Brigham Young University
(BYU), located in Provo, Utah
, United States, is a private, coeducational research university owned by The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon
Church). It is the oldest existing institution within the
LDS
Church Educational
System, is America's largest religious university, and has the
second-largest
private university
enrollment in the United States.
Approximately 98% of the 34,000 students
at BYU are Mormon; one-third of its
American students come from within the state of Utah
.
BYU students are required to adhere to an
honor code, which
mandates behavior in line with LDS teachings (e.g.,
academic honesty, adherence to
dress and grooming standards, and abstinence from
extramarital sex and from
the consumption of drugs and alcohol).
Approximately 97% of male BYU graduates have taken a two-year
hiatus from their studies at some point to serve as
Mormon missionaries, and 32% of BYU
female graduates have been missionaries as well. Many BYU students
obtain a level of foreign language proficiency while serving as LDS
missionaries, and BYU has many
foreign
language classes, offering courses in over 70 languages. Over
75% of BYU students have some foreign language proficiency.
The university's primary focus is on
undergraduate education, but it also
has 68
master's and 25
doctoral degree programs, including a
Juris Doctor program. About 70% of
student tuition is funded by LDS Church
tithing funds, making tuition less expensive than at
similar private universities.
History
Early days
| "I hope to see an Academy established
in Provo... at which the children of the Latter-day Saints can
receive a good education unmixed with the pernicious atheistic
influences that are found in so many of the higher schools of the
country." |
| — Brigham Young, 1875 |
Brigham Young University's origin can be traced back to 1862 when a
man named
Warren Dusenberry
started a Provo school in a prominent adobe building called Cluff
Hall, which was located in the northeast corner of 200 East and 200
North. On October 16, 1875,
Brigham
Young, then president of
The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, personally purchased the
Lewis Building after previously hinting that a school would be
built in Draper, Utah in 1867. Hence, October 16, 1875 is commonly
held as BYU's founding date.
The school was broken off from the University of
Deseret
and christened "Brigham Young
Academy" with classes commencing January 3, 1876.
Warren Dusenberry served as interim principal of the school for
several months until April 1876 when Brigham Young's choice for
principal arrived—a German immigrant named
Karl Maeser. The school did not become a
university, however, until the end of
Benjamin Cluff, Jr's term at the helm of the
institution. At that time, the school was also still privately
supported by members of the community and was not absorbed and
sponsored officially by the LDS Church until July 18, 1896. A
series of odd managerial decisions by Cluff led to his demotion;
however, in his last official act, he proposed to the Board that
the Academy be named "Brigham Young University". The suggestion
received a large amount of opposition, many members of the Board
saying that the school wasn't large enough to be a university, but
the decision ultimately passed. One opponent to the decision,
Anthon H. Lund, later said, "I hope their head will grow big enough
for their hat."
In 1903, Brigham Young Academy was dissolved, and was replaced by
two institutions: Brigham Young High School, and Brigham Young
University.
(The BY High School class of 1907 was
ultimately responsible for the famous
giant "Y" that is to this day embedded on a mountain
near campus.) The Board elected George H. Brimhall as the new President of BYU. He
had not received a high school education until he was forty.
Nevertheless, he was an excellent orator and organizer. Under his
tenure in 1904 the new Brigham Young University bought of land from
Provo called "Temple Hill". After some controversy among locals
over BYU's purchase of this property, construction began in 1909 on
the first building on the current campus, the Karl G. Maeser
Memorial. Brimhall also presided over the University during a brief
crisis involving the theory of evolution. The religious nature of
the school seemed at the time to collide with this scientific
theory. Joseph F. Smith, President of the Church, settled the
question for a time by asking that evolution not be taught at the
school. A few have described the school at this time as nothing
more than a "religious seminary". However, many of its graduates at
this time would go on to great success and renown in their fields.
Expansion
Franklin S. Harris was appointed President of the
University in 1921. He was the first President of BYU to have a
doctoral degree. Harris made several important changes to the
school, reorganizing it into a true University, whereas before, its
organization had remnants of the Academy days. At the beginning of
his tenure, the school was not officially recognized as a
university by any accreditation organization. By the end of his
term, the school was accredited under all major accrediting
organizations at the time. He was eventually replaced by President
Howard S. McDonald, who received his doctorate from
the
University of
California. When he first received the position, the
Second World War had just ended, and
thousands of students were flooding into BYU. By the end of his
stay, the school had grown nearly five times to an enrollment of
5,440 students.
The University did not have the facilities to
handle such a large influx, so he bought part of an Air Force Base
in Ogden,
Utah
and rebuilt it to house some of the
students. The next President,
Ernest L. Wilkinson, also oversaw a period of
intense growth, as the school adopted an accelerated building
program. Wilkinson was responsible for the building of over eighty
structures on the campus, many of which still stand to this day.
