President Wheelwright's Q&A Sessions Continue

In his October 29 question-and-answer meeting, BYU-Hawaii President Steven C. Wheelwright fielded queries that centered around themes of distance-learning initiatives, organizational streamlining, moving toward a trimester system and enrollment trends.

For example, he explained that priesthood leaders in Tonga and Fiji recently told him "they would like to keep their young men at home preparing for their missions, and have us figure out how to take distance-learning courses until they're 19 and go on their missions."

"Traditional distance-learning courses have a very high drop-out rate, because they're totally open-ended," President Wheelwright said, whereas BYU-Hawaii would look at "courses synchronized with a calendar, so everybody taking a course starts on a certain date...and we would have facilitators."

He also said young people taking such courses "would be admitted as students but not given permission [initially] to come on campus": Young women would eventually come to Laie with a recommendation from their stake presidents, and young men with a recommendation from their mission presidents.

President Wheelwright explained the South Pacific stake presidents liked this idea because "the Church has just instituted a financial requirement on every LDS young man and woman who goes on a mission from those parts of the world," because it gives them time to come up with the first $750 of their mission expenses.

"In some of the islands, which are on a British system, Form 7 is basically a freshman year that works like AP [advanced placement] courses in the U.S. where you get college credit. Form 7 students could earn up to 24 credits, plus another six-to-eight from distance learning that year, so they would actually arrive [at BYUH] as legitimate sophomores."

He pointed out that CITO, BYU-Hawaii's Center for Instructional Technology and Outreach, is working on the development of such courses, and is also working with BYU-Idaho to possibly use their courses, which are widely taken in Rexburg.

For example, President Wheelwright described how BYU-Idaho nursing students "take a couple of online courses while they're doing their practicum. You can imagine lots of places where we could do the same thing." In addition, he said BYU-Idaho has "offered their online courses to on-campus students. They've discovered that the typical student opts to take one a semester. This gives them another degree of freedom in their schedules."

"They're also very willing to have our students take their courses, where we don't have one, and then we just accept the credit back here," he said, noting that the BYU-Idaho online model "is designed to enhance the number of degree students that we can service."

"If you look at our tuition currently, it's roughly $100 a credit hour," he continued. "Our goal would be to have our distance learning priced at cost, at $10 per credit hour. That's Idaho's goal also, but it's all in their tuition. You can take as many hours as you can, and if five of them are online, it costs you the same. We may treat non-matriculated students a little differently."

Asked about the recently announced organizational design team, President Wheelwright pointed out seven faculty and staff members: Dr. William Neal, Arapata Meha, Susan Barton, Bret Ellis, Steve Tueller, David Lucero and a temporary HR person, have been charged over the next several months with "taking a look at what our structure should be like so that we can most effectively deliver our mission."

"One of the things that happens in organizations is that over time, there are lots of pressures to change and add things that are not always 100% consistent with the mission. You end up with processes that tend to be somewhat disjointed and not very streamlined." He added some staff responsibilities could be restructured to be "both more effective and efficient."

"They'll be looking at whether we can do some restructuring, combine certain jobs, move reporting relationships for some jobs, and/or simplify. They'll also set some standards for processes," he continued, stressing they're not going to change them, and it will not include academic programs.

"They'll be using existing councils and other groups to get input and perspective," President Wheelwright continued. "Basically, it's a chance to rethink what our organization should look like for the next five-to-seven years–what the support organization should do to accommodate, facilitate and support the academic program."

Asked if BYU-Hawaii is switching to a trimester academic calendar similar to the one at BYU-Idaho, President Wheelwright replied, "We're certainly taking a close look at it, but we have a lot more process to go through." He also explained that the BYU-Idaho model, three equal-length semesters and a seven-week gap with no classes, has equal enrollment each semester, but BYU-Hawaii's mix of international students would require some changes: "We don't have the capacity, so whatever we did in a third semester would be much smaller than what BYU-Idaho is doing."

He pointed out, "If we converted to three equal-length semesters, we could add 400 degree-seeking students easily with no change of work loads or faculty;" although a small number of faculty would teach both blocks, "which would be one semester."

"The Academic Planning Committee is looking at all the ways we can better use the university's resources," added Academic Vice President Dr. Keith Roberts. "The objective is to use the resources, the physical plant, more efficiently."

In reference to how soon such a change might take place, President Wheelwright answered, "We're going to make sure we do it in a way that works for us. We don't know exactly what form that's going to take, but we're going to make sure we have the right form. We don't have a timeline."

"Where is BYU-Hawaii going in the next 25 years?" a student asked. President Wheelwright responded that he has noticed two trends "that are very apparent" in higher education:

"The quality of the impact, what difference it makes on the students, is the number-one thing people care about. If you look at the courses that are actually attracting students, they're courses that make a difference in their jobs and lives. In a sense, the market for that course is impacting what the course is, much more than is true in most universities [which traditionally] rely on faculty to decide what the students need to know in the subject area."

For example, he said online courses focus on "what the employees feel they need for their jobs. They have a much more applied look than many universities. The University of Phoenix is doing the bricks-and-mortar version of customized courses."

"The other thing that's very clear is that the motivation of the students has everything to do with whether or not they finish a course," President Wheelwright said. He added there's also a connection to direct benefits they derive from an employer for completing a course, such as qualifying for higher pay rates and promotions.

"I think both of those trends will continue. I don't think they'll go away," President Wheelwright said. He also noted BYU-Hawaii has the responsibility to provide leaders. "I'm absolutely convinced that's what the Lord needs in His kingdom."