Spotlight Now: Hurricane Lala recovery, federal funding cuts, and the future of UH

Aloha Warrior fans, the news is out. UH games are coming home to K5. All the games, UH shows, athlete profiles, and throwbacks to your favorites are all in one place. Hawaii News Now. Celebrate the home team with us, and let's go Bose. Spotlight Now is presented by Hawaii Executive Collaborative, Hawaii Pacific Health, Kameha Meha Schools, and by Aloha United Way. Recovery efforts from Hurricane Lala continue throughout the state how the federal government might be able to help. We speak with Senator Schatz coming up today. Plus, school is about to start for thousands of UH students across the islands. We'll speak with President Wendy Hensel. Spotlight Now starts now. You're watching Spotlight Now with Ryan Kalei Suu and Yungi Denise on Hawaii News Now. Have questions or comments for our guests? Join the conversation in our Facebook live stream. Spotlight now, where Hawaii comes to talk.

Aloan, thanks for tuning in here to Spotlight Now on Hawaii News Now. We are going to begin our conversation with Senator Shots in just a few moments. But we know that there are a lot of questions out there, specifically surrounding what's happening with recovery efforts with the storm. If you have any questions or comments or our guests, make sure to head over to Facebook. You can enter your comments and questions there or email us here at Spotlight Now at hawaiiannus now.com. And we want to welcome in Senator Shots, who is back in district for the August recess. You picked a good time to come home. Yeah, it's good to be home during this difficult time and be in the same time zone to try to be as helpful as possible. But it's really rough. It's about 250,000 people without power. That number shrinks almost by the hour. cold comfort if you're one of the remaining people without any electricity yeah and what can you tell folks about what kind of federal support will be available for people who have been heavily impacted well we anticipate a federal declaration of a disaster the way the process works is you have to kind of do a damage assessment basically figuring out exactly roughly what we're going to need help with. And then the governor sends a formal letter up to the White House, and then the president makes the disaster declaration. So that process I anticipate will be underway within the next day or two once the damage assessments are done. And I know that Josh spoke with Secretary Mullen, the Homeland Security Secretary. I spoke with Secretary of Transportation. So we're in pretty close contact, and so far we've been sort of able to set aside politics and just work for the good of the people of Hawaii. and make sure that when it comes to disaster response, that it's nonpartisan, bipartisan. We're all just in this together. When you look at as a whole and the federal government's role in trying to help these recovery efforts, you spoke about some of those conversations that already happened, but talking about maybe the integration on the state level. How closely are you working with the governor and other local county officials in just coordinating the type of relief efforts that need to happen? Yeah, so my main job is the money side and to sort of facilitate the flow of federal funds. And that's FEMA during the disaster response and then HUD during the disaster recovery. And so that's the main job I have. But I also, you know, it's a small town. So we try to all work together. I was on the phone with Mayor Alameda yesterday. I was like, hey, are you guys working the telecommunications piece? You know, because if someone's already doing this, I don't want to step down on any toes. And he said, no, go for it. We need your help. And so. I try to sort of fill pukas where I can. We're trying to scramble some Starlink for the south side of the Big Island because I think they're going to have a little bit more of a delay in getting both cell service, connectivity, even road access, the bridges, and electricity. So I think for them, you know, the big picture is Hico Helco and getting everybody connected back to the grid, but there are going to be individual neighborhoods where it may be longer, in which case we're going to need to get them generators and Starlink and sort of workarounds. for the, I don't want to say foreseeable future, but for at least a few extra days past the rest of us. You know, you have been an environmental advocate long before, you know, I would say that that was cool. And so I wonder when you look at what happened with Lala, when we think about how intense this season's going to be, the Kona Loaves that we've had, what kind of federal support do we need, do you think, long term, to shore up our infrastructure? Because this will become more frequent. Yeah, this is becoming more frequent. And I frankly, you know, like a lot of people, whenever there's a disaster.

that hits. You don't want to sort of insert politics into it and say this proves me right about climate or whatever. But the truth is, whatever you think the cause is and whatever you think the solutions should be, the weather is getting weirder. and disasters are getting more frequent and more severe. So even if you're kind of on the other side of the equation politically for me on climate action and climate change, it's just very clear the weather is getting worse and more dangerous for folks. So the federal government's going to have to come to the table and help not just on the recovery side, but on the resilient side. You know, we're going to have to do a retreat of some of our highways and roads, and we're doing that on the west side of Maui now with federal funds. and state funds. And so we're going to, look, this isn't something that is going to be quick. because it's going to be billions of dollars, but over time, we've just got to become a more resilient place. So, you know, the Lahaina wildfires were a good lesson for us that wildfires were mostly something that happened on the mainland in dry places. You know, we would occasionally have a fire, but nothing like happened in Lahaina. And now everybody on the, basically the west side of every island is trying to think, okay, do we have too much fuel? Do we have fire breaks? You know, what kind of landscaping? What kind of expectations of private landowners? So this is a new world, and we're all going to have... to adjust to it even as we try to attack the climate crisis itself in terms of how do we use electricity how do we get fuel all that stuff is one side of the equation but even if we fix the climate problem tomorrow morning we're still going to be dealing with the after effects for generations and that's going to mean a different kind of infrastructure investment What are your thoughts of the response and the structure of FEMA under its current state? There have been a lot of talks about the role of this agency as we have seen disasters that have happened throughout the country. And as you noted here, in Lahaina, the Kono Loh's, and now this storm. Are you pleased with the way and the direction that FEMA is managing things now? And what do you think the overall role should be of FEMA to support not only Hawaii, but just all the various communities and municipalities that go through these? types of disasters. I mean, FEMA has been essential to our various recoveries, volcanic eruptions, you know, our hurricanes when we were all little and now, and they've been excellent. But remember, they play a supporting role to both state and county government. State and county government are the one that are supposed to be in response to the disaster. FEMA is supposed to back up the state and local government when the problem is bigger. than the county or the state can't even handle. And so it's really a resource agency. And, you know, I've had my disagreement specifically with FEMA along the way, but without them, we would be in really, really bad shape. The other thing that I'm proud of, because we've worked on it for almost 10 years, is to reform the disaster recovery program. So when there's a big disaster, FEMA comes in immediately.

