President Wheelwright Resumes Q-and-A Series

BYU-Hawaii President Steven C. Wheelwright's open question-and-answer forum at 7 a.m. on November 27 in the Little Theater focused on the Honor Code, the online use of social networks and international students returning home.

Asked whether there's a different dress code for faculty, for example, President Wheelwright replied, "There's only one standard, and it's a minimum standard...but it's certainly appropriate to have other places where the standard is higher, because of academic purposes, because of what's being taught, or it could be because of the job."

As cases in point, he mentioned the School of Business encourages students to dress professionally during presentations, and that at least one missionary preparation religion class requires students to dress like missionaries. "I can see great merit in doing that," President Wheelwright said. "But those are individual things, and I've not heard a proposal that we change the basic dressing and grooming standards of the Honor Code. They're clearly stated."

Michael B. Bliss, Vice President of Administrative Services, also noted that former BYU-Hawaii President Shumway previously "asked the faculty in particular to dress more professionally than perhaps the students would dress."

In reference to students wearing slippers and jeans in class, President Wheelwright said it's up to the professor; otherwise, "they're okay." He also said the length of shorts is clearly stated as being to the kneecap. "That's what it means."

Questioned about inconsistencies in enforcing Honor Code standards, President Wheelwright replied there are two aspects: educating the faculty, staff and students about what's expected of them — "not just what they wear, talk and behave, but also how they encourage others to do so, so there's a mutual understanding and commitment"; and knowing "what are the consequences of not meeting the standards." For example, he asked if someone not in standards would be served in the cafeteria or turned away. "We currently have a working group looking at both areas, and we'll be expanding that circle."

President Wheelwright emphasized that the Honor Code is "one of the things that distinguishes us," and added that the standards apply to all aspects of student life, not just dress and appearance.

Asked about bans on Internet social networks such as myspace.com and facebook.com as well as youtube.com, BYU-Hawaii Chief Information Officer Jim Nilson explained the former has been blocked because myspace "really has some questionable content, and facebook could have...[but] we don't have intentions to block facebook right now."

"Youtube will not be blocked, but it will be restricted during the day on campus. Youtube is a streaming environment, and it eats our bandwidth. That's why we blocked peer-to-peer sharing of music and videos," he continued. "If enough students get on youtube and start using streaming video, it could impact our university systems. We think we have more than sufficient bandwidth if we are good stewards of it," Nilson said.

President Wheelwright added the university is studying how to capture useful content so that it does not impact bandwidth. "That would solve a lot of the problem with the bandwidth," he said.

In answer to a question on what BYU-Hawaii does to international students who do not return home after graduation, President Wheelwright said, "The answer right now is we don't do anything. One of the issues is IWES students, because we spend so much money on them. The Church is clearly investing in IWES students with the idea that the vast majority of them will go home to build the Kingdom, but we also believe in agency."

"What we hope is that people will honor the agreement they first sign when they come here," he continued. "The Church Commissioner of Education has encouraged us to look at the possibility for IWES students who do not return home of converting something like 50-60% of their IWES support into debt. If they're staying in the U.S., they can afford to pay back that debt. We're looking at that."

President Wheelwright also said he realizes "people ought to go where the Lord wants them to go. We have great confidence that for a large number of those where the Lord wants them to go next is home. We need to do everything we can to facilitate and make that attractive. But for some, the Lord may want them to go get a graduate degree. If our students are converted when they ask the Lord when they're making those kinds of decisions, then I have great faith the Lord's going to help them get to where they need to be. In the end, it's really about conversion, and the student's willingness to respond to the promptings of the Lord."

Other questions included:

• What did the inaugural address reference to the "whole man" mean? President Wheelwright said that includes three parts: the intellectual, the spiritual and service or "the heart" — that is, "the attitude and respect toward other people, and what your perspective is on your own blessings and your role in blessing the lives of others." He added he hopes "we'll always teach [our students] the value of always learning, of always discovering and growing."

• Will the mix of students at BYU-Hawaii change in the future? "If you were to assume we're going to grow, we would grow much more internationally than we would domestically," President Wheelwright replied. "Our target area is Asia and the Pacific, and that's where we would grow."

• Are there any strategic plans to highlight Asia? "We have not had any systematic discussion strategically on how we're going to do that," he answered, noting however that some Career Services, alumni, mentorship activities and distance learning initiatives are already underway. "Over the next six months I'm sure we'll be doing more on how we approach that area versus, for example, the South Pacific... Right now we're at the experimental stage."

• Is there any truth to the rumor that students must pray in English? "I hadn't heard that one," President Wheelwright responded. "In public, the language should be English. For personal prayers, they should pray how they want to pray."

• Why are grade requirements and expectations inconsistent? Dr. Keith Roberts, BYU-Hawaii Vice President of Academics, acknowledged, "There's a variance from teacher to teacher," and said this has been a long-standing issue in education.

• What is President Wheelwright doing to acclimate to here, and not vice versa? "That's a good question that comes up all the time," he replied, dividing his answer into two parts: First, he said he often gets emails telling him "to adjust to the culture. That is code for, don't try to change anything, we like it the way it is. The Lord didn't send me here to leave things the way they were. I absolutely believe President [Gordon B.] Hinckley and the Board [of Trustees] had in mind that we could do much more as a university. I'm very much committed to that."

"I'm also committed to [the belief] that the Lord is the one who can give us the most help in finding what that is. We all just need to rely on the Lord, and make sure we're in tune in asking His advice on every single thing we do."

"The culture we need to think about is the culture of discipleship and the culture of the gospel, as opposed to the culture of any single country," he continued. "Part of the challenge is how do we make sure that the culture we're developing here on campus, and that really gets reinforced in all of our students, is the culture that the Lord would have developed here."

Unlike the first monthly forum, which was held at noon, and the second one at 5 p.m., the November 27 session was held early to accommodate those who can't come later in the day. President Wheelwright indicated earlier he would continue to hold the periodic Q&A meetings as long as there is interest.

Questions for any of the forums can be submitted online at presidentsqanda@byuh.edu, and answers to questions are now being compiled and categorized on the BYUH President's Council online web page.

 — Photos by Mike Foley