Students from the Pacific islands will pay twice as much to attend the University of Hawai'i under a tuition increase approved yesterday by the UH Board of Regents.

That means a Pacific island undergraduate student attending UH-Manoa full time will pay $7,704 a year compared with $5,136 for residents and $14,400 for nonresidents starting with the fall 2007 term. Pacific island students currently pay the same tuition as residents — $3,504 a year.

The jump for Pacific Islanders is in line with an overall tuition increase approved a year ago for the state's higher education system — its largest such increase ever. Those increases are being phased in starting this fall and are expected to more than double the cost of a year of undergraduate tuition at UH-Manoa by 2011.

Because the Pacific island rate will be pegged to 150 percent of resident tuition, their tuition will also rise through 2011, to an estimated $12,600 annually.

However, regents also approved the new UH Financial Assistance Program, which includes the Pacific Islander Scholarship, to help students offset the cost of the increases.

About two dozen faculty members and Pacific island students testified for more than two hours before the regents. Nearly all spoke against raising tuition. Students from the Pacific islands make up about 2 percent of the student population systemwide — about 900 students total, most of whom attend UH-Manoa.

Lillian Segal, a citizen of the Federated States of Micronesia, earned her master's degree in education from UH-Manoa and plans to attend UH for a doctoral degree. She urged regents to reject the tuition increase proposal.

"Please don't close the door on future Pacific island generations from accomplishing their educational dreams and contributing positively to society," she said.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

During the five-year implementation of the new financial aid program, need-based assistance is expected to quadruple from $4 million to $16 million, according to Linda Johnsrud, vice president of Academic Planning and Policy at UH.

Even with financial aid, Segal said, students would struggle to pay the rest of tuition and books, as well as living expenses. She also said she is concerned the Pacific Islander Scholarship would take grant money from Hawai'i residents and Native Hawaiians.

NATIVE HAWAIIANS

The increase does not affect Native Hawaiian students or the Native Hawaiian need-based tuition waivers. Native Hawaiian students who reside outside of Hawaii also will continue to pay resident tuition.

However, some grants formerly planned for Hawai'i residents only will be opened to nonresidents as well, Johnsrud said.

Starting with fall 2007, students from Pacific island countries or jurisdictions that do not have public four-year colleges — such as Samoa or the Marshall Islands — no longer will be eligible for the nonresident tuition differential, which had allowed them to pay the in-state tuition rate to attend UH campuses. Instead, Pacific island students will begin paying 150 percent of the resident tuition rate.

Both the Pacific Islander tuition increase and the general systemwide tuition increase amounts to about $100 more per month through 2011 at UH-Manoa.

MAINTAINING ACCESS

UH President David McClain said that while Pacific Islanders would be charged a higher tuition since they would no longer qualify for the nonresidential tuition differential, they also would qualify for a new scholarship established under the UH Financial Assistance Program.

"We are absolutely committed to maintaining access for Pacific island students," McClain said during yesterday's meeting.

Hokulani Aikau, an assistant professor of political science at UH-Manoa, said the increase will deter Pacific Islanders from attending UH.

"We're trying to create revenue on the backs of those who are already disadvantaged. I find that very problematic," Aikau said.

McClain said that Aikau was "mistaken" in her understanding of the proposal and that the intention of it was to clarify nonresident tuition exemptions and to increase the amount of financial aid available to students.

According to Johnsrud, current nonresident students would be "grandfathered" in during the implementation of the financial aid program and would receive enough aid to cover tuition and other expenses.

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT

Regent chairwoman Kitty Lagareta said regents were initially concerned that Pacific island students would not receive enough aid to cover the rising tuition, especially in 2011 when they are expected to pay more than $12,000.

But university officials assured the regents that enough aid would be available.

"Not only will they continue to get Pell Grants, there will be four new (financial aid) programs in place to provide additional support," Lagareta said. "We have plenty of money to provide that kind of support."

Angela Ka'anunu of Tonga, a UH-Manoa doctoral student in urban and regional planning, said the increase would deter students from her country from coming to UH, thereby limiting their chances of obtaining a college degree.

"Tonga is among the poorest countries in the world," Ka'anunu said. "A 50 percent increase would add to the hardship."

Ka'anunu said that many Pacific island students who attend college in Hawai'i are forced to work two part-time jobs just to get by and an increase in tuition would force many of them to go home.

"This increase would send the message that Hawai'i, and subsequently America, is closing its doors," she said.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.