A seasoned veteran of the U.S. Department of Commerce once told me you learn a lot by watching migratory patterns. People vote with their feet. They choose nations, communities, businesses and institutions for a reason. Right now, there is a positive magnetism flowing toward Brigham Young University.
In recent years, the Wall Street Journal has placed BYU among the nation’s top 20 universities. The Princeton Review had BYU near the top of its list of “most religious” campuses. This year, U.S. News & World Report ranked BYU 21st for Best Value and Forbes listed BYU as the nation’s No. 1 financially strongest school.
According to the 2025 WSJ/College Pulse survey, BYU also ranked as the most highly recommended university by recent alums and current students. BYU is top 10 for producing students who go on to earn Ph.D.s and top 5 for students who graduate with the least debt. Enrollment and admission yields remain high even as a “demographic cliff” is projected to cause a 15% dip in the population of college-age students nationwide.
BYU football, meanwhile, capped off a thrilling 11-win season last month by trouncing a highly talented Colorado team, attracting record television viewership for the Alamo Bowl. Weeks earlier, the number one high school basketball prospect in the country announced his decision to play for BYU’s Kevin Young. Coach Young himself passed up attractive offers — including NBA coaching jobs — to lead BYU in one of the most competitive Power Four conferences for basketball.
But just as important as who is coming to BYU is why they want to be here.
And the reasons go much deeper than athletic opportunities.
“I wanted a place where I could be really unapologetically me,” football standout Keanu Tanuvasa told BYU Sports Nation last week regarding his decision to play for BYU next season over attractive offers from Georgia and Alabama, among others. “I felt like BYU reflected me in a lot of ways, in the sense of God and family being huge and in the sense of the pursuit of becoming the best version of yourself and more than just an athlete.”
Beyond athletics, BYU’s mission is attracting and retaining the most capable, innovative and spiritually aligned faculty in the university’s history. By doubling down on its distinctive value proposition of academic excellence and spiritual devotion, BYU is drawing talent who see opportunities here that may be unavailable elsewhere.
Take Shima Baughman. The daughter of an Iranian political activist who fled to the United States and eventually converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Baughman teaches criminal law by day and is a dynamic mother who floods Instagram with spiritual insights by night. She recently taught law at another respected institution but came back to BYU in order to explore the role faith and religion play in prisoner reintegration and reducing recidivism. She felt BYU provided an environment to ask different kinds of questions about criminal law that too often are left unanswered.
Take Bradley Rebeiro, a BYU graduate with a Ph.D. from Notre Dame whose forthcoming book “Frederick Douglass and Constitutional Abolitionism,” recently went under contract with Harvard University Press. He credits BYU’s intellectual milieu, including the Wheatley Institute where he is a constitutional fellow, for championing and enhancing the project.
Take the inaugural dean of BYU’s school of medicine, Mark Ott, who brings experience from Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Stanford and the University of Utah medical schools. He chose to step away from his surgical practice to take on the monumental role of inaugural dean because he felt compelled by the idea of building the next generation of doctor-disciples who could go out and serve the world in a manner distinct from other medical schools.
The dean of BYU’s business school, Brigitte Madrian, similarly left the prestige of Harvard to chart a vision to “transform the world through Christlike leadership,” developing business and community “leaders of faith, intellect, and character.” Under her tenure, enrollment in BYU’s business school has reached record levels.
So far, I’ve pointed to faculty from BYU’s graduate schools in law, business and medicine. But those championing BYU’s dual heritage of spirit and intellect, study and faith are coming from a variety of disciplines.
Take, Grayson Morgan, a recent hire in geography. He told me over the phone, “I love being able to integrate the gospel into how we teach at BYU and being able to bear my testimony. … There were so many instances as a graduate student and instructor where I felt the gospel would help inform a perspective here or there, but I didn’t always feel there was the support for sharing such a perspective in an academic setting. Being able to do that here at BYU has made a big difference in how I approach things.”
At the heart of studying geography, Morgan went on to say, is the idea of loving your neighbor — a central tenet of Jesus Christ’s gospel. Morgan also discussed his experience going through BYU’s hiring process, including his interview with a general authority in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
“Lindsey, my wife, and I had some concerns about moving west away from family, but the general authority we met with was so kind and considerate. He asked penetrating, good and thorough questions that really helped me realize how important being a professor at BYU is. But also, the questions and worries we had were things he had experienced in his own life. He was able to offer counsel and comfort in a lot of ways that helped us feel at peace about taking the job if we were offered it. So, it was really a beneficial process more for us. I took it as a very positive, growing experience more than a weeding process, if you will.”
