A Little Good
A green shoot.
Apparently they have institute at the Y now and encourage freshman to go to it.
The institute director is a super social starter and is apparently massively encouraging dating and such.
Last time my daughter said that he announced he was giving 20 bucks to the first couple he saw leave holding hands.
So a guy told my daughter, lets to do it, 10 bucks a piece, and they ostentatiously immediately walked out holding hands. He gave them 20 and said the only condition is you have to spend the whole thing on a date together.
The old slam against the BYUs was that it was a money-grubbing scheme by the church to take high capacity people with high future earnings potential and get them hooked into the Mormon Life plan.
To which I say, wonderful. More please.
An arrangement where you get taught and socially reinforced a viable life plan and then put in a position to have a happy marriage and happy family living out that life plan is very much worth 10% of future earnings. What sensible person wouldn’t go for that?
More please.
Filed under: We transcend your bourgeois categories | No Tag
E.C.
September 18, 2022
Meanwhile, our Institute building is getting demolished in January in order to build anew. I will sadly miss the old one, which was added on to four times, and has become a maze which legend says traps at least one freshman a year, never to find their way out. 😀
As it is currently one of the major centers of social life in our college town, the Institute (and its gym) will be sadly missed by many. The teachers, who are paid CES employees, are going to be dispersing amongst the YSA stakes, but it is not entirely clear how that will work, especially since our stake will soon be without a building to call our own.
All that being said, I love Institute, and have had some really good experiences there. I will miss the old building, but it is emphatically not safe – in some of the oldest parts, the floor is held up by cinder blocks, 2x4s, and prayers.
I agree with you about the life plan, but I do wonder if BYU is necessarily the best vehicle for that anymore . . .
Bookslinger
September 18, 2022
E.C.,
What do you and your peers think of the online dating services that cater to LDS?
Or, do LDS 20-somethings use the standard dating sites/apps (PoF, Match) and then filter on #LDS ?
E.C.
September 18, 2022
I know a lot of people in my YSA ward use Mutual, and others use other dating services, but I don’t know what filters they use for them.
I personally do not use online dating services as I’ve heard some pretty gnarly stories, but I also avoid social media in general on principle.
Anecdotally my observation from years of listening to others’ ‘how we met’ stories is that physical proximity in a ward and single’s activities like dances, Institute classes, etc. are still the best way to find a spouse, as one or the other seems to figure in 80-90% of said stories.
Zen
September 19, 2022
I certainly understand the impulse to abandon the wicked, and go off into the wilderness, but I don’t think that is what is needed here. BYU has a multitude of issues, but the need is still acute.
I suspect we need to stand up and fight for this institution.
the_archduke
September 19, 2022
My BYU stake had an institute class 2x a week back in 2006. We met in a stake center in Orem. Also fed us dinner afterward, so I went both nights. (How glad I am that I am no longer that poor). I didn’t meet my wife there, but I did decide to date her at one of those institute classes while she was sitting next to me.
WJT
September 19, 2022
Wait, did the Y not have Institute before?
G.
September 19, 2022
Correct
Bookslinger
September 19, 2022
The Brethren have started the process of course-correction for (or cleaning-up, if you will) BYU.
https://www.millennialstar.org/are-dozens-of-church-education-employees-being-fired-as-the-church-insists-on-higher-standards-for-teachers
I assume the “not-renewing-contracts” is the beginning of the implied “or-else clause” that Elder Holland gave in his talk to faculty/staff last year.
https://www.jrganymede.com/2021/08/26/elder-holland-wants-to-know