USA Funds Customer Profile: Hawai'i Pacific University

Hawai'i Pacific University (HPU) offers students an island paradise setting as well as strong academic programs. Located in Honolulu, the university is the state's largest private postsecondary institution.

HPU became a two-campus school after merging with Hawaii Loa College in 1992. Students can attend classes at either the downtown Honolulu campus or at the Windward Hawai'i Loa campus. A university-provided shuttle service connects the campuses.

Over its 38-year history, HPU has seen tremendous growth, both with its student body and its academic programs. It boasts an international flair, with a third of its student body from overseas, a third from the U.S. mainland and a third from Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. For students who love the outdoors, HPU is a great place to receive a quality education in an environment that provides ideal weather.

Offering excellent location and programs
Hawai'i Pacific University is an ideal place to study. The university offers 53 undergraduate degrees to 7,700 students and nine graduate degrees to 1,300 students. HPU emphasizes teaching, as opposed to research, so professors — not teaching assistants — teach the classes. The university keeps classes small — the largest classroom holds 60 students — to ensure that students get personal attention.

HPU capitalizes on its location by providing programs that allow students to work in career-related fields while they take classes. For example, the travel-industry-management program uses Hawaii's many tourism-related services as a natural working lab. Students work in local hotels, travel agencies and other travel-related businesses, applying what they have learned. HPU's growing science programs and involvement with Hawaii's Oceanic Institute provide the same opportunity for students studying aquaculture, marine science and oceanography. Students in these fields conduct research in conjunction with the institute.

Working to keep costs affordable
Hawai'i Pacific University offers a high-value education for a relatively low cost compared with other four-year private schools. Its tuition is about half the national average for four-year private schools. The university processes about $30 million a year in federal aid, including grants, loans and federal work-study to about 65 percent of students from the United States. Graduate students take advantage of alternative loans to supplement other types of financial aid.

Students may access all of their financial-aid information on HPU's campus intranet, the HPU "Pipeline." They can view required documents, financial-aid awards, account information and more. They also can download financial-aid documents from the "Pipeline." The financial-aid office is finalizing plans for a completely paperless financial-aid process for 2004, including online award letters, award packaging and acceptance, and loan processing.

Carol Hutaff, director of the loan department, works closely with students to ensure that they understand their loans, rights and their responsibilities. In this way, HPU has been able to reduce its default rate to an all-time low of 2.8 percent this year.

Staying abreast of financial-aid issues
Hawai'i Pacific University uses USA Funds^® as a key resource in keeping current with student-loan-industry issues. Walter Fleming, associate vice president of student support services, cites the proximity of USA Funds' customer relations manager, Lorraine Teniya, as a significant factor in his school's staying up to date. Fleming says, "The ability to have face time with USA Funds staff is very meaningful."

The financial-aid office also takes advantage of the training opportunities offered by USA Funds University. "USA Funds is our primary source of loan training," says Fleming.

HPU also notes that the financial-aid staff regularly uses the USA Funds Web site for updates regarding loan information and interest rates.