As BYUH’s Bookstore came under new management, students said they hope to see lower textbook prices and a wider variety of products. David Fonoimoana, a native of the Laie community, is excited to be back in his home town and managing the bookstore he grew up going to.Serg Oyungerel, a freshman from Mongolia studying accounting, was adamant in his desire for cheaper textbooks. “Lower the book’s prices. That’s what I want.” When asked about possible cheaper textbooks in the future, Fonoimoana responded with a laugh and said, “I’ll be honest. Being that I just started, I’m still kind of absorbing what we have here, so I don’t want to make any big promises or changes.” Fonoimoana described the challenge of pricing textbooks at the Bookstore is because of competitors such as Amazon, EBooks and students reselling their books. “We are competing with people who don’t have the administration’s costs so it’s a little bit different.” Fonoimoana acknowledged the students’ concerns but couldn’t give any consolation at this point in time. “It’s just part of finding our niche,” he continued. “We have to figure out what is most important to the students and at a price that is competitive with everyone else nearby or anywhere in general.” In an effort to reach student customers, Fonoimoana said he hopes to work with BYUH students in adding student-designed T-shirts to the merchandise. “Students are the ones who know what other students like,” he said. To reach the customers who are members of the community, Fonoimoana said he hopes to expand the church materials merchandise in the back of the bookstore. Though some students associate the bookstore with overpriced books, Autumn Butler, a freshman from Florida studying business, said she has had an enjoyable experience in the bookstore. “I like it,” said Butler. “They do a lot of sales, like the one during Christmas time was pretty great.” Butler said she hopes the bookstore will continue to do similar sales in the future. Fonoimoana grew up in Laie and attended Kahuku High School as a freshman and sophomore but moved to Utah to finish out his junior and senior year. He attended BYU in Provo for his undergraduate studies and graduated with a degree in business. After college, he worked for Target for seven years, traveling to Washington, Alaska and finally helping to open the first target in Hawaii. He has been working at the Polynesian Cultural Center for the past year and is studying for an MBA at the University of Hawaii. Nathan Nartker, a recent business graduate from BYUH, has been working in the Bookstore since 2013 and said he is excited to work with Fonoimoana. “David seems like a charismatic and very nice individual. He is eager to learn and I can tell that he wants to improve what we are doing here to help get the store launched or get it to an even better position.” Uploaded Feb. 5, 2015

By the time all the construction is done, BYU-Hawaii officials estimate it will be able to house enough students to expand the population from the current 2,800 to 3,200. “It’s exciting to see campus gradually have new buildings. There are great students here,” Construction Director Robert Tippets said. “We want students to be safe and have a decent place to live.”Tippets said about the renovations to Hales 3 and 5, another story is being added to the previous two-story structures and the dorms will be changed into apartments. These apartments will have kitchenettes, allowing six to eight people to a unit. More natural ventilation will be utilized, and there will be more shading in the windows. They plan to be done with the renovations by September 2015. Students will be able to use the newly refurbished 472 rooms, he said. William Walter Arnett III, a vocal performance major and junior from Arizona, said these hales have been “long overdue.” Students agreed the hales have felt old to them, with a general unpleasantness and insect problems.Students living in the dorms this semester said it’s not hard to notice the construction being done between Hale 1 and Hale 7. When asked what they think of the construction, freshman students Emma Lance, an HTM major from Georgia, and Kili Ling, an ICS major from Washington, said they wake up every morning to the sounds of construction. “We live in Hale 7, and it’s really loud and really noisy,” said Lance.The construction and renovations of Hales 3 and 5 required changing the entire infrastructure of the hales, which he said is not generally done. Tippets said, “Not a lot of people could believe what we were doing.” He elaborated, explaining that future construction will be done on Hales 4 and 6 to renovate and update them into apartments. Construction will be done to the infrastructure of Hale 4, while Hale 6 will be completely torn down. The foundation of Hale 6 will have several feet of fill when it is rebuilt so it won’t flood as easily. This construction is planned to finish by Spring 2017.Uploaded Feb. 5, 2015

