BYU-Idaho officially welcomes new president
Brigham Young University Idaho held a news conference Thursday morning to officially welcome its new president.
Outgoing president Clark G. Gilbert spoke first to say thank you to the campus. Then new president Henry J. Eyring spoke for a moment and took questions from the media.
KIDK Eyewitness News 3 anchor Todd Kunz asked him how he felt about following in the footsteps of his father, who was named president of what was then Rick’s College in 1971.
“I’m grateful that I’m not where he was. I’m in a position where our challenge is not one of shrinkage, but of growth. We have been growing rapidly. And just by virtue of demographics within the church, we will continue to grow. Those baby boom echoes have continued and we’re now on an upswing. The challenge that we’ll have in the coming seven to eight years especially is how to deal with that dramatic demographic growth and then the fact that our tuition is so low relative to others means that even if it weren’t for demographics that we’d have increasingly more students interested in coming,” said Eyring.
Eyring said his father dealt with budget cuts and trying to figure out how to fill the classrooms in those early 1970s. Whereas his current problem is a growing studentbody both on campus and online.
Eyring will assume his role as 17th president of the university, effective April 10.
Outgoing President Gilbert will be moving to Salt Lake City to head up the ‘BYU Pathway Worldwide’ program, which is an expanding online-learning program. Gilbert said 35 individuals currently with the Pathway Program and distance learning have been invited to move along with him to Utah.
