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Kenneth P. Mortimer, President of the University of Hawaii system, appeared on Price of Paradise in April 1995 to discuss the severe state budget cuts facing the university. Mortimer described how Governor Cayetano's $250 million fiscal shortfall translated into a $35 million reduction for the university over roughly 29 months, with $7 million due in the current year and $14.4 million in each of the following two years. He explained that after years of across-the-board reductions, the university had exhausted easy savings and was now conducting targeted reviews, with some units facing cuts as steep as 50 percent. Mortimer defended his strategy of working cooperatively with the legislature rather than mounting public protests, arguing that a sympathetic legislature was more useful than picket lines. He pledged to protect instructional programs as the first priority but acknowledged that service quality would suffer. Asked about governance, he said progress had been made in reducing political interference in university decisions, but that building public trust remained essential to gaining genuine institutional independence.
Transcript
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