Economic impact of astronomy in Hawaii

[TomK]

I was sent an email earlier today with a report of the economic impact astronomy has in Hawaii. I thought some might like to see it. It's for the year 2012.

http://www.uhero.hawaii.edu/assets/UHERO..._Final.pdf

[Kapohocat]

One questions, why is the MS and Ph.D program at UH Manoa instead of UH Hilo?

But otherwise that is a ton of money and employees too.

[kalakoa]

UH Manoa instead of UH Hilo

Same reason State controls Banyan Drive.

There's also some legislative interest in moving the UH College of Pharmacy to Oahu "where it belongs".

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

I find these numbers interesting:

Including indirect and induced benefits:
Hawaii County ($91.48 million)
Honolulu County ($68.43 million)
Maui County ($5.34 million)
Kauai County ($2.61 million)

Maui has a number of observatories on Haleakala, so I would expect their economic to be higher. The report does state that Air Force facilities (the old Star Wars test site, etc) are not included in the impact study. Perhaps a greater number of agencies located on Haleakala are military, such as AMOS which tracks satellites and asteroids and their possible terrestrial effects. Not considered strictly astronomical.

[kalakoa]

Hawaii County ($91.48 million)

Exactly: that's $91M that Oahu has been "cheated out of".

[pahoated]

Again, no conspiracy theory needed. UHH has a total student body of less than 3,500. Both UH are under pressure because some of their class sizes are too small, many under 10. UHH doesn't have the students to fill MS and PHd Astronomy programs locally. UHH is also a liberal arts college. The observatories are here because of the location as data gathering stations for supercomputer processing in Honolulu. The observatories here do bring in a considerable amount of money and it mostly goes to UHH that turns it around to man, maintain, and upgrade the observatories. It is a very circular sustaining economy on its own, interacting very little with the community outside. That is going to change somewhat with the TMT. The observatories are trying to prepare and are looking to UHH for the support. The big problem with UHH is the lack of affordable student housing in a place that has a high cost of living and has triple the tuition for out of state. You can't get a simpler equation for why enrollment declines.

"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"

[geochem]

quote:

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Originally posted by Kapohocat

One questions, why is the MS and Ph.D program at UH Manoa instead of UH Hilo?

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There are many reasons:
1) MS and PhD programs have students taking advanced classes in multiple departments: Astronomy candidates could be taking classes in Physics, Math, Chemistry, Biology/Biochemistry, Geology and Geophysics, etc. The expectation is that those classes are taught by recognized experts in their respective fields who are active in research and contributing to the generation of new knowledge in their respective fields. Without a critical mass of expertise in all those disciplines, you don't have a viable graduate program - you can't attract excellent students (Berkeley, CalTech, Arizona, etc. are competing for those same students) - if you can't attract excellent students, you can't get cutting edge research done, and, then, you can't get the NASA or National Science Foundation funding to support the research enterprise which pays for the equipment, the library, the journal subscriptions etc.

Hawaii is not a large enough state - e.g. California - with a budget to support multiple research campuses with those multiple capabilities - it can barely, marginally support one research campus, and it struggles at that.

2) The research enterprise requires technical infrastructure to support it: instrument development, data analysis, etc. requires specialized machine shop, electronics shop, computer support, etc. No one is going to be able to build a next generation camera system for observing black holes with hardware from Home Depot - and Home Depot is a bunch better than what was available on this island a dozen or so years ago. It would be incredibly expensive - and wasteful - to try to replicate the resources that already exist on Oahu and the Manoa campus - and that support, and are supported by, the Chemistry Department, the Physics Department, Computer Sciences, Geophysics, etc. - down here for an Astronomy program.

I could continue for much longer that anyone with any sense would have patience for - the bottom line is that you can't just randomly yank a department or program out of a research campus and drop them where someone thinks is convenient. These programs need to be grown - developed over decades (tenure factors into this as well...) - not set up overnight or shoved from one campus to another at a whim. This is how the Pharmacy program is developing at Hilo - and it has taken an incredible amount of planning, hard work, and determination by a lot of people to get it operational.

With all due respect to Rep. Creagan (and others), if we want to build up trop ag - or another department - at UH-Hilo, then it should be done over the next dozen or so years by identifying what the existing needs and opportunities are on this island in that arena and attracting good faculty who want to take advantage of the opportunities on this island and who know how to navigate around, or attract, the infrastructure and intellectual deficiencies that also exist.

[opihikao]

Mahalo for this information, and thread. FYI, as a portion of the economic impact, please find pertinent documents at the link below detailing the TMT commitment to Hawai'i.

The agreement set forth will be a contribution to education for our keiki, in lieu of the cultural perception (desecration of a sacred place). Progress is indeed a challenge.

We need to find the balance, and trust TMT, et al., will fulfill the obligation in the interest of future generations. The old adage, "the devil is in the details" also applies here.

geochem's assessment, and opinion is also appreciated.

JMO.


TMT Foundation Documents:

http://www.tmt.org/documents

[TomK]

geochem - marvelous summary. Thank you.

[Kapohocat]

quote:

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Originally posted by TomK

geochem - marvelous summary. Thank you.

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Yes thank you!

I am glad you enumerated the pieces.

UHH is in the cycle of a 18 yr old looking for a job. No experience no job. No job no experience.