DiscoverEnvisioning BYU: BYU Speeches
Envisioning BYU: BYU Speeches
Author: BYU Speeches
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For the past 200 years, leaders have testified of the divinely inspired mission of Brigham Young University. In this podcast, you’ll find the speeches, statements, prayers, and prophesies that form the foundation of BYU and raise our sights to envision all that BYU can become. Tune in to learn more about the past, present, and future of this unique university.
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President Russell M. Nelson, an apostle at the time that he gave these touching remarks, recounted in this talk how the gospel had “provided the under-girding foundation” for his remarkable educational journey. His journey had taught him, among other things, that “all truth is part of the everlasting gospel” and that “when the laws of God are obeyed, wanted blessings will always result, not just maybe or sometimes.” President Nelson’s sterling example reminds us that we are blessed as we become disciples in the disciplines. Indeed, the Lord expects all of His people to be consecrated covenant keepers who are following the covenant path, no matter their worldly occupation. Access his remarks here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
C. Terry Warner was a BYU professor of philosophy when this devotional address was given on November 11, 2008. You can access the talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
John S. Tanner was academic vice president when this address was delivered at the BYU Annual University Conference faculty session on August 26, 2008. You can access the talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
John S. Tanner was academic vice president when this address was delivered at the BYU University Conference faculty session on August 28, 2007. You can access the talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
BYU has weathered much in the struggle to determine its mission of blending the sacred and secular—which our students, like snow-white birds, need to fly. Boyd K. Packer was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this BYU University Conference address was given on 29 August 1995. Access the talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bruce C. Hafen was the provost of Brigham Young University when this address was delivered at the BYU Annual University Conference on August 25, 1992. Access the talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Discovery, Titanic, BYU—all began with a dream. We must nail our colors to the mast to ensure the safety and success of our ship. Jeffrey R. Holland was president of Brigham Young University when this devotional address was given on September 10, 1985. You can access the talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Featuring excerpts from the dedicatory prayers given by Joseph Fielding Smith, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the Provo Utah Temple (February 9, 1972) and by Dallin H. Oaks, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, for the Provo City Center Temple on March 20, 2016. Access them here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Spencer W. Kimball was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a member of the BYU Board of Trustees when he delivered this address to BYU faculty and staff on September 12, 1967.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Zina P. Young Williams Card, ladies matron of Brigham Young Academy, recorded these words in her personal papers: “Short Reminiscent Sketches of Karl G. Maeser,” unpublished typescript, undated.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Karl G. Maeser was completing his time as principal of the Brigham Young Academy when he gave this address on 4 January 1892. Access the talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is an excerpt of a discourse delivered by John Taylor, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on April 13, 1879, in Ephraim, Utah. Access the excerpt here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Elder Holland looks at where BYU is now and offers counsel about reaching for the university’s prophetic future. Access the talk here.
Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, delivered this university conference address on August 23, 2021.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Though Elder Hafen was particularly addressing religious educators when he gave this speech, he chose to focus on the broader history and mission of BYU. Elder Hafen traced the history of why prophets have chosen to preserve a few Latter-day Saint colleges and universities—such as BYU and its sister institutions—in which religion can be integrated across the entire campus, rather than opt exclusively for the much less expensive and simpler model of Latter-day Saint institutes, where the faith is taught next door to secular universities. The history Elder Hafen recounted illustrates both the problems and promises of teaching and learning at a fully integrated Latter-day Saint university such as BYU. Access the speech page here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this university conference address, President Kevin J Worthen captured the essence of BYU’s mission and aims in a memorable two-word phrase: “inspiring learning.” The idea of inspiring learning quickly spread across campus, guiding educational initiatives and enabling student learning in new and expansive ways. Access the speech page here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Aims of a BYU Education builds upon the Mission of Brigham Young University. Focusing on student outcomes, it attempts to articulate the desired effect of a BYU education in the lives of students. The document appeared just as higher education was undergoing a fundamental paradigm shift from a “teaching paradigm” to a “learning paradigm.” The aims prepared the university to translate its educational aspirations into learning outcomes, as would soon be required by its accrediting bodies. The sections were purposefully ordered “to envelop BYU’s intellectual aims within a more complete, even eternal, perspective that begins with spiritual knowledge and ends with knowledge applied to the practical tasks of living and serving.” Access the text here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
When President Jeffrey R. Holland began his administration, the university did not have a formal mission statement. It was felt that BYU needed to set forth its mission publicly, clearly, succinctly, and boldly. President Holland briefly discussed writing that statement in a BYU devotional in 1981. He said that he “tried to read almost everything that had been said about BYU and then attempted to reduce that down to a single statement . . . as to why BYU exists.” He then drafted a lofty, eloquent mission statement that, with very little modification, was endorsed by the board and adopted by the university. It has guided and inspired BYU for more than four decades. Access the mission statement here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Spencer W. Kimball was president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he gave this seminal address at the Founders Day commemoration on October 10, 1975—almost a hundred years to the day after the university’s founding. Speaking prophetically, President Kimball envisioned a remarkable destiny for BYU in its second century. His talk drew upon his visionary 1967 speech “Education for Eternity”; it also became the basis for his inaugural charge to Jeffrey R. Holland in 1980. This speech was unique as a major address by a president of the Church in that it was entirely focused on BYU’s mission. Its soaring expectations and sobering admonitions have guided the pursuit of excellence at BYU for nearly half a century. It has become a foundational discourse for the university, much as “The Charted Course of the Church in Education” (pages 23–41) has for the Church Educational System. Access the talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Concerned about rising secularism in Church education, J. Reuben Clark Jr., first counselor in the First Presidency, gave this address to Church seminary and institute leaders at the BYU summer school in Aspen Grove. It has been called “the most influential address to seminary and institute teachers in the history of Church education.” While President Clark focused on seminary and institute teachers, the talk also implied the university’s need to hire Latter-day Saint faculty in all disciplines who were fully converted, for “our Church schools cannot be manned by unconverted, untesti- monied teachers.” President Packer admonished BYU faculty that “The Charted Course” “should be read by every one of you every year. It is insightful; it is profound; it is prophetic; it is scripture.” So it is included among BYU’s founding documents even though its focus is on seminaries and institute teachers. Access the talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This address was delivered at Brigham Young Academy’s first Founders Day exercises. President Maeser recounted how Brigham Young Academy began with the revelation to Brigham Young of “the necessity for the establishment of a new kind of educational institution for Zion.” The new educational system was not merely to duplicate existing models, for “following . . . in the old grooves would simply lead to the same results.” Brigham Young Academy was to be unique. At BYA “neither the alphabet nor the multiplication tables should be taught without the Spirit of God.” “The spirit of the latter-day work” was to go through the academy “like a golden thread.” Karl G. Maeser served as president of Brigham Young Academy from 1876 to 1892. Access the talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.