In his first faculty meeting since becoming Vice President of Academic Affairs at BYU-Hawaii, Dr. Max L. Checketts [pictured at left] listed three objectives he would like to work on with the teachers: Admitting more students who are better prepared when they arrive on campus, using more technology to appropriately help those students, and increasing the "traction" for teaching and learning.
To illustrate his relationship to the faculty and the administration, Checketts cited a lesson from Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Presidency of the Seventy, who, in instructions to stake leaders and others, taught, "If a stake president makes a decision by himself, depending on his experience, he will probably make the right choice 60-or-70 percent of the time. If the stake president involves one counselor, that probably goes up into the upper 80s percent. If he involves both counselors, it probably goes to 95 percent; and if they collectively get on their knees and take it to the Lord, they'll probably make the right decision 100 percent of the time, if they go with the right spirit."
"I don't see myself as a 'yes man' to the president. The president knows that. I don't give him any value if all I do is say, 'yes, president, I'll do it," Checketts said. "But that having been said, the president is the leader here, and he has the right to ask us to do certain things, and I'll do everything in my power to advise him."
"You equally have a responsibility," he continued, asking for the faculty's help in finding solutions to problems. "We want the students to be successful...there's a direct correlation with that and having the faculty successful, so I'll do everything I can to champion a great idea or to help get resources that you need as a faculty — but ultimately, the focus is on the students."
Asked what the definition of "better prepared" students is, Checketts replied, "We need to make absolutely sure they can communicate in the English language, because that's the nature of this institution." He also said it is very important "to motivate students and parents throughout our target area to do the best they can to be prepared when they come. If that means they take one more math class in high school, that's wonderful. Anything we can do to encourage the students to be better prepared to be here — that's what I'm talking about."
He explained that the Academic Council, which was previously called the Academic Planning Council, will set the standards. "In my mind, it is the decision-making body. Although we have a significant planning function, which I don't want to lose sight of, academic policy can and should be made in the Academic Council. We've got to get all the feedback from you first," he added. "I know that we won't get consensus, but we'll do the best we can."
Asked how BYU-Hawaii's degree major programs and broad-based education fit the needs of international students, Checketts replied he has not had a chance to study the General Education requirements, but he thinks a certain set of skills must be included in that broad education."
"We have within the doctrines of the Church an invitation to strive to get more education. I believe that, I really do," he said, but noting the students also "have to move forward with their lives."
He stressed that no programs have been targeted, "but I am going to challenge all of you to say how your graduates go into the work force. How do they support their families? Because if they can't get a job that they can get an income and live off, and then become a father and mother, a bishop and a stake president, or a Relief Society president, then we obviously haven't been successful."
For example, he pointed out some graduates will not go on to graduate school, while a general associate degree might better serve other students. "Beyond that, I don't have any view that we need to go back to a community college kind of a mindset. We're all way past that."
Asked what role faculty research plays, Checketts responded, "We need to use the term 'scholarship,' not just the term 'research'; because scholarship entails a much broader range of things." For example, he said he strongly believes in student-mentored research.
He also distributed a handout entitled Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, by Ernest L. Boyer of the Carnegie Foundation (1990), listing four functions of scholarship:
- Discovery, which "may be made manifest through teaching, research and service.
- Integration across disciplines, or "interpretation: fitting one's own research — or the research of others — into larger intellectual patterns."
- Application, or "bringing knowledge to bear in addressing significant societal issues."
- Teaching — "developing the knowledge, skill, mind, character or ability of others."
Checketts told the faculty, "I believe that we've been invited to do something very special to serve more students. I've come to understand a little more about the world 'aloha' means, and I've come to decide it's a sacred word."
"I hope we will always remember that the spirit of this campus, the aloha spirit, is about love and caring."