Trent Williams, an associate professor of entrepreneurship, came to BYU about a year ago after stints at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University. He similarly discussed being drawn to BYU’s distinctive educational approach:
“Having been at other institutions that I think have some nice goals, I just really appreciate the explicit linkage between the mission of educating young people and how that synchronizes with the desire to develop the whole person, especially the spiritual person. That’s the kind of approach I’ve taken historically, but now I can be overt in that approach here at BYU.”
While the institution has a long way to go, and no one in the administration is hanging up “mission accomplished” banners, there is a unified desire to continue taking the necessary steps to become the Christ-centered, prophetically directed university of prophecy. There is a palpable enthusiasm on campus and a sense of momentum for this shared vision.
Brigham Young famously admonished Karl G. Maeser: “Remember to not teach even the alphabet or the multiplication tables without the Spirit of God.”
The leadership for this comes from the Church Board of Education. It extends to BYU’s President C. Shane Reese and Church Commissioner Elder Clark G. Gilbert who each bring a dynamic energy to the task and are doggedly committed to advancing BYU’s efforts to be a world-class university unwaveringly committed to BYU’s spiritual mission. This commitment influences everything from alumni service projects at football tailgates and BYUtv stories about the good in our opponents to additional resources for inspired, experiential learning opportunities that enhance the student experience and mission-inspired efforts, including BYU’s new school of medicine with a focus on assisting the church’s worldwide humanitarian efforts.
The gospel of Jesus Christ inspires BYU’s ongoing efforts to foster a covenant community of belonging, increase graduation rates and host campus-wide date nights attended by tens of thousands of students. Brigham Young’s admonition extends from the classroom to scholarship to facilities and even to doing athletics differently.
“It’s important that we stay humble, it’s important that we love even our opponents, so we’ve been teaching that to you guys,” BYU Coach Kalani Sitake said to his team after their last-minute victory this fall over the University of Utah. “It’s what tough guys do. (LaVell Edwards) taught me that lesson, and then all I did was try to love as many people as I could … That’s the beauty of the gospel in football. There’s nothing like it, and that’s what tough guys do.”
Once again, BYU is supported and guided by a Church Board of Education, chaired by the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as BYU’s executive committee, consisting of Elder D. Todd Christofferson and Elder Ronald A. Rasband, both members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Michael T. Ringwood, a General Authority Seventy, and Sister Camille N. Johnson, General President of the Church’s Relief Society.
During a moment in which so many institutions of higher learning have lost a focus on students and a sense of moral grounding, BYU’s leadership knows what the institution is and what it must become. Of course, not every student or faculty member is the right fit for an explicitly religious university that overtly supports and upholds the values, positions, policies and teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
That’s OK.
Not everyone is a good fit for the Air Force Academy or West Point, either. Nor is every student the right fit for Yeshiva, Catholic University, or Wheaton College. There are, thankfully, hundreds of institutions of higher learning in the United States.
But religious institutions like Pepperdine, Baylor or BYU contribute something unique in the modern educational landscape. They seek to stake out clear moral propositions and build educational communities that support the whole person during a time when so many young people face societal trends toward atomization and isolation.
Such communities require shared standards. The Air Force Academy demands rigor and expectations that transform young cadets into officers of the armed forces. BYU’s mission is different — to transform students into disciple-scholars, lifelong followers of Jesus Christ. Its shared honor code, ecclesiastical endorsement and hiring standards ensure a community focused on cultivating this common goal.
Some will see such a vision and environment as compelling. Others will disagree and even criticize BYU’s approach or goals. Those of us who support BYU can engage critics with love, humility and patience. That’s all part of BYU becoming the Christ-centered, prophetically directed university.
But it doesn’t hurt to take note of the migratory trends.
Hal Boyd is Chief of Staff for BYU President C. Shane Reese, appointed in May 2024. Boyd, a former editor of the Deseret News, is a Fellow with BYU’s Wheatley Institute and has written for many publications, including The Atlantic and The New York Times. He is executive editor of Deseret Magazine.