During his tenure, the student body increased six times, making BYU
the largest private school at the time. The quality of the students
also increased, leading to higher educational standards at the
school. Finally, President Wilkinson reorganized the LDS church
units on campus, with ten
stakes and over 100
wards being added during his
administration.
Dallin H. Oaks replaced Wilkinson as President in 1971.
Oaks continued the expansion of his predecessor, adding a law
school and proposing plans for a new School of Management. During
his administration, a new library was also added, doubling the
library space on campus.
Jeffrey
R. Holland followed as
President, encouraging a combination of educational excellence and
religious faith at the university. He believed that one of the
school's greatest strengths was its religious nature and that this
should be taken advantage of rather than hidden.
During his
administration, the university added a campus in Jerusalem, now
called the BYU Jerusalem
Center
. In 1989, Holland was replaced by
Rex E. Lee. Lee was
responsible for the Benson Science Building and the Museum of Art
on campus. A cancer victim, Lee is memorialized annually at BYU
during a cancer fundraiser called the Rex Lee Run. Lee was replaced
shortly before his death in 1996 by
Merrill J. Bateman. Bateman was responsible for the
building of 36 new buildings for the University both on and off
campus, including the expansion of the Harold B. Lee Library from
1996-1999. He was also one of several key college leaders who
brought about the creation of the
Mountain West Conference, which
BYU's athletics program joined—BYU previously participating in the
Western Athletic
Conference. A
BYU satellite TV network
also opened in 2000 under his leadership. Bateman was also
president during the
September
11th attacks in 2001. The planes crashed on a Tuesday, mere
hours before the weekly devotional normally held at BYU. Previous
plans for the devotional were altered, as Bateman led the student
body in a prayer for peace. Bateman was followed by
Cecil O. Samuelson in 2003, who is the current
president.
Academics
Admissions and demographics
BYU accepted 68% of the 10,409 people who applied for admission in
the summer term and fall semester of 2009. The average ACT score
and GPA for these admitted students was 28.2 and 3.8, respectively.
U.S. News and World Report describes
BYU's selectivity as being "more selective" and compares it with
such universities as the University of Texas
and The Ohio State University
. In addition, BYU is ranked 26th in colleges
with the most freshman
Merit Scholars, with 88
in 2006.
BYU is second only to Harvard
University
for the highest percentage of accepted applicants
that go on to enroll (77% vs. 79%).
Students from every state in the U.S. and from many foreign
countries attend BYU. (In the 2005-6 academic year, there were
2,396 foreign students, or 8% of enrollment.) Slightly more than
98% of these students are active members of
The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 2006, 12.6% of the
student body reported themselves as ethnic minorities, mostly
Asians, Pacific islanders and Hispanics.
Rankings
For 2010, the
U.S. News & World Report
ranked BYU as #71 in the country overall.
The Princeton
Review has ranked BYU the best value for college in 2007, and
its library
is consistently ranked in the nation's top ten--#1
in 2004 and #4 in 2007. BYU is also ranked #19 in the
U.S. News and World Report's "Great Schools,
Great Prices" lineup, and #12 in lowest student-incurred debt. Due
in part to the school's emphasis on undergraduate research, BYU is
ranked #10 nationally for the number of students who go on to earn
PhDs, #1 nationally for students who go on to dental school, #6
nationally for students who go on to law school, and #10 nationally
for students who go on to medical school. BYU is designated as a
research university with high research activity by the
Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
The
Marriott
School of Management
has received recognition in several areas, most
notably its accounting and business programs. The Marriott
School was ranked the number one regional business school according
to a 2007 survey by
The Wall
Street Journal and Harris Interactive.
BusinessWeek ranked the Marriott School of
Management's undergraduate program #5 in the nation for 2009.
Financial Times rated it
first in the nation in that year. For its ethics emphasis, a 2006
Wall Street Journal article ranked BYU second in the
nation.
In 2007, the school's accounting
department
obtained the "Best in Accountancy" title, according
to the Financial Times global ranking of business schools.
This department has also been highly ranked by the
Public
Accounting Report for several years. This report ranked the
undergraduate program third in the nation for the 2007-2008 school
year and the master's program first in the nation for the same
year.
U.S. News and World Report ranked BYU's
accounting program third in the nation in their 2008
publication.
Notable research and awards
Scientists associated with BYU have created some notable
inventions.
Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of the electronic
television, received his education at BYU, and later came back to
do fusion research, receiving an honorary degree from the
university.
