{"id":3055,"date":"2008-08-26T14:58:17","date_gmt":"2008-08-26T20:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speeches.byu.edu\/?p=1953"},"modified":"2024-04-17T10:58:03","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T16:58:03","slug":"citizenship-research-teaching-byu-way","status":"publish","type":"speech","link":"https:\/\/speeches.byu.edu\/talks\/cecil-o-samuelson\/citizenship-research-teaching-byu-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Citizenship, Research, Teaching: The BYU Way"},"content":{"rendered":"
Brothers and sisters, colleagues and friends, it is always a pleasure to meet together in the BYU Annual University Conference. Each summer at BYU has been for me\u2014and I\u00a0hope for you as well\u2014a season for both reflection and refreshment. Not that it is entirely free time, because it is not. Life, with its many attendant responsibilities and tasks, goes on, and we go along with it. However, it is a time when some of the pace of fall and winter semesters slackens just a little and we\u2014figuratively, at least\u2014gird up our loins for the expectations and excitement of another academic\u00a0year.<\/p>\n
Our theme this year comes from Psalm 36:9: \u201cIn thy light shall we see light.\u201d It is a fitting reminder that the \u201clight\u201d that \u201cproceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space\u201d is also \u201cthe same light that quickeneth your understandings\u201d (D&C 88:11,\u00a012).<\/p>\n
It is the light we each seek in all we do at Brigham Young University\u2014including especially how we learn; how we teach; and how we inquire, create, and research.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll return in a few minutes to this idea of inquiring, creating, and researching in the light of the gospel. It is foundational to our BYU mission and our trusted common stewardship to accumulate and contribute understanding and knowledge both personally and institutionally. In addition, we have the clear charge to share what we learn and know with our students and with each other.<\/p>\n
Each university\u2014and BYU is no exception in this regard\u2014is held somewhat captive by environmental conditions both internal and external to the institution. Externally, for example, is the concern all of us in the American academy have for our students with respect to the seeming crisis in student loan availability. Hopefully some remedies and solutions will be forthcoming soon, but American higher education is watching the situation carefully. Likewise, the shaky economy and this political campaign season\u2014with the prospects of significant changes in our governmental leadership at multiple levels\u2014are examples of issues of interest and concern found on virtually every campus.<\/p>\n
An external environmental matter rather specific for BYU and her sister institutions is the reality of the emergence of the prophetic fulfillment concerning our sponsoring organization, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You will remember the promise of the Lord given in the preface to the Doctrine and Covenants that power would be given to His servants \u201cto bring [the Church] forth out of\u00a0obscurity and out of darkness\u201d (D&C 1:30).<\/p>\n
Most of us believe BYU has had and will have a significant role in this. While I have been tempted to say more about this, I\u2019ll defer most of these comments and feelings for another time. I will say this much: Just as Charles Dickens began his famous novel A Tale of Two Cities<\/i> with these phrases\u2014about another place and era\u2014for us this is also \u201cthe best of times\u201d and \u201cthe worst of times.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the best of times because BYU has never been stronger or enjoyed such positive recognition for its quality, its students, and its faculty. Through BYU Broadcasting, for example, we are able to do more than ever before to get the message of our university and its sponsoring organization out to the world, and it is only the beginning.<\/p>\n
It is the worst of times, in a way, because as a people and as an institution our legitimate weaknesses, foibles, and flaws are more visible than ever before. Also, the vitriol, unfair and misleading miscommunication, and criticism about our sponsoring Church and its members have reached levels in some quarters that seem to rival the dark days of the 19th century. Happily, we are in a better position than ever before to respond, and BYU has a key role in providing solid, credible, data-based responses and defenses.<\/p>\n
Notwithstanding the many additional concerns affecting us that we might discuss today, I would like to focus my comments on an issue that is in some respects general across the academic landscape but also quite specific and unique to Brigham Young University. It is a topic we have mentioned before, and I\u2019m confident that the discourse should and will continue. I am speaking about the institutional and individual concerns, feelings, fears, and expectations that are represented among us with respect to our university citizenship, our efforts and responsibilities in the sphere of our creative and research activities, and what our stated primary focus on teaching and learning at BYU really means.<\/p>\n
