On Friday, February 13th there was a Q&A with the President’s Council open for anyone on BYU–Hawaii campus to attend. For those of you who haven’t made it out to one of these yet (which, by the looks of it, is anyone not in the administration or writing for The Student Voice) this is a meeting where students, faculty and staff get to ask President Wheelwright and the administration any question they want, so long as it’s submitted ahead of time to [email protected]. We, The Student Voice, had some of our own questions after attending the emergency meeting regarding Culture Night held the week previous, so, we submitted them and patiently waited through the hour long Q&A to get our answers. What did we find out? Actually, quite a bit.
First of all, Debbie Hippolite-Wright is a champion.
When it came time to talk about culture night Hippolite-Wright stood up in front of the group and clearly stated, “First let me start off by saying that shirts on for culture night was never a PC [President’s Council] mandate,” contrary to what was previously reported. There has been discussion on the subject for years, but the idea that t-shirts become mandatory was a huge miscommunication. While this lapse was clearly not her own, Hippolite-Wright stated, “If anyone needs an apology, I’ll give it. As one of the advisors, the buck stops here.” Then, in perhaps my favorite line of the meetings she proffered, “I’m a fierce Maori woman, I can handle it.” And to settle that weight of responsibility for this issue squarely on your shoulders, you’d have to be. The apology in and of itself is significant, but she didn’t stop there.
This was the first time in the meeting that we heard a request from the administration for students to speak our minds freely, but it wasn’t the last. After Hippolite-Wright sat down we heard from President Wheelwright. While addressing some issues revolving around miscommunication between departments on campus he advised those in attendance, “I think as individuals, the way to avoid these kinds of miscommunications is to make sure you ask enough questions… keep asking questions until you’re clear.”
It seems that the administration at BYU–Hawaii is sincere in their plea for students to speak up. These forums are evidence of that.
The last portion of the meeting was dedicated to the topic of the impending BYUHSA elections. The survey that was released to select students on campus was the main topic of discussion. Student Advisory Council VP Sery Kone was asked about the somewhat limited nature of the survey’s circulation—an estimated total of 330 students. He responded, “The idea of the su rveyis not for you to voice your opinion, it’s for us to get an element that will help us make the decision [regarding upcoming BYUHSA team replacement]. If you want to voice your opinion, we have a feedback form you can fill out and we will get back to you.”
Kone went on to express some frustration. “We learned a very hard lesson, basically. We have students voicing and talking about things, issues on campus, and when we give them ways to get back to us on it, nobody actually does it. In every class I went to talk about the survey and the SAC feedback form I got asked questions, about Culture Night for example, and I didn’t know anything about it, and I said, ‘use the feedback form’. I showed the link to them, and till today, nobody used it. [In the BSA presidency survey there] are 38 and only 17 students responded.”
Kone further explained the process by which SAC chooses issues to address. The team considers factors like if the issue is relevant, if it is true, what the impact of the issue is or potentially could be, and the workload required to address it. The SAC team then votes and takes on the issue with the highest votes from the team and investigation begins. Kone finished his explanation by stating, “Finally, one thing we do is we get 100% resolution, which means, you will get an answer. And sometimes it will be an answer that you do not expect, but at least you will get it.”
So, the message of the meeting from administration to students? Somewhat surprisingly and contrary to popular belief, BYU–Hawaii administration says, speak up! Ask your questions. Give your feedback. Make your voice heard. Apparently, they’re listening. Also quite apparent is the fact that the student body is perceived as being interested only in complaining and not being willing to act.
Are we?
As a student here on campus I hear a lot of complaints about a non-responsive, overly authoritative administration. I get it. There’s a lot of progress to be made, but there are ways to get things done. Are we the lazy, immature, unmotivated students Millennials are painted as? Or do we believe we can make a difference?
The administration says they’re listening. Let’s use the channels we’ve been given and find out how responsive they are.
What do you care about? What do you want to see addressed? Submit questions, comments, concerns and ideas in any of these ways:
Student Advisory Council Feedback Form
[email protected] PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL Q&A
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