An ad hoc committee is developing the conceptual framework and a new set of standards for student employees that will ensure all work experience on the BYU-Hawaii campus and at the Polynesian Cultural Center will contribute significantly to their overall education and career preparation.
BYU-Hawaii President Steven C. Wheelwright has stated repeatedly since coming that the university has a two-fold mission "to integrate both spiritual and secular learning," and "to prepare students of character and integrity who can provide in their families, their communities, in their professions and in building the Kingdom of God."
Larry E. Litster [pictured above], Director of the Office of Compliance and Internal Audit Services, and chairman of the committee, partially describes the group's charge as enhancing the "extension of the classroom into the job." Other members of the committee include David Keala, John Elkington, Fonua Lauaki, JoAnn Lowe, Peter Chan, Tesi Faustino and Robin Fiu, as well as John Muaina and Kathy Tolleson from the Polynesian Cultural Center. Mike Bliss, VP of Administration is the executive sponsor.
"We came up with what would be necessary to structure each job on campus to provide the benefit of a set of learning experiences. Then we began to flesh those out and build a set of guidelines for supervisors to reassess and enhance job descriptions to include those elements," he said.
Next, the BYU-Hawaii President's Council reviewed these initial efforts and recommended they become "not just guidelines, but standards for our campus."
Litster emphasized the committee's efforts so far, which were subsequently presented to the University Council on November 20, are still very much under development. "There are lots of things that need to be polished and tuned, and approaches to implementation that need to be clarified. Compensation also needs to be defined and clarified, so that we are all comfortable in understanding what it is we're expecting to do."
"Basically, we're changing the concept of student employment from hiring inexpensive help to get jobs done, to one where we're now part of the student educational process, and the tool we're using, in addition to classroom instruction, is student employment."
"Many of the departments on campus are already doing most of the things we're talking about," Litster said. "The things that we came up with are not new in that sense, but the concept of using a supervisor as a guide, mentor or coach — someone to help students build tools and have efficacious learning experiences — is."
"In addition, many students come to us with little or no work experience. As they graduate from college, they need to be productive in their careers, so we want to use the student employment opportunity to teach them accountability and how to be diligent, trustworthy, dependable and responsible. All of these are incorporated into the standards."
"We hope that responsibility will grow as the student's ability to handle it grows, plus there has to be an application to life. With that in mind," Litster said, "what we're trying to envision is that our freshmen and sophomores will focus more on services — anything not related to their major field of study — that would teach basic work skills. As they move into their junior and senior years, we would try to migrate them more into jobs that would have application in their careers."
Litster explained the success of the standards relies on "clear expectations" of what's expected of the students and for the students. Quality training, adequate supervision, evaluation, feedback, rewards, progression, compensation and responsibility are also integral parts of that process.
"If it works out the way we envision it," Litster continued, "the years students spend here will be the most significant work experience many will have in their lives up to this point. It will help to prepare them for graduation [when] they'll not only have the professional skills, but they'll also have the basic, underlying life skills that will help carry them."
Litster added that commitment is also a key component. "We expect that students will give a commitment to a minimum length of stay in a position, because of the extensive training that might be required. Each department would determine what the minimum length of time would be. Then, when they get ready to leave or graduate, they would have to give us a certain amount of notice."
"At the same time, the supervisor, or the department, needs to make a commitment back to the student that the learning experience will be there."
Litster reiterated there are many things yet to do to implement these standards. "It's going to be hard work, but it's an opportunity to really make a difference in the lives of the students who come here. We can see this from the viewpoint that this is a great tool, but it's only going to work as well as we make it work."