because we pre-fund and pre-authorize them to do so. There's a big fund called the Disaster Relief Fund, and whatever anything happens, you don't need an act of Congress for them to come and respond. On the recovery side, not the response side, that's HUD, and that's something called Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery. They got a wait, we got a wait for a specific act of Congress. And that is a really dumb way to do things because a lot of times... the disaster response and the disaster recovery are kind of happening at the same time. So with this stupid way we do it right now, you might dig up a trench, fill the trench, and then when it's recovery time, have to dig up the trench again. So there's just massive inefficiencies in the way it's currently done. We just change that law to have a fully authorized program and a pre-funded pot of money so that we don't have to go and... do politics just to help a community to survive. You know, we mentioned that you're in district on recess, and I know that before Lala hit, you're now very busy with disaster response. But I'm curious to know what you're hearing from constituents. I know that, you know, we've done a lot of election coverage over the last few months. Everyone's talking about affordability. What can the federal government realistically do at this point to make life better for working people? Yeah, it's a really important question. It's kind of the question. The first thing is we have to get out of this here. Iran war because that's driving up the cost of fuel and the problem for Hawaii in particular besides our geographic isolation is you know it's not just a matter of gasoline it's also diesel especially on our more remote neighbor island situations but also We're one of those few places that still gets the fuel and then lights it on fire to get your electricity. So there's kind of no escaping the increased cost of oil across the planet. That's not something I can do. It's something I can push for, but, you know, the president himself has to realize that, you know, we have terrible options in front of us now. Straight of Hormuz is effectively closed and it's just driving up the cost of everything. Where I can help, healthcare subsidies, you know, we want to restore those Affordable Care Act subsidies, and we want to make sure there's more Medicaid and Medicare money flowing in. We had a small victory about three weeks ago. to kind of, half my job is explaining to my colleagues, hey, it's more expensive where I come from, like we're far away. We're not that rich, but it's super expensive here. It's like, I say New York City prices, but like Midwestern salaries. And so we actually got $18 million more for Medicaid provider, excuse me, Medicare providers across the state, basically on that basis, that it's just more expensive to deliver health care. And then I would just add, you know, there are a lot of people who do depend on SNAP. Food stamps used to be for the extremely poor, and now it's, you know, it's a more widely used program. It's less stigmatized because you got the EBT card as opposed to an actual stamp. And so lots of people depend on that, and we want to make sure that in the changes that were made by the Republican bill, the big beautiful bill, they're basically setting it up so it's super hard to remain eligible. So a lot of our nonprofits are going to go out and just help people to remain eligible because...

the way they generated savings for their big tax cut is they're anticipating like a huge percentage of people becoming ineligible not because the laws that means they're ineligible but because they've screwed up their paperwork in some way and so we want to make sure everyone remains as many people as possible remain eligible for SNAP so those are the two pain points that i think we can do something about and then You know this. I care deeply about housing. I'm really happy that we finally passed major housing legislation federally. And I'm happy that the county and the state legislature continues to kind of, I think, change the mentality in the state of Hawaii around housing. You know, it used to be that. We kind of viewed the idea of even building more housing as something that was like against local interest. But anybody who's got kids like wants there to be more housing available. City of Austin is a really good example. They just made it easier to build housing. And the result is Austin is thriving and rents are down. And that's where we want to end up. We're 70,000 units short, and we should think about this in terms of a shortage. If there were a shortage of rice, people would say, bring in the rice. They wouldn't say, is that expensive rice? Is that cheap rice? Who's it going to? They would just say, we'll take whatever you've got. And I think for the most part, we've got to change our mentality to kind of backfill 70,000 units short. And think about that. That's really 70,000 people leaving the state of Hawaii or 70,000 families. I want to go back to that first point that you made about Iran and just where we are at in terms of negotiations. The president today saying that there are no conversations happening right now in terms of negotiations or where we are with this. Do you see... any way that Congress, maybe your colleagues from across the aisle, may also feel the pressure to talk to the president about this issue. And what do you think the realistic outcome is where this could end and help bring down the costs, as you mentioned? Look, I don't know. I can't get into the president's head. And as you know, he announces, like about every 48 hours, we've got a deal. The deal is off. I'm going to, you know. I don't want to be casual about how I characterize it, but like, you know, he'll talk about, you know, wreaking havoc on civilian infrastructure. And then the following morning, he'll be like, we had a great conversation. It's open again. So that I don't take super seriously. Where Congress, I think, can weigh in going forward is they, you know, they want tens and tens of billions of dollars for this war. And, you know, I have been. traditionally speaking, open to additional defense spending, especially if it's done smartly and if it's packaged with disaster spending and other emergencies. And what we've told them is you're not getting what they call an emergency supplemental, which is basically an emergency spending request, until this war is over. And I think that's our best point of leverage to say, if you want the defense spending that you think is necessary to backfill our munitions, to make sure we're safe in the Indo-Asia Pacific region, then you're going to have to end this war. And if not,

