Although BYU-Idaho is drawing away some of Harvard's talent, Elder W. Rolfe Kerr, commissioner of the Church Education System, said the new hires are not an attempt to make BYU-Idaho the Harvard of the West. In fact, the Ivy League university had little to do with the hiring choices, he said.

Church leaders had been eyeing all three men for a while, Kerr said, and the timing just happened to work out now for each of them.

"It is truly incidental," Kerr said. "This is not about Harvard. This is about very capable people whose timing is right and whose qualifications for the church interest is right. It's no different than someone coming from any other profession or institution."

The Harvard connection, however, has received attention from East Coast academics who are now taking notice of the Western institution that was able to recruit away three top Harvard professors.

"It's a pretty clear signal that this is an outstanding university with a unique educational model," Kerr said. "To have Kim Clark with the abilities that he brings with it, linked with the vision that has been cast for that institution, it sends a marvelous message of what the church is hoping to do up there."

Although Clark's resume drew attention to BYU-Idaho, Clark is hopeful the university will soon be enough of an attraction by itself. The four-year institution is at its "inflection point in history," Clark said almost a year ago, when he was first called to be president.

That prediction is more crystal clear than ever for him.

"Every single thing that I've experienced since I've been here has just reinforced that sense I had," he said this week. "We can see it in the ferment on the campus around teaching and learning."

Clark has also pushed a set of new initiatives on campus including a change to the academic calendar to create three 14-week semesters instead of four, with spring and summer terms only eight weeks long.

That change is expected to bring an additional 3,500 students to the 18,500 already enrolled each year. The increase is the first step in a campaign to get more students coming to the university.

Clark is also leading BYU-Idaho's effort to be a student-centered institution. That focus, Clark said, will set the Idaho university apart from higher education and will be a model for other institutions.

The school ended its collegiate athletics program, opting to concentrate on classroom education. Clark is also pushing more online education, as well as a re-examination of all the general education courses required at BYU-Idaho.

"We could pioneer and innovate and work on some very critical things that we feel will have implications for education," he said. "We've got to be very creative, very innovative in how we teach and learn."

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