the Koalapoko district on Oahu as well.

And as I mentioned, you know, this research is the folks in the room are doing this work and it can only continue if they have the time and resources to continue doing that research. As you all know, we do work closely with the Kaua' I County Planning Department as well.

I know that they're pursuing some, another, some other grant funding and we've been in discussions with them to be a part of that, but I'm not sure how that's fared under the new Administration. The short answer is yes and the long answer is it takes time to complete all of this, but. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Yes.

Vice Chair.

Thank you. Chair, another question for you please. Is this research being done for Maui as well?

Yes, ma' am.

I mean my district, South Maui gets nailed with a hundred year flood very frequently nowadays.

Yeah, yes, sadly, that is the reality of some of these climate projections which are based on static understandings of climate and to be developed were based on historical data which doesn't correlate to future impacts.

And so the answer again is yes, we're working to continue this work on Maui and folks starting in communities that are, you know, have been devastatingly impacted like Lahaina and Ka Nepali.

One of my colleagues and I are literally as of the last couple weeks have been working on a grant proposal to try and, to try and to focus on the Waianaimoku here on Oahu and the, the Four Moku on West Maui as well.

But grant funding as it is, is, is, is competitive and hard to come by, let alone very uncertain moving forward. So yes, I understand.

Thank you. Please let me know, reach out, let me know how I may help support your efforts.

Thank you Representative. Thank you Members. Any other questions? If not, I just have one more if you don't mind coming back up to the podium there. The Bill is currently drafted, has a blank appropriation, but I believe in prior iterations there was a $3 million line item.

Have you folks broken out how that 3 million will be spent? Are we talking additional FTEs, consultants, whatnot?

No, additional full time equivalency. That's about our annual operating budget for the folks in this room. And we have a variety of other folks who are not able to attend today's hearing. So primarily that's all just salary for climate modelers. No consultants contemplated in that budget.

So are you looking at this money to perhaps backfill federal cuts then? Yes, sir. Okay, thank you Members. Any other questions? Seeing none, Members, I failed to mention the other testifiers. We have on this testimony.

We have on this measure testimony and support from the State Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, City and County of Honolulu, Office of Climate Change Sustainability and Resiliency, the Ulupono Initiative, Surfrider Foundation, Hawaii Region Climate Protectors, Hawaii Coalition Earth and the Climate Change and Health Working Group. So with that Members, we'll just go straight into decision making.

I think the clear need for this Bill considering as so has put in their testimony the challenges with the federal environment and what federal grants might be available in areas like climate change. This Bill already includes a defective date and a blank appropriation, but definitely want to keep this moving along.

So the chair's recommendation on this Bill and is to pass it as is. Members, any discussion?

Yes, go ahead. Thank you for answering the question. I think regarding the salary that what this really was to keep the office going and no matter what's happening at the federal level, I think this is just a lot of we have to prepare for the worst situation.

So I appreciate you moving this Bill forward and I appreciate the work that the folks at University of Hawaii are doing on this matter and whatever ways we can support them. Well said.

Yes. Rep. Evsland.

Yeah, I just want to add my support for this measure and the critical importance of the work that these folks are doing.

You know, again, as he referenced, Kauai has used the modeling that they developed to create a sea level rise constraint district, which requires higher freeboard based on future sea level rise modeling, which saves the public money in infrastructure costs in the future, and it saves homeowners money and ensuring if they're building a house that this thing can be safe far into the future.

And I know that County of Kauai especially has been really interested in trying to get some of this rainfall modeling done so we can do more of this work again to save all of us long into the Future. And since Dr.

Fletcher is not here, I can plagiarize something that he has said often, which is that we have built infrastructure for a climate that no longer exists and a lot of our current setback requirements and again, the FEMA flood maps are based on this sort of historical patterns and we need this, this really granular modeling that, that you folks are doing.

So strong support and appreciate all the work that you do.

Okay, well said. Members, any other discussion? If not Vice Chair for the vote, please. Unamended.

All right, thank you. Chair. Voting on SB657HD1. Chair's recommendation is to pass. Unamended. [Roll Call] Thank you, Chair. Your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you, Members. We are adjourned.

Reconvening the House Committee on Higher Education for purposes of decision making. On the second item on our agenda for decision making, only SB 1252. Members, we did circulate an HD1.

This is a bill relating to dementia requiring the UH Board of Regents to establish a specialized training program to educate healthcare providers on methods to best care for patients having Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. Appropriate funds.

As I discussed at the last hearing when we heard this bill, I have some concerns about the approach in terms of putting this program within the governance language of the Board of Regents. So the HD1 we did circulate earlier in the week does adopt suggestions made from the John A. Burns School of Medicine.

The version we circulated has a new preamble that again reaffirms the need for this type of training, noting that quite a few programs do exist. And Jabsom's suggestion is that they could use a couple of positions to coordinate all the programs that are out there. So that is Section one, Section two.

We did leave a blank appropriation as well as the FTEs, but we include the amounts suggested as well as the FTE count in the Committee report. And finally, a Defective date of July 1, 3000 Members. Any discussion? Senate Bill 1252 SD2 seeing none. Vice Chair for the vote, please. HD1.

Thank you. Chair. Voting on SB 1252 SD2. Chair's recommendation is passment with amendments. [Roll Call] Thank you. Chair. Your recommendation is adopted.

Okay, Adjourn for real this time. Thank you.