Hi everyone! My name is Scott Stiles, I'm so grateful for the opportunity to speak to you today. I graduated from BYU–Hawaii in 2013, and my life dream has been to come back and help this place fulfill its mission, and so in my new role as the Chief of Staff, I get to work with President and the President's council to help kind of define the strategy of the university. So that we can fulfill the potential of building the leaders who will go build the church and communities in Oceana and the Asian Rim. Now, as part of that, kind of that responsibility, I'm heading out the customer experience for the university. So, what does it mean to improve customer experience, right? And for most organizations or companies, the customer experience role is very much of asking your customers what they want and giving it to them, right? So they want lollipops, you give them lollipops. I can tell you that that's not how we're operating at the university. The reality is we need to give students the experience that will help them be successful disciples and leaders, and so many times it's not, its going to be about giving them not what they're asking for and we love them enough to make sure we give them the things that they need that will elevate their perspective.
So, why is this such a priority? Well, if you think about what a university does, the student experience is actually the product of the university, and our customers are the students, but their also the communities that we're sending people back to. And so as we build kind of our entire university and as we think strategically about what we're doing, we need to be thinking about what will help those communities throughout Asia and the Pacific that need the gospel and need our leaders. 4.2 billion people that are in our target area for this university, so that's, for every one student on campus, there's two million people who is about to. For every one student from Asia and the Pacific, there's about two million people who could use the gospel there. And so this is a big focus because as we're focused on helping them lead and grow, we're going to create these experiences for people that are more focused on them developing as leaders and then them seeing what really excellence looks like. Now, an interesting thing is that for most these students, the experience that they have here on campus will be this will be the most effective organization that they have ever worked for, right? And some of you may cringe when you hear that, but it's true, right? The reality is what we do here is amazing, and it's hard, and as they see excellence, and as they see us executing day after day. Doing things that make ourselves better and innovate and create and be better, they're going to be inspired by that.
So, today I wanted to talk about three principles or tools that we are kind of using as we review strategically and how we approach kind of these problems that we have. So the first one is strategic alignment. Now, change is coming, and we talk about that a lot. But what's really important is to remember is that we aren't changing because we're bored. We're changing because we have a prophetic mission that's really hard, and so what we're seeing is as the university goes through phases, we have different goals and objectives. So as we progress and draw closer to basically achieving that mission, we're going to need to define and prioritize in what we do. An example of this is what we did in housing operations and residential life. We realized that residential life had too broad of a remit. Our resident advisors were students who were charged with being property managers, friends, rule enforcers, and emotional supports. But some of these students were actually becoming dependent on their RAs for their emotional needs. It did not align with the university. We need our students to become independent adults. This doesn't mean that they don't need support, but they should be referred to trained professionals who can help them address the root causes of their struggles and grow through these experiences. During the last academic year, the university has increased these resources so that students can get better access to really trained professionals. As we did the strategic reviews with housing and residential life, we basically found that students needed three things when it comes to their housing. They wanted clean spaces that were safe and peaceful. And so what we did was we went through and we were able to basically define clear roles and objectives for the housing side as well as the residential life side. And then we made sure we addressed those with people who are qualified and prepared to fulfill those needs. So the first principle is kind of that strategic alignment.
The second one is clear communication. Now, as we gain strategic alignment, we have clear messages for everybody. And so now we need to create kind of the venues and the proper places where we can share those messages. Last year, Bain Consulting did a big report on first-year student experience here, and their report showed that we have a very unique problem because we have students coming from such diverse backgrounds that, that communication in those early phases is really challenging. So this year we created a series of Canvas modules that talk about what life is like on campus. We talk to them like adults, right? This isn't a promo video. This is trying to prepare them to be successful while they're here. So we share with them the first video is a video from President [Kauwe] where he shares about the prophetic vision of the university and the expectations that they will become disciples who are focused on building communities in Asia and the Pacific. We also had one that speaks about the housing shortage in La'ie, and we explained that we're going to expect most of them to be living on campus pretty shortly. And we even talked about the dangers of not planning a career. As too many students return without a clear plan or pathway to provide for their families and be able to position themselves to be leaders and so we actually asked them. After those, they watch a video, and then we ask them to tell us, what are your career objectives? How does that align with your major? And then we ask them, what are a few companies you would like to work for when you go home? So that second principle is clear communication, and as we do that, we can elevate the standards and expectations with these students.
The final principle is the idea of having an expectation of revelation. I've only been working full-time at the university for a few months, but the way that I have felt the spirit in the work that's going on here on a daily basis it has changed my life forever. I wake up in the morning with ideas and revelation and clear guidance like I've never felt, and I know that the Lord is guiding this work, and we all know that. And that the reality is that we need to be teaching students that they have access to revelation as they make these pivotal decisions in their lives. Students are making most of the biggest decisions in their lives, right now. They are deciding what their majors are going to be and what their careers are going to be. Those careers are going to affect where they live, how they're able to serve. They're making dating and relationship, and marriage decisions. They're deciding, making decisions about family planning and how many children they're going to have, and we have an opportunity right now to influence them in a way that's truly special. And so as we seek the inspiration and revelation from the Lord and as we're open to that, and as we share those experiences with our students, I know they will feel the consecration that's going on in our lives and the way that we're willing to sacrifice and follow that revelations and they'll seek it in their own lives. And as we've done this, we've looked for opportunities to share, and as we mentioned was the experience in the temple yesterday with the students.
I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here. I just want to close with my testimony that I know the church is true. I know that we have prophets that can lead us, that do lead us, and guide us. I know that the Savior has atoned for our sins, and I have a perfect knowledge that through our covenants, we are happier and better people who are better able to serve. I love you all and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be at the university and to serve here, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.