Brigham Young University (BYU, or simply the Y) was founded as Brigham Young Academy in 1875 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church; see also Mormon).

It was once the largest private school in the United States, but has since been surpassed by New York University (39,408), and one of the world's largest church-affiliated schools, with an enrollment of roughly 30,200 undergraduate students during the 2004-05 school year. BYU is located in Provo, Utah.

The main campus sits on approximately 600 acres (2.43 km²) at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains and includes 333 buildings. The campus is extensively landscaped, with many flower beds, lawns, and trees. The buildings on the campus are mostly plain and utilitarian (with a few rare exceptions).

The students at BYU are overwhelmingly LDS (Mormon), drawn mostly from the national population of academically-oriented LDS high school students.

Additional facilities include a study center in Israel (the BYU Jerusalem Center, not currently in operation); a satellite campus to the north in Utah's capital and largest city, Salt Lake City, (the BYU Salt Lake Center); and study centers all over the world, including London and Washington, D.C. Until recently, BYU operated an academy for its students at Nauvoo, IL, a town that figures prominently in Latter-day Saint history (the Joseph Smith Academy).

The LDS Church also has sister four-year schools in Lā'ie, Hawai'i (Brigham Young University-Hawaii) and Rexburg, Idaho (Brigham Young University-Idaho). These schools enroll an additional 14,700 students. The church also runs LDS Business College, a two-year school in downtown Salt Lake City. All these schools are institutionally independent from Brigham Young University, with their own administrations and accreditation.

Ownership and control

BYU is wholly owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the church provides it with a large subsidy from Latter-day Saint tithing funds, providing roughly 70% of the cost of education at BYU. The church subsidizes the education of both LDS and non-LDS students. Because of the church's subsidy, there is a two-tier, tuition system, in which non-LDS students pay approximately 50% higher tuition than LDS students (for the 2005-2006 academic year, LDS members will pay $1705 to attend a semester full-time, while their non-LDS counterparts will pay $2558).

The university is operated by its board of trustees, which is chaired by the church's First Presidency, and the majority of its other members are selected from the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. This board selects a president who, since 1996, has been a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, chosen in part for his academic credentials. BYU has never had a female president, although typically there have been one or two female members of the board of trustees. Cecil O. Samuelson is currently (2006) the president of BYU.

Student and faculty demographics

Students from every state in the nation and from many foreign countries attend BYU (in 2001, 110 different countries were represented by more than 1,600 BYU students). About 99% of these students are active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Those who have never been members of the church are permitted to attend, while former members are excluded from consideration for admittance unless they are reinstated to full fellowship. There are a number of non-LDS faculty.

Both Latter-day Saint and non-Latter-day Saint students who attend BYU, must commit to follow the university's strict Honor Code, and to complete 14 semester hours of specialized religious education before graduation, which include some mandatory classes on Mormon doctrine. In addition, students and faculty who are LDS are required to obtain endorsement from local church leaders that they actively attend local church services and practice church standards of behavior. Non-LDS students are asked to provide a similar endorsement from an ecclesiastic leader of their choice with their application for admittance.

BYU students and faculty are predominantly conservative, although there are several relatively left-leaning organizations, such as a small-but-active College Democrats organization as well as an organization called VOICE, which is concerned with issues such as gender equality and violence against women.

The student body is predominantly white, although there are growing populations of Latinos and Pacific Islanders, who are joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in increasing numbers.

Honor Code

All students and faculty, regardless of religion, voluntarily agree to adhere to a strict honor code. When first implemented in the late 1940s, the code dealt mainly with academic issues, such as cheating and plagiarism. It has since expanded (especially during the 1960s and 1970s) to become one of the most comprehensive and far-reaching honor codes at any college or university. There was some dissent from both students and teachers as the code was expanded, but by and large, the changes have held over the decades.

The BYU honor code governs not only academic behavior, but morality, and dress and grooming standards of students and faculty, with the aim of providing an atmosphere consistent with LDS principles. Students must commit to being honest, chaste and virtuous; abstaining from illicit drugs, alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea (substances forbidden by the Word of Wisdom); using clean language; and abiding by the guidelines for dress, grooming, and housing. For example, skirts and shorts must reach to the knee and shirts may not be sleeveless. Male students may not wear beards or goatees without permission; such permission is usually granted only to men with skin conditions aggravated by shaving or to men whose religious beliefs, such as Islam or Sikhism, require them to wear beards. Students have the option of living in on-campus housing, in University-approved off-campus housing, or with their parents at home.