However, before I speak further on our conference theme, let me briefly update us on a few topics of ongoing campus interest. Our list today is neither comprehensive nor mentioned in any particular order or priority. Across this large, complex, and busy campus, many important initiatives and efforts are always underway. But developments such as those within BYU Broadcasting, our changing and maturing physical campus, our BYU institutional accreditation, and our special emphasis on integrity at BYU are issues that reach across campus to affect every one of us. Let me mention each briefly in turn, starting with BYU Broadcasting.<\/p>\n
As I hope you know, BYU Broadcasting\u2014and particularly BYU-TV\u2014has become increasingly important to our academic mission and to the Church. We are growing rapidly and cover the entire United States, Latin America, and much of the rest of the world. Recently, for example, BYU-TV came on air in Tonga and has a tremendous following of BYU alumni, Church members, many friends, and also the frankly curious folks who are looking for wholesome and educational offerings.<\/p>\n
Construction will shortly begin on our new BYU Broadcasting building to be located east of the Marriott Center and north of the Bean Museum. The construction costs will be covered by generous donors, and the Church has signaled its commitment to increased quality and quantity in our broadcast programming. By next year at this time you will be witnessing very significant progress on the new facility and also in our offerings.<\/p>\n
Our physical campus, already very beautiful and functional, will continue to improve and be wonderfully refined to meet challenges and opportunities in our changing world. New buildings are not our primary goal or focus, but they are the accompaniment of the continued progress that will be necessary to meet our prophetic destiny. You will notice significant developments in the new Office of Information Technology building currently under construction on the west side of the campus, and we expect, again with the generosity of supportive donors, to have an expansion of the Bean Museum in the near future.<\/p>\n
With increasing demands for student housing, you will soon see the construction of a\u00a0ninth building in our Helaman Halls complex. We are watching very closely the changing demographics and housing situation in our broader university community. Many of you have witnessed the ground shaking and the noise associated with the continuing expansion of our utility tunnel system, which will greatly reduce the interruptions and emergencies related to deterioration in our aging systems across campus.<\/p>\n
The southeast quadrant of campus will be receiving great attention in the not-too-distant future. You will recognize that the Knight Mangum Building has been taken down after a long and multiuse career. We have tremendous needs to become more current in our facilities for life sciences and engineering and technology, and there are also a number of practical and aesthetic issues that require our attention.<\/p>\n
This list is by no means comprehensive. Our\u00a0beautiful campus has never been really finished in the technical sense, and I believe this will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
In July 2008, the secretary of education and the U.S. Department of Education convened a national summit on higher education. As part of the summit, BYU was one of 15 institutions across the country invited to share at the \u201cbest practices\u201d showcase. Dr. Gerrit Gong represented BYU so very well in the activity. The \u201cbest practices\u201d we were asked to share were our student learning outcomes wiki site and the video our students made about student involvement with learning outcomes.<\/p>\n
To date, our https:\/\/learningoutcomes.byu.edu wiki site has received some 272,000 visits by 54,000 unique visitors. Web visits to our site come from every time zone across the world. So, three cheers for each and all who are continuing to align student learning objectives, evidence, and ongoing improvement for each of BYU\u2019s 267 degree programs!<\/p>\n
This coming year will see continuing campus conversations at various levels about how we best inquire, teach, and learn in a religiously based university. We are, of course, not unique in a tradition of pursuing inquiry, scholarship, learning, and teaching in an environment where learning is sought by study and also by faith and where our core identity reflects diversity, tolerance, and community. As always, we respect and sustain our BYU Board of Trustees, including the policy guidelines they set and the important principles they teach by which we are entrusted to govern much of what takes place here on a daily basis\u00a0ourselves.<\/p>\n
