Brigham Young University

• 1. Introduction

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  Brigham Young University, usually called BYU, turns into one of the largest centers of worship in the world every Sunday. More than 150 congregations meet on its campus in Provo, Utah. Over 900 rooms are set aside for them, and about 24,000 people attend services there each week. On the other six days, the same grounds hold a private research university whose students agree to a written code of conduct. This documentary asks how a small school in an adobe building became that place. It asks what students promise when they enroll, and why so many of them speak foreign languages. And it asks what a university built on faith has sent out into the world, from inventors to quarterbacks to a Jeopardy! champion.

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• 2. From Adobe to Academy

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  In 1862, a teacher named Warren Dusenberry opened a school in Cluff Hall, an adobe building on the northeast corner of 200 East and 200 North in Provo. Money trouble forced it to move to the Kinsey and Lewis buildings on Center Street. After it earned a reputation for quality, it became the Timpanogos branch of the University of Deseret. A second financial collapse closed it again.

  On the 16th of October 1875, Brigham Young, then president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, deeded the property to trustees and created Brigham Young Academy. Young had spoken of the idea for years. He once said he hoped to see an academy in Provo where the children of the Latter-day Saints could receive a good education "unmixed with the pernicious atheistic influences that are found in so many of the higher schools of the country."

  Classes began on the 3rd of January 1876. Dusenberry served as interim principal until April, when Young's own choice arrived: a German immigrant named Karl Maeser. Two future national figures sat in those early classrooms, George Sutherland, who became a justice of the United States Supreme Court, and Reed Smoot, who became a United States senator. For two decades the school lived on community support. The church did not formally take it over until the 18th of July 1896.

  The name came late. Benjamin Cluff, the president, made a string of decisions that led to his demotion. In his last official act, he asked the board to rename the academy Brigham Young University. Many objected that the school was too small to deserve the word university, but the vote passed. In 1903 the academy was dissolved and replaced by two schools, Brigham Young High School and the new university. Students from the high school's class of 1907 would later build the giant letter Y that still sits on a mountain beside campus.

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• 3. Presidents and Expansion

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  In 1904, under its new president George H. Brimhall, the university bought 17 acres from Provo known as Temple Hill. Locals argued over the sale. Construction began in 1909 on the first building of the present campus, the Karl G. Maeser Memorial. Brimhall also faced a short crisis over the theory of evolution. Church president Joseph F. Smith settled it for the time being by asking that the subject not be taught. Students and faculty gradually found ways to reconcile the factual parts of the science with church teaching. A few observers at the time called the school little more than a religious seminary, yet many of its graduates went on to wide renown.

  Franklin S. Harris arrived in 1921 as the first president with a doctoral degree. When he started, no accrediting body recognized the school as a university. By the end of his term, every major accrediting organization did. Howard S. McDonald took over just as the Second World War ended, and thousands of students poured in. Enrollment grew nearly fivefold to 5,440. To house them, he bought part of an Air Force base in Ogden, Utah, and rebuilt it.

  Ernest L. Wilkinson then ran an accelerated building program that produced over eighty structures, many still standing. The student body grew six-fold, which made BYU the largest private school in the country at that time. Wilkinson also reorganized church units on campus, adding ten stakes and over 100 wards.

  Dallin H. Oaks became president in 1971 and added a law school. Jeffrey R. Holland followed in 1980 and argued that the school's religious character was a strength to use rather than hide. During his years, a campus opened in Jerusalem. Rex E. Lee, who arrived in 1989, oversaw the Benson Science Building and the Museum of Art. He died of cancer, and an annual fundraiser, the Rex Lee Run, carries his name. Merrill J. Bateman began in 1995 and oversaw 36 new buildings. He was also among the leaders who helped found the Mountain West Conference, and a satellite television network opened in 2000. C. Shane Reese became the 14th president on the 1st of May 2023. In July 2024, the church's First Presidency announced plans for a medical school.

  Today the Provo campus covers about 560 acres at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains and holds 295 buildings. The Harold B. Lee Library holds roughly 8.5 million items and 98 miles of shelving. It can seat 4,600 people, and in 2004 the Princeton Review ranked it first among great college libraries. In 2025, Russia declared the university an undesirable organization.

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• 4. The Honor Code

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  Brigham Young supposedly told Karl Maeser that he should not teach even the alphabet or the multiplication tables without the Spirit of God. That instruction still frames how the university describes itself. Its stated mission is to help people pursue perfection and eternal life. Some Latter-day Saints have called it "The Lord's university." Some students and faculty have disliked the phrase, since it can suggest that university authorities are never wrong. School leaders reply that it names a goal and not a current condition.

  Maeser himself built an early version of the honor code. His "Domestic Organization" sent teachers to visit students at home and check that they kept the school's moral rules against obscenity, profanity, smoking and alcohol. The formal Honor Code did not appear until about 1940, and it first targeted cheating. In 1957, President Wilkinson widened it into the standards of today, covering chastity, dress, grooming, drugs and alcohol. Everyone on campus signs it, whatever their religion. Students also meet each year with a religious leader for an ecclesiastical endorsement. Violators can be warned, expelled, or in the case of faculty, lose tenure.

  The code has drawn criticism. The university continues to prohibit same-sex romantic behavior, and it has regularly been ranked among the least friendly schools in the country for LGBTQ students. Reported past experiences include a campus-wide ban on coming out that lasted until 2007. LGBTQ-specific resources arrived only in 2021, with the Office of Student Success and Inclusion.