will not have our votes. I want to get to some of the specific work that you are doing in Congress, starting out with the work that you did to help save the Native Wine Education Act, at least for this year. Tell us about what it took to get there. And this is only, like we said, a one-year reprieve. What happens next year? Yeah, so it's $46 million, and we were being told that it was going to be cut completely. And the result would have been, you know, between two and four thousand families losing an essential service for many of them not actually having a preschool coming into the to the fall semester and it was really scary stuff and the staffers and others you know if you're told it's done then you have to go find another job you might have to move to a different island or to the mainland or whatever it is and so I had a really constructive conversation with the Secretary of Education, and she told me verbally that they were going to extend for a year, which I was very pleased about. And then we kind of nailed it down, and now all of those providers are out there in the community continuing for a year. I don't know what happens a year from now, frankly. But we're having regular conversations with, you know, big institutions that provide this kind of service that are not federal, so the command of schools, the Department of Education, and the philanthropic community. Because I think one of the lessons here is that... You know, we probably don't want to be totally reliant on the kind of politics of this question. But it's very true that there are specific attacks on Native Hawaiian education programs, but also Native Hawaiian projects, programs, institutions overall. And our job is to try to, you know, fight them in court where appropriate. try to do something legislatively where we can and we've been able to do that and then kind of work the administration and you know we've been successful so far they're still picking off the most vulnerable of these projects and programs but this is clearly a very well organized and orchestrated attack on native wines generally and the projects programs institutions in fact the underlying law that recognizes that there is a trust relationship between the federal government and Native Hawaiian. So this is something I'm super engaged in and fighting about. And we had a, I would just say it was a very, very big success, but it was a temporary success. You know, $46 million is no small thing, but, you know, it's certainly not over. Another thing we know that you've been vocal about is the role social media plays, especially within our kids and just the... impact that it can make on learning and just the raising of children in our communities. If you can explain sort of your stance and some of the measures that you are looking to implement to maybe put some parameters and restrictions on this. Well, first of all, I want to praise the local board of, the Hawaii State Board of Education for taking some meaningful steps in terms of just restricting phone use overall. But the bill I have is the Kids Off Social Media Act with someone with whom I don't have a ton of agreement, but his name is Ted Cruz. And so I would say we.

disagree on 96% of everything, but we have a reasonable professional relationship. And this is an area where we see eye to eye. And I basically think we should think of social media like cigarettes for children. And there was a time where the tobacco companies used to tell us that there were safe cigarettes. And then the people fighting them said, no, there is no safe cigarette. I think there is no safe cigarette as it relates to kids on social media. There is no... use case, positive use case for a nine-year-old to be on TikTok. And so this bill does something very simple. It bans the use of social media by kids 13 and under. And then for, I should say under 13. And then from 13 to 18, because you kind of can understand why some kids would want to be on social, it bans the algorithmic boosting of the feed. So what does that really mean? It means that They can be on social, but it'll be a lot more like old Facebook where it's like, I made a cupcake. Here's my dog. The sunset was great. And the people that you see in your feet are the people you've decided to follow and make your Facebook friends and all the rest of it. Now, is that a great use of someone's time? No. But it is the algorithmic sort of infection. that causes everybody to not be able to look away from the phone, that makes them feel agitated and isolated. And some of it's on the mental health level, but frankly, some of it's societal. Like, we are more polarized because the algorithm is pissing us, excuse my language, is making us all angry at each other. And so the Kids Off Social Media Act addresses that. It was passed out of the Commerce Committee on a bipartisan basis. And I think, I don't know, but I think there's a reasonable shot we could actually enact a law in this area. that you're working on, sort of related is chatbots and AI. Tell us about that. Yeah, this is a kid's chatbot act, and it's a little more complicated because obviously chatbots are, you know, there's customer service chat bots, and there are educational programs that use chatbots in a very effective way. So it couldn't be an outright ban, but it empowers parents to know what's happening there, to be in charge of setting up a kid's account as it relates to interacting with a chat bot. And then on the most base, basic level. You know, some of these LLM, some of these chatbots have been essentially assisting kids in going down very dark and violent paths, you know, suicidal ideation, homicidal ideation. And the chat bot is like a people pleaser. So it's like, hey, good idea and just crazy stuff like that. So this actually requires these chatbots to immediately report that kind of dangerous behavior, restrict that kind of terrible information, and just make sure these chatbots are used for, you know, the purpose that they're supposedly intended. So also bipartisan bill, also passed out of the... the Commerce Committee. So I think there's a real chance to do some good bipartisan work on kids safety online. Switching gears and talking about...

