BYU role at center in Salt Lake pondered

PROVO — LDS Church officials are working with Brigham Young University to establish criteria for new or expanded BYU programs at the school's Salt Lake Center.

In his annual address to faculty on Tuesday, BYU President Cecil Samuelson called the move of the university's Salt Lake extension a "significant" change and "a unique opportunity for BYU quite unlike any that we have had before."

The project's dual aims are to help BYU and to revitalize downtown Salt Lake City, where the church has a major interest.

Few details are known, Samuelson said, but tentative plans call for the BYU center and LDS Business College to be relocated to the Triad Center buildings purchased by the church in June. The buildings are located between North and South Temple streets and 300 and 400 West.

"Tentative plans currently call for our initial occupancy of some of this space for these (new and expanded) programs," Samuelson said.

Samuelson called the project "unique."

"This project is being carried out at the direction of the First Presidency as part of their strategy to enrich, enliven and preserve central downtown Salt Lake City," Samuelson said. "They approached us rather than our taking a proposal to the Board of Trustees, which is the usual procedure when BYU embarks on a new or expanded enterprise."

BYU's board is made up of leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns the university.

Samuelson said each program considered for space in the Salt Lake center will be measured by yardsticks such as whether there is a demand for it from BYU students and an unmet demand in the job market.

Other criteria include whether the program could include large numbers of students without extensive space or large or expensive equipment. Finally, officials will question if there are sound academic reasons — or even advantages — to housing the program in Salt Lake City.

The center's move is not intended to create a BYU-Salt Lake City or to compete with Salt Lake-area colleges and universities.

"This does not signal the creation of a new or separate institution," Samuelson said. "What we do will be part of BYU here in Provo and will be coordinated with and through our current academic structure."

BYU and LDS Business College will remain separate entities despite the common housing.