Harvey Fletcher, also an
alumnus of BYU, went on to carry out the now famous
oil-drop experiment with
Robert Millikan, and was later Founding Dean
of the
BYU College
of Engineering. The Department of
Computer Science developed and currently
maintains
phpLDAPadmin, an
award-winning
open source
project. In May 2008, research by economics professor Joseph Price
regarding the effects of child birth order was featured on
Today. In student
achievements, BYU Ad Lab teams won both the 2007 and 2008
L'Oréal National Brandstorm Competition, and
students developed the Magnetic Lasso algorithm found in
Adobe Photoshop. In prestigious
scholarships, BYU has produced 10
Rhodes Scholars, three
Gates Scholars in the last four
years, and in the last decade has claimed 41
Fulbright scholars and 3
Jack Kent Cooke scholars.
International focus
Over three quarters of the student body have some proficiency in a
second language (numbering 107 languages in total). This is
partially due to the fact that 45% of the student body at BYU have
been
missionaries for
The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and many of them learned a
foreign language as part of their mission assignment. During any
given semester, about one-third of the student body is enrolled in
foreign language classes, a rate nearly four times the national
average. BYU offers courses in over 60 different languages, many
with advanced courses that are seldom offered elsewhere. Several of
its language programs are the largest of their kind in the nation,
the Russian program being one example. The university was selected
by the
United
States Department of Education as the location of the national
Middle East Language Resource Center, making the school a hub for
experts on that region. It was also selected as a Center for
International Business Education Research, a function of which is
to train business employees in international languages and
relations.
Beyond
this, BYU also runs a very large study abroad program, with
satellite centers in London, Jerusalem, and Paris, as well as more than 20 other
sites. Nearly 2,000 students take advantage of these
programs yearly. In 2001, the
Institute of International
Education ranked BYU as the number one university in the U.S.
to offer students study abroad opportunities.
The BYU Jerusalem
Center, which was closed in 2000 due to student security
concerns related to the Second
Intifada and, more recently, the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict,
was reopened to students in the Winter 2007 semester.
A few special additions enhance the language-learning experience.
For example, BYU's
International Cinema, featuring films in several
languages, is the largest and longest-running university-run
foreign film program in the country. As already noted, BYU also
offers an intensive foreign language living experience, the Foreign
Language Student Residence. This is an on-campus apartment complex
where students commit to only speak their foreign language of
choice while in their apartments. Each apartment has at least one
native speaker to ensure correct language usage.
Academic freedom issues
In 1992, the university drafted a new Statement on Academic
Freedom, specifying that limitations may be placed upon "expression
with students or in public that: (1) contradicts or opposes, rather
than analyzes or discusses, fundamental Church doctrine or policy;
(2) deliberately attacks or derides the Church or its general
leaders; or (3) violates the
Honor Code because the
expression is dishonest, illegal, unchaste, profane, or unduly
disrespectful of others." These restrictions have caused some
controversy as several professors have been disciplined according
to the new rule. The
American
Association of University Professors has claimed that
"infringements on academic freedom are distressingly common and
that the climate for academic freedom is distressingly poor."The
new rules have not affected BYU's accreditation, as the
university's chosen accrediting body allows "religious colleges and
universities to place limitations on academic freedom so long as
they publish those limitations candidly", according to associate
academic vice president Jim Gordon. The
AAUP's
concern was not with restrictions on the faculty member's religious
expression but with a failure, as alleged by the faculty member and
AAUP, that the restrictions had not been adequately specified in
advance by BYU:
- The AAUP requires that any doctrinal limitations on academic
freedom be laid out clearly in writing. We [AAUP] concluded that
BYU had failed to do so adequately.
Organization
Brigham Young University is a part of the
Church Educational System of LDS
Church. It is organized under a
Board
of Trustees, with the President of the Church as chairman. The
President of BYU, currently
Cecil
O. Samuelson, works in
cooperation with the board. Altogether, BYU has 194 bachelor's
degree programs, 68 master's degree programs, 25 Ph.D. programs,
and a
Juris Doctor program. These
degree programs are overseen by 11 colleges:
BYU also
manages some courses through the David M.
Kennedy Center for International
Studies and "miscellaneous" college departments, including
Religious Education, Undergraduate Education, Graduate Studies,
Independent Study, Continuing Education, and the Honors
Program. BYU's Winter semester ends earlier than most
universities in April since there is no
Spring break, thus allowing students to pursue
internships and other summer activities earlier. A typical academic
year is broken up into two semesters: Fall (September - December)
and Winter (January - April), as well as two shorter terms during
the summer months: Spring (May - June) and Summer (July -
August).
Campus
The main campus sits on approximately nestled at the base of the
Wasatch Mountains and includes 295
buildings. The buildings feature a wide variety of architectural
styles, each building being built in the style of its time. The
grass, trees, and flower beds on BYU's campus are impeccably
maintained.
