A scathing independent review of University of Hawai'i-Manoa facilities found that campus buildings and infrastructure are "suffering from countless deficiencies," a situation exacerbated by inadequate and inconsistent management.

The report, conducted by the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers, found the university's flagship campus is "generally clouded by litter, debris, peeling paint, broken and heaved concrete, tripping hazards, graffiti in restrooms, burned-out light fixtures, and an observed general state of disrepair."

The review of the university's facilities management also concluded that Manoa lacks the organization to comprehensively oversee its nearly 300 campus buildings.

"The potential for a stellar physical plant has been overshadowed by neglect, deferral, fatigue, budgetary reductions, a lack of responsiveness," according to the report.

In response, university officials said they plan to hire an associate vice chancellor to serve as its facilities and maintenance chief. The university also intends to install an online system to place repair requests and track progress.

Also planned is more training of maintenance staff, a financial audit of the facilities management program and development of a comprehensive energy plan, said Kathy Cutshaw, interim vice chancellor for administration, finance and operations.

"We plan to use the report as a road map going forward to achieve significant gains in the way we operate," Cutshaw said.

The campus faces a backlog of more than $100 million in deferred maintenance, according to Cutshaw. That does not include maintenance put off for student housing facilities, which accounts for another $35 million.

The facilities review was ordered last summer after a university committee recommended an outside agency assess how the campus handles maintenance and repairs, said UH-Manoa interim chancellor Denise Konan.

The UH-Manoa Faculty Senate also called for a review after faculty members complained that repair and maintenance issues were ignored or not quickly addressed, said Jim Tiles, chairman of the Faculty Senate.

Final findings of the APPA report were released to the university in May, but interim chancellor Konan spoke publicly for the first time about the report with The Advertiser last week.

Konan acknowledged that many faculty and students believe Manoa facilities are run down and poorly maintained.

"Basically the students have been very clear that our conditions right now are impeding student learning. They don't feel when they're in the environment of our classrooms that they're getting a modern education," she said.

Patricia Casper, a Manoa student, agrees the campus needs sprucing.

"The campus is older and I think a lot of the facilities need to be renovated," she said. "I figure a lot of things don't get done because of (a lack of) money."

Beyond aesthetics, the maintenance problems have affected the work of Celia Smith, professor of botany at UH-Manoa. Smith had to move out of her laboratory in the St. John Plant Science Laboratory building after a small leak first detected in the 1970s grew into constant dripping.

Eventually, sheets of plastic were hung from the ceiling to keep the dripping from ruining her research.

"There are several relatively large cracks in the roof," she said. "That's pretty much caused chaos, as you can imagine."

While repairs to the lab building's roof are under way, Smith will work in the biomedical science building.

"(The repairs) obviously should have been done several decades earlier," she said. "These leaks have been ongoing since the '70s. That's 30 years."

Smith's experience supported one conclusion in the APPA report that small repair-and-maintenance issues are often long ignored and grow worse and more costly over time. The report found that "particularly concerning is the number of research units that have resorted to a 'do-it-yourself' facility services approach."

Tiles said when departments can't get maintenance help quickly enough, "the resourceful person will try to take matters in his or her own hands."

The university is requesting $30 million for repair and maintenance in its biennium budget request to the Legislature, Cutshaw said, although there is no guarantee lawmakers will approve the entire amount.

But the APPA report suggests money may not be at the core of the problem.

The APPA review team found that the university's yearly budget "with the augmentation of repair and maintenance funding was adequate" and that its maintenance funding is comparable to other universities of its size.

Cutshaw said she would need to further examine the data before commenting on the report's conclusion.

She pointed out, however, that while the university received $30 million for repair and maintenance this year, $23 million is earmarked to rebuild Hamilton Library after the 2004 flood.

"When you look at our budget, there was a huge spike for the flood. The APPA people took that into account as operating costs. It artificially inflated our budget."

She also noted utility costs are eating into the budget.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.