Housing also lowers rates for 2011 summer session

Students enrolling in classes for Summer Session 2011 at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo can now take advantage of lower residential housing rates in addition to reduced tuition. Summer instruction will be conducted over two sessions, with the first session running May 16-June 9 and the second session June 13-July 22.

The housing office has announced special discounted rates at the university’s Hale Ikena apartment complex, which will serve as the summer session’s official residence hall for students residing on campus. The housing cost for the first session will be reduced by $70 to $384.75. The second session will be discounted by $106 to $584.25.

Summer housing applications will be available as of March 1 for pick up at the University Housing office located in PB-11, or can be downloaded online at http://hilo.hawaii.edu/housing/.

The housing rate reduction follows earlier action by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents to set the tuition schedule for the 2011 summer session at UH Hilo, UH West Oʻahu and the seven community colleges at $248 per credit hour, which effectively rolls back tuition to what it was at the UH Hilo campus during the 2009 summer session.

Under President M.R.C. Greenwood’s Hawaiʻi Graduation Initiative, the UH System aims to increase the number of college graduates by 25 percent by the year 2015 through improved access, affordability and student success. Another goal is to reduce the amount of time it takes to graduate students without compromising the value of their degrees.

Under last summer’s tuition of $282 per credit hour, students paid a total of $883 in tuition and fees for a single three-credit course. The cost of that same three-credit course this year will be reduced by $204 as a result of the Board’s action.

This summer, UH Hilo will offer approximately 150 courses, including 40 percent online under the theme “UH Hilo: A Living, Learning Laboratory.” Among the notable online classes are upper-division nursing and English courses on health information technology and graphic novels as literature.

Corinne Tamashiro, program coordinator, College of Continuing Education and Community Service (CCECS), who oversees the summer session, says planners have worked hard to ensure students will be able to get the classes they need this summer.

“We are streamlining our course offerings this summer and concentrating on offering high demand courses,” Tamashiro explained. “These are the courses that students cannot always get because they tend to fill up during the fall and spring semesters.”

In addition to helping students complete degree requirements, the summer curriculum will also feature the flagship Marine Science Program with courses on natural history of sharks/rays/skates, Hawaiian coral reefs, plus Polynesian sailing and navigation, among others. Students interested in studying abroad can choose among opportunities in China, Peru and Australia, including a new special topics course on sustaining Australia’s human societies and the natural environment.

Two other new special topics courses will be taught by this summer’s visiting professors. ART 294: Photo in the New Media will be taught by Frederic Larson, who has spent 30 years as a photojournalist with the San Francisco Chronicle. Larson will teach the basics in photojournalism dealing in the “New Media” with the emphasis on the photographs that tell a story.

SOIL 294: Control of Erosion Processes will identify erosive processes and how to stop them. The course will be taught by Pablo Garcia-Chevesich from the University of Arizona’s Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, who has worked locally on North Hawaiʻi’s Kapulena Land Project to make more than 1.7 acres available for community-based agriculture.

Summer registration begins on April 11. Non-UH Hilo students are welcome to register, but must first complete an application. For a tentative course listing and basic information, visit http://hilo.hawaii.edu/depts/summer/.