Those who teach at BYU-Idaho can inspire students to become disciples of Jesus Christ. BYU-Idaho faculty recently gathered on Zoom for their annual fall semester faculty meeting to discuss how they can do just that.
The Thomas E. Ricks Gardens are always at their prime during the summer months. Students work hard to create and maintain the botanical gardens on campus by adding to the beautiful landscapes each year. This year, students completed a new Japanese Garden located in the southeast corner.
This summer, BYU-Idaho updated its technology use and security policy for all university employees. With the safety of students and employees in mind, the IT Department revised the existing policy to align more closely with that of other Church Educational System institutions.
A rainy, summer afternoon finds Ellie Freeman studying on campus in the Crossroads. Except for a few other students scattered around, the social hub on campus is empty. The Crossroads can serve as a great place to study during the quiet seven-week break.
Student Success and Retention Report
From the moment a student decides to attend BYU-Idaho, they are assigned mentors and given support tools to help them succeed and persist to graduation. BYU-Idaho is a special place where both faculty in the classroom and employees in the student workplace mentor students. Every employee is a mentor.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, BYU-Idaho has sought to meet state and local health district guidance to keep students and employees healthy. In many cases, the university has gone above and beyond what was required to keep everyone safe. With COVID-19 vaccines now available in the community to everyone 12 and older, BYU-Idaho personnel have worked hard to make the vaccine available and easily accessible to as many of the campus community as possible.
With more than 95 majors to choose from, many BYU-Idaho students struggle figuring out what they want to study their freshman year. To help undecided students select a major more effectively, the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies is launching a pilot program this fall called Freshman Focus Areas.
In August 2020, BYU-Idaho launched a new university calendar with its own social platform: I-Belong. This new platform, offered in both mobile and desktop formats, offers students and employees multiple options to get involved with campus organizations and activities at BYU-Idaho.
In pursuit of continuous improvement and following “a steady, upward course,” BYU-Idaho is implementing plans to respond to the recommendations received by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), who evaluated the university this past April, and is reviewing their commendations.
As BYU-Idaho aims to develop students into effective communicators, the university is always working to improve its own communication channels. Walking by the new Career Center in the Manwaring Center, students and employees can easily spot the university’s newest digital signage—two video walls, each composed of nine 55-inch TV screens.?
BYU-Idaho is always looking for ways to improve facilities for the learning and growth of its students. It is for this reason that the Mail Services, Surplus Sales, and Stores and Receiving are moving out of the Auxiliary Services Building to a new location west of campus.
A project nearly two years in the making, the Visual Arts Studio opened its classroom doors for students at the start of the Spring 2021 Semester. The studio, along with an additional parking lot, stand where the Kirkham once stood on the north end of campus.
Since it was built in 1969, generations of students have enjoyed the facilities the Hart Building has to offer. As the home to many Center Stage events, the fitness center, Wellness Center, campus pool, and racquetball courts, the Hart Building is truly a social center on BYU-Idaho’s campus.??
After more than?a?year-long remodel in the Manwaring Center, the BYU-Idaho Career Center has opened its doors?in?a new centralized location. With?more than?10,000?square feet,?the new space has been thoroughly designed to best meet the needs of?students and?facilitate?one of the most?important?outcomes?to the university:?obtaining meaningful career employment.??? ?
Like every other department and office on campus at BYU-Idaho, the University Store is focused on helping students. Thanks to the coordination between BYU-Idaho faculty and administrators, BYU-Idaho has some of the best textbook adoption rates in the country. Because faculty submit their class textbook requests to the University Store early, it allows the store to order before other universities, locking in lower prices. This in turn allows the store to offer the most affordable book prices for students.
On March 12, 2020, BYU-Idaho issued an Official Notice canceling all face-to-face classes, with classes to be resumed remotely a week later because of COVID-19. Since then, and amidst a pandemic, the university has continued to adapt to current circumstances to carry out its mission of building disciples of Jesus Christ.
Just as we individually strive to improve ourselves over time, the BYU-Idaho aims to better accomplish its mission “to develop disciples of Jesus Christ who are leaders in their homes, the Church, and their communities.” April 2021 will mark the third time the university has completed an accreditation cycle since it was announced as a four-year institution in 2000. BYU-Idaho is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). The process is designed to help BYU-Idaho fulfill its mission.
BYU-Idaho’s Strategic Enrollment Management team, which includes statisticians and data strategists in the office of Institutional Planning, recently met with President’s Council to discuss how to better accomplish the purposes of “Core Theme 3: Reach—Serve as many students as possible within resource constraints.” This group also addressed one of the university’s correlated strategic priorities to “manage enrollments while considering Church-demographic share and student behaviors, strengthen year-round school, and develop a concurrent enrollment program.”
BYU-Idaho is fulfilling its mission of developing disciples of Christ by using a strategic plan to train faculty to become strong disciple leaders. As teachers continue developing themselves as devoted followers of Christ, experiences in the classroom will help BYU-Idaho students follow those examples as they become disciple leaders themselves.
University Holds First Virtual All Employee Conference
Over the past couple of years, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have seen the Book of Mormon come to life in new, live action videos based on the Book of Mormon. After completing the first three of five seasons, Church film producer Aaron Merrell spoke to students and employees at the Winter 2021 University Forum about the making of these videos (Watch recording here).