Furthermore, views of the Wasatch Mountains,
(including Mount
Timpanogos
) can be seen from the campus. BYU's Harold
B. Lee Library, which The
Princeton Review ranked as the #1 "Great College Library"
in 2004, has approximately 8½ million items in its collections,
contains of shelving, and can seat 4,600 people.
The
Spencer
W.
Kimball Tower is home to several of the university's departments
and programs and is the tallest building in Provo, Utah.
Furthermore, BYU's Marriott
Center
, used as a basketball arena, can seat over 22,000
and is one of the largest on-campus arenas in the
nation.
Museums
The campus is home to several museums containing exhibits from many
different fields of study.
BYU's Museum of
Art
, for example, is one of the largest and most
attended art museums in the Mountain West. This Museum aids
in academic pursuits of students at BYU via research and study of
the artworks in its collection. The Museum is also open to the
general public and provides educational programming. The Museum of
Peoples and Cultures is a museum of archaeology and ethnology. It
focuses on native cultures and artifacts of the Great Basin,
American Southwest, Mesoamerica, Peru, and Polynesia. Home to more
than 40,000 artifacts and 50,000 photographs, it documents BYU's
archaeological research. The Earth Science Museum was built in 1976
to display the many fossils found by BYU's Dr. James A. Jensen. It
holds many artifacts from the
Jurassic
Period (210-140 million years ago), and is one the top five
collections in the world of fossils from that time period. It has
been featured in magazines, newspapers, and on television
internationally. The museum receives about 25,000 visitors every
year.
The
Monte
L.
Bean Life Science Museum was formed in 1978. It features several
forms of plant and animal life on display and available for
research by students and scholars.
The campus also houses several performing arts facilities. The de
Jong Concert Hall seats 1282 people and is named for
Gerrit de Jong Jr. The Pardoe Theatre is
named for T. Earl and Kathryn Pardoe. Students use its stage in a
variety of theatre experiments, as well as for Pardoe Series
performances. It seats 500 people, and has quite a large stage with
a
proscenium opening of 19 by . The
Margetts Theatre was named for Philip N. Margetts, a prominent Utah
theatre figure. A smaller,
black box
theater, it allows a variety of seating and staging formats. It
seats 125, and measures 30 by . The Nelke Theatre, named for one of
BYU's first drama teachers, is used largely for instruction in
experimental theater. It seats 280.
Student housing
Foreign Language Student Residence,
where students commit to speak only their language of study
Single students have four options for on-campus housing: Heritage
Halls, Helaman Halls, Wyview Park, and the FLSR. Married students
can live in Wymount Terrace.
Heritage
Halls
is a twenty-four building housing complex on campus
which offers apartment-style living. Each of the separate
buildings is named after a notable Latter-day Saint woman. The
halls house both male and female students, divided by gender into
separate buildings. Each building has ten to fourteen units capable
of housing six people each.
Helaman Halls is a slightly newer complex which has recently
undergone a 12 year renovation spanning 1991 and through
2003.
Wyview Park was originally built for families in 1996, but this
changed in 2006, when the complex began housing single students as
well, in order to counteract loss of singles' housing in other
areas. Wyview Park has 30 buildings that offer apartment-style
living for students, along with the option for shared or single
rooms. Each building has six to nine apartments, which can hold
three to four people. Central buildings contain an LDS chapel and
meeting rooms, the Wyview office, a BYU Creamery and grocery store,
and a laundromat. Wyview is the cheapest of the options.
A unique form of housing on campus is found in the Foreign Language
Student Residence (FLSR) complex. The twenty-five apartments in
this complex provide housing for students in foreign languages.
Residents of these apartments agree to speak only their apartment's
assigned language during the school year while in the apartment.
This immersion experience is available in nine languages, and
students are accompanied by a native resident throughout the year
to enhance the experience.
Deseret Towers, or "DT" as it is called by students, at one point
consisted of seven towers capable of housing over 2000 students.
However, on December 2006, V and W Hall were torn down. The others
followed in 2008 with demolition being completed in May 2008.
Wymount Terrace Student Family
Housing
Married students can house in Wymount Terrace, which contains a
total of 462 apartments in 24 buildings.
Branches of the
BYU Creamery provide
basic food and general grocery products for students living in
Heritage Halls, Wymount, Wyview, and the FLSR. Helaman Halls is
served by a central cafeteria called the Cannon Center. The
creamery, begun in 1949, has become a BYU tradition and is also
frequented by visitors to the university and members of the
community. It was the first on-campus full-service grocery store in
the country.
