Some University of Hawai'i officials and faculty members are still pushing for a Navy research center on campus despite the Faculty Senate's rejection of the project.

Gary Ostrander, vice chancellor for research and graduate education, said university lawyers are reviewing the contract for a Navy University Affiliated Research Center to address concerns of faculty leaders who voted against the proposed military partnership on Wednesday.

Ostrander said the proposed contract's language will be clarified to show opponents of the center that the partnership is a good investment that will benefit the school.

"You are dealing with the federal government ... and often you will run into situations when one set of rules and regulations appear to be in conflict," Ostrander said Thursday. "I think everything is covered, but we are attempting to make it clear and more explicit."

James Tiles, vice chairman of the Faculty Senate, said the vote against the center could be overturned if 100 professors sign a petition by Saturday asking for a vote of all Manoa campus faculty.

"When the senate does something that is clearly at odds with what the faculty at large want to see happen, there's this mechanism," he said.

University faculty representatives voted 31-18 against the center, with opponents expressing fear it could disrupt existing programs, set up publication restrictions on research and allow for weapons development on campus.

Others complained that the center would further militarize the island, which is already home to several military bases.

Proponents, however, say the center, which would be the nation's first new one in more than 50 years, would bring millions in Department of Defense grants in its first five years of operation.

The country's four Navy-backed centers are at the University of Washington, Penn State University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Texas-Austin.

UH-Manoa interim Chancellor Denise Konan said she had "deep respect for faculty on all sides of this issue."

In a statement, she promised to take all perspectives into account when deciding whether to recommend the center to interim President David McClain.

Marti Townsend, a graduate who is a member of a coalition of professors, students and community members opposing the center, said she is waiting for the school to follow the faculty's recommendation to stop negotiations with the Navy.

"We are very excited," she said. "We fully expect that this contract will be withdrawn. We are going to move on."

But oceanographer Francis Sansone said he remains hopeful the school will persuade professors to approve the center.

"Every case that I've seen where objections have been raised they've been answered pretty adequately," he said. "I firmly believe that the president and the administration are a group that could be trusted to carry out those modifications."

Sansone also said the center would come at a time when funding agencies are facing shrinking budgets.

"The funding situation has gotten tighter and tighter," he said. "It's quite possible that in the future, this could make a very big difference."