where Hawaii stands with military land leases. This is a conversation that has been going on for some time now, especially with the governor, as well as other members of the congressional delegation. I wanted to get your stance on what you think is a realistic approach as these negotiations and conversations happen. As someone who has dealt and works and have these conversations with military officials and leaders, what do you think is a realistic approach to this and what Hawaii can expect to get as these conversations and negotiations continue? So I think there are some people who would say, and I'm not one of them, that the military has a perfect right to condemn all the land and that they should just go forward on that basis, that this is, that the federal law allows them to just sort of ignore the state's needs. And then there are other people who would like the military to leave completely. I think probably 90% of the public is somewhere in between those, which is, look, we understand the United States military is here, it's unrealistic to remove them. They need to cut a deal with the state government that is fair, right? The current deal has them not paying for the land at all, really. It's a dollar lease. And they have only sometimes been good neighbors, right? If you take Red Hill as an example, if you take Caho as an example, they're not always cleaning up after themselves. And so from my standpoint, we have to take condemnation off the table. We have to reach... a mutually agreeable kind of deal here. I don't know if there's enough time to do it with the remaining time on the lease. So it may be that we have to punt for a couple of years to give ourselves some breathing room. But like the bottom line is people don't want to get rolled by the federal government. And but also most people understand the Department of Defense is here. We've We've got a high percentage of military veterans in the state of Hawaii. We're a patriotic place. So it's not like we're, you know, there are some people who think the military should be removed. But I think most people would just like this to be a fair deal. And of course, Josh is sort of the lead negotiator on this. We give him our input about what's possible. And I also tell, I told the Army Secretary and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, like, this statute may give you the authority to condemn the land. But let me tell you. the way you operate in the state of Hawaii is predicated on logistics and if you lose goodwill then county and state logistics are going to fall apart so you'll be in possession of some land you'll be snarled in court and nothing will work and so it is in all of our interests to like negotiate hard and try to find a resolution here I know we are ping-ponging all over the place, but I do want to get your thoughts on the corruption investigation and what's happened at the legislature, just what this does for public trust. And, you know, these are folks, some of which you worked with, you know, alongside in the legislature. How are you taking in all the information about the case? Well, I think public corruption in Hawaii is a real problem. I mean, we've had elected officials from the legislature actually go to prison. And so nobody can deny that this is a real problem. And we have to address it. And I leave it to the legislature to determine whether there are kind of structural reforms that would actually do the trick. But I think they should always be thinking about that, and they should always be policing their own ranks. On a human level, you know, some of these people were my dear friends, and it's super sad to watch.

Native Hawaiian stuff where they characterize as DEI, which is a lie, but they're able to do it. We fight them in litigation, and we've had some success, Yungi, as you've mentioned. And then we're also trying to strengthen when we pass legislation. We're trying to make it so they don't have a ton of discretion about whether they actually push out the money. And I think this is the tug and pull as we try to move through the appropriations process. But the University of Hawaii overall is doing really well. It's kind of cold comfort if it's your. project or program that got cut. But we're in pretty constant contact, not just with the president, but anyone else who receives federal funding, I get a weekly update on basically the status of everything, whether the money has been cut, whether we won in court, whether they pushed it out, whether it's being executed on. And so we run it like almost an ongoing disaster meeting where we're trying to make sure that we're maximizing the flow of resources to Hawaii. Bad news is they've made real cuts and it's really hurting. The good news is as a percentage, it's probably still way less than 5% of the total federal funds that come to Hawaii. Again, I know we're kind of jumping all over the place, but we are just lucky to have these conversations with you, so we try to cover a lot of topics. The other topic, of course, is rail. I want to get your thoughts on where you think rail stands right now, the project overall federal funding, of course, obviously involved in that. There are reports that it could cost even more money and require more funding and assistance. Your overall... you know, thoughts on where this project is at this point in time and just your satisfactory level on it. Well, look, I mean, it's been a long road. And I think the very interesting thing. about the politics of rail is all the people who hated rail and all the people who loved rail they just want the damn thing finished right so i think everyone's kind of got this consensus let's let's actually make a workable leg we are trending in that direction yes there have been some cost overruns but that um should be absorbable by the contingency fund that we already had and the closer you get to finished the less likely like a new expense is going to blow the whole thing up, financially speaking. So I think we're going to get an operational rail system. And was it too late? Was it too expensive? Sure. All of that is true. It's also, I just don't want us to beat ourselves up. Like there are no excuses for late and expensive and all those difficulties. But I don't know, man. L.A., San Francisco, Boston, like they're all not on time and on budget. It's a problem across the country that rail systems. don't seem to come in on time and on budget. But I don't think we should beat ourselves up particularly for it. What we need to do is finish this last segment so it can actually service Honolulu all the way to Kapole. And then I think the question for the community, and I don't know the answer to this, and I don't need a new project, is, I mean, I love the idea of Waikiki and or.