Sustainability
BYU has designated energy conservation, products and materials,
recycling, site planning and building design, student involvement,
transportation, water conservation, and zero waste events as top
priority categories in which to further its efforts to be an
environmentally sustainable campus. The university has stated that
"we have a responsibility to be wise stewards of the earth and its
resources." BYU is working to increase the energy efficiency of its
buildings by installing various speed drives on all pumps and fans,
replacing incandescent lighting with fluorescent lighting,
retrofitting campus buildings with low-E reflective glass, and
upgraded roof insulation to prevent heat loss. The student groups
BYU Recycles, Eco-Response, and BYU Earth educate students,
faculty, staff, and administrators about how the campus can
decrease its environmental impact. BYU Recycles spearheaded the
recent campaign to begin recycling plastics, which the university
did after a year of student campaigning.
Performing arts
Dance
The
BYU Ballroom Dance
Company is known as one of the best formation ballroom dance
teams in the world, having won the U.S. National Formation Dance
Championship every year since 1982. BYU's Ballroom dance team has
won first place in Latin or Standard (or both) many times when they
have competed at the
Blackpool
Dance Festival, they were the first U.S. team to win the
formation championships at the famed British Championships in
Blackpool England in 1972 . The NDCA National
DanceSport championships have been held at BYU
for several years, and BYU holds dozens of ballroom dance classes
each semester and is consequently the largest collegiate ballroom
dance program in the world. In addition, BYU has a number of other
notable dance teams and programs. These teams range from Theater
Ballet to the International Folk Dance Ensemble. BYU boasts one of
the largest dance departments in the nation. Many students from all
different majors across campus participate in various dance classes
each semester.
Music
The
Young Ambassadors are a song
and dance performing group of 50 years.
The group began
performing at Expo
'70
in Japan
, and have
since performed in over 56 nations. The royalty of
Thailand
and Jordan
, along with
persons of high office in countries such as India
, has been
among their audiences. Prior to 1970, the group was known as
Curtain Time USA.
In the 1960s, their world tour stops
included Lebanon
, Jordan, and
Iraq
.
BYU also has a strong emphasis on
jazz music
with the premiere performing group
Synthesis leading the
way.
Synthesis has toured in over 30
countries and performed at some of the biggest jazz festivals in the world, namely Montreux
(Switzerland), Pori
(Finland),
Umbria (Italy), IAJE
(International Association of Jazz Educators) and many
others. Synthesis also performed at the
2000 World
Expo
in Hannover, Germany
. Many of
Synthesis' alumni have
gone on to perform and record nationally and internationally as
well as teach at prestigious
universities nationwide. BYU offers degree
programs in
Music,
Music Education, Music Performance, Jazz
Studies and many more.
BYU's
Wind Symphony and Chamber Orchestra have toured many countries
including Denmark
, Hong
Kong
, Russia
, the
British
Isles
, and Central
Europe. The Symphonic Band is also an
ensemble dedicated to developing the
musician, but with a less strenuous focus on
performance. Additionally, BYU has a
marching band program called the Cougar
Marching Band.
BYU has a choral program with over 500 members. The four BYU
auditioned choirs include the 40-member
BYU
Singers, the 90-member
BYU Concert
Choir, the 200-member
BYU Men's
Chorus (the largest male collegiate choir in the U.S.), and the
190-member
BYU Women's Chorus.
Both the
BYU Men's Chorus and BYU Singers have toured across the United States
and around the globe. Each of the four
groups has recorded several times under BYU's label
Tantara Records.
Athletics
BYU has Athletics teams in a number of different sports ranging
from Men's volleyball to Women's rugby. They play mainly in the
Mountain West Conference
since its inception in 1999. Prior to that time BYU teams competed
in the
Western Athletic
Conference. All teams are named the "Cougars", and
Cosmo the Cougar has been the school's
mascot since 1953. The school's fight song is the
Cougar Fight Song. Because many of its
players serve on full time missions for two years, BYU's athletes
are often older on average than other school's players. The NCAA
allows students to serve missions for two years without subtracting
that time from their eligibility period. This has caused minor
controversy, but is largely recognized as not lending the school
any significant advantage, since players receive no athletic and
little physical training during their missions. BYU has also
received attention from sports networks for refusal to play games
on Sunday, as well as expelling players due to honor code
violations.
