Andrew Miller

President Shumway recently returned from a highly successful 16-day goodwill tour to the South Pacific—including New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and Kiribati—as part of this year's Jubilee celebration.

Andrew Miller | University Advancement | 26 April 2005 After meeting with BYU-Hawaii administrators over the past several days, the executive board of trustees for the Church Education System gave its approval of BYU-Hawaii's progress and direction in a meeting with faculty and staff yesterday.

The board is comprised of Elder Richard G. Scott, chair, Elder Robert D. Hales, Elder Rolfe Kerr, Commissioner of Education, the presidents of the other church schools and many others.

In the meeting with faculty and staff held yesterday, Elder Kerr explained that the object of the visit was to for the board to become more acquainted with some of the major issues, concerns and initiatives currently facing BYU-Hawaii.

Among the programs considered by the board during its visit was the issue and concern of housing in the communities surrounding the university.

President Shumway honored President David O. McKay and the labor missionaries—"those we call the university’s and the Polynesian Cultural Center’s first donors"—in a Jubilee devotional yesterday.

Andrew Miller | University Advancement | 6 April 2005 Mary Wright, former U.S. Foreign Service Officer, spoke to students and faculty on "dissent in a democracy" in a forum this past Tuesday sponsored by the BYU-Hawaii College Democrats.

Specifically, Wright spoke on "the role that each one of us has in evaluating what goes on in our country .... You all as citizens have the right, responsibility and obligation to look critically at what your government's doing."

Rather than just "pulling an idea out of your head," Wright encouraged listeners to "do some research and really think long and hard about what's going on and have some rationale on why you're taking the position that you're taking."

Andrew Miller | University Advancement | 1 April 2005 James A. Smith, professor of music and long-time employee of BYU-Hawaii, called listeners in Thursday's devotional to greater efforts of selfless generosity, sacrifice and service.

Smith taught that "generosity is an essential component of true spirituality," closely related to or synonymous with service, love and sacrifice.

Smith quoted President Gordon B. Hinckley, who said, "Without sacrifice there is no true worship of God. ... The Father gave his Son, and the Son gave his life, and we do not worship unless we give—give of our substance, ... our time, ... strength, ... talent, ... faith, ... [and] testimonies."

Andrew Miller | University Advancement | 1 April 2005 BYU-Hawaii's Joseph F. Smith Library donated about 80,000 government texts today—almost its entire collection—to the Hamilton Library of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

The transfer constitutes a five year off-site housing agreement, at the conclusion of which BYU-Hawaii will release the collection to UH permanently.

The donation comes as a boon to UH, who lost nearly all of its 2.8 million government documents housed at the Hamilton Library in a devastating flood that swept through Manoa valley last October.

"We are extremely grateful for BYU-Hawaii's generosity in providing this material to us," said Gwen Sinclair, head of the regional government documents depository with Hamilton Library. "BYU-Hawaii's gift will provide us with much-needed current government publications as well as historical material.

Andrew Miller | University Advancement | 28 March 2005 Susan Barton, professor of mathematics, shared a special message on the love of God and the atonement of Jesus Christ in last week's devotional prior to Easter Sunday.

Barton began by sharing the story of when she was faced with the opportunity to teach at BYU-Hawaii. After intensive study, prayer and meditation she made her decision; nonetheless, she sought a priesthood blessing. In addition to receiving a confirmation of her decision, "the blessing turned out to be an incredible testimony building experience."

Andrew Miller | University Advancement | 22 March 2005 BYU-Hawaii vocal students dominated the annual National Association of Teachers of Singing competition held this past Friday and Saturday at UH Manoa.

Nine out of 11 winners of the collegiate classes are BYU-Hawaii students. Of the 19 finalists, 15 are from BYU-Hawaii. In addition, Ben Tyrell won the 1st place award of $1,000 at the Morning Music Club competition held the same day.

Contestants were divided into four classes of competition, depending on their years of study and the music genre, explained Dr. James Smith, professor of music and voice instructor to several of BYUH's winning students. They were judged in a preliminary round, from which six finalists were selected to sing in a final public recital. For each class, judges then conferred first, second and third awards with cash prizes.

Elder W. Rolfe Kerr, recently appointed Commissioner of the Church Education System, encourage faculty, staff and student alike to "be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only" in order to accomplish the purposes of BYU-Hawaii and the Kingdom.