Envisioning BYU: BYU Speeches

D. Todd Christofferson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, delivered this address at the inauguration of BYU president C. Shane Reese on September 19, 2023. You can access the full talk here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin J Worthen, president of Brigham Young University, delivered this university conference address on August 22, 2022. You can access the full talk here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cecil O. Samuelson was president of Brigham Young University when this address was given at the BYU Annual University Conference on 26 August 2008. You can access the full talk here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This forum address was delivered by Elaine S. Marshall, a BYU professor of nursing, on May 25, 1998. You can access the full talk here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cheryl Brown was a BYU professor of applied linguistics and an associate academic vice president when this devotional address was given on 28 January 1997. You can access the full talk here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We should develop a searching mind informed by the gospel of Christ so we can evaluate ideas and avoid following the Korihors of the world. Martha M. Peacock was an associate professor of art history at BYU when this devotional address was given on 21 May 1996. You can access the full talk here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an excerpt of a BYU university conference address delivered by Rex E. Lee, president of BYU, on August 27, 1990. View the complete talk here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kate L. Kirkham was an associate professor of organizational behavior at Brigham Young University when this devotional address was given on 19 May 1987. You can access the full talk here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an excerpt of a devotional address delivered by Dallin H. Oaks, president of Brigham Young University, on February 12, 1974. You can access the full talk here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an excerpt of a faculty address delivered by Ernest L. Wilkinson, president of Brigham Young University, on September 18, 1962. You can access the excerpt here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an excerpt of the inaugural address delivered by Franklin S. Harris, president of Brigham Young University, on October 17, 1921. You can access the full talk here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dallin H. Oaks was serving as first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he delivered this address. As BYU approached its sesquicentennial, President Oaks and a number of BYU devotional speakers reflected on President Spencer W. Kimball’s challenge to “become a unique university in all of the world.” President Oaks’s counsel was born of long and...

Clark G. Gilbert, serving as commissioner of the Church Educational System, published this essay on the fate of the religious university a few months after he gave a BYU devotional address that touched on the same topic. In both pieces, he reminded BYU to hold fast to its unique mission, as so many initially religious universities have failed to do. Elder Gilbert calls for “courageous leadership”...

C. Shane Reese was BYU academic vice president when he delivered this address to faculty members, building on an admonition given to the university only months earlier by Elder David A. Bednar. Elder Bednar had challenged university leadership to take to heart President Spencer W. Kimball’s admonitions for BYU to remain unique as it pursued academic distinction in its second century. Focusing on w...

Kevin J Worthen was serving as president of the university when he delivered this address and introduced the BYU Statement on Belonging and the creation of the Office of Belonging. He reminded the campus community of Elder David A. Bednar’s invitation to hearken to President Spencer W. Kimball’s admonition to use “gospel methodology, concepts, and insights . . . to do what the world cannot do in i...

David A. Bednar was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when he delivered this address and spoke of Joseph Smith’s promise that the work of the Lord will go forward. Elder Bednar encouraged BYU’s leaders to “look unto [the Savior] in every thought; doubt not, fear not” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:36). He emphasized that looking without fear to God rather than to the world means heeding Pre...

As president of Brigham Young University, Kevin J Worthen explained to faculty and staff how BYU offers a unique kind of education by linking “faith-based teaching and student-centered research.” Building on then Elder Dallin H. Oaks’s address “Challenges to the Mission of Brigham Young University”, given earlier that year, President Worthen articulated how BYU can achieve its “prophetically procl...

Dallin H. Oaks was serving as chair of the executive committee of the BYU Board of Trustees and as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when he delivered this address. He spoke of the challenges BYU faces in becoming a “great university of the Lord—not in the world’s way but in the Lord’s way.” This talk figured prominently in a speech given a few months later by President Kevin J Worthen...

Spencer W. Kimball was president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he delivered this charge to new BYU president Jeffrey R. Holland. He repeated many key points from his address “The Second Century of Brigham Young University,” thus fixing his prophetic expectations about BYU’s mission even more deeply into the university. In one paragraph of particular note, President Kimbal...

As Church commissioner of education during BYU’s centennial year (1975), Neal A. Maxwell wrote an article for the Ensign magazine explaining why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would have a university like BYU. In it he touched on many of the same themes President Spencer W. Kimball articulated in his address “The Second Century of Brigham Young University,” emphasizing the need fo...

David O. McKay was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when he authored this article. Elder McKay believed deeply in the value of Church schools, where students could study all subjects in the light of the gospel, deepen their testimonies, and develop noble character traits. He helped preserve Brigham Young University as an exception to the Church’s general policy of divesting itself of...

James R. Rasband was serving as academic vice president when he delivered this address. He situated his topic by observing how the restored gospel “rejects either-or choices in favor of both-and possibilities.” Note how instead of or , the restored gospel uses and in these dichotomies: “It is not faith or works but faith and works. It is not a choice between body or spirit but a recognition that b...

John S. Tanner was serving as academic vice president when he delivered this address during the faculty session of university conference. He based his remarks on the Lord’s great revelation on education—Doctrine and Covenants 88, or the Olive Leaf—which established the School of the Prophets. Tanner emphasized the connection between school and temple in Latter-day Saint history and doctrine, as we...

Bonnie Brinton, a nationally recognized speech-language pathologist, was a professor in the BYU Department of Communication Disorders and dean of BYU Graduate Studies when she delivered this address. Brinton spoke to the blessing of working at BYU, where scholars “can use information gained through spiritual means at the same time that [they are] observing and testing the phenomena in the world ar...

Susan W. Tanner was serving as the Young Women general president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was serving on the BYU Board of Trustees when she delivered this address. She encouraged the BYU campus community to learn by heart, a rarely discussed aspect of one of BYU’s aims—lifelong learning. Sister Tanner emphasized that when an individual learns by heart, the truths beco...