Football
The Brigham Young University Cougars football program competes at
the
NCAA
Division I FBS
(formerly I-A) level. Their first coach was Benjamin Call. BYU was
first a member of the
Western Athletic Conference, and
in the 1990s joined the
Mountain West Conference. BYU has
developed into a national powerhouse in college football and has
become known as a "quarterback-factory" for producing several
successful quarterbacks. BYU alumni who have excelled in the
NFL include
Jim
McMahon,
Steve
Young,
Gifford Nielsen,
Chad Lewis, and
Ty
Detmer. Others in the pros include
John
Beck,
Marc Wilson,
Brett Kiesel,
Robbie
Bosco,
Rob Morris,
John Tait,
Bryan Kehl,
Reno Mahe,
Austin Collie,
Brady Poppinga,
Kelly Poppinga, and
Doak Walker Award winner
Luke Staley. BYU also produced some of the
greatest NFL coaches, including
Mike
Holmgren,
Brian Billick, and
Andy Reid, who all coached at BYU under
LaVell Edwards, former head coach who
is credited with engineering BYU's pass-oriented offensive style..
LSU
and NFL
offensive coordinator Gary Crowton was
head coach previously at BYU, and University
of Washington
head coach Steve
Sarkisian was BYU's quarterback in the mid-1990s.
In 1984, the team went undefeated and was awarded the
National
Championship, finishing the season ranked #1 in the country,
and in 1990 BYU quarterback
Ty Detmer won
the
Heisman Trophy. BYU also holds
the NCAA record for most consecutive games without being shutout,
with 361 games over 28 years. As of the
2007 season the team has won
22 conference championships since 1974 and have played in 26 bowl
games.
BYU football is also known for its setting
at LaVell
Edwards Stadium
. The stadium sits below the towering Wasatch mountains, of Y Mountain, Squaw Peak, Cascade Mountain, and Mount
Timpanogos. While visiting the stadium,
Kirk Herbstreit of
ESPN
was quoted as saying it was "the most beautiful setting in all of
college football." Since 2005, BYU has been coached by
Bronco Mendenhall, and has enjoyed success
since his arrival, with multiple bowl victories, conference
championships, and Top 10 rankings.
Cougar logo from 1969 until 1998.
Basketball
The BYU men's basketball team is ranked among top 25 NCAA programs
for all-time total victories. As of 2006, BYU had 82 winning
seasons, 26 conference titles, 21 NCAA tournament invites, 10 NIT
invites, and 2 NIT titles (1951 and 1966). In 2005, the program was
ranked 36th in Street & Smiths "100 greatest College Basketball
Programs of All Time", based on NCAA tournament success, NIT
success, national championships, conference regular-season and
tournament titles, all-time win-loss percentage, graduation
percentage, NCAA infractions, NBA first round draft picks, and
mascot ferocity. In the 2006-2007 season, the Cougars became
nationally ranked for the first time since 1994 and won the
Mountain West Conference regular season championship
outright.
Other sports
BYU's Men's Volleyball has won the
NCAA National
Championship three times (1999, 2001, and 2004) and was the
Mountain Pacific
Sports Federation champion four times (1999, 2001, 2003 and
2004). The Women's Volleyball team is also consistently nationally
ranked and in 2007 reached the Elite Eight before losing to
eventual national champion
Penn
State.
BYU
Club Men's Lacrosse is consistently ranked in the top 5 in the
nation, having won the USL-MDIA (now MCLA) national championship in
1997, 2000, and 2007. The team is a member of the RMLC and plays a
national schedule. BYU is also a major force in American collegiate
rugby union (known as rugby), with
several students and alumni providing players to the
United States national
rugby union team, the Eagles. BYU's Rugby team was the national
runner-up in 2006, 2007, and 2008, and in 2009 the school won its
first National Rugby Championship by defeating the
University of California in the
final. The BYU women's cross-country team won National
Championships in 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2002.
BYU's men's soccer club participates as a
university-owned franchise in the
United Soccer Leagues'
Premier Development League. The
women's soccer team has appeared in the NCAA tournament 9 times,
reaching as far as the Elite Eight in 2003 before losing to UConn.
BYU's racquetball team also recently placed third at the 2008 USA
Racquetball National Intercollegiate Championships, and BYU Golf
won the 1981 NCAA Championship.
Student life
LDS atmosphere
| "The mission of [BYU] is to assist
individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life. That
assistance should provide a period of intensive learning in a
stimulating setting where a commitment to excellence is expected
and the full realization of human potential is pursued...." |
| — BYU Mission Statement |
According to the Brigham Young University mission statement, "The
mission of [BYU] is to assist individuals in their quest for
perfection and
eternal
life." BYU is thus considered by its leaders to be at heart a
religious institution, wherein, ideally, religious and secular
education is interwoven in a way that encourages the highest
standards in both areas. It is not uncommon for LDS scriptures to
be referred to and prayers to be spoken in classes. In fact, it is
encouraged, though left to the instructor's discretion. This
weaving of the secular and the religious aspects of a religious
university go back as far as Brigham Young himself, who told Karl
G. Maeser when the Church purchased the school: "I want you to
remember that you ought not to teach even the alphabet or
themultiplication tables without the
Spirit of God."
BYU is also considered by many Latter-day Saints, as well as some
university and Church leaders to be "The Lord's University". This
phrase is used in reference to the school's perceived mission as an
"ambassador" to the world for the LDS Church and thus, for
Jesus Christ. In the
past, some students and faculty have expressed dissatisfaction with
this nickname, as it sometimes gives students the idea that
university authorities are always divinely inspired and never to be
contradicted. Leaders of the school, however, acknowledge that the
nickname represents more a goal that the university strives for,
and not its current state of being. Leaders encourage students and
faculty to help fulfill the goal by following the teachings of
their religion, adhering to the school's honor code, and serving
others with the knowledge they gain while attending.
BYU mandates that its students be religiously active. Both LDS and
Non-LDS students are required to provide an endorsement from an
ecclesiastic (religious) leader with their application for
admittance. LDS BYU students can choose to affiliate with the local
congregation (
ward) where they
reside or the corresponding student ward. Over 900 rooms on BYU
campus are used for the purposes of
The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregations. More than 150
congregations meet on BYU campus each Sunday. "BYU's campus becomes
one of the busiest and largest centers of worship in the world"
with about 24,000 persons attending church services on
campus.
Some 97% of male BYU graduates and 32% of female graduates took a
hiatus from their undergraduate studies at one point to serve as
LDS missionaries. Male students
typically go on their missions shortly after turning 19 years old.
This often occurs during or at the end of their freshman year.
Female students may begin their missionary service anytime after
turning 21. For males, a full-time mission is two years in length,
and for females it lasts 18 months.
Honor code
All students and faculty, regardless of religion, are required to
agree to adhere to an
honor code. Early
forms of the BYU Honor Code are found as far back as the days of
the Brigham Young Academy and early school President Karl G.
Maeser. Maeser created the "Domestic Organization", which was a
group of teachers who would visit students at their homes to see
that they were following the schools moral rules prohibiting
obscenity, profanity, smoking, and alcohol consumption. The Honor
Code itself was not created until about 1940, and was used mainly
for cases of cheating and academic dishonesty. President Wilkinson
expanded the Honor Code in 1957 to include other school standards.
This led to what the Honor Code represents today: rules regarding
chastity, dress, grooming, drugs and alcohol. A signed commitment
to live the honor code is part of the application process, and must
be adhered by all students, faculty, and staff. Students and
faculty found in violation of standards are either warned or called
to meet with representatives of the Honor Council. In rare cases,
students and faculty can be expelled from the school or lose
tenure. Both LDS and non-LDS students are required to meet annually
with a Church leader to receive an ecclesiastical endorsement for
both acceptance and continuance. Various
LGBT
advocacy groups have protested the honor code and criticized it as
being
anti-gay.
Culture
BYU's social and cultural atmosphere is unique. The high rate of
enrollment at the university by members of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints results in an amplification of LDS
cultural norms; BYU was ranked by
The Princeton Review in
2008 as 14th in the nation for having the happiest students and
highest quality of life. However, the quirkiness and sometimes "too
nice" culture is often caricatured, for example, in terms of
marrying early and being very conservative.
One of the characteristics of BYU most often pointed out is its
reputation for emphasizing a "marriage culture." Members of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints highly value marriage
and family, as well as marriage within the faith. Approximately 51%
of the graduates in BYU's class of 2005 were married. This is
compared to a national marriage average among college graduates of
11%. BYU students on average marry at the age of 22, according to a
2005 study, while the national average age is 25 years for men and
27 for women.
Many visitors to BYU, and Utah Valley as a whole, report being
surprised by the culturally conservative environment. Brigham Young
University's Honor Code, which all BYU students agree to as a
condition of studying at BYU, prohibits the consumption of
alcoholic beverages, tobacco, etc. As mentioned earlier, The
Princeton Review has rated BYU the
"#1 stone cold sober school" in the nation for several years
running, an honor which the late LDS Church president
Gordon B. Hinckley had commented on with pride.
According to the
Uniform Crime
Reports, incidents of crime in Provo are lower than the
national average. Murder is rare, and robberies are about 1/10th
the national average.
Alumni
As of November 2007, BYU has approximately 362,000 living alumni.
Alumni
relations are coordinated and activities are held at the new
Gordon B.
Hinckley Alumni and Visitors
Center.
Over 21 BYU graduates have served in the
U.S. Senate and
U.S. House of Representatives, such
as former
Dean of the U.S.
