There are hundreds of religiously affiliated colleges in the U.S., but Brigham Young University stands apart from all the others for one reason: money.
Namely, the amount of money it gets from its owner, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
So said Snow College Provost Michael Austin, a BYU alum who previously has worked as an administrator at Catholic and Methodist universities.
At the recent Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake City, Austin explained that the Utah-based church subsidizes BYU to a much greater degree than other faiths do their affiliated schools. That funding, he added, gives the church more control over how the university operates, including hiring, curriculum and campus policies.
“Money grows on strings,” Austin said. “BYU [thanks to church subsidies] pays a lot more [of student costs] and expects a lot more.”
Austin and two other panelists discussed the faith’s oversight of BYU and whether recent changes at the school have affected its relationship with students and faculty.
How BYU’s mission differs
To give context into how BYU operates compared with other Christian schools, Austin compared it to a Catholic university where he once served as chief academic officer.
He explained that while that university was founded by an order of nuns, these sisters actually held little oversight over the students and faculty — even though they were substantial financial contributors.
Austin, who is a Latter-day Saint, said he asked one of the nuns why the school was structured this way and if his religion was an obstacle to him being hired.
She responded, he added, by saying, “We do what we do because we’re Catholic, not because you’re Catholic.”
Austin said the mission of this school and these nuns was solely to educate, noting it did not include behavioral policies — a la BYU’s Honor Code — other than general legal principles. And there was no expectation to be Catholic.
As it approaches its sesquicentennial this fall, BYU touts a different goal.
To succeed, its mission statement proclaims, “the university must provide an environment enlightened by living prophets and sustained by those moral virtues which characterize the life and teachings of the Son of God.”
Latter-day Saint leaders have not shied away from that quest. Former church President Spencer W. Kimball emphasized to students and faculty that BYU should stand out.
In his speech at BYU’s centennial celebration in 1975, Kimball charged the school to “become a unique university in all of the world.”
Honor Code vs. cheaper tuition
Through the years, that mission has proved divisive at times. The Sunstone panelists discussed whether the school still heeded Kimball’s commission or whether BYU had taken that goal too far.
The Honor Code, for instance, has supporters and detractors among students and faculty. But even its student critics, Austin noted, may consider it the price to pay to receive a high-quality education and a relatively low cost, thanks to the church’s subsidies.
Panelist Amanda Hendrix-Komoto, associate history professor at Montana State University, said those religious rules were among the reasons she did not want to attend BYU.
Instead, she chose a small Presbyterian school. It, too, received financial aid from that church, but the sum was small by comparison.
Students from the same Presbyterian denomination could receive a scholarship of close to $1,000, she said, but that subsidy fell far short of covering the $16,000-a-semester tuition.
BYU’s current tuition per semester is $3,444 for Latter-day Saints and $ 6,888 for those outside the faith.
Spiritual retrenchment at BYU?
Panelists also focused on rising campus tensions amid the trend toward greater orthodoxy at BYU — for faculty and students — under the church’s education commissioner, Clark Gilbert.
Austin praised the school’s educational accomplishments but lamented that its “retrenchment position” forces pastoral leaders to become student and employee evaluators.
“The Catholic priests and nuns that I know would never tell their employers about the problems their parishioners are having,” Austin said. “(BYU) faculty have to waive ecclesiastical confidentiality as a condition of employment.”
Hendrix-Komoto recalled when a student, who had become pregnant, approached her for advice. If she had been worried about securing an ecclesiastical endorsement or running afoul of university rules, the professor explained, the student might never have reached out for help.
“You don’t need that in the back of your head,” Hendrix-Komoto said, “when you’re dealing with a student in crisis.”
Michael Hicks, a retired BYU music professor, said he is most concerned about hiring practices at the school.
In recent years, the school has shifted toward favoring hiring faculty who are Latter-day Saints and putting faith-building before scholarship.
Hicks, who had taught at BYU for 35 years, explained that for a long time the university wanted 5% to 7% of faculty to be non-Latter-day Saints. That, he added, has changed.
“If there is an LDS person who can do the job,” he said, “...then we have to hire them.”
Despite this drive toward increased orthodoxy, Hendrix-Komoto said, BYU students seem open to new ideas.
“They are engaged and interested in learning about other religions and other experiences of the racial minorities in the United States,” she said. “But there’s a tension between what the donors want, what the administration wants, what some faculty want … and what’s going on with other faculty and students.”
Hendrix-Komoto warned that the trust students and staffers have for the school could decline if BYU suppresses new ideas, and does not address issues such as transparency, ecclesiastical enforcement and LGBTQ+ concerns.
Note to readers • Dylan Eubank is a Report for America corps member covering faith in Utah County for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories.
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