New York City shut down on the advice of meteorologists for a blizzard that never showed, but BYU-Hawaii students said, regardless, they think it is good to be prepared. At the end of January, New York remained unscathed despite National Weather Service predictions, while the Midwest and New England took a hit of “actual historic amounts of snowfall with considerably less hype,” wrote the Huffington Post. “Though the storm didn’t hit as hard in New York, it’s always better to be over-prepared than not,” said Dom Lacroix, a junior majoring in psychology. Lacroix, who is from Connecticut, said her home on the coast was flooded and they were snowed in. Residents of the Northeastern United States got ready for the storm by stocking up a few days worth of necessities to prepare for what the National Weather Service said could be a “raging blizzard,” said CNN.Melanie Hynes, a sophomore from Arizona majoring in international cultural studies, said, “This is why we, as members of the church, are advised to have 72-hour kits and ample food storage. It’s harder here in Hawaii because of the humidity, but I am sure those members in the East who had the resources were feeling blessed that they listened.” Those who live on Oahu know false weather warnings well. “We prepared for Hurricane Ana just as those on the East Coast prepared for the blizzard. Sometimes all we can do is pray that we dodged the storm,” commented accounting major Ana Portugal, a junior from Houston, Texas. Atmospheric scientist Adam Sobel wrote on CNN’s website, “Good weather forecasts and well-informed, proactive emergency preparation and management save lives and property. Those are great benefits to society…but it's also important to understand that the unavoidable cost of enjoying these benefits is that sometimes, the problem won't be as bad as forecast, and so some decisions might seem unnecessary after the fact.”Tune into http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/ for extreme Oahu’s weather reports. Uploaded Feb. 5, 2015

As Chloe Kim spun her snowboard to a stop at the bottom of the superpipe in Aspen, Colo., the 14-year-old girl made X Games history as the youngest person to win a gold medal, said AP. She won gold in the Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe, scoring higher than champion Kelly Clark, who has repeatedly won the X Games and was the gold medalist in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. Clark said of Kim, “In years to come, I’ll be able to look at women’s snowboarding and know that not only is it in good hands, but also it’s in the hands of someone I’m proud of,” according to APKim has been snowboarding since she was only 4 years old, reported USA Today. After learning to board, coaches noticed her potential and recruited her for their teams. As she began to show more talent, she took snowboarding more seriously and trained in Switzerland. The ninth grader began to compete in events advanced for her age. Despite her flourishing snowboarding career, she still attends school and takes online classes as she trains, USA Today reported.David Porter, chairman of BYU-Hawaii’s Exercise Sports and Science Dept., said it is “remarkable for someone so young to achieve so much” and that Kim can be a great example for students on campus. “I’m inspired by the proper training,” commented Shane Dyer, a senior from Oregon and an exercise and sports science major. “She had coaches that did it right and trained her right.”The previous year, when Kim was only 13 years old, she won silver in the SuperPipe and qualified to go to the Olympics in Sochi, Russia. However, her youth disqualified her from the competition, as a person must be 16 years old to be eligible to compete in the Olympic snowboarding. She will be 17 years old for the 2018 Winter Olympics, which will be held in the country of her parents’ birth: South Korea, said USA Today. Students agreed that Kim could influence any students to work hard. “I’m glad a local Californian like myself is doing that kind of stuff. She can inspire people my age and older to step up,” said Justin Silva, a junior in English.Uploaded Feb. 5, 2015

John John Florence claimed his fourth Volcom Pipe Pro win as he took down 112 of the world’s best surfers on Feb. 2. Florence has won the event—held at Pipeline on the North Shore—four times in the past five years, solidifying his reputation as one of the most dominant Pipe surfers of his time. Florence said to Surfer Magazine, “It feels amazing; I’m pretty stoked. To win four—I can’t believe it yet, to be honest. It’s crazy. I’m just stoked to take the trophy home . . .again.” Scott Messick, a senior from California studying business, said, “John John is surfing like a freak of nature, as always. Since he’s grown up on the North Shore, he has such a better understanding of the break compared to everyone else.” Messick continued, “He has a sixth sense with the ocean, knowing where to be, and which waves to go on. He doesn’t just get barrels, but throws something radical in at the end that just blows your mind.”The Volcom Pipe Pro kicked off round one action with plenty of swell on tap and a light wind that kept the waves groomed to perfection, on Jan. 29. The group of 112 professional surfers and watermen took to the infamous Banzai Pipeline to conquer the most dangerous wave in the world and solidify a good result for the beginning of the 2105 season. “Any event in Hawaii is really important for Hawaii’s competitive surfers, and there are only two that locals can get into: the Pipe Pro and Sunset. But Pipe is the only wave I really care about. I focus all my energy here,” said Reef McIntosh, a professional surfer from Hawaii.The conditions for the contest were not perfect, but they were acceptable, explained Taylor Bramwell, a senior from Kailua studying biology. “It was big and had good potential, but most the time it was a bit funky. It was tough for the boys to find the good ones in some of the heats.” Surfers found it very challenging to pick the waves that would lead to the highest scores. Surfer Mag reported Florence as saying, “Having grown up surfing here, knowing the waves is always an advantage, but at the same time, it’s not really like this that often. And I normally wouldn’t surf it if it were like this.”Florence continues, “But then again, knowing the reef and the boils and the lineups in general always helps. But it was pretty random out there. There were deep ones, there were wide ones. If you had priority and you were in the right spot, then you were going to get the wave.”“I’m glad John John won,” said Bobby Poort, a recent graduate living in TVA. “It’s good to see the local kids doing so well on a wave that means so much to them.”

