Latest news with #RicksCollege
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Here's how much bigger Ricks College got when it became BYU-Idaho 25 years ago
This article was first published in the ChurchBeat newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Wednesday night. Last week marked the 25th anniversary of President Gordon B. Hinckley's announcement that Ricks College, a junior college in Rexburg, Idaho, would become Brigham Young University-Idaho. The goal was to educate more students more fully, which raises a natural question: How many more students have studied at the university than would have been on campus if the school had remained a junior college? Of course, there's no perfect answer. Ricks might have grown larger, for example, but we will never know. What we can do is see how many students did walk through the doors over the past quarter of a century. Here's what we know (and saving the biggest number for last): During the 1999-2000 school year, just before the major announcement by the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a total of 14,516 students enrolled at Ricks, according to Brett Sampson, managing director of University Relations at BYU-Idaho. Last year, 32,090 students enrolled at BYU-Idaho. In all, Sampson said that 199,647 students matriculated on the Rexburg campus between 2000-2025. But remember, there has been another massive shift since that announcement — the addition of online learning. If you include online students, BYU-Idaho enrolled 61,725 students last year. BYU-Idaho began to offer online degrees in 2008. If Ricks had continued as a junior college, it may have added an online component. Maybe the online education era would have sparked a later move to university status, too, so that students could gain access to four-year degrees. So, how many students have enrolled at BYU-Idaho since 2000? It's important to note that one can't simply add up the yearly enrollments. You can't take 15,000 per year at Ricks and multiply it by 25 years, or 34,000 per year at BYU-Idaho and multiply that by 25, because the math in both cases would count some students two or three or four more times. But here's what did actually happen: BYU-Idaho now has had 272,126 different students matriculate on campus or online between 2000 and 2025, Sampson said. That's more than a quarter of a million individuals in 25 years. Update: Grieving Latter-day Saints in Lesotho mourn with country devastated from crash that killed and injured young women (June 24) 'Lion of the Third,' civil rights legend and friend to Latter-day Saints: Rev. Dr. Amos Brown honored (June 22) 25 years ago, a stunning announcement began Ricks College's transformation to BYU-Idaho (June 21) BYU conference illustrates why it's time for every Latter-day Saint to know what 'human flourishing' is (June 20) President Russell M. Nelson video message to the Mission Leaders Seminar was that the Book of Mormon is 'one of the greatest tools of conversion.' Read summaries from all the talks and see photos from the 2025 Seminar for New Mission Leaders. A Hindu spiritual leader met with President Dallin H. Oaks, President Henry B. Eyring, two apostles and other Latter-day Saint leaders at church headquarters in Salt Lake City. Church leaders broke ground on the first temple for Hungary on Saturday. The Budapest Hungary Temple will serve Latter-day Saints in 12 countries. The First Presidency also announced the groundbreaking ceremony for the Fairbanks Alaska Temple will be held on Sept. 27. Read about both developments here. The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square's 5,000th broadcast of 'Music & the Spoken Word' will air on July 13. Tabernacle Choir President Michael O. Leavitt and presenter Derrick Porter joined the Church News podcast to discuss the importance of sacred music. Our Jacob Hess published four stories to help parents, grandparents and others protect children and women. 10 concrete steps to eradicate sexual violence against children What life patterns make sexual violence against children less likely? Themes from 215 studies 10 concrete steps towards eradicating sexual violence against women What life patterns make sexual violence against women less likely? Themes from 285 studies
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
25 years ago, a stunning announcement began Ricks College's transformation to BYU-Idaho
At the turn of the century, the conventional wisdom among Ricks College leaders and students was that the little school in Rexburg, Idaho, would always be a junior college. Former Ricks College President Steven Bennion once said he was asked at least weekly when Ricks would become a four-year college while he led the school from 1989-97 . 'My answer was always, 'probably never,'' he said. That viewpoint evaporated on June 21, 2000, after a stunning decision. 'I'm pleased to announce that Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, will change from its present two-year, junior college status to a four-year institution,' said President Gordon B. Hinckley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the school's sponsor. 'The new four-year school will be known as Brigham Young University-Idaho, with the name change designed to give the school immediate national and international recognition,' he said. The school and community has spent the past week launching a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the announcement today and will spend the next 18 months honoring the transformation and growth of BYU-Idaho. That growth has indeed been transformative. At the time of the announcement, Ricks College had 8,628 students. In 2024, BYU-Idaho served more than 30,000 students on campus using a unique, three-track system that keeps the campus humming year-round, a change also anticipated by President Hinckley. 'BYU-Idaho will shift its emphasis to a year-round activity program designed to involve and meet the needs of a diverse student body,' he said. The school also has maintained another focus President Hinckley set for it in 2000. 'BYU-Idaho will continue to be teaching-oriented. Effective teaching and advising will be the primary responsibilities of its faculty, who are committed to academic excellence,' he said. The Deseret News reported that the change was meant to provide more in-depth higher education for a greater number of students. That certainly has been achieved over the past 25 years. In fact, moving to a university system paved the way for massive growth across the Church Educational System. BYU-Idaho was the breeding ground for BYU-Pathway Worldwide, which launched in 2009 with 458 students. Today, the global online program has approximately 80,000 students supported by BYU-Idaho's extensive online offerings. Ricks College didn't officially become BYU-Idaho until Aug. August 10, 2001. A month later, another former Ricks College president, President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ, spoke on campus. 'There is the miracle in how much they have done,' he said. 'In those 15 months, they created a detailed plan, hired new faculty, received conditional accreditation status which could have taken years, and then launched this new venture, BYU-Idaho. 'And change will not end,' he said. 'The phrase 'Rethinking Education' is not to be only a slogan for the transformation from a two- to four-year status. The school is to be a place of educational innovation, permanently.' Since the changeover, BYU-Idaho has built out more than 100 bachelor's degrees and its online powerhouse. The celebration of the school's evolution, which began as an elementary school in 1888, will continue through December 2026. It is expected to include three special issues of the BYU-Idaho magazine and a 'Why BYU-I' social media campaign. The president of the school during the transformation was Elder David A. Bednar. Now a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he has said the move was a watershed moment in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ. 'The creation of BYU–Idaho was one of the most important educational events of the Restoration,' he told the Church News for the 20th anniversary.