you know, U H. Manoa, but I think that's a decision that the community has to make and not something that politicians should impose on the community. You've got about two weeks left in district. I know that a lot of your time is going to be spent now on Hurricane Lala recovery. Are we going to see you out at Point Panic? Yes, hopefully. Once the brown water clears. There you go. So what does the rest of your time look like while you're home? Some more neighbor island visits. I went to Lanai last week. We actually had a Kona trip plan, but it was yesterday, so we had to take that down. And so trying to do as much neighbor island visitation as possible and just talk story with people. I'm doing some media stuff, but frankly, more of it's listening than talking. Before we let you go, I just wanted to get your thoughts on how you're navigating, just working with your colleagues. and just working with this administration in a time where there seems to be so much polarization. And when you look at the cable news outlets and just the news reports that are coming in, oftentimes both the left and the right are very critical of each other and there's a lot of negativity. You mentioned Ted Cruz's name working together. What is the dynamic like on a real level with your Republican counterparts and the administration and how you're navigating this time? I mean, it depends on the day, but I do think my job in particular, maybe more than any job I can think of, I literally have to be able to compartmentalize. These people are not auditioning to come over for Sunday night dinner, right? Or marry one of my kids or whatever. They're just colleagues. And so where I can find agreement, I find agreement. And it doesn't matter that I may disagree with them on a number of other things. So it's the, you know, find common ground where possible and stand your ground when necessary. Senator Schott's always good to have you in the studio. Thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you. Thanks. President Wendy Hensel joins us after the break. Stay with us. Aloha Warrior fans. The news is out. UH games are coming home to K-5. All the games. UH shows, athlete profiles and throwbacks to your favorites are all in one place. Hawaii News now. Celebrate the home team with us and let's go Bose. Spotlight Now, we want to thank Senator Schatz for joining us, and we're going to be switching gears to talk all things, University of Hawaii. If you have questions for President Hensel, you can enter your comments and questions on Facebook or email us at Spotlight Now at www.com. And we want to welcome in, President Wendy Hensel. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you. I want to start, of course, with the storm and how campuses have been impacted. We know that Manoa, obviously, got a lot of rain. of course big island as well yeah definitely was a busy weekend for all of us but fortunately the damage was relatively minimal um A lot of down trees, some flooding, but just incredible opportunity for everyone to come out and do some cleanup and get ready for our students that come in on Monday. Yeah, talk about just this time of the year. We know it's a busy time with students moving in. What is your outlook just overall for enrollment-wise and some of the things that you're looking forward to as you enter this next school year? We're so excited to have our students back. That's always the best time of the year to have that energy on campus. And lots of exciting things going on. We've been putting together.

strategic plan and investment strategy and common standard of care for our students and so we're all about to deploy these things and yeah some transformative change ahead I think yeah let's delve a little deeper into that 10 campuses a lot of different experiences for the students and for the staff tell us about what the work that you're doing across all 10 yeah it All of us are doing exceptional work in individual isolated silos, right? And so the goal for the system is really to ask, how can we take that effort? How can we take those resources and put them together to reach a place that we can't reach as individual campuses? And so I'll give you a quick example. We're investing across the 10 in internet capacity. And in some of our campuses, every 10 years you get a new computer, in other places, every five years you get a new computer. Why? It shouldn't depend on where you sit on the campuses. Every faculty and staff member is ours, and every student is our student. So we're really working to create a common set of expectations and support across the university. You know, we heard from Senator Schatz, who was talking about your role and then the work that you're doing. One of the things he mentioned is all the paths that you have to navigate, one of them being the state legislature. Your... Fairly new to the job. The last session, I believe, was your first session. Second session. Second. Dealing with the legislature. What is that like your experience in having to go and make that case? And at times, it can be a bit contentious with... questions that may come down. But your overall relationship with lawmakers and having to make the case for the University of Hawaii each year. Yeah, you know, I start with a real deep sense of gratitude and appreciation. We are one of the best funded states in the country for higher education, and that comes from the legislature's understanding of how significant the work that we do is for the state of Hawaii. And so I really appreciate that. And the rest of it is really identifying what is the strategy, what are the priorities, and understanding how we can work effectively together. to accomplish that. And so I spend a lot of time talking to individual legislators. We've tried to bring them in more frequently to the university to talk about what we're doing while we're crafting that policy so that we can get some feedback as we're creating it versus constantly going in and saying, here's what we're doing. I hope you agree with that as your priorities. So I think the partnership aspect really helps us move the state along, move the university along, and achieve our mission together. You know, I thought it was interesting how the senator says that he's basically treating federal cuts as a disaster response constantly with an email every week to say this is what's cut, this is where we're fighting it. What is your strategy? How has that played out? And, you know, I think initially we did a lot of shows where we talked to different folks across the system, researchers, the provost, just where are we seeing the cuts? And there was a lot of fear that we could see a decimation of federal funding. That has not come to pass. But there have been some significant cuts. Sure, and it's been a really interesting year and a half in that regard, right? I think part of the challenge, and I'm sure the senator noted it, is the changes are flying so fast and furious at such a significant level. It's very hard to keep up with it, to be able to continue to adjust and pivot as the different directives come forward, some of which are literally in the opposite direction of what federal policy has been in the past. We just closed our fiscal year.