Internationally recognized for his insights into teaching and learning, Ken Bain has presented all over the globe and is coming to BYU-Hawaii as the main speaker for the teaching symposium on Feb. 19-21. Bain is a long-time professor and bestselling author. His book, “What the Best College Teachers Do” won the “2004 Virginia and Warren Stone Prize for an outstanding book on education and society, and has been one of the top selling books on higher education,” says Amazon.com about the author. “It has been translated into twelve languages and was the subject of an award-winning television documentary series in 2007.”Dr. Ben Jordan, assistant professor in Physical Science, who has been to a conference Bain held before, said, “His ideas and suggestions are really good. They help the faculty to improve.” He said it was “valuable when I went to one of the sessions with him,” and he got the opportunity to learn from him and the teachers who attended.The event is focused toward the faculty of BYUH campus, but is also open to students. The topic of the symposium will be the “leadership of the church,” according to Kevin Kimball, director of the event.“On Saturday, we would love students to come,” said Kimball. If students want to attend, they should contact Kimball at kevin.kimball@byuh.edu.“I think it’s a good idea for faculty to get together to learn new things and talk,” said Randal Allred, a BYUH English professor. “I don’t think anybody knows everything about teaching.” The teaching symposium allows for teachers to come and share teaching techniques, regardless of their fields of study. Guest speakers from BYUH include Ellen Bunker, Perry Christensen, Leola Solis, Amanda Wallace, and more. Another professor, Sabrina Sullivan, is coming from Leeward Community College, among others. “I think its really valuable and nice [to go] because you get so busy as a professor,” added Jordan about the symposium. “You get to rub shoulders with other faculty members and it gives you a broader perspective.”

Men’s basketball cruised to its seventh consecutive victory with a win against conference rival and nationally ranked Cal Baptist Lancers on Jan. 31. Four players scored in double figures as the team took home a 100-87 victory over Cal Baptist on Seasider blackout night, where the crowd wore black shirts.“I was really proud of our guys and the way they played,” said men’s basketball Head Coach Ken Wagner. “We came out strong and showed discipline throughout the entire game.”Player Scott Friel, a senior in EXS from Utah, had a perfect shooting game, sinking seven of seven shots from the field and six for six from the free throw line to lead the team with 20 points.Daniel Berger and Pablo Coro followed Friel’s performance, adding 19 points apiece, and Jordan Stone had several slam dunks down the stretch to finish with 18 points.As a team, BYU-Hawaii finished shooting a blistering 63.6 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from behind the arc. The Seasiders also recorded a season high of nine blocks, with four by Ian Harward. The Seasiders outscored the Lancers by 20 in the paint.“It was a real team effort these last two games,” said Robbie Mitchell, a senior player from Washington. “Everyone really stepped up and played really well. It is good to see the team meshing so well.”BYUH led the game from start to finish, winning the tip-off and scoring the first five points of the game on a layup from Friel and a 3-pointer from Coro. After a Cal Baptist layup, Berger scored four in a row to spark an 8-1 run, giving BYUH the double digit lead at 13-3 with a time of 16:17 left in the half.“Muy bueno, Pablo,” said Ryan Belliston, a senior studying business from Ohio. “Pablo has been shooting the lights out from the three and Ian Howard makes the paint a restricted air space for the opposition.”The Lancers cut back within single digits, but a pair of free throws by Coro and a layup by Friel extended the lead back to 12 with 14 minutes remaining in the opening period.A layup by Tyler Tuliau started a 12-point Seasider run that featured back-to-back three-pointers from Justin Yamzon and Luke Aston, as well as a jump shot from Cory Lange to build a 25-point lead at 41-16 with 8:29 on the clock before halftime.Cal Baptist did not go away with Baptist player, Ryan Berg, beating the halftime buzzer cutting the lead to 53-43 going into the locker room.The game remained close with both teams trading points, but the Seasiders were able to maintain their lead going into the final five minutes in at 84-77.With 4:10 remaining, Friel sank four consecutive free throws to increase the lead to 11. BYUH’s lead would grow to more than 15 points before the final buzzer.“The blackout was clutch,” said Harland Reist, a senior from Pennsylvania studying EXS. “Intimidation and energy from the blackout was at an all time high. We came out in the first half really hot and the crowd was so excited. It was good to be a part of that.”Uploaded Feb. 5, 2015

