What is Going on at BYUI
An insider report
I’m a very small fish in a big pond. I’m new at BYUI, and I’m only one person anyway. I’m sure that my perspective isn’t shared by everyone on campus.
But my perspective is emphatically not what is being represented by the Salt Lake Tribune.
Here is what I am seeing.
Clark Gilbert is a rockstar. I am not at BYU, but the general sense on campus is that our sister school in Provo has changed course emphatically and clearly. Everyone thinks it’s LGBTQ stuff, and it mostly isn’t. Some conservatives think it’s all Ibram Kendi stuff, and it isn’t mostly that either. It’s mostly focusing on excellent teaching over research, and the unique mission and vision of BYU. And it’s happening. Elder Gilbert might be getting epithets from other corners, but as former president of BYU-I, he gets lots of love round these parts.
I know of no one who has been fired for not clearing ecclesiastical endorsement. I know of more than a few who aren’t on board with the mission of the place. I can think of people who strongly disagree with the church on LGBTQ stuff, but mostly again I’m thinking of people who think this is a place to focus on research and not on teaching, and honestly, that’s just not what matters here. I don’t think they’ll be forced out or fired in a witch hunt, but at this point everyone knows which way the bus is heading. If they want to get off, they can get off at any time.
Refusing to rehire someone for a one-year gig is not the same as terminating a full-time faculty member. Everyone seems to be afraid that BYUI has some kind of reign of terror going on, and that’s just… weird. No one I know feels this. In fact, if anything, we feel much more at peace knowing that we can sustain our leaders’ teaching here, if nowhere else.
I know that last bit sounds odd, so let me clarify something. I have a friend who could not publish in a pro-family way at BYU without risking professional standing. At BYU. For as much as there is an issue of “you’re firing those who disagree with you!” I think there is more of that at other colleges that at the Y, and the goal here is not some witch hunt, but to create at least one space where people can preach what they believe even if it doesn’t track with the trends of the day.
There is one thing I wish were not the case, however. I don’t normally disagree with leadership publicly (though in fairness, a private blog isn’t exactly publicly) but here it goes: I wish that normal folks like me could comment on such things. I can’t. By policy. Faculty don’t talk to reporters.
The problem is that the loyal faculty keep their mouths close, the dumb faculty don’t listen, and the rebellious faculty go around the rules anyway. So we’re left having disarmed all the good guys.
Alas.