In recent devotionals, annual university conferences, and other settings, I have talked about \u201cthe BYU way,\u201d the BYU Honor Code, and the importance of integrity. On occasion I still meet a male BYU student who I suggest should visit closely with either Brother Gillette or Brother Schick. On occasion I still meet a female BYU student who is apparently wearing a little sister\u2019s T-shirt or who I wish would remember sacred guidance about adjusting clothes to garments and not vice versa.<\/p>\n
But in general, I commend and thank all of you within the BYU community for your personal commitment and example as we help our students understand and abide by their signed Honor Code commitments. Whether in athletics, academics, housing, or other aspects of what we do, we try very hard to say what we mean and mean what we say with respect to personal integrity.<\/p>\n
Virtually every comprehensive American university gives at least lip service to the triad of citizenship, research, and teaching. Most of us have been to other institutions or are familiar with the different interpretations found throughout the academy about what particular meaning each of these actually has.<\/p>\n
In my own academic discipline, which we do not have at BYU, a majority of the most highly regarded universities consider research to be king. It is understandable, if not fully defensible, to see why this is so. Let me share some of the most obvious reasons.<\/p>\n
First, in many circles the external reputation for excellence is highly correlated with the success and prominence of its research faculty and enterprise.<\/p>\n
Second, for the very successful research-oriented institutions, these activities can be very lucrative. Enormous grants and contracts from the various agencies of government and from wealthy foundations often represent a very significant percentage of the financial support of the university. In addition, spinoff companies, licensing agreements, patents, and the like also generate tremendous dollar benefits for successful sponsoring organizations.<\/p>\n
Given these considerations, which are not really secrets to anyone, it would not be surprising to recognize that someone who generates enough money for the university might be considered a \u201cgood citizen\u201d exclusive of any other contributions or considerations. Likewise, such a valuable faculty member bringing in lots of money and recognition might be excused by some for being a poor teacher or even be excused from teaching altogether. We all know this is not the BYU\u00a0way.<\/p>\n
Other institutions\u2014such as many liberal arts colleges, community colleges, and emerging universities that focus their efforts primarily at the baccalaureate level\u2014do not emphasize or even support research on the part of the faculty. High teaching loads and significant teaching expectations are the norm. Our sister institutions, BYU\u2013Idaho and BYU\u2013Hawaii, largely fit into this framework.<\/p>\n
Brigham Young University fits neither the model of the clearly research-first institutions nor the model of the large cadre of nonresearch schools. As we all know, we have been defined by our board of trustees as a primarily undergraduate teaching university with some graduate programs of distinction and high quality. Likewise, research of superb quality is an important part of our mission with the intent that it supports and enhances our primary responsibilities in teaching and learning.<\/p>\n
Perhaps an example from my previous careers might be a little helpful in understanding how I see some of this. After 20 years in academic medicine, including responsibilities for a university hospital, I made a major professional shift and took a leadership position with a health-care system where I had responsibilities for more than 20 community hospitals. One of the hospitals, LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, was one with which I had a long history. I was born there, although I don\u2019t remember much about that. As a medical student, I worked evenings as an employee in labor and delivery for one year and took some medical school electives there. On occasion I also did consultations and conducted teaching rounds\u00a0there.<\/p>\n
It was interesting to me that, at least superficially, LDS Hospital did exactly the same things that the University Hospital did. That is, each institution was involved in patient care, teaching, and research. Each facility had faculty and staff who were involved in all three missions and some other folk who were involved in only one or two. What was different was not so much the ownership\u2014with one being a private, not-for-profit entity and the other a state-owned entity\u2014but rather the highly different emphases or priorities of the operations. While not particularly obvious to outside observers or even to the patients being served, the interests and basic motivations of the two places were quite different.<\/p>\n
The University Hospital, as a direct component of a university, is primarily interested in educating prospective physicians, nurses, and other health professionals and also conducting clinical and basic research. It provides excellent clinical care, but that aspect of the mission is justified because it is necessary to provide this care in a laboratory setting established to support the educational and research missions.<\/p>\n
