What’s the Matter with BYU
For whosoever shall save his life, shall lose it
Some guy who was an adjunct professor at BYU explains what he thinks is going wrong at BYU.
Caveats: (a) this is just one guy who was an adjunct professor at BYU’s opinion and (b) we only have his word for it that he was an adjunct professor at BYU (though I think he’s pretty credible).
The first link takes you to the first tweet in the series (no twitter account necessary). The second link has all the tweets combined into one document.
Okay, here it is, the beginning of the epic "What's going on at BYU?" thread. pic.twitter.com/XONBn00CwM
— J. Whitebread (@JWhitebread1) February 20, 2023
Summary and comments below.
The summary is
1. BYU admin and to some extent the faculty are mediocre and lack vision and to a degree basic competence
Sadly, I find this all too plausible. It is typical of my experience with church owned organizations.
2. The BYU admin and faculty are unusually hostile to each other
3. Even very conservative professors at BYU think preserving the institution is more valuable than resisting the demands of the world.
Horrifying, but again, not a big surprise.
BYU will die–BYU is dying–because its components aren’t willing to kill it. If they were willing to kill it, they wouldn’t need to kill it.
If your kids know that you would quit your job and change states or even countries if they fall in too far with the wrong crowd, then they don’t, and you don’t have to do all that. But you have to be willing to. You can’t fake it.
For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it.
BYU would thrive if the administrators, professors, and students were like the Saints in Salt Lake City during the Utah War. They stood by their homes with torches lit as the soldiers filed through, ready to burn them down if provoked.
Our friend Bruce Charlton and company believe that no formally organized institution can long continue to be independent of the gleichschaltung. There is a distressing amount of evidence for their view.
I however believe that thriving is possible if your people are quite clear that they will either have a thriving, independent institution or they will drop the axe. Zion or bust.
The healthiest institution is the one of which one can say, whoso converges my institution converges straw.
Filed under: We transcend your bourgeois categories | No Tag
Zen
February 21, 2023
I am reminded of a story in one of the Saints volumes, about how Brigham sent a few elders down to California to pan for gold. They barely found enough to live on. Finally, it was decided that they would leave for other church business, but they needed $50. Immediately, they struck it rich to the tune of $50.
The Lord could have given them the gold at any moment. He still can.
So, if we are at the point where even relatively faithful members are frittering away their allegiance to Babylon, then why are we so determined to cling to federal funding? We all know the time is coming where it will be withdrawn, legal of not.
If we can’t bear to do without Babylon, why should we be surprised that they can’t?
Perhaps now is a good time to stop accepting federal funds. I doubt it would be preferable to do it in times of greater opposition, stormier waters if you will.
Honestly, I would prefer a bit less money in Ensign Peak, and a bit more faith in the Lord at BYU.
[]
February 21, 2023
Where did this trend of punctuating one’s writing with large, short film clips come from, and when can it stop
Eric
February 21, 2023
I don’t know, but I’d rather read a transcript than watch a video.
Sute
February 21, 2023
Zen, interesting thought.
If I read it right, BYU tuition costs 13k a year* for a nonmember. Figure that’s the true non subsidized cost?
Maybe there could be an Ensign Peak Student Loan Fund that could make loans to students. The danger in this is escalating costs if the church ever pulls it’s funding.
*The fact that the true non subsidized cost of a degree from BYU is over 50% cheaper than nonresident tuition for Utah state is pretty amazing. This suggests that the church is economizng to a significant degree since most students are members and get a subsidized rate.
Consider what kind of investments, admin overhead, etc BYU would make if the tuition was free to members. Theyd cut as much cost, while striving for quality was possible. The inverse of this makes clear that student loans massively drive up the cost of education as schools are spending other people’s money. When the BYU spends it’s own money on most students tuition it spends it’s much more frugally. Still, loans and grants would be driving this up to a degree.
Agellius
February 21, 2023
I would be interested to see what would happen if an LDS college started declining federal funds. I understand there are five LDS colleges in the U.S., one of which isn’t officially affiliated with the Church. It may not be realistic for BYU to do it; it may be too big, with too much to lose. But maybe Southern Virginia? Or maybe start a new, small college that doesn’t accept federal funds, as an experiment? What would happen? Would it thrive and grow?
I should say, doesn’t accept federal funds and also adheres to Church teaching strictly and unapologetically, the idea being (obviously) that the former allows for the latter. There are Catholic colleges that do this, and they fill a niche — but it’s a tiny niche compared to the total population of Catholic students. I wonder how big that niche might be among LDS?
G.
February 22, 2023
Excellent question, Agellius.
For my part I wonder how much of the administrative overhead of the University comes from compliance cost and various kinds of litigation risk, both those that are a consequence of receiving federal funds and those that are not.
JimD
March 9, 2023
I understand that tuition at other private, nonprofit universities routinely exceeds $30K; so I’d wager that even the non-LDS BYU students are having nearly 2/3 of their education costs subsidized by the Church (for LDS kids, it’s probably more like 4/5). Frankly, it is probably well within the Church’s means to go ahead and make BYU tuition free for LDS students, and reject all other federal sources of BYU funding while they’re at it.
The trouble with that idea is that as now, there would be a lot of kids who have no desire/intention to comply with the BYU honor code but nonetheless come to BYU because tuition is such a screaming deal. The solution there may be as follows:
1) The Church ends direct subsidies to BYU, which also renounces federal funding. Going forward, BYU is funded exclusively by student tuition; which probably rises to $30-40K per year.
2) BYU removes whatever parts of the honor code fall afoul of federal regulation.
3) The CES (or the PEF?) rolls out a new scholarship program available to all LDS high school graduates, for four years of tuition up to the newly-raised BYU tuition amount. These scholarships are contingent on a) the student majoring in an academic program that is actually somewhat likely to lead to a viable profession; b) the student enrolling at one of a dozen or so secular universities that the Church has identified as relatively-less-crazy, and which the Church anticipates could become “regional centers” of LDS young single adult social life throughout the global Mormon diaspora; and c) the student maintaining a modicum of “worthiness” as determined by their bishop in collaboration with their CES Institute staff.
If any rabble-rousers still want to come to BYU after that, they are welcome. But we make them pay, through the nose; and we laugh in their faces with every tuition check.