His name is Clark Gilbert, and during that 2021 address, Holland referred to him as his “traveling companion.” In the years since, Gilbert, who has a reputation for “disrupting” faculty systems, has set about reforming BYU to make it more orthodox, beginning with a new employment contract — or “loyalty oath” — in 2022. The contract asks faculty members to support church doctrine in a set of behavioral standards that may go beyond the church’s own standards. Religion reporter Peggy Fletcher Stack’s recent feature in The Salt Lake Tribune outlines the details of the changes on the BYU campus. Join us for our conversation with Fletcher-Stack and religious scholar Taylor Petrey.
Below is the response from Brigham Young University:
BYU has always had a unique faith-based mission to develop disciples of Jesus Christ, where employees and students come to BYU because they want to contribute to the university’s spiritual mission, including the world-class teaching and research that takes place here.
We are grateful to have employees who are deeply committed to the values and aims of a BYU education. This is not just a select group of BYU faculty. Overall, more than 90 percent of the faculty at BYU anonymously reported in a third-party survey that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs, which is markedly higher than national averages.
BYU is clear about its commitment to the university’s standards and expectations. Employees at BYU and those coming to the university are not only qualified professionally but are dedicated to the standards of its sponsoring institution, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The most recent data indicate that the overwhelming majority of employees (greater than 95%) are cleared for employment.
Parents, alumni and students consistently express appreciation for this clarity of purpose. In fact, applications and enrollment at BYU continue to move upward, despite declining national demographic trends in higher education. This year, BYU saw the most applications since moving to a rigorous, wholistic application process in 2018.
GUEST –
Taylor Petrey | Associate Professor of Religion at Kalamazoo College.
Peggy Fletcher Stack | Religion reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune, and co-host of their podcast “Mormon Land.” Stack’s article is: Dark days: New rules have BYU professors running scared.
Airdate: Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025 at 9 a.m. and Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025 at 11 a.m.