On September 19, 2023, C. Shane Reese was inaugurated as the 14th president of Brigham Young University. During his inaugural response, he shared seven initiatives that will help BYU become the university that prophets have foretold — to become the world’s “greatest institution of learning” and “the fully anointed university of the Lord about which so much has been spoken in the past.” Or, in other words, “becoming BYU.”
In this Q&A series with President Reese, he shares more about those initiatives and how they apply to BYU employees.
This article focuses on the third of the initiatives, “promote BYU’s double heritage.”
I think the word “promote” is interesting. What do you have in mind when you use that word?
Answer: The word “promote” speaks to both hope and aspiration for the future. But it's also an homage to what we've already established as a double heritage. I don't think that this concept of a double heritage is new.
Do you envision our students, as well as employees, being bilingual?
A: I implied that students are also part of this, even though I didn’t explicitly include students in my address. And since then, anytime I've talked about double heritage I've tried to emphasize that this applies to our students, our faculty and our staff. We expect the double heritage to manifest itself in the work of everyone in our campus community.
Many of our students are excellent at being conversant in the language of the Spirit, just as they are in the language of their discipline of choice. And we've seen this probably in no more prominent way than in our student success course. It is inspiring to listen to these students talk about how they see their role in an institution that is unique because we care about their ability to be bilingual, as President Kimball called it. I think our employees are going to have to up their game because we have so many students who are so prepared and engaged in that aspect of holistic education.
In your inaugural response, you said that “becoming BYU will require that we embrace our religious mission even as we speak to the broader academy with credibility and strength.” What does that look like?
A: Certainly, when we talk to the broader academy, it happens in a variety of ways. The very first and natural way is how our faculty engage in conferences, in research scholarship and in student mentored research.
We expect our courses to have both strong and healthy intellectually enlarging components. But we also expect them to be spiritually strengthening. We expect the faculty member stand up and be able to be a role model.
Interestingly, our Big 12 Conference involvement has given us more opportunities to have those conversations in academic disciplines. Sometimes it looks like a networking meeting where we're trying to brainstorm how to share the Big 12 message. And it also happens in academic support units. Before we can amplify the gospel message, we must bring our expertise to those discussions.
An analogy to consider is with our sports teams: sports are going to be more effective as a missionary tool — as a way to shine the gospel light — when we're competitive in our various sports teams. That same thing is true in academic endeavors. I think it's when we're excellent in our respective spheres that we get more opportunity to shine our unique light and show that we're conversant in gospel subjects, that we're Christians in our language and in the way we treat other people.
And that allows for our scholarship to receive more recognition and people to take it seriously. These things feed off each other. So this is why I say that I believe that we will be successful in our academic or disciplinary pursuits, whatever the discipline is — not in spite of our religious mission, but precisely because of our religious mission.
Do you get told by faculty that “you're asking me to do more than I would if I worked at another university”?
A: I try to interview about 50% of all our new faculty hires. In those interviews, I explain that I want them to be excellent in their disciplines, but I also want them to have strong discipleship and to model what a life of faith looks like. So I'm asking them to do double duty if they come to BYU. And I’ll ask them, “How does it strike you?”
So often, I get the answer, “It's actually who I am. While it seems like you’re asking more of me, in some ways, it's just allowing me to be my authentic self.”
I love when people share with me that this idea allows them to be their full, authentic self, as if by being at other places, they're actually constrained a little bit. What we’re doing at BYU is taking off the constraints. So rather than adding an element to their work, this idea is giving them an opportunity to be their full, authentic self. And I think for so many of the faculty and staff and administrative employees that we hire, that is precisely who they are.
I recognize it's not going to be that way for everybody. For some, it's going to be a skill that they have to learn, and they have to learn to appreciate how to do it. I don't expect everybody walking through the door to understand how to embrace their double heritage, how to lean into being bilingual on day one. But I do expect them to want to do it. And if they want to do it, then I think they're entitled to heaven’s help in doing it. And I know they'll be successful.
There’s got to be a statistical analogy for that idea of living your full self and not being constrained.
A: We would call that constrained optimization versus unconstrained optimization.
How and when do employees “speak with power about their Christian discipleship in the language of faith”? Does that mean they have to go bear testimony and use gospel-centric language every single day with everyone they talk to when they’re on the clock?
If it feels like something that you're doing as a checkbox, or that feels forced, that's not the way someone who's trying to live a Christlike life would want to live their lives. It's got to be authentic, it's got to be natural, and it's got to be normal. And I think sometimes, as our mission statement says (it's actually written in our statement), that will be manifest by bearing pure formal testimony of the restored gospel. But I don't think it means every day, it just means that we shouldn't shy away when we feel prompted to share something that is meaningful to us. I'd rather not have it feel like something that's a “must do,” but it's an “I felt prompted to do,” and it ought to be done in normal and natural ways. And if it feels forced, it's probably not right.
Could you also substitute “language” for “actions”? How you treat other people is a way of showing your Christian discipleship, right?
A: Yes, a key way in which we demonstrate that we are bilingual is that we're going to treat other people kindly. We're going to treat them with love, the way the Savior would treat them. In last April’s General Conference, President Russell M. Nelson said that a true measure of Christian discipleship is how you treat other people.