The specifics of the honor code provide a perpetual topic

Student Housing

• Amanda Knight Hall (1939, no longer used as housing)
• Heritage Halls, apartment-style living (1953)
• Helaman Halls, dorm-style living (1958)
• Wymount Terrace, married family housing (1962)
• Deseret Towers, dorm-style living (1964)
• Wyview Park, married family housing (1971, rebuilt 1998, scheduled to become single student housing for Fall 2006)

Additionally, branches of the BYU Creamery provide basic food and general grocery products for students living in Deseret Towers, Heritage Halls, Wymount, and Wyview, though they are also frequented by visitors and members of the community, often for ice cream.

Academics

BYU offers bachelor’s degrees in 198 academic programs, master’s degrees in 69, doctorates in 27 and a juris doctor. The university is organized into 11 colleges.

BYU consistently receives national recognition for its strong undergraduate and graduate programs. U.S. News & World Report ranks BYU's Marriott School of Management and the J. Reuben Clark Law School in the top 40 in the country.

In the July 2002 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education, BYU was recognized as the best in the nation at turning research dollars into inventions and new companies. Some notable inventions originating at BYU include a drug for treating a rare form of leukemia, water modeling software, and the modern word-processor. Philo T. Farnsworth developed some of his ideas for the creation of the television while attending BYU. Harvey Fletcher, a BYU alumnus, 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 notable open source project was developed in, and is currently maintained by, the department of Computer Science.

BYU's Harold B. Lee Library, which in 2004 the Princeton Review ranked as the #1 "Great College Library", has more than 6 million items in its collections, contains 98 miles of shelving, and can seat 4,600 people.

Accounting

BYU has one of the highest ranked accounting programs in the nation with its School of Accountancy in the Marriott School of Management. In December 2005, the Public Accounting Report, a top accounting trade publication, ranked BYU's undergraduate and graduate accounting programs second in the nation among collegiate accounting programs. Some of the most prestigious accounting firms in the world actively recruit BYU accounting students.

Chemistry and Biochemistry

BYU's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in collaboration with the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine have co-developed a chemical, CSA-43 that disables HIV from attacking and propagating. This chemical has been licensed to Ceragenix Pharmaceuticals and is in testing.

Choral music Programs

With over 500 members, BYU has one of the largest choral programs in the United States. There are four BYU auditioned choirs as well as a non-auditioned University Chorale. The 40-voice BYU Singers, conducted by Dr. Ronald J. Staheli, are considered to be the most prestigious. They have traveled extensively throughout the United States and Canada, twice to Russia, three times to Israel, to Australia and New Zealand, the countries of Western and Eastern Europe (including the Baltic states) and most recently to West Africa. The BYU Singers have recorded multiple CDs, the (arguably) most critically acclaimed being "Eric Whitacre: The Complete A Capella Works 1991-2001" in 2002 (Arsis) and the most recent being My Redeemer Lives in 2003 (Tantara). The largest auditioned choir for mixed voices is the Concert Choir, very prestigious in its own right, with approximately 85-95 voices. Though not as traveled as the BYU Singers, the Concert Choir has also enjoyed a prolific recording career under former conducter Mack Wilberg and current conductor Rosalind Hall. The BYU Men's Chorus, also conducted by Hall, is one of the largest male collegiate choirs in the United States and enjoys great popularity within the BYU and LDS communities. The Women's Chorus, comprised of about 200 female voices, showcases choral music for treble voices.

Dance performance and DanceSport programs

The BYU Ballroom Dance Company is known as one of the best formation ballroom dance teams in the world. The NDCA National DanceSport championships have been held at BYU for many years, and BYU holds dozens of ballroom dance classes each semester, totalling thousands of students per semester, making it by far the largest ballroom dance program in the US.

Foreign film program

BYU's is the largest and longest-running foreign film program in the country, showing 20 screenings per week to roughly 1,000 people. Its main purpose is to supplement the curriculum of the College of Humanities and the Honors Program with culturally and linguistically diverse films.

Freshman Academy

Freshman Academy (FA) is a one-semester program at BYU that helps first-year students make important connections within the university during their first semester at BYU. By creating the best teaching-learning situation possible, FA strives to provide an academic environment that facilitates the development of well-rounded students and bridges the gap between high school and college. FA does this by helping students connect with the Aims of a BYU Education, each other, faculty members, academic majors, and other university resources. Appoximately 40 percent of incoming freshman participate in FA each year.

Students that participate are organized into learning communities, which consist of groups of freshman who take a group of classes, or envelope, together; live together; and interact with a peer mentor.

Peer mentors work with communities of students to help them become well-rounded, connected, and successful learners. A peer mentor is an upper classmen student who oversees the progress of a learning community. Peer mentors interact with the community through New Student Orientation, attending classes with the students, having occasional interviews, and other extra-curricular activities. All of these activities are designed to help the students become deep learners and become more connected to the university.

FA's website can be reached at

Independent study program

BYU's Department of Independent Study is accredited by the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools (NAAS), the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), and the Commission on International and Transregional Accreditation (CITA). The department offers courses to nearly 500,000 students every year, many to students in countries outside the United States. (See website at .)

Language program

Eighty-two percent of the men and thirteen percent of the women at BYU have served as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with roughly half serving in non-English speaking regions. Over three fourths of the student body speak a second language (numbering 107 languages in total), and many faculty are fluent in at least one language other than English. The church's Missionary Training Center (MTC) is located just north of the main BYU campus, and is known for its intensive language-training program for new missionaries. Most of the language instructors at the MTC are BYU students who recently returned from missions themselves.

During any given semester, enrollments in foreign language courses equal thirty-one percent of the student body —a rate nearly four times the national average. BYU is renowned for its breadth and depth of foreign language and linguistic training, offering courses in 66 different languages, many with advanced courses which are seldom offered elsewhere. Using an instant-immersion approach developed in the church's Missionary Training Center,

BYU also offers an intensive living experience for those students who wish to master a second language. The Foreign Language Student Residence is an on-campus apartment complex where students are immersed in one of nine languages, be it French, Spanish, Japanese, or otherwise. No English is spoken in the apartment as they perfect their abilities (with the help of a foreign roommate) to communicate in their acquired tongue.

Mathematics

In the summer of 2005, BYU started an undergraduate research program (REU) in mathematics funded by the National Science Foundation.

Sports programs

From the late 1970s until the mid-1990s, BYU had an outstanding football program. In 1984, BYU's football team went undefeated to become the NCAA Division I-A national football champions. This was the first and only time that BYU has won the football national championship. They became champs by beating Michigan in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego, marking the first time that a number-one-ranked college football team did not play in a New Year's Day bowl game. Some like NBC's Bryant Gumbel and Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer criticized BYU for having a weak schedule in 1984. It didn't matter however, since BYU was undefeated and they had attained the number one ranking in the AP, UPI, and other polls.

In 1990, quarterback Ty Detmer won college football's most prestigious individual award, the Heisman Trophy. Detmer is the only BYU football player ever to win the award. During the 1990 season, BYU defeated the number-one-ranked Miami Hurricanes in Provo. Detmer passed for 5,188 yards and 41 touchdowns during this season.

The head football coach during BYU's football glory years was LaVell Edwards. Edwards is a legend among college football coaches, winning 257 games over a span of 29 years. Only five other head coaches have won more games. He was twice awarded with coach of the year awards (in 1979 and in 1984). Edwards' last season as head coach was in 2000; upon his retirement, BYU renamed its football venue from Cougar Stadium to LaVell Edwards Stadium in his honor. .

During BYU's football glory days, the school colors were bright royal blue and white. In 1999, the school colors got a makeover, switching to dark blue and tan, with the football helmets switching from white to dark blue. The modern-styled football uniforms proved to be unpopular, and the traditional design with the white helmet was reinstituted for the 2005 season - although the darker blue remains on the home jerseys and the road pants. Brigham Young University has a historic and regional rivalry with the University of Utah. In 2005, the Wall Street Journal ranked this the number four rivalry in the nation.

The BYU women's cross-country team won the NCAA National Championship in 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2002. BYU has also won NCAA National Championships in golf, track, and men's volleyball (3 times: in 1999, 2001, and 2004). The school colors are dark blue and white. Its mascot is Cosmo the Cougar and its primary conference is the Mountain West Conference. Its men's volleyball team plays in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. BYU's men's soccer club participates as a university-owned franchise in the United Soccer Leagues' Premier Development League.

BYU also has a strong intramural sports program, offering more than 30 sports and involving more than 10,000 participants each year.

Study abroad program

BYU runs the largest study-abroad program in the United States, with satellite centers in London, Jerusalem, and Paris, as well as more than 20 other sites. The Institute of International Education ranks BYU as the number one university in the US to offer students study abroad opportunities; nearly 2,000 students take advantage of these programs yearly. One of BYU's mottos is "The World is Our Campus".

(The BYU Jerusalem Center closed indefinitely in 2000 due to safety concerns related to the Second Intifada.)