LDS Hospital, and others, are primarily committed to superior patient care. They also are involved in medical education and research because their leadership believes these activities greatly enhance the quality and scope of the clinical treatments offered to their patients.<\/p>\n
Thus, while both are doing fundamentally the same things, the emphasis and rationale at each institution are quite different. Both hospitals and their staffs clearly understand their priorities, and while each strives for and largely achieves excellence in all three spheres, their primary motivations are significantly different, even though in both cases the three activities are largely synergistic for each\u00a0facility.<\/p>\n
In a similar vein, BYU does roughly the same things as other large comprehensive universities, but the emphases and motivations may be quite different in some important respects. At BYU, our primary and major focus has been and must be on our teaching and learning responsibilities. This is true with respect to both our academics and our spiritually strengthening activities. If we are asked to choose between the interests of our students and anything else, there is really no choice. We do research, serious inquiry, or creative work because it enhances the learning and teaching environment for our students. We do not look at these efforts to provide financial support for the university generally, although we do compete for grants and strive to have these activities be largely self-sustaining. Thus we see these efforts to create or identify new knowledge and to enhance scholarship on the part of the faculty as supportive of, rather than competing with, our involvements with students.<\/p>\n
I hope all members of our faculty are clearly aware of the tremendous support they and the university receive from the Church. I think we are. This is not just because our leaders are generous, as they certainly are, but because they wish us to completely and fully understand and support our mission priorities. An important component of our mission is the teaching of and learning about advancing the frontiers of knowledge and understanding in each of our disciplines. It is our conviction that without our faculty members being personally involved in their own continued learning and investigational activities, they cannot be the best possible teachers, mentors, and models for the outstanding students who come under their influence at BYU.<\/p>\n
Some have questioned whether or not it is reasonable or even possible to accomplish excellence in teaching, inquiry, and citizenship all at the same time. Admittedly this can be and often is daunting. Candidly, it is also being demonstrated as possible by more than a few of our terrific faculty members. Certainly we should not, and do not, have exactly the same quantitative standards for our people as another institution might have for its faculty who have little or no other responsibilities. In this, our BYU-wide productivity does not surprise us. On the other hand, we cannot, and must not, compromise on the qualitative aspects of the creative work that we do here. It must also be acknowledged that accurate assessment of the quality of creative and research work is not possible without sufficient quantity to judge.<\/p>\n
As President Jeffrey R. Holland and others have said, we will not do everything at BYU, but what we do, we will do superbly well. Because you are heavily involved in teaching and mentoring, we will perhaps not see as many journal articles or books published each year as we might see at another excellent university\u2014but the significance of the contributions must always be in the first rank. In almost all of our disciplines it is generally possible, with considerable agreement, to reach some consensus on what constitutes real quality and what observations really contribute.<\/p>\n
A matter of some persistent concern to me, my colleagues in the administration, and I\u2019m sure for the vast majority of you, is that our level of sophistication, including indices of both validity and reliability, in evaluating the quality of our teaching often lags behind what we are accustomed to seeing in our research and creative activities. I believe we are making modest progress in teaching evaluation, although I think we all agree that student evaluations and ratings\u2014a legitimate component of our information gathering\u2014will never be the end all in our efforts to evaluate our teaching objectively and fairly. I\u2019m grateful to all of you who are working with us on these matters and plead for your continued efforts and thought. If there is any place in the world that ought to be at the cutting edge in identifying, assessing, and describing the best in teaching and in creating a productive learning atmosphere, it should be BYU.<\/p>\n
If our premise that learning and teaching for both students and faculty are enhanced and promoted by developing and supporting an environment of processes of shared discovery and creative productivity, then how do we facilitate a transition from the more familiar model that views teaching as merely the transmission of known information from the teacher to the student? Again, some of you are moving in this direction wonderfully well in significantly diverse ways and in markedly different disciplines.<\/p>\n
Likewise, in the BYU-specific case, how do we best accomplish this while incorporating our clear mandate to make all that we do also spiritually strengthening?<\/p>\n
Our April 2008 President\u2019s Leadership Retreat focused on notions surrounding \u201cThe Best BYU Can Be in 2018\u201d by identifying current trends and trajectories across the university and projecting where they might take us if followed for a decade into the future. Our intent was not to draw any particular conclusions. In fact, we specifically avoided doing so.<\/p>\n
Rather, we wanted to see where we are and may be heading with respect to (1) campus buildings and physical facilities, (2) student advisement and our enriched environment, (3) technology as it may interact with campus learning and teaching, and (4) accreditation and other key issues of how BYU deals with developments in our larger, external environment.<\/p>\n
With the coordinating leadership of Gerrit Gong and John Tanner, we gave each department chair and director, each associate dean, dean, managing and executive director, and President\u2019s Council member an electronic clicker. We invited honest, nonbinding, anonymous responses to a number of broad questions. These questions were not rigorously controlled. We did not perform systematic statistical analyses, but we did ask the current BYU leadership for a general sense of their perceptions of our likely future and priorities.<\/p>\n
For example, the first question asked: \u201cWhat\u2019s your favorite flavor of ice cream among the following flavors?\u201d<\/p>\n
You will be interested to know that chocolate garnered 31 percent of cast preferences, followed by rocky road (21 percent), vanilla (18\u00a0percent), and butter pecan and French vanilla tied at 15 percent each.<\/p>\n
Another question was \u201cHow many more years do you plan to work at BYU?\u201d<\/p>\n
Please remember that the responses were anonymous and nonbinding. Interestingly, 31\u00a0percent of our current campus leadership say they plan to work one to five more years, possibly until 2013. Another 27 percent said they plan to work six to 10 more years, possibly until 2018. This suggests a strong majority (58 percent) of our leadership colleagues may retire in the coming decade. This is a wonderful reminder of how important each year is in our individual and collective seasons of stewardship and contribution.<\/p>\n
I express great gratitude to each of you for all you do to make BYU what it is and continues to become. My reflections on your accomplishments have been inspiring and encouraging to me.<\/p>\n
Where our preferences for ice cream flavors understandably distribute broadly and rather evenly across a sample of popular flavors, we see a much clearer pattern of response to the question \u201cWhat is the feasibility of including inquiry, creativity, and research in an institution primarily characterized as an undergraduate teaching university?\u201d To that question, 99 percent responded it is \u201cpossible\u201d; 92 percent responded it is \u201cpractical\u201d; and 100 percent responded it is \u201cdesirable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 100-percent affirmation that inquiry, creativity, and research are desirable at an institution primarily characterized as an undergraduate teaching university is nicely supported by a 99-percent response that such is also possible. And the 92-percent response that such is practical is, I believe, an honest recognition that we need to continue working together to make what we believe to be desirable and possible into practical reality.<\/p>\n
Related are three other areas of broad interest and consensus we considered. You may recognize the statement attributed to an Irish poet that \u201ceducation is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.\u201d A majority (53\u00a0percent) of our campus leadership say they would like to see more emphasis on \u201cfire\u201d\u2014the fueling of an \u201caha\u201d curiosity and inquiry for our students.<\/p>\n
As we discussed some of these issues, it was encouraging to me to sense very strong support for continued movement in this direction. Such support is also coupled with a high level of confidence that we can reach the heights and stature we have been challenged to achieve as we fulfill the prophecies of our prophet leaders regarding BYU. You are familiar with them, but it seems useful to reflect on two or three before moving forward.<\/p>\n
President Kimball spoke at BYU often and had obvious love and high expectations for this university. Let me read a couple of paragraphs from his landmark \u201cEducation for Eternity\u201d address:<\/p>\n
In all the world, the Brigham Young University is the greatest institution of learning. This statement I have made numerous times. I believe it sincerely. There are many criteria by which a university can be judged and appraised and evaluated. The special qualities of Brigham Young University lie not in its bigness; there are a number of much larger universities.<\/i><\/p>\n
It should not be judged by its affluence and the amount of money available for buildings, research, and other facilities. It should not be judged by prestige, for there are more statusful institutions as the world measures status.<\/i><\/p>\n
The uniqueness of Brigham Young University lies in its special role\u2014education for eternity\u2014which it must carry in addition to the usual tasks of a university. This means concern\u2014curricular and behavioral\u2014for not only the \u201cwhole man\u201d but for the \u201ceternal man.\u201d Where all universities seek to preserve the heritage of knowledge that history has washed to their feet, this faculty has a double heritage\u2014the preserving of knowledge of men and the revealed truths sent from heaven.<\/i> [Spencer W. Kimball, \u201cEducation for Eternity,\u201d pre-school address to BYU faculty and staff, 12 September 1967, 1\u20132]<\/p>\n
President Kimball also said, \u201cMany of us have had dreams and visions of the destiny of this great Church university\u201d (\u201cEducation for Eternity,\u201d 12). He then went on to quote President John Taylor, who said in 1879:<\/p>\n
You will see the day that Zion<\/i> [including BYU] will be as far ahead of the outside world in everything pertaining to learning of every kind as we are today in regard to religious matters. You mark my words, and write them down, and see if they do not come to pass.<\/i> [JD<\/i> 21:100 (13 April 1879)]<\/p>\n
Incidentally, it was the same President John Taylor who said the following to the founders of what is today known as Snow College: \u201cWhatever you do, be choice in your selection of teachers. We do not want infidels to mould the minds of our [students]\u201d (JD<\/i> 24:168\u201369 [19 May 1883]). In this I think we have been faithful, currently and historically.<\/p>\n
Recently President Henry B. Eyring mentioned his strong belief, and that of the Brethren, that the most important thing we do at BYU is to attract, recruit, and retain the right faculty. He opined, and I concur, that the faculty has never been better than what we have currently, and for this I express both commendation and appreciation to all involved in this most important activity for BYU now and in the future.<\/p>\n
Another area of broad BYU interest and consensus is that we feel both opportunity and responsibility to help students become \u201cbilingual.\u201d As President Spencer W. Kimball, Elder Neal A. Maxwell, and others have so eloquently put it, we want to help equip our students to speak the language of their disciplines and the world while they are learning the language of the gospel as their mother tongue. Our citizenship will always be in the kingdom of the Lord, even though our passports may contain visas allowing travel throughout the world of ideas (see Bruce C. Hafen, \u201cAll Those Books, and the Spirit, Too!\u201d BYU Annual University Conference address, 26 August 1991, 2).<\/p>\n
A third area of broad campus interest and consensus is related to the first two. It is that a majority (51 percent) say we need to continue aligning expectations and measures of teaching, scholarship, and citizenship. Where and how do we define each, measure each, and take each into account in decisions made, for example, with respect to faculty rank and status? Some of the most difficult decisions we make relate to rank and status. While each case is individual, and we of course do not comment on individual cases, let me simply say again: At BYU we value teaching. We value scholarship. We value citizenship. We consider each and all to be essential for BYU to achieve the lofty goals established for this special place.<\/p>\n
We are not asking or suggesting that accomplishments should be the same or look the same for everyone. This cannot and should not be the case. But we hope that our entire university community will embrace these values as\u00a0well.<\/p>\n
This, then, is our context. We want to help students kindle curiosity and the fire of inquiry and to become \u201cbilingual.\u201d And we would like to identify, define, and elaborate a desirable, possible, and practical role for inquiry, creativity, and research integral to learning and teaching at our primarily undergraduate teaching and learning university.<\/p>\n
If you are tracking with me, you might at this juncture ask, \u201cWe agree with all that has been said. How are we going to contribute to accomplishing what has been envisioned for BYU?\u201d That is a great question, and a part of me wishes that I could give a clear, succinct, and insightful answer that would make further thought or discussion of the matter unnecessary. Happily, the other part of me realizes, as do most of you, that it is in the processes and activities of thinking, deliberating, discussing, testing, trying, changing, working, praying, and listening to each other and the Spirit that we make the heaven-intended progress that we must make. Learning \u201cline upon line, precept upon precept\u201d (D&C 98:12) is more than a catchy scriptural phrase. It is the process that each of us, and certainly this institution, must go through to reach our eternal goals.<\/p>\n
While I don\u2019t, and believe I shouldn\u2019t, have an exact, undeviating formula to take us where we need to go, I do have great confidence in the process that most of you understand doctrinally as well as I do. The challenge for the great majority who intellectually and even spiritually understand the process is still the hard work of actual application.<\/p>\n
As a youth, I was never accused of being one with an unusual command of scriptural quotations. In that, at least, I have been consistent throughout my entire life. I do, however, remember vividly a Mutual theme that we all memorized as teens. It has stayed with me for frequent recall ever since. You all know these words of Nephi:<\/p>\n
I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.<\/i> [1\u00a0Nephi 3:7]<\/p>\n
Taking the words of the prophets seriously, as we all do, I\u2019m convinced that we have been \u201ccommanded\u201d to do our part in causing BYU to become what it must become to reach its manifest destiny. It was a wise and doctrinally correct Church leader who said something to the effect that it is the responsibility of prophets to prophesy and the responsibility of the rest of us to see that the prophecies are fulfilled.<\/p>\n
As a young missionary, one of the first scriptural passages I memorized was this well-recognized and oft-quoted scripture:<\/p>\n
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.<\/i><\/p>\n
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.<\/i> [Proverbs 3:5\u20136]<\/p>\n
Over the years I believe my understanding of this passage has improved without lessening the comfort or confidence it brought to my young heart and mind. The need to trust in the Lord without reservation or qualification is clear. What I perhaps did not appreciate initially as well as I do today is that we are not\u00a0to exclude our own understanding. It\u00a0is absolutely necessary, as a couple of other passages point out, but we do not lean on it or give it precedence over the direction that comes from God in the context of revelation or inspiration.<\/p>\n
Remember the Lord\u2019s rebuke to Oliver Cowdery on\u00a0this point and also understand that the principle is much more broad than only scriptural translation:<\/p>\n
Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.<\/i><\/p>\n
But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.<\/i><\/p>\n
But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong.<\/i> [D&C 9:7\u20139]<\/p>\n
I would humbly suggest that these doctrinal and scriptural insights have direct application to our work at this university, particularly in dealing with issues like the relationships between teaching, appropriate inquiry or research, and citizenship that may seem to be paradoxical, oxymoronic, or the stuff of conundrums.<\/p>\n
We might profit by considering five principles of gospel foundation that relate inquiry, creativity, and research within an environment of lifelong learning, teaching, and service.<\/p>\n
First, we see the relationship of knowledge and the gospel as very broad, very deep, and very inclusive. We believe all real knowledge is part of the gospel, even while we also caution, as Professor Henry Eyring, the famous chemist father of our current President Henry B. Eyring, related his own father\u2019s advice: \u201cIn this Church you don\u2019t have to believe anything that isn\u2019t true\u201d (in Henry Eyring, \u201cMy Father\u2019s Formula<\/a>,\u201d Ensign,<\/i> October 1978, 29; also in Henry Eyring, Reflections of a Scientist<\/i> [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1983], 6\u20137).<\/p>\n Second, we are enjoined to \u201cseek learning, even by study and also by faith\u201d (D&C 88:118).<\/p>\n Third, we see reason and revelation as compatible, complementary, and often mutually self-reinforcing.<\/p>\n Fourth, we recognize that our greatest teachers, the prophets, are also our greatest learners\u2014by definition those who bring forth new understanding of greatest worth. Those who have learned how to inquire properly of the Lord, when appropriately authorized to do so, share what they learn. They teach with great clarity, fervor, testimony, and skill.<\/p>\n Fifth, we see inquiry, creativity, and research at the heart of an eternal plan where individuals learn by their own study and experiences as part of their relationship with a loving and all-knowing Heavenly Father.<\/p>\n At BYU there are specific applications of these foundational principles of inquiry, creativity, and research.<\/p>\n First, knowing that light and knowledge from all fields come from God, we therefore try to establish a focus. As Elder Dallin H. Oaks once put it:<\/p>\n