Hawaii Athletics Receive a Multi-Year Gift of over $1 Million

Thanks to a very generous donation from the Waterhouse Charitable Trust, the University of Hawaii athletic department is a little less in the red.

The University of Hawaii Athletics Department and Nā Koa Football Club, a booster club for the football program, announced a multi-year gift of over $1,000,000 from the Waterhouse Charitable Trust. The gift is one of the largest in department history, and will most notably support the football program in the areas of: summer school, nutritional supplements, and cost of attendance stipends.

The gift was announced Tuesday at a press conference, with several university officials and UH football head coach Norm Chow in attendance. 

Nā Koa Football Club and the Athletics Department will allocate, in support of the football program: $400,000 for summer school tuition; $85,000 for Cost of Attendance stipends; supplemental meals and nutritional enhancements; strength and conditioning equipment; and additional program needs.

For the 2015 academic year, UH will allocate $256,100 - an average of $1,000 per scholarship student-athlete - to support Cost of Attendance. So we're talking tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, and other expenses, which varies from university to university.  For Hawaii, the UH Financial Aid Office has determined the full Cost of Attendance as $3,925.

The NCAA passed new legislation allowing its member schools to provide Cost of Attendance stipends beginning Aug. 1, 2015. UH will receive $55,000 from the NCAA to support Cost of Attendance.

The Athletics Department implemented the supplemental meal program in 2014, which has provided one meal per student-athlete on practice days. The program benefits all student-athletes, whether or not they receive aid.

Sing it with me, y'all.

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