Sunday, November 10, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Tuesday, October 10, 2017
The Atlantic: Aloha Tower Deal Makes HPU Poster Child for College Debt
By Selected News Articles @ 1:30 PM :: 12245 Views :: Higher Education

Why Colleges Are Borrowing Billions

Higher-education institutions are overspending on renovations and new facilities that they hope will boost enrollment, but experts say this plan could lead to financial crisis.

by Jon Marcus, The Atlantic, October 10, 2017 (excerpts)

When the number of students at Hawaii Pacific University started to fall at an alarming rate, the university embarked on an ambitious plan to get students back.

Among other things, it spent $54 million to buy Honolulu’s iconic Aloha Tower and convert it into an anchor for its downtown campus by adding dorm rooms, community spaces, a fitness center, and venues for concerts and lectures.

To pay for this and other projects, Hawaii Pacific borrowed. A lot. By 2015, the most recent year for which the figure is available, it owed $75.3 million in municipal bond liabilities, plus $10 million in mortgage and other debts, federal tax records show.

But student numbers didn’t rebound. Instead, they continued to contract, from a peak of 8,339 in 2010 to 4,081 last fall, according to government data.

Now, like many other colleges and universities, Hawaii Pacific has fewer tuition-paying students to help it pay off a large amount of red ink.

While public attention has been focused on runaway student loan amounts, colleges and universities themselves are also borrowing heavily — often in the hope of shoring up enrollments, but in many cases leaving them financially weaker, analysts say….

At Hawaii Pacific, for example, federal data show that since 2013-14 tuition and fees paid by the shrinking number of students have increased more than twice as fast as the national average. (The university’s chief financial officer, Bruce Edwards, said in a written statement that its enrollment and financial challenges are “a familiar trend” in higher education, its borrowing was “to ensure that HPU becomes an even stronger university,” and enrollment is beginning to rebound.)…

Borrowing to build new facilities they thought would attract more students has been a particularly bad decision for small, less selective, private nonprofit colleges, according to the higher education facilities consulting firm Sightlines.Like Hawaii Pacific, many have merely ended up with more debt and fewer students to pay for it, Sightlines concluded.

read … The Atlantic 

Star-Adv Oct 12, 2017: Despite debt, HPU ‘financially sound’

Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii Military History

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Together

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

July 4 in Hawaii

Land and Power in Hawaii

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii