04-12-2018, 05:48 PM
I've been peripherally involved in one of these OHA hijackings in the past - and it seems that some don't really understand what this is about. If, in lieu of rent, an in-kind exchange is made, then, in OHA's eyes, they are being deprived of their cut. The objective of this current charade is to eliminate the in-kind exchange of telescope time in lieu of rent. The goal is to establish an authority, independent of UH, that will set rents for the observatories, and skim 20% of that off for OHA - presumably, the rest of the funds generated will go to the authority who will piss spend those funds on mountain maintenance and enforcement, or whatever else that strikes their fancy.
The upshot will be that UH will have to buy time on the telescopes just like everyone else, meaning that there is no incentive for outstanding researchers to consider UH (with it's isolation, and non-competitive salaries, and high cost of living) as an advantageous place to pursue an astronomy career over UCLA, Caltech, or any other university that actually has support from their State or their endowments. Which will ultimately mean that research funding, and overhead costs that came to UH as a result of the in-kind observing time will gradually evaporate. That amount, to the Institute for Astronomy, was about $20M a year in 2015 - that will mean less support for facilities, the library, the computer center, and overall support for the research program at UH - and will inevitably impact student opportunities - Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian.
That loss won't be a death blow for the University, but will be an addition to the slow bleed that UH has been experiencing for the last couple of decades. There is, unfortunately, an internal logic to what is happening - most of our science and technology students leave Hawaii due to lack of employment opportunities - if you don't need an educated workforce of any significance, why go to the expense of supporting a University that can train such a workforce. Of course, the end game is a strictly tourism-based economy that, under adverse economic conditions, will collapse in a heap and Hawaii will become Puerto Rico II. And Kai Kahele and his cohorts will just throw up their hands and claim it wasn't their fault...
The upshot will be that UH will have to buy time on the telescopes just like everyone else, meaning that there is no incentive for outstanding researchers to consider UH (with it's isolation, and non-competitive salaries, and high cost of living) as an advantageous place to pursue an astronomy career over UCLA, Caltech, or any other university that actually has support from their State or their endowments. Which will ultimately mean that research funding, and overhead costs that came to UH as a result of the in-kind observing time will gradually evaporate. That amount, to the Institute for Astronomy, was about $20M a year in 2015 - that will mean less support for facilities, the library, the computer center, and overall support for the research program at UH - and will inevitably impact student opportunities - Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian.
That loss won't be a death blow for the University, but will be an addition to the slow bleed that UH has been experiencing for the last couple of decades. There is, unfortunately, an internal logic to what is happening - most of our science and technology students leave Hawaii due to lack of employment opportunities - if you don't need an educated workforce of any significance, why go to the expense of supporting a University that can train such a workforce. Of course, the end game is a strictly tourism-based economy that, under adverse economic conditions, will collapse in a heap and Hawaii will become Puerto Rico II. And Kai Kahele and his cohorts will just throw up their hands and claim it wasn't their fault...