BYU explains why it redacted parts of President Jeffrey R. Holland’s 2021 talk in new UNIV 101 course

After the announcement that President Holland’s 2021 talk to BYU faculty would be included in the new UNIV 101 course, Matty Easton, former BYU valedictorian, posted about a discrepancy he noticed in the course material on X.

After the announcement that President Jeffrey R. Holland’s 2021 talk to BYU faculty would be included in the new UNIV 101 course curriculum, Matty Easton, former BYU valedictorian, posted a discrepancy he noticed in the course material on X.

A paragraph was removed from “The Second Half of the Second Century of BYU” for the university course, in addition to phrases from the body of the talk.

The removed paragraph referenced Easton’s valedictorian speech when he came out as gay in his 2019 convocation speech.

“If a student commandeers a graduation podium intended to represent everyone getting diplomas in order to announce his personal sexual orientation, what might another speaker feel free to announce the next year until eventually, anything goes,” President Holland said.

Though this was the largest portion of the speech taken out for the UNIV 101 course, there were other phrases taken out as well.

Another phrase removed from the original talk read, “so many who are confused about what so much recent flag-waving and parade-holding on this issue means.”

When asked why portions of President Holland’s talk were removed, Carri Jenkins, assistant to the president at BYU offered the following two reasons:

“The materials for the UNIV 101 — BYU Foundations for Student Success course involve several important and significant addresses that have been given at BYU about its mission and vision. As explained in ‘Envisioning BYU,’ several addresses were edited for length and to remove references to contemporary events,” Jenkins said.

The original talk can be found here. The “Envisioning BYU” redacted version can be found here.