We are down in terms of federal funding about 29%. So that is significant. We've lost about $110. I wish it was $110 million in grants. But we'll finish as the second highest year ever in terms of research funding because our researchers and our administrators have been really skilled in being able to pivot and find the areas that are being funded and to seek alternative forms of support. So it's not a rosy picture. in that, but it is a hopeful picture that we continue to adjust and go strong for the state of Hawaii, which really depends on the billion dollars in effects for the state that our research brings in. And additionally, how much are you relying on just the, you know, private philanthropy and just private donors that are a part of that equation to make sure that it is sustainable and the overall budget is meeting the needs and expectations of the campuses. There is just no way that private philanthropy can fill that hole unless you're talking about a billion, you know, multi-billionaire. It's too large. Last year we were in excess of $600 million annually in research funding. So where you're losing $110 million, recouping that for specific areas of research. It's not realistic. On the other hand, identifying areas where that expertise can be deployed that are currently in alignment with priorities of the federal government, but also the state and the needs of Hawaii can bring in new sources of revenue that can help us sustain the moment. One of the things that's difficult, I think, for Hawaii overall at this time is a lot of the programs that we have have been interpreted as DEI. You know, the senator did talk about that and the work that he did to save the Native Hawaiian Education Act, at least for one year. We know that the University of Hawaii at Manoa is a Hawaiian place of learning. That's part of, you know, what's in the title and also in the mission. So how at this time do you navigate protecting that mission while at the same time not putting yourself in the crosshairs of the field? federal government. Yeah, it's a challenging moment, but what we know is at the foundation is we are a native Hawaiian place of learning. We know what our values are and we know where we're going to come out on these issues. That said, we are also trying to be very thoughtful and strategic about how we go forward. But when you know what your core value and mission is, you know the direction that you need to take. So we are both trying to be as collaborative and cooperative as possible in the spaces where we can collaborate, but also know where the line is that we... won't cross in terms of university policy and our commitments to our people. You mentioned that school starts next week, just general assessment of where things are out with enrollment-wise. We have seen a various report just when you look at the throughout the nation of some schools noticing a decline in enrollment and just overall interests with many who are leaving high school entering the workforce or finding alternative paths outside of a higher education system. What has it realistic? realistically look like for the University of White Campus in terms of enrollment and engaging some of these high school seniors coming out of high school. Yeah.

Well, I think we talked about this last time we were on, but we are trying to eliminate every barrier that we can between high school and college to show students that, look, we are here if you want a tech degree, you want a certificate, or you want to go all the way through a PhD. And so we had the direct to UH program last year that we launched, which said, hey, DOE high school seniors, you're already admitted to the University of Hawaii. You're already our student. At least 30% of them are in early college programs. making you fill out an entirely new application. So we saw quite an increase in our applications as a result of that program. UH Manoa will come on. It was the only school that wasn't involved in that, and they'll be in that program this year. Where we eventually end up this year in enrollment still remains to be seen. We started later our registration, and so there's no day-to-day comparison that's accurate. So it'll probably be another month before we really have those numbers to communicate. But candidly, it's a challenge. time. There are messaging that you don't need to go to college. There's that piece. AI is really changing the entry-level workforce, and the demographic cliff is coming. Hawaii is predicted to be number one highest impact between now and 2036 in terms of a decline in high school graduates. And so the university is hard at work in identifying how do we expand access, no matter where you sit, how do we create the destination of choice to skill and reskill with AI and with changing workforce needs and really serve the state as effectively as we can. I want to pick up on that statistic that you gave us. Why is that? And where is that data coming from? Yeah, it was just recently done by Wooi, our partners in the Western Exchange. And we've seen it in more than one statistic now. Out migration, lower birth rates in Hawaii. And next year will be particularly challenging. It's the year that the change in kindergarten start time will hit graduation. And so we are already seeing a lower pool of two years that we're between kindergarten starts. So it's certainly coming, and we are looking at every avenue to ensure that we are meeting people's needs and relevant so they want to come to the university, not just as a traditional 18-year-old, but really as the place for lifelong learning and reskilling. You know, you'd mentioned AI, and it is a conversation that we've also had on this show about the university's role in trying to find ways to embrace as well as manage it. Where are things at right now? The evolution of AI, you know, a conversation that we had a few months ago is drastically different already. You know, how do you navigate and continue to navigate that path of using it where it can be, of course, an assistance to the overall system, but also recognizing the challenges that presents with students using and relying on even more? It's so complicated and it's moving so fast, which is similar to the federal policy that we were just talking about. You know, my perspective is we need to. to train people to ask the question, how do we use it ethically? How do we use it responsibly? But understanding what's out there and what tools are available. Employers expect that. Pretending that it doesn't exist will not serve the university as a place to guide and proactively move through this moment. And so we are really infusing it throughout the curriculum. We are investing in serious training, not only of faculty and staff, but of the community and small business.

