Welcome
Brothers and Sisters, Aloha mai kākou,
I have missed you, I am delighted to be back! As Monica and I sat down and I looked over and she was crying. And she just said, “I’m so happy to be back.” We feel that so strongly and we felt so much gratitude as we’ve had these last few months to be back with you. It’s been great! During my medical leave, the Board asked me to entrust university operations in the capable hands of Kelly Haws and all of you. You did a wonderful job. I am deeply grateful for your hard work and for the respect and love that you showed Kelly and Connie as they served. They decided to stick around and that’s been fantastic.
I also want to thank each of you individually for your prayers on behalf of me and my family. We have experienced incredible miracles of physical healing. Perhaps even more powerfully, we felt love, peace, and confidence, and even joy through some of the most challenging months of our lives. I know that that came because of your prayers and your faith. Thank you.
Today we are blessed to have Elder and Sister Renlund, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles here joining us. I love them. I’m so grateful for both of them for their consecrated lives, for their wisdom and their experiences, and for the blessing that they bring to all around them. I testify to you that Elder Renlund is a prophet, seer, and revelator. I am so grateful that we have his leadership on the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees for BYU–Hawaii. We look forward to his message.
When he speaks, I invite you to be prayerful, and thoughtful. Prepared to write down the promptings of the Spirit that come to you as you listen and learn. I am certain that you will be taught how you can change your stewardship to better align with the will of God and serving our students.
Mission
I am grateful for the chance to address you before we hear from Elder Renlund.
The mission that we have here at of BYU–Hawaii is to prepare disciples of Jesus Christ who will live and lead in Oceania and the Asian Rim. [1]
Now, this language has been refined and simplified under prophetic direction to focus on BYU–Hawaii's unique role in the Church Educational System and in building the kingdom of God.
I invite you to think often about this our mission and how you can help prepare our students to live and lead in their families, their communities, and the Church throughout Oceania and the Asian Rim. [2]
Governance
Now, we are blessed to have a unique governance structure here at BYU–Hawaii: our Board of Trustees, whose senior officers are the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That’s pretty amazing governance. It’s further supported by CES Board members, who are some of the most exceptional and qualified men and women in the world. They are also men and women of deep faith, unshakable values, and unwavering commitment to Jesus Christ and to serving His children.
Now, we as BYU–Hawaii are a Church-sponsored institution. We trust the governance established for the university and sustain those who have been given responsibility to lead it. Within our stewardships, we can and should think carefully, speak candidly, share our experience and expertise, and seek inspiration. When direction is established through board-authorized channels, we must unite and move forward seeking excellence.
Given that context, I want to outline the relationship between the university and the Board, and how the decision-making process works.
So my role as the university president is to bring the best objective information I can about key university issues to the Board of Trustees. I am sometimes asked to bring several of my best proposals for solutions, or paths forward as well. When I bring those things forward, I first discuss these matters with Elder James R. Rasband in his role as Commissioner of the Church Educational System. As needed, discussions then are raised to the Executive Committee, which includes Elder Michael T. Ringwood of the Presidency of the Seventy, and President Camille N. Johnson, of the General Relief Society, and is led by Elder Dale G. Renlund and Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Vetted items will then progress to the full Board for discussion, counsel, and eventually a decision.
It is common for items to be discussed multiple times, at multiple levels, even at the full Board level, before a path forward is decided upon and approved.
Now, in preparation for me to take the best thinking that we have, your experience and perspective matters in this process. We need you to ask questions, identify problems, propose solutions, and contribute your professional expertise. Your contributions refine those ideas that we bring forward to the Board of Trustees. We need you to continue to be engaged, and we will continue to create opportunities to invite your counsel. Remembering that our contributions are most helpful, most meaningful when they are fully aligned with the mission of the university and the direction that’s approved by the Board of Trustees.
Simply put, the Board provides direction for BYU–Hawaii. Once that direction is established, it is our stewardship to execute it with excellence.
Strategy
So, our mission defines our purpose. Governance helps us understand how direction is established and unifies our efforts. Now let me remind you of the strategy the Board has approved to accomplish that mission.
For several years now, our work has been guided by a simple three-part strategy approved by the Board of Trustees to help BYU–Hawaii fulfill its mission and its role in God's kingdom.
First, we are charged with Increasing Access to BYU–Hawaii.
We have made incredible progress on this strategic objective. Enrollment from the Asia, Asia North, Pacific, and Philippines areas of the Church has increased significantly. We have also seen a strong increase in enrollment from students here in Hawaii, even from Kahuku, and that’s been fun to see. We are now serving many more students that have the capacity and the desire to live and lead in Oceania and the Asian Rim.
This progress has required considerable effort and significant changes from nearly every employee on campus. Thank you. Our budget and financial aid teams, along with auxiliary offices, have worked tirelessly to make it possible for us to offer IWORK support for our exchange visitor program to twice as many students, as we did just six years ago. They have done this during a period of economic inflation while keeping the university's cost per IWORK student unchanged. And, amazingly, without increasing the number of full-time employees. With great work by everyone in academics, student life, and across the university, we have also increased graduation rates and career placement.