Senate Reed Smoot (class of 1876). Cabinet members of
American presidents include former
Secretary of Agriculture to
President
Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Ezra Taft Benson '26 and
Rex E. Lee '60, who was
U.S. Solicitor General under President
Ronald Reagan.
Mitt Romney, former
Governor of Massachusetts and
2008 Republican
Presidential Candidate, was
valedictorian of his class in 1971.
BYU
alumni in academia include former Dean of the Harvard
Business School
Kim B. Clark and
Michael
K. Young '73,
current President of The University of Utah
. The University also graduated
Nobel Prize winner
Paul
D. Boyer, as well as
Philo Farnsworth (co-inventor of the
electronic television) and
Harvey
Fletcher (inventor of the hearing aid). Three of BYU's twelve
presidents were alumni of the University. Additionally, alumni of
BYU who have served as business leaders include
Citigroup CFO Gary Crittenden '76, former
Dell CEO Kevin Rollins '84,
Deseret Book CEO
Sheri
L. Dew, and
Matthew K. McCauley, CEO of children's clothing
company
Gymboree.
In literature and journalism, BYU has produced several best-selling
authors, including
Douglas Kent
Hall '60,,
Orson Scott Card
'75,
Brandon Sanderson '00 &
'05, and
Stephenie Meyer '95. Other
media personalities include award-winning
ESPN
sportscaster and former
Miss America
Sharlene Wells Hawkes '86 and
former co-host of
CBS's
The Early Show Jane Clayson Johnson '90. In
entertainment and television, BYU is represented by
Jon Heder '02 (best known for his role as
Napoleon Dynamite), Golden Globe-nominated
Aaron Eckhart '94, animator and
filmmaker
Don Bluth '54,
Jeopardy! all-time champion
Ken Jennings '00, and
Richard Dutcher, the "Father of
Mormon Cinema." In the music industry BYU is
represented by former
American
Idol contestant
Carmen
Rasmusen and
Mormon
Tabernacle Choir director
Mack
Wilberg.
BYU has also produced several leaders of religion. Alumni have
comprised several
General
Authorities of
The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including two church
presidents (
Thomas S. Monson '74 and
Ezra Taft Benson '26), six apostles
(
Neil L. Andersen,
D. Todd Christofferson '69,
David A. Bednar '76,
Jeffrey R. Holland '65 & '66,
Dallin H. Oaks
'54, and
Reed Smoot 1876), and two
General
Relief Society Presidents
(
Julie B. Beck '73 and
Belle
Spafford '20).
A number of BYU alumni have found success in professional sports,
representing the University in 7
MLB World Series, 5
NBA
Finals, and 25
NFL
Super Bowls. In baseball, BYU alumni
include
All-Stars Rick Aguilera '83,
Wally Joyner '84, and
Jack Morris '76. Professional basketball players
include three-time
NBA Finals champion
Danny Ainge '81 and three-time
Olympic medalist
Krešimir Ćosić '73. BYU also
claims notable professional football players including Super Bowl
MVP
Steve Young '84
& '94,
Heisman Trophy winner
Ty Detmer '90, and two-time Super Bowl
winner
Jim McMahon and ledgendary Texas
Tech coach
Mike Leach. In golf,
BYU alumni include two
major championship winners:
Johnny Miller ('69) at the 1973 U.S.
Open and 1976 British Open and
Mike Weir
('92) at the 2003 Masters.
See also
References
- History of Brigham Young High School from 1903 to
1920
- In the case of University of Texas-Austin ("UT"), BYU appears
to be more selective in some regards, with 27% of admitted freshmen
having ACT scores over 30, as compared with 23% for UT.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 31, 2007.
- http://yfacts.byu.edu/viewarticle.aspx?id=181
- The Wall Street Journal, September 17, 2007
- U.S. News & World Report, America's Best Colleges 2008
- Owens, Eric. America's Best Value Colleges. New York: Princeton
Review, 2004. pg.583. ISBN 0375763732
- Cary Nelson
(AAUP President), "Praying to the Wrong God" (Subject of massmail
message), AAUP Online, 2008 September 23.
- pg. 3.
- Index
- Knupke, Gene. Profiles of American / Canadian Sports Stadiums
and Arenas. S.L.: Xlibris Corporation, 2006. pg. 301 ISBN
141349823X
- Meridian Magazine :: Sports: BYU Rugby Team Wins Games and
the Respect of Opponents
- BYU NewsNet - Racquetball Places Third at
Nationals
- "BYU Continues the Legacy of Anti-Gay
Policies", HeartStrong.
- "Brigham Young University Pages", Affirmation: Gay
and Lesbian Mormons.
- "The 2006 Equality Ride Route: Brigham Young
University", Soulforce.
- http://www.douglaskenthall.com
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