The University of Hawai'i expects to complete in the next 10 days the draft of a contract to establish a research partnership with the Navy through a university-affiliated research center.

Gary Ostrander, UH vice chancellor for research and graduate education, said Wednesday that the preliminary contract and a business plan detailing the proposed center would be presented to the Manoa Faculty Senate for consideration.

"We are negotiating the contract and getting very close to it," said Ostrander, who recently arrived at UH from Johns Hopkins University, which houses one of the country's largest Navy-affiliated research centers.

His comments came after eight faculty members on an ad-hoc committee issued a report earlier in the day asking UH administrators to postpone seeking Board of Regents approval of the research partnership until a plan was completed and adequately reviewed.

The professors spent the summer studying the pending five-year, $50 million contract, which has been met with stiff resistance both within the university and in the community at large.

"We talked a lot to each other and other individuals," said Calvin Pang, a law professor and one of the faculty members behind the report. "At this point in time, we just can't reach a final conclusion."

Last spring, dozens of students and others occupied the office of university interim President David McClain to protest the proposed research center.

Some professors who have spoken against the center worry it would adversely affect existing programs and create a secretive environment on campus by increasing the amount of classified work that researchers accept.

Some Native Hawaiian groups have opposed the center, saying it would be an extension of the military's presence in the Islands.

"The faculty committee is correct," said Ikaika Hussey, one of the students who led the weeklong sit-in last May and who is also a member of the Native Hawaiian group Hui Pu. "Interim President McClain has failed to consider legitimate concerns of Hawai'i's people."

UH journalism professor Beverly Keever, who has objected to the university's approach to establishing the center, once again criticized the school for not being more open in the negotiations.

"We've got an economist as the chancellor and a business administrator professor as interim president and yet there's no business plan," she said.

Denise Eby Konan, chairwoman of the school's economics department now serving as interim chancellor for the Manoa campus, said she wants to hear all arguments both for and against the center before deciding whether to recommend it to McClain.

Konan took office after former Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert, who orchestrated the proposal for the Navy center, was denied a renewal of his contract.

"I want the faculty to weigh in on the matter before I make a recommendation," said Konan, who declined to say how much the opposition from faculty and the larger community would affect her final decision. "This is a difficult issue."

Besides Johns Hopkins, the nation's other three Navy-backed research centers are at Pennsylvania State University, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Washington.

Hawai'i was recommended for the fifth center in July 2004.