Now, Elder Renlund, do you think that warrants a round of applause? I do!
This is truly amazing work. These are the outcomes that BYU–Hawaii has been seeking for many years, and you are the team that took the Lord's preparation, blessings, and opportunities and achieved those outcomes. Thank you.
Second, we have been charged with Enhancing and Maintaining our Physical Facilities.
Our campus is absolutely beautiful, even in it’s current state. Now, this is noticed by visitors, and even by our Board of Trustees, most importantly, it makes our students' lives so much better during their time here. I want to thank you all of our Facilities Management team and to everyone else who supports this that effort to keep our campus beautiful.
Now, Kevin just gave us a wonderful update on the construction. I thought it was a wonderful presentation except for, I think, it was a little fast. I wanted to look at the pictures longer and the timelines longer, so maybe we will ask for an encore performance at some point. We’re really grateful for the updates and the progress. If any of you have ever tried to get a permit to do something in Hawaii, you know that what we’re seeing is miraculous. Kevin can actually tell you, the next time you see him you could ask. There are many completely miraculous things that have happened to facilitate the progress of this project. Now, this construction efforts at BYU–Hawaii represents one of the largest single capital projects in the entire Church and the Church Budget office reminds me of that often. It is humbling to realize that the Lord, through His prophets, trusts us with carrying out this extraordinary project and with operating the university at a standard that completely warrants the use of sacred tithes donated by our brothers and sisters from all over the world.
It is now our responsibility to ensure that the quality of the work in each of our individual stewardships is equal to this investment, and more importantly, that is equal to the confidence that the Lord has placed in each of us here at BYU–Hawaii.
Third, we have been charged with delivering an exceptional Capstone Experience.
A capstone is the final, culminating stone that is placed to complete a complex piece of architecture. For many years, the Board of Trustees has referred to BYU–Hawaii as the capstone experience for young members of the Church who seek to live and lead in Oceania and the Asian Rim.[3] I’ll be honest, I’ve never been clear on what that meant exactly. But Iin recent years, we have worked carefully with the Board of Trustees to understand exactly what is meant by a capstone experience and how we can more effectively provide that capstone experience.
Our students have been blessed and shaped throughout their lives, in primary, in Sunday School, in seminary and institutes, many of our students in the Church Colleges of the Pacific, and more recently, the many opportunities that are available through BYU-Pathway Worldwide. Each of these has helped them develop into disciples of Jesus Christ, emulating His character and attributes. At BYU–Hawaii we are charged with creating opportunities for each student to elevate and refine those attributes. The degree they earn here is the figurative capstone.
Last year I introduced five essential areas of development that support this capstone experience. We have since had many discussions with you and counseled with the Board of Trustees to receive direction regarding, and, ultimately, approval of the following five pillars of the capstone experience.
They are faith, leadership, intellect, self-reliance, and resilience.[4] I am now going to briefly explain what we mean by each one, the experiences we intend our students to have, related to each one, and how we are going to measure our success.
So, the first is faith.
Our purpose is to strengthen faith in Jesus Christ, testimony of living prophets, and commitment to temple covenants.
We will do this through gospel-centered teaching and mentorship, devotionals and other spiritually strengthening experiences, and opportunities for students to serve and worship in the temple and prepare for the sealing ordinance.
How will we know if we are succeeding? We can measure whether our students report increased faith in Jesus Christ and testimony of living prophets in graduation exit surveys. We will also look for increased temple worship, service, and sealings, as well as measuring increased participation in devotionals.
Second is leadership.
Our purpose is to develop capable leaders who are disciples of Jesus Christ and prepared to bless their families, communities, the Church, and their professions.
Students will plan and complete a Leadership Project. They will also have opportunities to lead through all the things that you provide in academics, employment, service, and clubs. Through these experiences and throughout their time, we will provide them with mentoring, assessment, and feedback using the Leadership Pattern.
We will measure completion of those projects, demonstrated growth from assessments in the Leadership Pattern, and the volume of student participation in the leadership opportunities that we have on campus.
Third is intellect.
Our purpose is to empower graduates to seek, recognize, and learn truth through both faith and intellect.
Every student should have at least one mentored academic experience. I am not going to go into every details of how we have defined this, but they have been defined by our faculty, and our dean’s council, and our Academic Vice President’s council. Academics will seek to provide and support those experiences. Through those, we will help students develop the knowledge and intellectual skills identified in our Institutional Learning Outcomes, while helping them progress efficiently towards on-time graduation.
We will measure whether they complete a mentored academic experiences, our achievement of Institutional Learning Outcomes, and the number of students that graduate each year.
Fourth is self-reliance.
Our purpose is to prepare graduates to provide for themselves and their families as they live and lead throughout Oceania and the Asian Rim. [5]
Students will complete internships in or related to our target area and participate in Career Services programming that prepares them for meaningful employment, graduate education, and family responsibilities.
We will then measure internship completion, and successful career placement, with particular attention to placement in Oceania and the Asian Rim to see how we are doing.
Finally, resilience.
