BYU-Idaho continues its academic restructuring process, and university leaders are optimistic about the school’s upcoming changes. The plan will adjust faculty positions across departments to better align with student demand, doing so gradually over the next three years without laying off faculty.

While some degree programs will be affected by these shifts, students who have already declared a degree will still have the opportunity to complete it.

Scroll leadership Mattie Johnson and Madison Wright met with President Alvin F. Meredith III and incoming Academic Vice President Greg Roach to discuss the university’s plans in detail. They also addressed the current state of campus parking, the effect of AI in the classroom, and ongoing efforts to increase student retention.

The following conversation has been edited for clarity.

Johnson: This is our third meeting regarding the academic restructuring. What phase is the school in now, and what's changed over the last semester?

President Meredith: I think we're in a good spot. We've gone through a review of the programs. I asked Jon Linford and Greg Roach and team last May to look at two things. One, to look at all of our programs, to make sure that we're offering programs that students want to study, and two, to look at faculty in each of the departments to make sure we've got the right amount of faculty in the departments. 

We started off looking at the programs, and when we looked around at what was happening in our peer schools in Idaho and our peer schools in Utah, they canceled a lot of programs. To be honest, we thought that might have been an outcome here, but as we looked at things, we felt like our programs were really strong and offered students some wonderful opportunities. So we didn't make many changes in the programs. There were a couple of tweaks with departments and colleges, but it was really not particularly significant. 

Roach: And the changes we did make were to put those programs in proximity, to grow and to be strengthened.

President Meredith: The second thing, where the significant change is going to happen, is to make sure that we have the right number of faculty in the right departments. We had some departments that were growing a lot and some departments that were shrinking, and so we needed to move the faculty to make sure that they were matched with where the students were going.

We're at the beginning of that process. We're going to give ourselves three years. Which I think is the right thing to do. We have faculty who have given blood, sweat and tears to this university and to the students, and we want to be fair to them. So we think giving ourselves three years to have those allocations kind of settle out is going to be the wise thing to do. Most of those changes are going to happen naturally, like through retirement. So if you have a few departments where the number of students being taught is shrinking, if a faculty member retires from that department, we won't replace that headcount in that shrinking department, and then we'll move that faculty allocation to a department that's growing. 

What's changed as we continue to grow as a university is really exciting. You're probably aware that for two years in a row we've had our largest incoming classes ever, and that growth is making these changes more urgent in some places, because we have some departments that have grown significantly in recent years, without adding any faculty headcount. And ironically, we've had some departments that, while the university is growing, the number of students they're serving is remaining stagnant and even sometimes declining. So, we need to make those adjustments so we match the faculty with the students. 

Roach: And the nice thing is, with that three-year runway, we don't have to lay anybody off, yeah, which is so nice compared to what we're seeing in Utah, and what we're seeing even down the street in Idaho at Idaho State, right? We're going to be able to make these changes without having to do any layoffs, which is really, really nice.

President Meredith: We thought long and hard about that, and, to be honest, there have been some who have said, “Hey, we need to have more courage and be more aggressive.” But Elder Gilbert, the Commissioner, who is now a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, really encouraged us to see if we could do this without laying off any faculty. We looked at it, and we feel like we can still do what's best for the student, which is priority number one, and still make these changes without laying off faculty. 

The faculty have been very gracious and grateful for that approach. I think at the beginning of this process, there was a lot of uncertainty and anxiety. And that uncertainty and anxiety came about because we were very transparent up front that we were going to look at this. And when you're transparent at the beginning of a process, it induces some anxiety. But after a short period of time, we were able to announce no layoffs, and I think allowed people to get back to focusing on the student and the quality of the education that we offer. I feel like we're in a good spot. I'm really optimistic about where we're headed.

Johnson: Greg Roach will be our next academic vice president. How does that transition affect the restructuring?

Roach: It doesn't affect it at all. It's the same process that Jon [Linford, academic vice president retiring in April] set up with President. It will just continue on forward. So it was nice that I was involved in it from the start. So it'll just be a seamless transition to continue doing what we were already doing. So nothing's really going to change. 

President Meredith: I do think that a change in leadership does provide an opportunity to listen a little bit more. You haven't even started in your new role, but you've already started listening. Why don't you share what you've done? 

Roach: I don't start officially until April, but I've started a “listening tour.” I'm going to every single academic department on campus, sitting down with them and asking them questions. “What are the things that you're doing that your department is proud of?” “What is the hallmark of the work that you do?” “What are some challenges that you're facing?” and “How are you preparing to adapt to the changes that are coming in the future, with AI and other things?” And just listening to what they want to tell me, it's been wonderful. I'm learning all kinds of stuff about all of the departments. 

Wright: Since our last interview, we’ve had a new prophet and Elder Gilbert as an apostle. Has the change to the Board of Commissioners been significant? Has there been a shift in priorities?

President Meredith: There hasn't been a shift of priorities, but there has been an emphasis from the newly comprised board on academic excellence. If we think about what we've wrestled with over the last couple of years, the first thing that we were really wrestling with was declining enrollment. We've really been blessed, and have felt the Lord's hand in our efforts, and have seen some wonderful increases there. 

The second thing we wrestled with, which we just talked about, was more in the category of cost. Fortunately, we didn't cut any faculty, but we're making sure that our faculty are matched with our student needs, which is making sure that our costs or our investments in the student are placed appropriately. 

And so the third leg, after growth and cost, is quality. I think we are all excited to get back to a focus on quality. I know Greg is. And if you think about who is in the First Presidency now, we have two men who were former university presidents in the Church Educaitonal System, two men who were professors at very prestigious universities in the United States. The third is President Christofferson, who was the senior apostle on the Church Board of Education before he was in the First Presidency. And the messaging that we're getting, particularly from the First Presidency, is to really focus on academic excellence while we focus on spiritual enrichment here. And I think that's a welcome direction. I think Greg's excited about that. I think our faculty are excited about that, and I think we're all excited about that.

Johnson: In the State of the University address, you mentioned taking increasing enrollment off of the priorities and prioritizing increasing graduation rates. Why this shift? 

President Meredith: We're going to continue to focus on growth, but there are only so many things that can be a focus. So my approach to goals has been to identify three or four goals that are essential to where the institution is at the time. And when you achieve a goal, and you're confident that you've got systems and processes in place to sustain the gains, then you can take that goal and roll that into normal operating procedures. 

We've had so much growth, and feel so confident in the teams that are driving that growth that we're going to take that off of the plate of institutional goals with differentiated attention, and just kind of roll that back into normal operations in the university, which frees up space to add another goal, and we've chosen that goal to be increasing graduation rate, which really is in line with what we were just talking about, about quality and and the commissioner of the Church Education has challenged all the schools to increase graduation rate by five percentage points. 

We've just spun up teams on that. I think that's going to be an effort that is going to be welcomed by all, and yield some really great things. 

Roach: You know, we're working on employment at graduation and graduation rate and freshman retention, all of those things kind of fit together. So we've gone a long way on employment at graduation. I'm glad we got started really early, because now that we've run into this time, our students are going to be facing getting entry-level jobs. If you're reading everything, they've gotten a little bit harder. We're grateful that we got started a year ago and made a whole bunch of progress, so that when this uncertain economic situation hits, students are much better positioned because of the stuff that we're doing to get jobs.

Johnson: Are there any indicators on why the graduation rates are where they are now? *The current graduation rate is 57%

President Meredith: We were, you know, we're pulling the data on why people aren't graduating, and it's a whole host of things: mental health challenges, financial challenges, readiness for college, things that are not a surprise to a lot of people. Having this goal is going to motivate us to put resources on those specific things to help students be successful. If I were to take a step back, for the last couple of years, we've been really focused on getting more students, and now we're shifting our focus to make sure that the students that we have that they're successful, that they get through that first year, that they graduate, and that they get good jobs.

Wright: Shifting gears to AI-- do we see a heavy implementation of AI across campus? Is AI changing things with student interest or demand for certain majors or operational efficiencies?

President Meredith:  Yeah, I think the whole world, and certainly the world of higher education, is wrestling with how AI is going to impact things in the future. We have chosen to have three very specific areas of focus for AI on campus. 

The first is, how can we use AI to enhance teaching and student learning? The second is, how can we prepare students to use AI in the workforce when they graduate? And the third is, how can we use AI to help with student advising and support? 

In the early days of AI, we really encouraged an entrepreneurship kind of ground-level experimentation with AI, which is good when you have new technologies. The worst thing that you can do is to overregulate at an institutional level. You want to encourage exploration. We're going to continue to do that, but we've shifted some resources and some responsibilities. We're going to start having some teams that are going to collect best practices that are happening across campus to make sure that we've got processes in place to share those. I still say we're in the early days, but I know we've got some great faculty members who are really embracing this in the classroom and using it in their teaching, as well as making sure that we embed into the curriculum teaching that's going to help them use AI in the workforce. 

Roach: There are two pieces. There's literacy: you least know what it is, and you're familiar with it, and you can be maybe a little dangerous, but not very proficient. And then there's fluency, which is a step above saying we've got it, where you can really be proficient in it, and start to use it as a companion to the work that you do, to help in all kinds of ways. And we're operating at both of those levels and doing experimentation on the side. 

But the technology is so exciting, and it's changing so rapidly, right? I mean, you have to assume that the AI that you're playing with today is the worst it's ever, ever going to be, and it's only going to get better and better and better as we get into it. It's an exciting, exciting space that we haven't totally figured out yet. It's like we just discovered fire, and we're finding all these cool uses for it, and we're burning down a few huts, and we're burning our food, right? We're burning our hands, but we're learning. We're learning how to harness it better, and where it's really useful and what we can really do with it. It's exciting.

President Meredith:  I do want to give kudos to our faculty for how they've embraced this. I don't know if you saw, but James Helfrich just made an Instagram post on our account. I am so grateful that we work with a team of faculty who are so cutting-edge, and so I'm very optimistic about our future with AI.

Johnson: In the State of the Union address, you also mentioned that employee approval ratings have dropped noticeably, likely due to the restructuring. Are you concerned with faculty leaving to teach at other institutions?

President Meredith: I would be concerned if that was happening. Our [faculty] retention rate is very, very high, and the Faculty Association board just did a survey of faculty, and one of the findings was that our faculty are very grateful that we're doing things differently here than they are at other universities. And so I think the world of higher education is a little bit in flux, but I think there's a genuine, general consensus that if you're going to be in higher education, that the Church Educational System is a great place to be.

Wright: Are there any faculty members who have been told their position will be moved to a new department, or college or, as you said, phased out in the next three years? 

President Meredith: Yeah, the next three years are really when we're going to focus on natural attrition, like retirements and when people leave for natural reasons. If, at the end of three years, we still have a mismatch, then we'll have to look at whether we shift people from one department to another. But we've got some time.

Johnson: The restructuring has probably involved some difficult conversations and decisions. What has this experience taught you?

President Meredith: Over-communicate. Over-communicate. Over-communicate. And choose your words wisely. 

Roach: That's well said.

President Meredith: We are trying our best to be transparent and overly collaborative. And a great example is the “listening tours” that Greg described, and we need to continue to do that. We have found that the more we talk and listen, the better people feel. So it's not something that you can just do once and be done with it. I think we're building some good collaboration muscle that's going to pay dividends for a long time, and the benefit of that is going to be the student. 

As hard as the discussions have been, one of the things that's encouraging is we all want the same thing, which is to fulfill our mission and to do what's best for the student. When you have a group of people— and our faculty epitomize this— that have bought into the mission to develop Disciples of Christ, and are student centered and most concerned about what's best for the student. Then, you can have those tough discussions, and you can get to a great place.

Wright: How do you hope to see BYUI grow from all of this? 

President Meredith: My hope is that we continue to see growth in the university, that we continue to fulfill our unique mission and unique role within the Church Educational System, and that we become more nimble in response to the changes that are happening in the world of higher education. There's an oft quoted adage that if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Our hope is that we will become more united than we have been before, so we can go further than we've gone before. And frankly, I think if you really get unity, you can be faster than you were before.

Roach: And we've communicated to the departments that, if they're one of those departments that have shrunk in enrollment, we’ll come to them and ask them if we can take this retirement position and put it somewhere else. We're helping them see that you're not sacrificing for us, you're sacrificing for your colleagues, and you're giving something up to help your colleagues better serve students. 

Depending on how demographics and things change, the time might come that someone else needs to give something up to give it back to you, and I think that spirit of collaboration is going to help us move forward in an even more accelerated way than we have. Now that we're in a position where we're able to balance things out across the university, we're ready to focus on what we do best, which is learning and teaching and loving students and serving students and preparing them for amazing, awesome futures. That's what we want to get back to, because that's what we do as faculty, right? That's why we all came here, right? 

We have faculty who left all kinds of amazing industry positions and huge careers to come here and teach, and they want to teach. We want to get them back to the reason that they came, and not worry about some of these other things that have gotten a little out of balance because of student choice, honestly, and get us all back to doing what we do very best around this place.

Johnson: You’ve mentioned a concern about parking. Do we have any more information on that?

President Meredith: There are two sides to that. Two sides of the grove. There's a great side, it's exciting, and then there's parking. We are very concerned about that. We know that that's an issue not just for students, but for employees as well. We're going to get a little bit of a reprieve, because enrollment is actually going to decline a little bit because of the age change for young women going on missions. And so we're going to get a little bit of reprieve, but then in 18 months, we're going to get flooded again. And so we are very confident that in 18 months, we're going to have a solution. We're already trying to pull forward some funding that we had allocated for future parking. We're trying to pull that forward, and it's less urgent now because of so many young women who are going on missions.

Wright: Is there anything else you wish that we had asked in this interview?

President Meredith: No students are going to be affected by the programs changing. And by the way, that's a BYU-Idaho policy. That's also a Department of Education Policy. Like, if you change a program, you've got to give students seven years. So students should not be concerned at all, except for parking. 

My optimism is limitless. You know, President Nelson used this phrase, “the majesty of the moment.” We are feeling that here on campus. You see it in enrollment growth. You see it in devotional attendance, which is up three times what it was a handful of years ago, which is a great reflection of where our students are. It's also a great reflection of what our faculty are encouraging our students to do. I think that we are entering into an incredible era that, decades down the road, we're going to look back and go, “boy, those, those were good years.” 

Roach: You feel the energy across campus, right? That's changed. There's an energy here. There's cool stuff, good stuff happening, and exciting things for students. It's not just good academic stuff, but it's good, wholesome, discipleship, development stuff, and it's just going to get better. It's almost like, I don't want to say a golden age, because I would say there were worse ages, right? But it's going to be an exciting age and an exciting time to be a BYU-Idaho. Cool stuff is going to happen and continue to happen, and is happening.

President Meredith: We're feeling incredible momentum, and are grateful for students, employees and faculty who are enabling that to happen.
Roach: The Lord's sending amazing people here. We're in interview season right now, right where we're hiring the new faculty, they'll start in the fall semester. And just amazing, amazing people are being drawn to this place.