All who enter Brigham Young University's Salt Lake Center must know they are on hallowed ground - for learning.
That's the message of President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the first presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who dedicated the center Wednesday."Let those who teach here teach with thy spirit as a constant companion," President Monson, also first vice chairman of BYU's Board of Trustees, said in a dedicatory prayer. "May each truly enter to learn; may each go forward to serve."
About 240 faculty, students, administrators, visiting dignitaries and LDS Church general authorities attended the invitation-only dedication.
The BYU Salt Lake Center serves non-traditional and part-time students, with about 1,500 enrolled each semester. It is used for continuing education and as an educational beacon for the some 300,000 BYU students who have been unable to complete their degrees over the years, whether due to financial constraints or family duties, said BYU President Merrill J. Bateman.
That's the point most stressed by President Monson.
"I want to see those doors open to them . . . I want every student who enrolls here to someday say, `I made it,' " Monson said. "We cannot, we must not, let any student fail."
Online courses also can help spread BYU's educational message to thousands of students as far away as Japan.
"There's a power that's coming through technology . . . we can transfer an experience" rather than just written words, Bateman said. "There's a power . . . in terms of our ability to communicate to people about our values and what we're about."
The BYU continuing education extension has had many homes before coming into its own at 3760 S. Highland Drive. From its tiny space at the McCune Mansion from 1958-1973, the center moved into the old Veterans Hospital in the Avenues, then to 1521 E. 3900 South in 1986, then to the new center in 1995.
"Today, this is ours," said Stanley A. Peterson, administrator of religious education and schools for the LDS Church Education System.
The center was dedicated three years after it first opened its doors because the center was only recently fully completed with a new 200-seat auditorium, said spokeswoman Carri P. Jenkins.
The center offers 180 undergraduate classes each semester, mostly in the evenings. It has three certificate programs in dietary management, family history and urban elementary teacher education and offers a master's degree in public administration, which enrolls about 200 students per semester.
The center also has added a bachelor's degree in general studies with emphases offered in American studies, English and American literature, family life, family history, psychology, management, history and writing.
"The dedication of this building gives us an opportunity to reflect on the 40-year history of the center and to recommit ourselves to the center's mission to extend the services and spirit of BYU to those living in the Salt Lake area as we move into the future," Lee Glines, BYU Salt Lake Center director, said in a prepared statement.
The center occupies the second and third floors of the five-story building, or 40,000 of its 79,000 square feet. Businesses are on the fourth and fifth floors.