AmEmbassy - Bucharest APO AE 09213-1315 June 28, 1994 Rex Lee, President Brigham Young University Provo, Utah Dear President Lee: My wife and all four of my children are BYU alums. I myself am a U of U and Harvard graduate, who's spent all my adult life abroad as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer. Many years ago after serving in a Scandinavian country, I recommended in an interview with (then) Apostle Spencer W. Kimball, that the Church might make inroads abroad in countries where people sometimes found it socially difficult to associate with the Mormon Church, by taking advantage of the fact that a high percentage of non-LDS BYU students are baptized before graduation, with the BYU as a PR tactic offering three or four scholarships a year to top non-member scholars in Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Italy. Many of these scholarship recipients would, in the course of events, join the Church, return to their countries, and as successful professionals or senior government officials, enhance the reputation of the Church. I have no way of knowing whether Elder Kimball passed on this suggestion to (then) BYU President Wilkinson or not, but I do know that some such scholarships have been offered and that there has been an increasing number of non-member foreigners attending BYU in recent years. Later, talking with my long-time friend Martin Hickman, who until his death was Dean of Arts, Letters, and Sciences at the Y, I remember discussing whether the Y should try to start a European campus to enhance the educational opportunities for student-age members outside the U.S. who at that time did not as often as our American youth members seek a university education. As one alternative, I remember suggesting that we might seek special relationships with noted European universities, e.g. Cambridge, Oxford, Heidelberg, the Sorbonne etc. It was decided that there were sufficient educational opportunities in existing European universities and that the Y was unlikely to get very far seeking joint-venture opportunities with any of the great universities of Europe anyway. The approach should be to preach higher education to our young European members. As time has gone on, LDS youth in Europe and elsewhere in the world indeed appear more and more to be following Church tradition in seeking higher and professional education without the Church having had to step in. And it may well have been right that an approach by the BYU at that time would have been disdained by any of the great European universities. Later still, it came to my attention (I seem to remember that Elder Scott mentioned this in a leadership meeting in Central America when I was in a Stake Presidency there), that the Y is one of the biggest line items in the Church's budget, while primarily benefitting upper middle class Americans (Americans now constituting less than a sixty per cent of Church membership -- and upper middle class Americans, whose kids' education the BYU subsidizes, constituting less than a quarter of Church membership). A bunch of us mooted whether the Y should not be privatized, as happened with such other distinguished church-related schools as Harvard and Yale. A self-perpetuating Board consisting of solid LDS leaders could assure continuation of Church standards, but without the heavy burden to tithe monies, which could then be devoted to temples, chapel building, and missionary work. I understand that in fact the Brethren have considered this issue. Well, not to make this letter too long, the Y continues as the Church's university. And "a year abroad" (in Hawaii, Israel, Paris, or London) has been adopted as the alternative to the European (or other) campus idea. Most of my nieces and nephews have spent a semester or two in Hawaii or Israel and have raved about their experience. But I think the wheel may have turned and the time come seriously to reconsider the possibility of a BYU joint-venture educational undertaking with established universities abroad. I enclose an article from the most recent Economist magazine saying that Oxford is presently accepting "associated students" for payment of a modest fee equivalent to US$4,500. And that it has recently entered into a junior year abroad arrangement with Butler University. Seems to me that the Y could readily board this band wagon, negotiating use of Oxford classrooms and teachers (and the prestige of being an "Associated Oxford University Student"), at virtually the same cost as trying to operate your present London facility. If auditing Oxford classes can't be included in our agreement, we may have to rely entirely on visiting BYU professors -- as in the present semester abroad scheme. Possibly it could even be agreed to grant an Oxford "associated scholar diploma" of some kind (or, barring this, to get agreement to mention the Oxford experience on a graduate's BYU diploma -- giving greater prestige to both universities?) And think what this would do for the BYU student's CV. I hope you'll think about this. I'd have been writing Marty Hickman about it if he were still around. I know he had the kind of quick, insightful mind which would certainly have given the notion careful consideration. Related thought: BYU now offers scholarships named after the current President of the Church. Couple of my kids, while not eventually becoming Kimball scholars, were finalists, winning four year scholarships to the Y. Like the Rhodes Scholars at Oxford, perhaps we could negotiate for the ten (or twenty, or whatever) BYU students who'd spend their junior year at Oxford (or Cambridge, or wherever) to be known as Brigham Young (or Howard W. Hunter?) Scholars, infiltrating the Church's influence into these renowned university halls (at least at Provost level). The Brits are still surprisingly offish about the LDS Church. The Economist for years ran snide, often misinformed articles about Utah and the Church. And for years, I've been sending them materials trying to