  From 2014 through 2016, some students said they were threatened with discipline for consensual relationships that came to light after they reported sexual assault. Local police criticized the effect on reporting, and a Provo Police Department victim services coordinator urged an amnesty clause. A review that ended in October 2016 added one. The 2017 revision limits information sharing between the Title IX Office and the Honor Code Office.

  Faith and scholarship have also collided. A Statement on Academic Freedom drafted in 1992 allowed limits on expression that opposes fundamental church doctrine. The American Association of University Professors objected that the limits had not been spelled out clearly enough in advance. Accreditation was unaffected. In a separate faculty survey answered anonymously, more than 90 percent of professors said they were satisfied with their jobs.

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• 5. Mission-Trained Linguists

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  Some 97 percent of male graduates and 32 percent of female graduates have served as Latter-day Saint missionaries. Across the whole student body the share is 45 percent. Many of them learned a language in the field. In October 2012, the church announced that young men could leave on a mission at 18 after finishing high school. Since then, many have enrolled at BYU after their service rather than pausing mid-degree.

  The result is a language program unlike most others. About one-third of students take a language class in any given semester, nearly four times the national average. The university teaches over 60 languages, including advanced courses that are seldom offered elsewhere. Its Russian program is among the largest of its kind in the nation. The United States Department of Education chose BYU to host the national Middle East Language Resource Center. It was also designated a Center for International Business Education Research.

  Study abroad extends the idea. Satellite centers operate in London, Jerusalem and Paris, plus more than 20 other sites, and nearly 2,000 students take part every year. In 2001, the Institute of International Education ranked BYU first in the country for study abroad opportunities. The Jerusalem Center closed in 2000 over student security concerns tied to the Second Intifada, and it reopened to students in the Winter 2007 semester.

  The immersion carries onto campus. Students in the Foreign Language Student Residence promise to speak only their chosen language inside their apartments. Each apartment includes at least one native speaker to keep the usage correct. The school's International Cinema is the largest and longest-running university-run foreign film program in the country.

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• 6. Inventors and Alumni

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  Philo T. Farnsworth, a pioneer of electronic television, began college at BYU. He came back later to research fusion and received an honorary degree in 1967. Harvey Fletcher, an alumnus, invented stereophonic sound, worked with Robert Millikan on the famous oil-drop experiment, and later became founding dean of the College of Engineering. In 1955, H. Tracy Hall left General Electric to become a professor of chemistry and research director at BYU. Having invented the man-made diamond, he designed a new diamond press there, the tetrahedral press. Students developed the Magnetic Lasso algorithm used in Adobe Photoshop. Nobel laureate Paul D. Boyer is also among the alumni.

  In 2023, BYU spent $137.7 million on research and development, ranking 162nd in the nation, and it holds the top Carnegie research classification. It has produced 10 Rhodes Scholars.

  Entrepreneurship is a strength too. The Princeton Review placed both its undergraduate and graduate programs among the top 10 nationally. Student ventures had attracted over $1.3 billion in venture capital by 2018. The area north of campus is now nicknamed the Silicon Slopes. Alumni founded 1-800 Contacts, Ancestry.com, Novell, Qualtrics, Pluralsight and The Trade Desk, among others.

  The alumni roll runs far outside business. As of 2022, there were 443,426 living graduates. More than 20 have served in Congress, including Orrin Hatch. Mitt Romney, class of 1971, was the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. Bestselling authors include Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson and Tara Westover. Ken Jennings, the Jeopardy! champion, graduated in 2000. Director Don Bluth, comedic actor Jon Heder and violinist Lindsey Stirling also attended.

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• 7. Stage and Song

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  The BYU Ballroom Dance Company has won the U.S. National Formation Dance Championship every year since 1982. In 1972, it became the first American team to win the formation championships at the British Championships in Blackpool, England. With dozens of classes each semester, BYU runs the largest collegiate ballroom dance program in the world. Its Living Legends troupe performs Latin, Native American and Polynesian dance.

  The Young Ambassadors began as Curtain Time USA and took their new name at Expo '70 in Japan. Their 1960s world tour stops included Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, and they have since performed in over 56 nations. Audiences have included the royalty of Thailand and Jordan. On the 28th of April 1969, the BYU Opera Workshop gave the first North American performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams's opera The Pilgrim's Progress.

  The choral program counts over 500 members across four auditioned choirs. The Men's Chorus, with 200 voices, is the largest male collegiate choir in the United States. The a cappella groups Vocal Point and Noteworthy won the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella in 2006 and 2007. A Balinese gamelan ensemble, Gamelan Bintang Wahyu, rounds out the catalogue.

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• 8. The Cougars

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  In 2021, BYU formally accepted an invitation to join the Big 12 Conference and began play there in the 2023-24 school year. Its Cougar teams have won 14 NCAA championships and 26 non-NCAA championships. Cosmo the Cougar has been the mascot since 1953. Football claims a national championship in 1984, one Heisman Trophy winner, Ty Detmer, and seven College Football Hall of Fame inductees.

  Missions complicate the rosters. Many players leave for two years of service, men at 18 and women at 19, so BYU athletes tend to be older than their opponents. The NCAA does not count that time against eligibility. The arrangement has caused minor controversy, but the source holds that it gives little advantage, since players get almost no athletic training in the field. Sports networks have also noticed that BYU refuses to play on Sundays.

  In basketball, Danny Ainge won the 1981 John R. Wooden Award, and Jimmer Fredette was the 2011 Naismith College Player of the Year. Fredette's name sits beside Steve Young, a two-time NFL MVP and Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback. In golf, Johnny Miller won the 1973 U.S. Open and the 1976 British Open, and Mike Weir won the 2003 Masters. BYU alumni have appeared in 7 World Series, 5 NBA Finals and 25 Super Bowls.

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