Benchmarks; annual budget requests; biennial reports

(a) The board of regents shall adopt benchmarks to expand and develop the university to become a statewide campus that provides Hawaii with a higher education system designed to meet the future needs and demands of the citizens of the State and capitalize on the university's unique resources and location to become an international educational, research, and service center known both in the United States and throughout the Pacific and Asian countries. The benchmarks shall include but not be limited to: (1) Expanding access to educational opportunity throughout the State; (2) Striving for excellence in undergraduate education; (3) Requiring the university to continue to gain prominence in research and distance learning; (4) Revitalizing services to the State; (5) Enhancing the international role of the university; and (6) Maintaining diversity by clarifying campus missions and coordinating campus plans. (b) The board of regents shall apply these benchmarks in the development of their annual budget request to the legislature and adoption of tuition schedules. (c) The university shall conduct a periodic review of all instruction, organized research, public service, academic support, student services, and institutional support programs at each campus to determine whether the programs are operating for the purposes originally established and not inconsistent with the benchmarks adopted pursuant to subsection (a). The university shall submit a report of its findings to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the legislature in the second year of each fiscal biennium.