improve their information base -- as, for example, that President Bush's top National Security and Domestic Affairs advisors were both LDS, so we couldn't all be the ignorant fundamentalist-Republican frontiersmen Economist writers seemed to consider us. Finally, the message seems to have gotten through. Couple of months ago there was a neat article quoting me virtually verbatim that the Provo-SL-Ogden corridor is the new Intermountain Silicon Valley. There was a straightforward, informative article about President Benson's death last week. And another this week on President Hunters accession to the Presidency. In another recent article they repeated some other statistics I'd sent them, citing a leading American sociologist of religion's assertion that within a lifetime, the LDS Church will number among the great religions of the world together with Buddhism, Taoism, and Islam. So contact and persistence pay off. And I think that Oxford's current financial difficulties provide an exceptional opportunity to lay up some long term public relations hay in one of the most influential centers of British (and world) thought and society. We all know that a single influential contact can have reverberating results. I'm in the Romanian Mission Presidency. Looking for a top lawyer in Romania to represent the Church in seeking legal standing here, our case was accepted when the senior partner in the firm I'd been referred to as perhaps the best in the country, told me that while living in the U.S. prior to the 1989 Revolution, he'd had an LDS secretary whom he'd come to admire enormously, and with whom he'd had half a dozen deep discussions about LDS history and teachings. Said that without this contact and background regarding the LDS Church he'd never have even considered representing anyone in a religious case because of religion's sensitivity here in Romania. Was it luck or inspired guidance which sent me to this individual ? And while in Moscow a few months ago, the Branch President told the story of how when the Church first applied for permission to hold meetings in a village just across the border from Finland, every one of the Town Fathers announced himself as opposed, but put off the final decision till the next Council Meeting. One Councilman casually mentioned the matter to an influential businessman of his acquaintance. Businessman had lived in the U.S. for several years as representative of a Soviet firm. Said he'd had a member of the LDS church as a next door neighbor and had never met a finer man. Said, "If I were voting for any other religion to be permitted in the new Russia, it would be the Mormon Church." Councilman told this story at the next Council Meeting, and permission for the Church to begin operations was unanimous -- a hundred and eighty degree turnaround from the previous meeting. What a positive influence one individual can have, And think of all the future leaders of Britain and the Commonwealth (and the world) some of our best LDS kids will be rubbing shoulders with -- and the potential future influence sending LDS students to a great university like Oxford for a couple or three decades might have. Putting your students on an already existing prestigeful campus like Oxford or Cambridge would infinitely multiply the impact of your BYU semester abroad -- both on your students and those they associate with. Sincerely, D. B. Timmins AmEmbassy - Bucharest APO AE 09213-1315 August 15, 1994 Professor Louis Midgley Department of Political Science Brigham Young University Provo, UT Dear Lou: You'll remember that I approached you a couple of years ago to see whether you'd by any chance saved in your files a copy of our University of Utah student journal PSA in which a paper of mine called Charles Kingsley and Christian Socialism, was published back in 1954. You said "no". The U of U Librarian was good enough to search the Homer Durham files to see if by chance a copy might be found among his things. No luck. Just occurred to me that Ladd Thomas, who as I recall edited the journal, might have saved his copy. Do you or any of your BYU colleagues know where Ladd is these days so I could write him? Or Earl Roeche (or any other of the better students of the day who might have had a paper published and saved his copy?) Your help would be greatly appreciated. This is the only significant paper I've been unable to locate a copy of as I turn to the task of putting together my collected papers. As ever, David Timmins AmEmbassy - Bucharest APO AE 09213-1315 June 28, 1994 Rex Lee, President Brigham Young University Provo, Utah Dear President Lee: Thank you for your recent letter telling me you had passed on to your Vice President in charge of Admissions my suggestion of June 28 regarding scholarships for superior overseas non-member students as a possible means of gaining some outstanding converts -- and at least moderating attitudes abroad towards the Church. I am writing back because you said nothing in your response about what I consider the even more important suggestion: to take advantage of the new Oxford University program of granting Oxford associate student certificates to foreign students (see Economist article enclosed with previous letter mentioning that such arrangements have already been made with Butler University). I continue to think this would be an enormously important adjunct to the BYU Semester Abroad program in England. If we are to try to work out an arrangement for use of Oxford campus and library facilities, and for getting permission to mention the Oxford experience in BYU degrees, I believe we should, to make our proposal more attractive, make our approach while Oxford remains in financial difficulties. I suspect only you as President of the University can institute such action. Indeed, I think engaging your own prestige in the initial approach might be crucial, and I feared that you may have overlooked this aspect of my altogether too-long June 28 letter. Sincerely, D. B. Timmins