President Eric B. Shumway told representatives at the Hawaii Association of Independent Colleges & Universities (HAICU) conference that BYU-Hawaii has enjoyed the friendship and support of Hawaii Pacific University and Chaminade University of Honolulu for a long time.

"This is an important conference. We are energized by your being here, your ideas and your accomplishments," he told the representatives from the other two major independent universities in Hawaii. The annual conference, which rotates among the three members, was held this year in Laie on May 4.

The new front entrance project at BYU-Hawaii is underway again: A labor strike held up the supply of cement and blue rocks while heavy rains also delayed the project, which includes a new traffic round-about in front of a modified little circle. — folifotos

Following several musical selections from the BYU-Hawaii Concert Choir, which is now on tour in Asia, each of the university presidents gave a 15-minute report. In his remarks, President Shumway explained BYU-Hawaii was founded as the Church College of Hawaii in 1955, the same year Chaminade began.

He recounted how David O. McKay, the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at that time, prophesied "wonderful things would happen in this little place on the north shore. He dedicated the ground and said this place would become not a destination for hundreds, not thousands, but millions of people would come to experience the significance of Laie."

Since then, "this place has become a center of education, a center of culture, and a center of spirituality," President Shumway continued. "When David O. McKay dedicated these grounds, he uttered those words that forged the mission of this campus: We are international, like HPU, by mandate and by prophecy. We would like to be 50-50, but our international population is now 46 percent. Our largest group comes from Japan, then Korea, China and the nations of the South Pacific."

"Our strongest and our largest academic unit is our College of Arts and Sciences. We also have three professional schools: The School of Education, the School of Computing and the School of Business."

"We have a population of about 2,500. The Board [of Trustees] has put a cap on us of 2,350, give or take 10 percent. We're always going over 200 or 300 students, but no one complains."

President Shumway added that BYU-Hawaii is on the first leg of its Western Association of Schools accreditation. "The WASC people said ours and Berkeley's proposals were the finest they had ever seen. Now we know we have to deliver, but we have a great team. This proposal was driven by faculty and by recommendations from the board. It was a board, administration, faculty effort, but it was our faculty who really carried the ball."

President Shumway also noted that the proposal focused on several key themes, including that "BYU-Hawaii become a premier environment for teaching English as a second language, that the immersion environment for learning English on this campus be next to none anywhere in the world. We have a great faculty in EIL and we're mobilizing our people so that the environment itself comes completely into place."

"Our graduates will have valid degrees, good work résumés at PCC, and fluency in English that allows them to compete with native speakers anywhere in the world."

He added that returnability is the final theme. "Our board does not want the University to become an escape hatch into the U.S. Our intention is not to be a brain drain on these small nations."

"We want to help students reconnect back home," President Shumway continued. "We want them to have the ability to return. We also want them to have the connectivity to return to employment."

To accomplish this, he said BYU-Hawaii is developing a strong international internship program after a student's junior year. "We have spent a lot of time the past two years establishing the infrastructure back in those countries."

"Two years ago we had three international interns. Last year we had 25. This year we'll have maybe 150," President Shumway continued. "The feeling is, our students will go home and help build their countries, their communities and the Church."

He also noted that BYU-Hawaii has established three centers on campus:

• The Center for International Entrepreneurship within the School of Business. "We're getting a lot of donor support, we're getting a lot of enthusiasm among the faculty and on this island; and I believe this center in the next few years will be one of the most exciting things we have. It will include not only wonderful programs on campus and practical experiences back in the countries, but there are also a lot of people who want to establish capitalizing programs to help these young people who have great ideas, lots of energy and a great education, with some money to allow them to get their businesses started."

• The David O. McKay Center for International Culture and Understanding, which was established this year, focuses on "research and seminars, studying diversity and the importance of knowing and appreciating each other across cultures.

• The Center for Career Services and Placement, which has already experienced "huge success in placing our students back in their home countries.

The Hawaii Reserves, Inc. renovation of Hale Laa Blvd., leading to the Laie, Hawaii Temple, is also moving ahead. Some of the new palm trees and street light fixtures are already in place.

"This does not mean that we are walking away from the U.S. mainland or Hawaii students," President Shumway stressed.

"Another thing that's exciting about BYU-Hawaii is the ongoing faculty-student research," he said. "We have world-class scholars in this room who are looking not simply to keep their names in print with what they publish, but they bring students along with them. We have faculty with five-to-eight students who end up with publications or in national conferences with presentations by the students themselves."

President Shumway shared one studen's experience at a national conference who told him, "They took me for a Ph.D. student; and I said you're doing things that Ph.D. students do in other places. Our faculty is really committed to giving our students not only classroom experience, but these mentored research opportunities that lift them very quickly into prominence in these local and national conferences."

"This is a most exciting thing in undergraduate education," he said, noting that donors are also supporting this initiative.

President Shumway also announced that Iosepa, BYU-Hawaii's 57-foot twin-hulled traditional Hawaiian voyaging canoe, would undertake it's maiden voyage from Laie to Kawaihae, west Hawaii. "This has been a wonderful experience and is at the core of our Hawaiian Studies program," he said, noting the canoe was created by "a community effort."

"We had a Tongan and a Hawaiian artisan building it. It has been miraculously able to bring disparate populations within the community together in a harmonious fashion. We also have people who have stepped forward and made very, very significant gifts to build a place at the Polynesian Cultural Center where the Iosepa will be exhibited when it's not in the ocean."

"Among the Hawaiian voyaging population, we're told that the Iosepa is a Cadillac of canoes, but we don't want it to be a Cadillac in the showroom," he added, indicating he plans to sail on one of the canoe's training runs off the Big Island.

"When I talk about Iosepa and these other programs, I'm talking about wonderful leadership among our faculty," he said.

President Shumway also listed several other key points about BYU-Hawaii:

• The University hopes to complete its $46 million fundraising campaign by the BYU-Hawaii jubilee celebration in 2005.
• "Athletically we've done very well," including a woman's cross country and women's tennis national championships. "We've had a lot of fun and wonderful competition with you folks," he said. "We belong to a very small and disparate conference including the HAICU schools and the University of Hawaii-Hilo, Western New Mexico and Montana State-Billings. We are far apart geographically, but we are tight philosophically. Even though we work hard and it's a little expensive, in the end I think the Pac West Conference is one of the most outstanding."
• BYU-Hawaii is building more married student housing and "significant remodeling on the front entrance."

The HAICU conference also included breakout sessions on "Many Englishes spoken here: The challenges of teaching and learning English in a multicultural setting"; "Multiversity: Beyond traditional diversity approaches"; "Programs for Hawaii, the Pacific and the globe"; and a keynote luncheon address by Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris about "Building Oahu into a center for Asia-Pacific sustainability and developing a sustainable knowledge-based economy."

 

Iosepa sails away to the Big Island

University honors five for community service