Our purpose is to strengthen the physical and emotional health of our graduates so they can live abundant lives filled with Christlike service and joy.
Students will begin developing that capacity in the Holokai Foundations course. They will participate in Seasider Wellness programming and follow-up, and develop habits and skills that support lifelong physical and emotional well-being.
We will use proven assessment instruments to measure their progress between intake and graduation. We will also measure participation in the Seasider Wellness and the other student wellness outcomes that are associated with that program.
In the coming months we will refine existing efforts for the development of in each of these pillars and introduce some new efforts. As we go about this development process and implementation process, we need everyone here at BYU–Hawaii to be thoughtful, to be prayerful, and to be innovative in how we you will support student development in these pillars.
As we do so, I invite each of us to ask yourselves these three questions:
- How can I be a better example of personal development in each pillar?
- How can I provide opportunities for students to grow in each of these five areas?
- How can I help assess and measure each student's progress in building up their capacity in these pillars?
Faith. Leadership. Intellect. Self-reliance. Resilience. [6]
These five pillars give us a framework for how we will help each student fulfill their potential as a disciple of Jesus Christ and as a leader. Now let us turn to our university-wide goals for the years ahead.
Goals
At my inauguration, Elder Jeffery R. Holland gave me and each one of us a very specific charge, he said, “…what we have done in the past has led us marvelously to this day, but in no way is it sufficient for the trajectory the Church and the university are now on. We need to do all we have done in the past but do it better, for more students, in less time. The financial investment in BYU–Hawaii is huge. We need to extend those resources to more students, with such things as reduced time on campus, ongoing curriculum innovation, in-field internships, and on-time graduation—to name a few principles.” [7]
So, it is not an accident that I share this quote with you frequently. It is not an accident that when we outline our strategic efforts, they are completely aligned with Elder Holland’s charge. There is a simple recipe for success here at BYU–Hawaii: you follow the same primary song, we “Follow the Prophet.” [8] When prophets, seers, and revelators give us direction, we follow it, because we know that the blessings from the Lord will pour out upon us when we obey. So, to carry out Elder Holland’s charge is to do all of this “for more students, in less time.” [9] We are continuing to work toward our university-wide goal of graduating 1,000 students each year; that sounds lofty, we are certain that it’s possible, and we are making progress.
We have also received clear direction from the Board about two additional goals that are essential to our success:
- First, 100% of our students will report increased faith in Jesus Christ and His prophets in the post-graduation survey.
- And second, 100% of our students will have satisfactory career placement at graduation. This includes graduate school and those who choose to lead in their homes.
1,000 graduates. Stronger faith. Successful placement.
Every decision that you make in your stewardship, you should be thinking about those goals. How can we fulfill the charge that Elder Holland shared with us from the Board of Trustees for this administration.
Our Best
Elder Holland finished his inaugural charge with words that I ponder frequently. He said, “Those great purposes of BYU–Hawaii will demand the very, very best of us.” [10]
I am so grateful for each of you; what we set out to do together six years ago was an expression of our faith in God and His prophets. What has been accomplished during that time is miraculous, and it is a manifestation of God’s power.
Our mission is clear. Our governance is sure. Our strategy is proven. Our goals are set. The resources to succeed are provided. Now each of us must offer our very, very best. [11]
I testify to you that our Heavenly Father loves us, and that His plan of happiness is beautiful and real. I testify that Jesus Christ lives and that He is our Savior. I testify that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is His Church. We are led by prophets, seers, and revelators who know God and love Him. By divine design, each of us has the privilege of a stewardship at BYU–Hawaii, here in beautiful Lāʻie; together, right now. I am so grateful for that. I testify that our role in God's kingdom is unique and important. I know that as we act with faith, unite ourselves with the will of God, and follow the direction He gives through His living prophets, that He will magnify our efforts and accomplish His purposes through us. I share this testimony with you and pray that the Lord will continue to bless us as we fulfill this great stewardship, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes:
[1] BYU–Hawaii Mission Statement
[2] BYU–Hawaii Mission Statement
[3] BYU–Hawaii Mission Statement
[4] John S.K. Kauwe III, “Following Prophetic Direction: Five Years and Looking Forward,” [Brigham Young University–Hawaii ohana meeting, August 29, 2025], speeches.byuh.edu
[5] BYU–Hawaii Mission Statement
[6] John S.K. Kauwe III, “Following Prophetic Direction: Five Years and Looking Forward,” [Brigham Young University–Hawaii ohana meeting, August 29, 2025], speeches.byuh.edu
[7] Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Historic and Special Day,” [Brigham Young University–Hawaii inauguration, October 19, 2021], speeches.byuh.edu
[8] “Follow the Prophet,” Children’s Songbook, 110
[9] Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Historic and Special Day,” [Brigham Young University–Hawaii inauguration, October 19, 2021], speeches.byuh.edu
[10] Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Historic and Special Day,” [Brigham Young University–Hawaii inauguration, October 19, 2021], speeches.byuh.edu
[11] Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Historic and Special Day,” [Brigham Young University–Hawaii inauguration, October 19, 2021], speeches.byuh.edu