The BYU-Hawaii women’s basketball team suffered two straight home defeats at the hands of Azusa Pacific and California Baptist on Jan. 29 and 31, respectively. The two losses came after the Lady Seasiders were on a seven-game win streak, including four road wins. The Lady Seasiders fell to a 12-7 record overall and an 8-4 in conference, and are now tied for third in conference. “These were very tough opponents and they showed us what we need to continue to work on in order to be a top team,” said Head Coach Craig Stanger.The Lady Seasiders struggled to produce offensively in both games as they shot 35.6 percent against Azusa and 30.6 percent against Cal Baptist. Turnovers also proved to be a problem for the Lady Seasiders as they gave up 43 turnovers between the two games. Despite statistically staying with Cal Baptist, the Lady Seasiders found themselves behind 42-29 at halftime. The Lady Seasiders struggled most from the field during the going 11 of 36 in the first half (30.6 percent), while Cal Baptist went 16 of 35 (45.7 percent). In the second half, Cal Baptist’s offense and defense proved to be too much for the Lady Seasiders. BYUH had no response for the Cal Baptist inside game. Darsha Burnside, who scored 17 points along with 11 rebounds and 6 blocks, led Cal Baptist’s inside attack.The Lady Seasiders failed to get any spark in the second half as Cal Baptist ran away with the game giving the Lady Seasiders their second consecutive loss 87-53. Celeste Claw led the Lady Seasiders with 14 points and Mata Tonga added 9 rebounds. “It was a tough loss that we need to put behind us,” said Claw, a junior studying exercise and sports science from Arizona. “We still have a lot to play for this season.” Against Azusa, both teams started the game off trading baskets until a 6-0 run by Azusa off of back-to-back three pointers gave Azusa the 23-17 lead about mid-way through the half.The Lady Seasiders responded by closing the gap, 25-21 as both teams were plagued by a slew of turnovers.As both teams got the game back under control, neither team could muster a significant run to take a commanding lead. The Lady Seasiders struggled from the free throw line going 2-7 in the last three minutes, allowing Azusa to go into the half with a four-point lead 35-31. Azusa came out firing on all cylinders in the second half going on an 11-2 run during which Azusa’s Miriam Zabinsky had the hot hand scoring 9 of the 11 points.From that point on, the Lady Seasiders struggled to generate offensively as Azusa closed out the game with a 68-46 win. “It was a disappointing loss, but we have to pick ourselves up and move on from this,” said Whitney Fieldsted, a senior physical education major from Altamont, Utah.The Lady Seasiders will face Chaminade in Honolulu Thursday, Feb. 5 before traveling to California for a three game road trip.

The men and women who will decide the fate of James Holmes are being selected now, and BYU-Hawaii students from Colorado said they are interested in how the case will turn out. In July 2012, James Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 during the midnight premier of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colo. Holmes has been “charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity,” reported the Associated Press. BYUH students from Colorado still remember the event and said they have strong feelings towards the case. McKenna Hawkins, a freshman from northern Colorado, said Holmes’ sanity shouldn’t be a factor. “Honestly, even if he were insane, I still don’t think that should affect his consequences because what he did was atrocious and not something that should be pardoned,” Hawkins said emphatically. According to AP, court officials had originally summoned 9,000 people. That number has already dropped to 7,000 due to undeliverable summonses and pardons given out. Judge Carlos Samour began the screening on Jan. 20, and will finish the first phase Feb. 9. Potential jurors have been excused for a variety of reasons. Those who have been excused so far had “doctors' notes, didn't speak English, or weren't residents of Arapahoe County, where the 2012 attack occurred,” said AP. Potential jurors have tried to be excused using a whole host of reasons, such as claiming their business will suffer if called into the jury, or that they know a police lieutenant in Aurora. During screening, a potential juror took pictures of the screening questionnaire against Judge Samour’s orders. Some have hand-written letters to Judge Samour elaborating their own reasons in hopes to be pardoned. Defense attorney Daniel King warned that excusing too many potential jurors this soon could be a problem, according to AP. Being excused from sitting on the panel that decides the answer to the question of Holmes’ sanity during the shooting hasn’t been easy. AP reported that one woman stated she felt “violently ill” and requested an ambulance, however her summons was only delayed, not excused. According to AP, King told Judge Samour, “You have to consider the fact that people may not want to sit on this jury.” BYUH student Zack Cusworth, a freshmen from Colorado studying psychology, said it is going to be hard to find unbiased jury members because of the mass amounts of information available. “If I were a jury member, I would have to listen to all the evidence given and as an American citizen I would have to follow the judicial system to make a decision.” Cusworth continued, “It’s going to be hard to find the right verdict. I think it is possible, but it’s going to be a lot of work.” AP estimated it could take until June to fill the 12 juror slots and the 12 alternate slots. Uploaded Feb. 3