Envisioning BYU: 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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Kate L. Kirkham was an associate professor of organizational behavior at Brigham Young University when this devotional address was given on 19 May 1987. You can access the full talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is an excerpt of a devotional address delivered by Dallin H. Oaks, president of Brigham Young University, on February 12, 1974. You can access the full talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is an excerpt of a faculty address delivered by Ernest L. Wilkinson, president of Brigham Young University, on September 18, 1962. You can access the excerpt here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is an excerpt of the inaugural address delivered by Franklin S. Harris, president of Brigham Young University, on October 17, 1921. You can access the full talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dallin H. Oaks was serving as first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he delivered this address. As BYU approached its sesquicentennial, President Oaks and a number of BYU devotional speakers reflected on President Spencer W. Kimball’s challenge to “become a unique university in all of the world.” President Oaks’s counsel was born of long and deep observation of BYU and the American academy generally. He spoke of an experience in the 1970s when BYU broke with the educational establishment in order to assert eternal principles. He also challenged students to “dare to be different” from the world when the world does not follow the Lord’s way, emphasizing the principle that the second commandment (love of neighbor) does not come ahead of the first great commandment (love of God). You can access the full talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Clark G. Gilbert, serving as commissioner of the Church Educational System, published this essay on the fate of the religious university a few months after he gave a BYU devotional address that touched on the same topic. In both pieces, he reminded BYU to hold fast to its unique mission, as so many initially religious universities have failed to do. Elder Gilbert calls for “courageous leadership” at religiously aligned colleges and universities to maintain their religious identity. His is a clarion call not only to BYU but to all “religious universities and faith-oriented faculty to deepen their confidence in the power of religious strength identity,” which “is not only important to a religious community, but it strengthens the academy and society more generally.” Therefore, he concludes, “Do not hide your light under a bushel. . . . Dare to be different in ways that are true to your distinctive light.” You can access the full talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
C. Shane Reese was BYU academic vice president when he delivered this address to faculty members, building on an admonition given to the university only months earlier by Elder David A. Bednar. Elder Bednar had challenged university leadership to take to heart President Spencer W. Kimball’s admonitions for BYU to remain unique as it pursued academic distinction in its second century. Focusing on what makes BYU unique, Vice President Reese stressed the importance of using gospel methodologies to address university problems, of honing research mentoring at the university, and of applying “mission-fit” criteria when making hiring decisions. You can access the full talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Kevin J Worthen was serving as president of the university when he delivered this address and introduced the BYU Statement on Belonging and the creation of the Office of Belonging. He reminded the campus community of Elder David A. Bednar’s invitation to hearken to President Spencer W. Kimball’s admonition to use “gospel methodology, concepts, and insights . . . to do what the world cannot do in its own frame of reference.” President Worthen explained how both the substance of the BYU Statement on Belonging and the process of arriving at it through counseling in councils draw on gospel methodology, concepts, and insights. He also reflected on President Kimball’s prophetic expectations for BYU to “remain a unique university in all the world.” You can access the full talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
David A. Bednar was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when he delivered this address and spoke of Joseph Smith’s promise that the work of the Lord will go forward. Elder Bednar encouraged BYU’s leaders to “look unto [the Savior] in every thought; doubt not, fear not” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:36). He emphasized that looking without fear to God rather than to the world means heeding President Spencer W. Kimball’s repeated warnings to “resist anything that would rob BYU of its basic uniqueness in its second century” (“The Second Century of Brigham Young University”). Elder Bednar invited the campus community to remember and apply President Kimball’s counsel. You can access the full talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
As president of Brigham Young University, Kevin J Worthen explained to faculty and staff how BYU offers a unique kind of education by linking “faith-based teaching and student-centered research.” Building on then Elder Dallin H. Oaks’s address “Challenges to the Mission of Brigham Young University”, given earlier that year, President Worthen articulated how BYU can achieve its “prophetically proclaimed destiny... in a way that is different from that by which other universities have achieved their greatness.” You can access the full talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dallin H. Oaks was serving as chair of the executive committee of the BYU Board of Trustees and as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when he delivered this address. He spoke of the challenges BYU faces in becoming a “great university of the Lord—not in the world’s way but in the Lord’s way.” This talk figured prominently in a speech given a few months later by President Kevin J Worthen, titled “BYU: A Unique Kind of Education.” You can access the full talk 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 delivered this charge to new BYU president Jeffrey R. Holland. He repeated many key points from his address “The Second Century of Brigham Young University,” thus fixing his prophetic expectations about BYU’s mission even more deeply into the university. In one paragraph of particular note, President Kimball altered slightly the language from his second-century address, changing become unique to remain unique. You can access the full talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
