On September 19, 2023, C. Shane Reese was inaugurated as the fourteenth president of Brigham Young University. During his inaugural response, he shared seven initiatives that will help BYU become the university of which 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 and students.
This article focuses on the seventh of the initiatives, “mission-aligned hiring.”
What does it mean to be a “mission-aligned” hire or candidate?
Answer: I think it means that someone has all of the qualifications that we would like to have in a BYU employee and most importantly, one who understands the mission of the university and how they contribute to the mission. People who are willing to embrace and lean into their double heritage are a huge part of what it means to be mission-aligned.
Being mission-aligned has to begin and end with a desire to increase the faith among our students. We have to be focused on ourselves so we know where we stand with respect to the gospel and seek to improve our students’ faith.
It means being deliberately student-centered, and again, I think that applies in faculty employment, as well as non-faculty employment, that we’re student-centered.
For faculty, we have people who want to be intentional about building faith, both in and out of the classroom. Our faculty who want to really embrace our primary undergraduate teaching mission, who are excellent in their respective fields, are mission-aligned.
But as I’ve sat here in the president’s office, there’s no question I see how that has equal application in every single position we have at the university, whether it be our garbage collection staff, our dining services, our administrative employees, etc.
It applies to all of them in part because our students are present all over, in every different arena on campus. And, as I said in the very first installment of these Q&As, it begins and ends with our students in mind.
Every employee at the university has a role to play in us “becoming BYU.” That’s a critical point; we can’t forget that.
Can you share more about your decision to interview 50% of new faculty and why that’s so important to you?
When President Worthen was the president of BYU, he often said the most important decisions made during his tenure would be those we hire. He was not prone to overstatement, so I really listened to him when he said that.
I thought that if those were the most important decisions, shouldn’t we, meaning the central administration, have a role in that? So at the time I was the academic vice president I said, I’ll interview every single new faculty hire.
Two significant things take place as we do these interviews — one is, as the president or vice president, I get to indicate how important hiring is. And I get to articulate to a faculty candidate that this is who we are as a university. I found it to be a vitally important part of the process.
After these interviews, these candidates don’t have any doubt about what they’re getting into because they’ve heard it from an office that has responsibility for the stewardship of the university.
When I was invited to be president, I wanted to continue to contribute to those interviews and committed to do 50% of them, and our academic vice president, Justin Collings, does 50%.
And there are times when we’re in heavy hiring season, that it’s a big time commitment. But I just feel like I could not agree more with President Worthen’s assertion that the most important decisions that are made in this office are those we hire. Because these faculty are the people who interact most directly with our students.
Have we changed anything? Or do you have any thoughts about changing things like at an HR level to attract applicants that are more of a mission fit?
It’s common for other universities to ask candidates for a teaching statement or a research statement in their job application. We have started to ask faculty candidates, and I think we do a similar thing with our non-faculty employees, for a statement of how they view themselves contributing to the mission of the university or how they see themselves embracing a double heritage.
It's important for us to get to know candidates, but it’s also signaling to the candidate about who we are and what we really care about here at BYU.
We’ve always been focused on mission-aligned hiring. It’s not like this is an innovation, but it may be seen as a doubling down or reemphasizing of something that’s always been in place.
Is there any aspect of retainment that plays into this idea and thinking? How do we retain the fantastic mission-fit employees that are already here?
Sure, we’ll have incentive programs that look like lots of other universities, and we’ll do the things that we think reward them in an HR sense, but those aren’t the things that I think are going to matter most. I think it’s being a part of something bigger than themselves.
At the end of the day, I don’t think people are going to make decisions to be part of Brigham Young University because of the compensation package or the retirement benefits or the insurance benefits alone. I think people come here and stay at BYU because they feel a sense of the mission.
I think human beings in general want to be part of something bigger than themselves. I think that’s a human desire. And it is our hope that all who walk through the doors of the university, whether they be students, or whether they be our employees, feel a part of something bigger. There’s no question that this does feel like something bigger than any of us as individuals.
And I think that is important. Candidly, I’m certain there are people on campus who at times may not feel a part of it and that’s a tragedy. We have to find ways to help those who don’t feel that to get a sense of seeing themselves as part of something bigger.
When Elder Christofferson issued his charge at my inauguration, it wasn’t just for Shane Reese as the president. It was in part, but it seemed very clear to me at the time and has been reiterated multiple times, that this is a charge for our entire campus community. Knowing his words are essentially a charge for us collectively to become the Christ-centered BYU of prophecy is an amazing thing.
What are some similarities among some of our best employees that you’ve noticed?
What I see in the best of our employees, and I think there are a large number of them that are amazing, is that they have the option to be elsewhere but they choose to be at BYU. They’re here in part because they believe in the mission of the university.
And I think the driver for most of our best employees is that they see the incredible potential of our students. And they see the things they as employees can do to contribute meaningfully to that potential being a realization.
As this is the last Q&A in our series, how do all of these seven initiatives build on each other?
They not only build on each other, they’re so intertwined.
We started so importantly, with the student experience, and literally every single one of these other initiatives hearken back to how they contribute to strengthening the student experience.
Two of our devotional speakers in July both referenced this idea because they’ve seen how this impacts their work. One was the dean of Undergraduate Education, where he talked about the importance of our teaching mission and double heritage and how those two things were intertwined. We also heard from a staff member who’s over communications in the College of Life Sciences talk about double heritage and how it can permeate every aspect of our work if we allow it.
Yes, in some ways these ideas build upon each other, but I think of it as an intertwined social network where the strands of each of these initiatives overlap with one another, to form a tapestry of what I think is becoming BYU.
The exciting aspect of becoming BYU is that we’re not there yet. We’ve got work to do. And what an incredibly exciting prospect that is. I don’t look at that as “we’re not there yet and and woe is me.” I actually look at it as “we’re not there yet and it’s going to be a thrill to be a part of how this unfolds.”
