page_title: Brigham Young University–Hawaii
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Brigham Young University–Hawaii / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Photographer: myself, Gh5046 A photo of the en:Laie Hawaii Temple taken 2005/01/16 in en:Lā'ie, Hawai'i. Other than a possible "auto levels" being done, this photo is in its original state.
context_page_description: Brigham Young University–Hawaii is a private university in Laie, Hawaii. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. BYU-Hawaii was founded in 1955 as a satellite campus of Brigham Young University. In 2004, it was made a separate institution. The university's sole focus is on undergraduate education.
  The university is broadly organized into four colleges, and its parent organization, the Church Educational System, sponsors sister schools in Utah and Idaho. Approximately 97 percent of the university's 2,800 students are members of the LDS Church. BYU-Hawaii students are required to follow an honor code, which requires behavior in line with LDS teachings. A BYU-Hawaii education is less expensive than similar private universities since a large portion of tuition is funded by LDS Church tithing funds.
  The university partners with the LDS Church-owned Polynesian Cultural Center, the largest living museum in the State of Hawaii, which employs roughly one third of the student body.
context_section_description: The LDS Church was established in the islands in 1850 following the Edict of Toleration promulgated by Kamehameha III, giving the underground Hawai‘i Catholic Church the right to worship, while at the same time allowing other faith traditions to begin establishing themselves. By 1919, the church was prominent enough in the area to build a temple in Laie. Two years after the temple was dedicated then-LDS Church apostle David O. McKay stated the church would build a school in the area in the future. In 1951, McKay, as church president, began preliminary plans on the school, and in 1954 ground was broken for the new institution.
  Classes began at BYU-Hawaii in September 1955 as the Church College of Hawaii to accommodate the burgeoning LDS population in the Territory of Hawai‘i.  This was largely a result of McKay's views on both education and strengthening the church outside of its longtime intermountain west U.S. base. The original class consisted of 153 students and 20 faculty meeting in old World War II buildings, with Reuben D. Law as the school's first president. The school's first buildings were dedicated on December 17, 1958. The college was at first a two-year college but was reorganized in 1959 to become a four-year college. By 1961 the college had been granted four-year accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Dormitories, a cafeteria, and other buildings had also been constructed.
  LDS elders established the Polynesian Cultural Center in November 1963 as a means of preserving the Pacific cultures that the Latter-day Saints had encountered in their missionary work.  In the 1970s, the school was also used to teach LDS missionaries pacific languages and cultures before going out to the islands. The center also provided jobs for students of the college.  In 1974, the Church College of Hawaii was elevated to the rank of university by the Church Board of Education and renamed.
  The school was governed as a satellite campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah until 2004, when it was announced that the school would report directly to the Commissioner of Church Education. In 2007, Steven C. Wheelwright was appointed the university's president. On May 12, 2015, Russell M. Nelson, chairman of the Executive Committee of the BYU-Hawaii Board of Trustees announced that effective July 27, 2015, John S. Tanner would succeed Wheelwright as president.  On May 12, 2020, Jeffrey R. Holland, chairman of the Executive Committee of the BYU-Hawaii Board of Trustees, announced that Tanner would be succeeded as the institution's president by John S. K. Kauwe III on July 1, 2020.
  Kauwe becomes the university's 11th president.
caption: The building of the LDS Church's Laie Hawaii Temple was a key predecessor to the establishment of BYU–Hawaii.
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