As Church commissioner of education during BYU’s centennial year (1975), Neal A. Maxwell wrote an article for the Ensign magazine explaining why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would have a university like BYU. In it he touched on many of the same themes President Spencer W. Kimball articulated in his address “The Second Century of Brigham Young University,” emphasizing the need for BYU to remain “deliberately different,” even unique, in “meeting its rendezvous with destiny.” This text has been excerpted. The talk can be accessed here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
David O. McKay was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when he authored this article. Elder McKay believed deeply in the value of Church schools, where students could study all subjects in the light of the gospel, deepen their testimonies, and develop noble character traits. He helped preserve Brigham Young University as an exception to the Church’s general policy of divesting itself of Church schools. Later, as Church president, he founded BYU–Hawaii and the Church College of New Zealand. You can access the full talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
James R. Rasband was serving as academic vice president when he delivered this address. He situated his topic by observing how the restored gospel “rejects either-or choices in favor of both-and possibilities.” Note how instead of or, the restored gospel uses and in these dichotomies: “It is not faith or works but faith and works. It is not a choice between body or spirit but a recognition that both body and spirit constitute the soul of man.” Likewise BYU consistently straddles seeming contraries, such as learning by study and by faith. The faculty in BYU’s house of learning must negotiate tensions between these paired aspirations, each making legitimate and even compelling competing claims. The talk can be accessed here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
John S. Tanner was serving as academic vice president when he delivered this address during the faculty session of university conference. He based his remarks on the Lord’s great revelation on education—Doctrine and Covenants 88, or the Olive Leaf—which established the School of the Prophets. Tanner emphasized the connection between school and temple in Latter-day Saint history and doctrine, as well as the importance of all learning of all. He spoke of the need for learners and teachers to be worthy and to walk together as brothers and sisters bound by shared command- ments and covenants “in the bonds of love” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:133). The talk can be accessed here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bonnie Brinton, a nationally recognized speech- language pathologist, was a professor in the BYU Department of Communication Disorders and dean of BYU Graduate Studies when she delivered this address. Brinton spoke to the blessing of working at BYU, where scholars “can use information gained through spiritual means at the same time that [they are] observing and testing the phenomena in the world around [them]”. She related this ability to be “bilingual”—as President Spencer W. Kimball called it in his address “The Second Century of Brigham Young University”—to the anableps, a fish that can see simultaneously what is above and below the waterline. You can access the talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Susan W. Tanner was serving as the Young Women general president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was serving on the BYU Board of Trustees when she delivered this address. She encouraged the BYU campus community to learn by heart, a rarely discussed aspect of one of BYU’s aims—lifelong learning. Sister Tanner emphasized that when an individual learns by heart, the truths become internalized and can then lift, inspire, and change the heart. You can access the talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Kristine Hansen was a professor of English and associate dean of Honors and General Education when she delivered this inspiring devotional on BYU’s aims. She reflected deeply and lucidly on each aim, which she compared to facets of a towering mountain, ultimately encouraging faculty, staff, and students to unite in their efforts to live the aims and ascend together as they help BYU fulfill its divine destiny. Although her remarks are primarily addressed to students, they can and should be internalized by all who come to work, study, or serve at the university. You can access the talk here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bruce C. Hafen was provost of Brigham Young University when he delivered this address. He spoke first about BYU as a distinctive institution that has serious dual allegiances to a “red world” of academics and a “blue world” of the Church. He then explored the challenges and blessings “of BYU’s exciting life in the land of the purple overlap”, where people take seriously both halves of the divine injunction to “seek learning, even by study and also by faith”.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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