Academic freedom issues

Like many other religious schools, BYU is often at the center of controversies regarding academic freedom. In 1992, the university drafted a new Statement on Academic Freedom. After receiving comment from faculty and others, the document was implemented by BYU administrators on September 14, 1992. This document specified that: "Because the gospel encompasses all truth and affirms the full range of human modes of knowing, the scope of integration for LDS scholars is, in principle, as wide as truth itself." However, citing BYU's role as a religious institution, the document allowed limitations to 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.

"..The ultimate responsibility to determine harm to the University mission or the church, however, remains vested in the University's governing bodies—including the University president and central administration and, finally, the board of Trustees."

Also in 1992, the university began including a clause in its faculty contracts requiring LDS faculty to "accept the spiritual and temporal expectations of wholehearted Church membership". In 1993, contracts further required LDS faculty to "accept as a condition of employment the standards of conduct consistent with qualifying for temple privileges" (referring to entry into LDS temples, for which one must meet standards of activity and behavior in the LDS Church). In 1996, LDS faculty were required, as a condition of employment, to obtain the yearly endorsement of their local ecclesiastical leaders certifying that the faculty were temple-worthy.

Since its adoption in 1992, BYU's new academic freedom policy and its implementation have been widely criticized. In late 1992, the university's board of trustees vetoed without comment a BYU proposal to invite Pulitzer Prize winner and Harvard University professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, an active Mormon feminist, to address the annual BYU Women's Conference. The university also began to dismiss or deny tenure to a number of its more dissident professors. In 1993, BYU denied tenure to Cecilia Konchar Farr, who had taken a personal pro-choice position on abortion, and to David Knowlton, who had critically discussed the church's missionary system at an independent Mormon forum. In 1996, BYU denied tenure to Gail T. Houston, a feminist, despite overwhelmingly positive votes from her English Department and the College Committee. Also in 1996, professor Brian Evenson resigned in protest after receiving a stern warning from BYU administration over some violent images in one of his short stories.

In 1997, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) issued a documenting the cases of Houston, Farr, Knowlton, Evenson, Epperson, and others, concluding "that infringements on academic freedom are distressingly common and that the climate for academic freedom is distressingly poor". In 1998, the AAUP voted to enter BYU on its list of censured organizations, on which it remains to the present. The president of BYU at the time of the investigation and censure, Merrill J. Bateman, left office in 2003; the AAUP has subsequently sent the new president a description of the steps needed to have the censure removed.

Culture

BYU's social and cultural atmosphere is unique. The high rate of enrollment at the University by members of the LDS Church results in an amplification of LDS cultural norms which are often caricatured.

One of the characteristics of BYU most often pointed out is its reputation for emphasizing a "marriage culture". LDS Church members highly value marriage and family, as well as marriage within the faith. Consequently, the enormous population of LDS single adults in and around Provo makes it a mecca for singles in the church, irrespective of their affiliation with BYU. BYU's reputation as a place to court potential mates is well known both within and without the BYU community, and is encouraged to some extent by the school's administrators and ecclesiastical leaders, who publicly highlight "successful" .

Most BYU students are acutely aware of the marriage stereotype, and many female students contribute to it by dropping out before graduation due to marriage and subsequent pregnancy. 56.3% of the men and 42.4% of the women in BYU's class of 2004 were married (the average age at graduation being 24.3). An earlier study ending in 1990 showed that 65% of matriculated male students ended up graduating, while the rate among matriculated female students was only 35%. Marriage statistics for the state of Utah as a whole indicate that BYU's marriage rate falls well within that of the state in general, with the median age at marriage in Utah being 23 for men, and 21 for women. It should be noted, however, that the percentage of married students at BYU is much higher than at most other universities, and the median age of marriage in Utah is significantly lower than in the United States as a whole. In regard to marriage, BYU is thus best described as a reflection of the cultural practices of the Mormon population as a whole (and particularly that of the Mountain West, which is significantly more culturally conservative than Mormon populations elsewhere within the United States), rather than as an outlier.

BYU's large body of students who have served as missionaries for the LDS Church significantly shapes the institution's culture. Young men are strongly encouraged to serve full-time two-year missions for the LDS Church after turning 19. Consequently, men might attend BYU for their freshman year and then take a two year break from school to serve the mission. Thus, the average male sophomore at BYU is 21 years old. Although LDS women can also serve full-time missions, the church does not press them to do so. Additionally, missions for LDS females are only 18 months in duration, and females may not serve full-time missions until after reaching 21 years of age.

