Brigham Young University, says a school spokesperson, has a “unique and compelling faith-based mission to develop disciples of Jesus Christ.”
Key to enacting that mission are the school’s faculty members, according to Clark Gilbert, commissioner of education for BYU’s owner, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that his tenure has been marked by ever-increasing levels of scrutiny of current and potential teachers’ beliefs, particularly on the topics of marriage, family and gender.
The problem, as professors across departments told The Salt Lake Tribune, is a lack of transparency over what counts as disqualifying, as well as the deputization of bishops (lay leaders of Latter-day Saint congregations) in playing a greater role in determining a job candidate’s mission readiness.
The result, teachers said, is widespread fear and self-censorship in and out of school on a range of issues. Others, meanwhile, are simply calling it quits in search of freer pastures at other universities.
Latter-day Saint historian Benjamin Park, a BYU alum and author of “American Zion: A New History of Mormonism,” has been a witness to these shifts and their impacts. So, too, has Latter-day Saint researcher Jana Riess, author of “The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church” and a columnist for Religion News Service.
Here are excerpts from a conversation with them about BYU on The Tribune’s latest “Mormon Land” podcast:
What has been your recent experience with BYU faculty?
Park • These are concerns that have been around and increasingly so in recent years….And this current cycle of retrenchment has seemed to be in place for about a half-decade or so, and increasing in tenacity every year.
Do you think those professors expressing concerns about BYU employment practices represent the majority of faculty or a small minority?
Riess • I would say that anecdotally, in the humanities, I have certainly observed attention among a number of people that I know who teach at BYU in humanities and in the social sciences. I think that for them, in particular, some of these issues of academic freedom can be particularly acute if their research impinges on issues of sexuality and gender, which seem to be the kind of hot-button things that the church is particularly concerned about.
[Read The Salt Lake Tribune’s story about BYU retrenchment and columnist Gordon Monson’s commentary.]
Park • Like any university, there’s a broad spectrum among the faculty on different views and relationship to the institution, and so they’re probably reacting to these recent developments in different ways. But what I can say, according to the dozens that I’m friends with and speak to, is that all are affected in one way or another. Some are more deeply aggrieved, some to the point of leaving the institution, while others certainly understand and some might agree with the necessity of retrenchment, but might not be happy with the direction or the degree to which it’s being done, or the policies that are being incorporated with it. So I think it’s fair to say that the dozens of faculty that [The Tribune] spoke to [who] don’t feel comfortable going on the record, they certainly speak for a sizable percentage of BYU faculty. … Just because some are 100% in favor of the institutional direction does not negate the fact that there are many others who are not believing the same.
What’s wrong, if anything, with requiring faculty of the church-owned school to embrace the faith’s teachings on marriage, family and gender?
Riess • BYU is a private religious institution. It has the right to define its own educational and religious mission as it sees fits. And it has the right to change its mind about that. .. Part of the issue, though, is that for many of these faculty who were hired with one understanding, the ground is shifting under their feet in real time, and no one is explaining, necessarily, why this person was passed over for promotion, and this person received promotion, or this person was hired, and this person was not hired.
(Jeremy Harmon | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jana Riess, shown in 2019, says BYU is at a crossroads.
Park • At BYU, they are setting up a very vague and nontransparent set of standards that they then expect faculty to follow, and when they don’t, there are serious repercussions, and that’s one of the major problems with this current retrenchment.
Is there a danger of chasing away faculty and students not just from BYU but also from the church?
Park • [The professors] want to be upfront about providing a model to their students of how to wrestle with the church and society in ways that can keep you grounded in the faith. Professors are doing this. They are, they are devoted to that mission. They’re not the enemies that are sometimes depicted. But in instituting this culture of secrecy, where they don’t know when they’re going to be ratted out, that they don’t know how honest they can be, that they don’t know where the boundaries are, and fear that they might cross them, it means that they are offering a lesser education for their students, that they’re giving a kind of black-and-white model, a simplified version of the gospel and education that might accord with this retrenchment but falls far short of what is needed to address these students who are yearning for a complicated, substantive discussion. I fear we’re going to lose a lot of members as a result.
(Photo by Mike Hoogterp) Benjamin Park is a BYU alum and the author of “American Zion: A New History of Mormonism."
Part of the system is that the people deciding your jobs happen to be ecclesiastical leaders. Do you think the situation makes a number of faculty members feel they have to lie to keep their jobs?
Riess • I have heard from some faculty members that I know who teach at one of the BYUs [who say] that they may not openly lie about something, but they are hardly going to present their full selves in that environment of fear or possible recrimination.
Park • Added to that is the fact that we don’t have a standard set of criteria for people being called to ecclesiastical positions, who then have control over these faculties and these ecclesiastical endorsements — what is typically referred to as “bishop roulette.” Some bishops are OK with some answers, while others aren’t.
What have you seen from other religious universities?
Riess • I would say that BYU is kind of standing at a crossroads. ... On one side, we have the flagship academic university model rooted in religious tradition that these are internationally renowned universities such as Notre Dame, such as Georgetown. On the other extreme, we have Oral Roberts University. We have Liberty University, Jerry Falwell’s flagship university. And I’m going to put my cards on the table here. I would really like to see BYU follow the first model.
Park • There’s an important role that these religious universities play in America. I have lots of friends who teach at Georgetown or Baylor or Notre Dame and are able to blend a religious mission with academic rigor in important ways, and that’s long been a crucial pillar of United States society.
How do each of you think what is happening at BYU may affect its standing in the higher education community at large?
Riess • It’s been interesting in the reaction in the last few days to [The Tribune’s] story. I have seen the gamut of possible reactions from very orthodox members saying, “Great, we’re going to get rid of those progressive professors. Good riddance to them. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” All the way to progressive members or former members, who have said that this is the death knell of BYU. … I did a little digging into the common data set of BYU application figures and retention figures…I’m talking about graduation rates, essentially, of your incoming first-year class. How many are still there after one year? How many are going to graduate? They’re excellent. So the “death knell of BYU” argument doesn’t really hold water. … I will say I am a little concerned that BYU is not preparing its students to enter a diverse workplace in which DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] is valued as something that they need to be trained in, essentially, before they enter the workplace, before they are hired, that diversity is something that they need to be taught to respect.
Park • I do think that there is a reputation at stake to where, yes, there are lots of religious universities out there that have a set of standards and ecclesiastical requirements for students. Yes, even state schools have a set of dogma that they expect professors to follow to be able to fit in. The process through which BYU is instituting this retrenchment is unique, and it’s raising eyebrows. Having this ecclesiastical clearance office that is a shadowy group that faculty don’t know who’s on it, and somehow they’re able to veto candidates who passed the department, college, university and board of trustee approval? That’s not normal. Having unexplained and untransparent standards through which they are judging both applicants and candidates for promotion at the university and then not giving an explanation for why they were denied? That’s not usual. And other schools like Baylor or Notre Dame or Georgetown, the very [religion-based] institutions that BYU claims that they’re part of, those institutions look at those practices and say like, maybe you’re not like us, or maybe you’re not acting the way we expect someone in our class to act. Which is a shame, because BYU is filled with faculty who are on that excellent level. BYU has a phenomenal, elite group of professors who could be teaching at universities across the nation, and they could be a great religious school if they were trusted by the administration, which is clearly not the case.
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