MANOA, OAHU (HawaiiNewsNow) -

University of Hawaii-Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple is proposing to eliminate six to eight mostly-vacant dean and director positions and consolidate departments to save more than $1 million a year.

Under the preliminary proposal, the UH's School of Travel Industry Management, founded in 1966, would be merged into its next door neighbor on the Manoa campus, the Shidler College of Business.

The travel industry dean's position is vacant, after the UH Board of Regents balked at a $250,000 salary for a new candidate.

Apple wants to have the business dean oversee both departments and use that money to hire more faculty or lower tuition.

"What I'd like to do is try to find a way to consolidate units more so that we have fewer of those executive managerial salaries," Apple said. "And that the people who are running various organizations are from within, people who are already on our payroll."

Students at the travel industry school Hawaii News Now spoke to at midday Tuesday had varying opinions on the idea.

"I really like being separate because it is a different entity," said Christian Gutierrez, a junior travel industry management major from Austin, Texas. "It's a different type. It's hospitality. You're more of a people person instead of just with numbers and just with business."

Chris Almendar, a senior travel industry management major from Santa Barbara, Calif., liked the idea of a merger.

"When there's so many courses that overlap and so many instructor and we're so close already. I don't see why they don't just merge them," Almendar said.

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Manoa chancellor proposes eliminating exec. jobs, saving $1M+ a year