The Senate Committee on Higher Education on March 11 voted to advance House Bill 1320, which would require the University of Hawaii system to collect, analyze and publicly report graduate‑outcome data via a consolidated dashboard. The committee amended the committee report to note concerns about funding and data access and set the defective effective date to July 31, 2050 before referring the bill to Ways and Means because it contains appropriations.

Deborah Halbert, vice president for academic strategy at the University of Hawaii, told the committee the university "stand[s] on our written testimony" and that the intent of the bill is to consolidate and better promote existing outcome data for families who may not be comfortable navigating multiple data sources. Halbert said the system currently maintains multiple dashboards and cited limits in institutional capacity for data visualization and workforce‑focused analytics.

Halbert described staffing gaps: the university had hired a new workforce director but lacks capacity to pursue a comprehensive postgraduate outcome product and lacks a dedicated data‑visualization specialist in institutional research. "For consistent, high quality help, we would want to have somebody we could train and have on staff to help, really look through how we visualize our data," Halbert said.

Members questioned whether existing university positions or students could be used instead of adding staff, and whether the university could redirect performance funds. Halbert said some work is currently being done by graduate students and foundation funds but that sustained, professional capacity would likely require dedicated positions and stable funding. She also noted that access to some statewide databases, including tax data, was the subject of other bills this session and that full post‑graduation pictures remain incomplete without broader data access.

Nut graf: The committee advanced HB 1320 with instructions to document concerns about cost and data access and forwarded it to Ways and Means for consideration of appropriations. Supporters and members voiced caution about adding permanent positions without stable funding and about limits on the data the university can currently access.

Ending: The committee voted to advance the bill; the transcript records discussion of using interns and existing staff for some tasks, the potential need for two positions (workforce analytics and data visualization), and interplay with other bills that could provide broader statewide data access.