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Governor Cayetano's proposal to build a permanent campus for the University of Hawaii at West Oahu, financed through a land exchange with the Campbell Estate, was the subject of this 1996 episode. Attorney General Margery Bronster, who helped negotiate the arrangement, explained that the state would swap a 59-acre raceway park for roughly 991 acres of land in Kapolei, with net proceeds from developing 500 of those acres intended to fund construction. She argued that without action the existing campus risked losing its accreditation, and that the transaction gave the state time and capital to plan properly. Sumner La Croix, a professor of economics at the University of Hawaii, praised the creativity of the land exchange but questioned whether building West Oahu was the best use of the funds, expressed concern about a contractual obligation to begin construction by 2006, and called for rigorous planning before any commitment was made. Bruce Bergland, executive vice-chancellor of UH West Oahu, argued that the campus already served a distinct population of working adult students and that a new site would allow the institution to develop in a way complementary to, rather than duplicative of, the Manoa campus.
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Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