Perceptions

Many visitors to BYU, and the Utah Valley as a whole, report being surprised at the genuinely wholesome environment. Very few BYU students consume alcohol, tobacco or illegal substances. According to the Uniform Crime Reports, crime is low; violent crime is also low. The Princeton Review has rated BYU the "#1 stone cold sober school" for several years running, an honor on which LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley has often commented with pride. The school's strait-laced reputation is a major selling point in athletic recruiting: as non-LDS players (particularly African-Americans from inner cities) have become ever more important to the school's teams, BYU's wholesomeness is often attractive for prospective students who prefer an academic or social environment without the distractions of alcohol or drug use.

Notable alumni

Art

• James C. Christensen, noted artist

Business

• Bruce Bastion, co-founder of WordPerfect Corporation
• Dr. Stephen R. Covey - author
• Kevin B. Rollins, president and CEO of Dell

Education

• Harvey Fletcher, U.S. physicist
• Clayton M. Christensen, academic who coined the term "disruptive technology"

Entertainment

• Orson Scott Card, science fiction author
• Jeremy Coon, film producer
• Brian Crane, award-winning cartoonist
• Richard Dutcher, film director, producer and actor
• Aaron Eckhart, actor
• Jon Heder, actor Napoleon Dynamite debut
• Jared Hess, film director and screenwriter
• Ken Jennings, Jeopardy! champion
• Neil LaBute, film director, screenwriter, and playwright
• Julie Stoffer, The Real World housemate

Fashion

• Rose Marie Reid, American swimsuit designer

Government

• Ezra Taft Benson, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Mike Crapo, U.S. Senator (Idaho)
• Orrin Hatch, U.S. Senator (Utah)
• Rex E. Lee, former United States Solicitor General, Constitutional lawyer, BYU President
• Mitt Romney, Governor of Massachusetts, 2002 Winter Olympics CEO
• Gordon Smith, U.S. Senator from Oregon
• Olene S. Walker, 15th Utah governor

Sports

American Football

• Brian Billick, Baltimore Ravens head coach
• Todd Christensen, former tight end for the NFL's Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders
• Ty Detmer, 1990 Heisman Trophy winner and professional football quarterback
• Travis Hall, defensive lineman for the NFL's San Francisco 49ers
• Chris Hoke, defensive tackle for the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers
• Lee Johnson, NFL punter
• Doug Jolley, tight end for the NFL's New York Jets
• Chad Lewis, tight end for the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles
• Jim McMahon, professional football quarterback
• Itula Mili, tight end for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks
• Rob Morris, linebacker for the NFL's Indianapolis Colts
• Andy Reid, Philadelphia Eagles head coach
• John Tait, offensive lineman for the NFL's Chicago Bears
• Steve Young, professional football quarterback and 2005 NFL Hall of Fame inductee

Baseball

• Rick Aguilera, former Major League Baseball pitcher, 1991 World Series champion, three-time all-star, #11 on the MLB all-time saves list
• Ken Hunt, former MLB pitcher
• Wally Joyner, MLB baseball player
• Jack Morris, former Major League Baseball pitcher, 1984 and 1991 World Series champion, 1991 World Series MVP, five-time all-star
• Scott Nielsen, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox pitcher
• Cory Snyder, former MLB player

Basketball

• Danny Ainge, professional baseball and basketball player
• Rafael Araújo, professional basketball player
• Krešimir Ćosić, four-time Olympian (basketball), 1980 Olympic gold medal winner (basketball), Olympic basketball coach (1988, silver medal), U.S. Presidential Freedom Award recipient
• Shawn Bradley, professional basketball player
• Travis Hansen, professional basketball player
• Erin Thorn, professional basketball player

Golf

• Johnny Miller, professional golfer and member of the World Golf Hall of Fame
• Mike Weir, professional golfer and 2003 Masters Champion

Soccer

• Shauna Rohbock, professional soccer player and Olympic bobsled silver medalist

Track & Field

• Kenneth Andam, Olympian representing Ghana in Sydney
• Ed Eyestone, Olympian (Seoul & Barcelona), ten-time All-American
• Frank Fredericks, world-champion Namibian sprinter
• Leonard Myles-Mills, Olympian representing Ghana in Sydney and Atlanta
• Ken Patera, track and field, weightlifter, professional wrestler

Volleyball

• Casey Jennings, professional beach volleyball player
• Ryan Millar, professional volleyball player

See also

• Brigham Young University Arboretum
• BYU Jerusalem Center
• BYU 100 Hour Board
• BYU Testing Center
• Frank Abagnale, an impostor who claimed to have taught sociology at the university for a semester.

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University אוניברסיטת בריגהם יאנג ブリガムヤング大学 Университет имени Бригама Янга