that the university is probably the only entity that can really help the state move through this moment. And I'll give you an example. We just finished creating a 12-module AI training course that's applied. That's for free. That's available for anybody in the state or even outside of the state to use called AI for Hawaii. So we are not just trying to solve the problem for the university, but really ensure that there's no technology gap for the state of Hawaii as we move through this really incredible moment. You know, you touched on something that as a parent I'm hearing a lot, which is, oh, kids aren't going to need to go to college. And if someone who went to college and got a master's that, like, brace my heart, just because I think that obviously there's the academic value, but there's also just the growing up in that time. What do you say to young people and also to parents who are trying to figure out, do I need to put money in a 529? Do I need to? Is college going to be something that my children need to pursue? What is the, do you think, in this moment, given, you know, what Ryan was referencing with AI, the value of a college education. Honestly, I think it becomes even more important in many respects. And we're asking this question. If facts and data are in the palm of your hand with a search, what is the value of higher education? And the answer is absolutely critical thinking skills. That can't be done by AI for you. AI can give you knowledge, but it can't be on the frontier of knowledge creation. And it doesn't problem solve complex issues that someone else hasn't moved forward. forward to solve. And so I think what it requires us to do is actually increase our experiential learning, on the job training, get people out in there into the hands-on space AI can't present. And you can see that right now in the mismatch between college graduates coming out and the skills that are being required and the experience on the ground. So, you know, the studies that they are doing of how many jobs in the future will require a college degree are increasing, not diminishing. But it will require a different kind of skill set in creative thinking, the arts, the humanities. In many respects, it's the rebirth of the things that were slowly sort of diminishing in favor of STEM. So it's a both and. It's not an... either or. One of the things that also adds to the college experience, athletics. And we know that you are actively involved. We see you at many of these games and matches at U.H Manoa. Talk about just where things stand with the University of Hawaii at Manoa and sort of the transitions that are happening in the college landscape when it comes to NIL support for these athletes that are now getting paid. How are you helping to administer navigation with, you know, the athletic director? Matt Elliott there, and just where you think UH is positioned right now to remain competitive as a Division I school. Well, we're so excited to move fully into the Mountain West here. And I should explain to your listeners. Some folks have been a little confused with the new Chancellor at Manoa of who will be the person in charge of athletics, and that will be me. You know, it is a statewide concern. We believe it covers the entire university. This is the only D-1 program, even though we love our Vulcans too. This is the only Division I program.

will stay overseeing that. But it's an exciting time. It's a challenging time. I think we have a theme here about really significant change and fast moving programs. But we're meeting the moment. You know, we are evaluating where we can find those resources, how we be competitive in this environment. We think we can be. We think we can win games within the Mountain West. We're not trying to be in Ohio State or a Big Ten school. That requires resources we simply don't have. But it's important. to the state. It is a source of pride and joy. And I've never been one who believed that the academics and sports were unrelated. In fact, they're quite connected. And just this morning, I actually spoke with all the coaches of our athletic department and some of the students. Student athletes are at the front of our student athletic teams, right? And so developing these young men and women and teaching them how to be ethical, great citizens for the state of Hawaii, it's a big part of our program. We did see it to speak about. of resources that the legislature did not give the NIL funding support for student athletes in the last session. What do you hope is different about that conversation in the next session? conversation is just a wide recognition of the impact that UH sports have on the state economy. You know, that's why we brought it out. It's not just a university concern. There is a ripple effect in terms of economic generation across the state. And so that's why we brought the NIL piece out, because obviously that helps us stay competitive. And the more we win games, the truth is the bigger the impact for the state. So I think most legislators recognize that. There is a very understanding. difference of opinion on whether we should be paying student athletes. You know, our position is that's not, that's a philosophical argument at this point as opposed to the reality. That's where we are. That's where it's going to be for the foreseeable future. And our job is to find the resources to be competitive. So the university will take care of its role in there. And we hope that the legislature will be a partner in that at some point as we go forward. You talked about the, you know, UH's role. in the Mountain West, of course, all sports and all kind of joining in with what football has been a part of. And you are actually involved in some of the leadership and discussions that are already happening within the conference itself. What has been just your experience speaking with others on the national level as a college landscape changes with these power conferences and the Mountain West trying to stay competitive in where you're at, but also advocating for the University of Hawaii within those conversations that you're having? Yeah, well, I'm really excited to be on the executive. board of the Mountain West and now on the college football playoff, our representative for the Mountain West to the larger group. And it's great because that means Hawaii has a voice in the room as these things are taking place. I think every college president in the country, if not every pundit in the country recognizes this requires money that makes it pretty challenging to stay afloat in athletics. But Congress is looking at the score act. I'm sure you all have talked about that. maybe some limits on transfer rules, for example, that I think would be really useful to us and most importantly, to student athletes. It's not good to have a student athlete transfer four times in four years in order to graduate college. You know, obviously there's a disconnect there. So, you know, we're in the room. We're having these conversations. There's no easy button as we navigate this chapter, but to be able to ensure that Hawaii's presence is felt.

