HONOLULU (KHON2) -- The University of Hawaii's new president and board of regents were questioned by the senate about their budget requests. Get Hawaii's latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You Topics included athletics and low enrollment at UH West Oahu. One lawmaker suggested the school reconsider it's D1 status. New president selected for University of Hawaii "We're looking at student success and integrating the technology across the system to improve retention and graduation rates," UH president Wendy Hensel told KHON2. "We've been talking about [artificial intelligence] and generative AI and infuse it in the classroom and prepare students for the workforce of tomorrow." She said there's well over $1 billion in needs across the school system which won't all be funded this year, but she said housing is top of mind. "What we can build has to be affordable and still accessible to students so we have to balance new construction with the land we have," she added. She faced tough questions from the senate about the football program deficit. "It's confusing, is the deficit going to increase or not?" asked Sen. Troy Hashimoto. "It's your number one priority and I asked what the plan is and nothing, so what is the plan?" The university said it also needs to set aside money due to the NCAA's billion dollar-plus settlement which impacts D1 schools across the country. "The overall picture is whether or not Hawaii needs to continue to look at being a D1 football program or do we look at something else," said Sen. Donna Mercado Kim. The new president highlighted the importance of being a D1 school. "If there is an absence of state investment in that it would make it increasingly difficult with the new circumstances from NCAA to continue to function at level of excellence," said Hensel. The committee asked the university for a more detailed budget plan which the new president says they will work on. Find more Hawaii, Oahu, Maui and Kauai news here The school said it's lost $1.7 a year in the football program due to the closure of Aloha Stadium; it added that there was $1.6 million deficit from hazard pay relating to Covid.