$31 million in the red

The University of Hawaii's flagship Manoa campus is facing a multimillion-dollar tuition shortfall for a fourth straight year as state support continues to decline while energy and personnel costs escalate.

Manoa officials are projecting a $31 million deficit for the fiscal year that ends June 30, despite efforts to curb spending.

Interim Manoa Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman, who took the reins Sept. 1, said he is actively seeking ways to cut costs but cautioned that Manoa's debt could keep growing as the campus re-evaluates its spending priorities.

"Our goal is to fly level for this year, and during this year try to reconnoiter and figure out where we're going to go in the future," Bley-Vroman told the Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser on Tuesday. "The university as a whole needs to fly level. I think we can do it. I think it will be tough, and we may see our bank balance decline even more for a while, but we can do it."

The overspending began in 2012, when the campus incurred a $2.6 million deficit under then-Chancellor Virginia Hin­shaw.

UH-Manoa had started that year with a $21 million surplus in tuition revenue but was instructed by UH system administration to spend down some of its reserves for fear that the state might view the surplus as too healthy, said Kathy Cut­shaw, Manoa's vice chancellor for administration, finance and operations. Tuition revenues were subsequently spent on faculty salary restorations, student laboratory space and information technology upgrades.

The shortfall swelled to $17 million and then $26 million in the following two years under then-Chancellor Tom Apple. Those shortfalls were covered by university reserves.

Utility costs ran over budget by a combined $13 million in those years. Among other added costs, the campus also paid out $6.4 million for 3 percent faculty salary increases that it had expected the state to cover, and suffered a $7 million cut from the Legislature, in fiscal 2014.

Manoa's financial crisis was the chief reason UH President David Lassner gave when he fired Apple on July 30 with three years remaining on a contract.