At the end of February, a graduation ceremony and celebration was held for 2017 BYU-Hawaii graduates. Among the diverse mixture of students from over 70 countries at BYU-Hawaii are many Māori students, and recently a haka was performed on campus to honor these new graduates.
Another highlight from the graduation weekend was when Elder Dallin H. Oaks came to address the students at commencement. He told students to push back against the world by standing "clear from the current atmosphere of hate and to refrain from participating in the contentious communications that are so common today. . . . I am not referring to difference in policies, which need to be debated publicly, but to the current ugliness and personal meanness of the communications,” he said. “Don’t be part of such communications. As followers of Christ we know that all of the inhabitants of this earth are children of God. Use that knowledge to push back against the worldly prejudices that preach hate or hostility toward other nations, ethnic groups or even political parties. … Followers of Christ should be examples of civility.”