is critically important. You know, you mentioned that move-in-day is coming. What's your moving day experience? Are you on campus, greeting the students? And what is that like? I'm just curious on the ground. Well, there is nothing better than seeing a freshman who's excited and their parents to move in and start that journey. It goes along with what you said about, you know, what is the value of college. So much of it is beyond what you're learning in the classroom. It's those social skills and the experience and the maturation process of living on your own for a first time so seeing mom and dad excited but nervous and sad and seeing the kids trying to get rid of their parents as quickly as possible so they can start hanging out with their friends it's just a joy it's what we do and it's some of the best times of our year well one of the other things when you were talking about student living is just what is going on just in the housing at UH Minoa. There have been some conversations that happened at the legislature a few years back, critical of the infrastructure and the positioning of some of the student housing. What is the status of just student environment, student life on campus housing and the availability for those who want to live on campus? Well, there's never enough housing. We have a weightlifts of somewhere around 1,000 students. So we continue to identify opportunities. But there are challenges. It is absolutely. a priority for us that health and wellness be right at the top. I hear from students all the time. Please don't make it all super shiny and expensive. You know, it's important that we have entry-level basic dorms that I remember living in as a college student. So we're trying to balance all of those factors. But the truth is, we have not kept up with market rates. And there's only two places that we can get that support from. It's either from payments from the students and their parents, or it's the legislature's support for capital. improvement. So we're moving in both directions, trying to figure out how to keep it as affordable as possible, but frankly how to maintain it at a level that we're proud of on the campus and that students are excited to live in. Yeah, there's also the facilities piece and a big part of that, of course, is sports and athletics going back to the stadium conversations that we've been having with the stadium authority and some folks on your team. How do you feel like that's going when we had spoken to some lawmakers about this? There is a feeling that this is going to more than they had allocated and that it might not be completed on time. What is your feeling about where we are with the stadium and are you confident that student athletes will be able to play there on time? You know, we're not in the driver's seat for this process, but we are there championing and, you know, along for the ride to say how important this is and to provide our support along the way. So whatever happens will be prepared, but we absolutely expect in our hearing that those conversations go forward and that there is support for the new stadium. You know, you mentioned the importance of athletics in terms of the state's economy. But, you know, I remember having this conversation with your predecessor about the role that the University of Hawaii system plays within the state economy. I think people may not realize just how important it is to the overall economy and how much money is brought in through, you know, different, as you mentioned earlier, all those different budgets. But if you can explain to that, the importance of having this campus, not just University of Hawaii and Manoa, but all the campuses in these communities. and the role that it plays in the larger economics of the state, and having as the president to oversee that, the responsibility that you feel with that. You know, I think one of the best examples of that is that I sit on the governor's cabinet.

That is not a typical role that a university president plays and reflects the fact that as the sole system of higher education in the state, we are vital to the economic future of this state. But also it's economic present, as you're pointing out. Research is, I think, the third highest industry in the state of Hawaii. As I said, over a billion dollars comes in. Of course, we have employees. We are working to generate the workforce needs of the future with things like advanced manufacturing and ensuring that there are areas. for continued economic acceleration. So we fully recognize our role in that ecosystem and the responsibility that it brings and are really charting the path to be as impactful for this state as we can. We know that you've been working basically around the clock to change and improve the system. What kind of a... What kind of differences do you think students will feel when they come in on Monday that they may not have felt when you started, you know, you've been on the ground now, as you mentioned, two legislative sessions and working to change some of the management structure and uplift the university and its facilities? How will a student experience do you think on Monday be different than it might have been a few years ago? I think the message as strongly as I can say it is we are the University of Hawaii. No, it doesn't matter which campus you're showing up on or what you're studying. You are a student. at this university and there are great things that are happening here and whatever goal you want to pursue we have the means for you to pursue it and I think That message of unity across the 10 has not necessarily, it's relatively new. Also, we are working hard to proactively engage with our students to ensure that they are supported at the highest level. We're talking about AI and analytics. We have in place now, and we'll have fully executed by the end of the semester, a system of analytics that identifies 10 years of data that tells us when students are beginning to fail. Usually we find out when they tell us and they're at the point where there may not be much that can get them back on the path. By using analytics, we can identify early warning signs and trigger an intervention to ensure that we can say, hey, we care, come on in, let's solve this problem now while we still have the ability to fix it in real time. So, you know, that kind of support, you can't pay for it. It should be a really great improvement, I hope, for our students. Well, President Hansel, thank you so much for joining us. Challenging time, but exciting times with... First day, just a few days away, starting next week. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. We, of course, want to thank President Hensel as well as Senator Schatz for being here and being a part of this conversation. We encourage you. If you have missed any portion of the interview, you can head over to our website at hawai-newsnow.com. And next week, we are going to be joined by the governor along with OHA Chair Kaika-Hale. They'll both be joining us live, not together, but back-to-back. A lot to unpack with them. Thanks so much for watching Spotlight now. We'll see you next week. Aloha.

Spotlight Now is presented by Hawaii Executive Collaborative, Hawaii Pacific Health, KMEHA Meha Schools, and by Aloha United Way. Aloha Warrior fans, the news is out. UH games are coming home to K5. All the games, UH shows, athlete profiles, and throwbacks to your favorites are all in one place. Hawaii News Now. Celebrate the home team with us, and let's go Bose.