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BYUH Reorganizes Into Four Academic Colleges

The Church Educational System Board of Trustees recently approved a Brigham Young University Hawaii President's Council recommendation to reorganize the school's previous academic divisions into the:

  • College of Language, Culture & Arts
  • College of Math & Sciences
  • College of Business, Computing & Government
  • College of Human Development

In addition, the Board approved the appointment of ICS faculty member Dr. Chad Compton as Associate Academic Vice President for Instruction for five years. A more complete listing of deans, associate deans, department chairs and other key academics support staff is listed below.

BYU-Hawaii Vice President of Academics Dr. Max Checketts explained the new college deans will normally serve for five years, but the terms of the initial appointees have been staggered to ensure continuity in the dean's council.

"With the new college structure approved, we invited the deans to choose associate deans, work with the faculty to recommend department alignments, and to look at possible staffing issues," Checketts added.

In a September 18 faculty meeting in the McKay Auditorium, Compton expressed "gratitude for this university — gratitude for the mission of the university. My heart has been here for 16 years."

"I love this faculty. We are harnessed together in a very unique project of teaching and student development in an unusual situation that few people understand. I know that we are devoted to our students and their learning," he continued. "There's nothing that I have ever enjoyed more than teaching students how to learn. I love my content, but I have known for many years that the real heart of instruction is for the students to learn how to learn."

Compton said he is anxious for BYUH students to cultivate a more active approach in their learning and sees the faculty playing a primary role in assisting them as they do. In being active rather than passive teachers invite their students to increase the degree to which students take ownership for their learning and are more self-directing and evaluating.

Compton envisions a sustained focus on enhancing the quality of learning on campus; and he invited the faculty to consider ways that new information and communication technologies can greatly enhance our creativity as we continue our efforts to improve student learning.

Compton also said that "it is important that all faculty voices be heard in the process of change that BYU-Hawaii is undertaking"; and he suggested that "a healthy process of change is as important as the substance of the changes themselves."

Speaking in the same meeting on behalf of the deans, Dr. Phillip McArthur, named head of the College of Language, Culture & Arts, expressed appreciation for the support of the administration and his colleagues, and said, "The heart and soul of the university are the students. They really do matter...and since they matter so much, that relationship between the faculty and the student becomes extraordinarily significant."

"I have faith in the faculty. I have confidence in their character," he continued, "and trust that they will be inspired to pursue truth not only through reason but in poetic imagination, and certainly through the Holy Ghost."

McArthur said he's also a strong advocate of the "old tradition, that 'L-word' — the liberal arts — that there's a great legacy there," but he would also be "seeking ways to make those ever more relevant, especially in the context of our students in the target area."

BYU-Hawaii President Steven C. Wheelwright thanked the two new appointees "for their willingness to take on these leadership positions and to dedicate a part of their time to really making a difference more broadly than they've been making in the past."

After the faculty meeting, as a continuing dean with a new portfolio, Burroughs said he was very excited about the new college organization and being able to focus on "these critical areas and powerful majors. It's a great opportunity for our students, and I think we'll fit in very well with the other colleges."

He added that the former College of Arts & Sciences had been distributed in such a way that the deans are now closer to their respective faculty. "We still have four entities, as we did before, but this change has created four entities that are relatively the same size. In my viewpoint, that's highly desirable."

Following the approvals and most recent changes, BYU-Hawaii academics are organized as follows:

 

Other key Academics support staff include: