History of Brigham Young University - George H. Brimhall

George H. Brimhall

In 1903, Brigham Young Academy was dissolved, and was replaced by two institutions: Brigham Young High School, and Brigham Young University. (The BY High School class of 1907 was ultimately responsible for the famous giant "Y" that is to this day embedded on a mountain near campus.) The Board elected George H. Brimhall as the new President of BYU by a narrow margin, as his health during Cluff's tenure had been failing. Brimhall did not have the education of previous leaders of the school. He had not received a high school education until he was forty. Nevertheless, he was an excellent orator and organizer.

In 1904, the new Brigham Young University bought 17 acres (69,000 m2) of land from Provo. This land was called "Temple Hill", and many people had presumed that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would build a temple on this property. Because of this expectation, some people were opposed to BYU buying the land. But thanks to the leadership of a BYU student named Byron Owen Colton, the opposition to the land purchase was assuaged and the deal was consummated. It was on this Temple Hill land, north of the BY Academy Building, that present-day BYU was begun. In 1909, construction began on the first building on the current campus, the Karl G. Maeser Memorial.

By 1910, Brimhall had hired several new faculty with high credentials, many of them Ph.Ds in their fields. This was an unprecedented step for the school, as Cluff had previously been the most educated member of the staff, with a Masters degree earned while he was in office. Brimhall, like many of the Presidents before him, believed in delegation, and distributed many of his duties among the new faculty. Eventually, problems began to arise. Several of the faculty believed that the school should teach organic evolution, while others disagreed. The ensuing contention ended with a decision not to teach evolution issued by President of the Church Joseph F. Smith, two faculty members being fired, and several others resigning out of sympathy for those discharged. History seems to show that the two faculty members were fired for an inability to compromise with the rest of the group, rather than their pro-evolution agenda, although this has been disputed. Many wondered whether the school would survive this crisis. A few have described the school at this time as nothing more than a "religious seminary". However, many of its graduates at this time would go on to great success and renown in their fields.