Every day it seems there is a thread about how much the new Sacred Mall is costing the Church, but I wonder how much BYU (all of them I guess) costs the church to operate?

It seems most universities are claiming poverty these days. How about BYU? I think we'd really know the church was in trouble if they either raised tuition drastically, or even better tried to spin BYU off to some semi-affiliated organization. Like the Marriott Corporation?

Many great universities, including Harvard, were or still are religious institutions. It is an accepted role for religions to fund universities. Many of them fund high schools and grade schools. Many people think it's odd that Mormons DON'T run their own schools like Catholics or Quakers. BYU is joining the WCC which consists of Catholic-based universities plus Pepperdine, a Churches of Christ institution.

The earliest modern universities were theological schools, like the University of Paris. Without religious funding most universities would have developed much, much later.

I always found it odd to hear members complain about BYU. LDS, Inc. provides so few pastoral benefits for its members, especially in light of its 10% flat tax with no deductions, that subsidized tuition at a major university should be seen as the only real material service the church provides.

The church has no business building malls or condos. It's not supposed to be a real estate development company. I think most people would find it odd for a major religion NOT to have university to its name.

That's correct. Subsidized tuition is really the only return that members get from paying all that tithing. My daughter has said in the past that she wants to attend BYU Idaho. That's still several years away, and things could change, but the way I see it, if she follows through on that goal, I'll be getting some of my tithing back in the form of paying cheap tuition.

We can quibble over whether Mormonism is a major religion, but yes, I guess they are in the US at least. Anyway, are all the other "religious" universities actually run by the churches themselves or are they just affiliated with them? I always thought, for example, that Notre Dame isn't directly controlled/subsidized by the catholic church. Anyone know?

Here's a summary of historical tuition cost at BYU. http://yfacts.byu.edu/viewarticle.aspx?id=85

The interesting part is that tuition has doubled for non-LDS in the past ten years, but only increased by 50% for LDS. The disclaimer at the bottom is interesting.

It could be 20% of tithing income.

A while back, I calculated that LDS, Inc. could run BYU solely from the profits of a few church-owned businesses. No tithing required.

As for BYU sports, the ticket prices are the least of it. You also have TV and radio rights, licensing for apparel and gizmos, etc. I'm betting that BYU basketball, football, etc. more than earn their keep.

But why would they use money from for-profit businesses? They can use that to expand the business arm.

Surely they'd use non profit money from members.

LOL, I take your point. I'm not saying that they DO use the profits from church owned businesses, just that they easily *could*.

I ran across University of Utah's 2009 expense report online. UofU is in the same region of the United States, has a similar sized student population(just over 30,000 in each school) as the Y. Minus the hospital and the U's research programs, the UofU costs about $1.2 Billion dollars a year to operate, according to this report. Assume that it costs the same to operate both the Y and the U. Take 32,000 students x $4400 per year for two semesters at BYU, that equals almost $141 million of income derived from student tuition. You have the bookstore, and sports ticket sales to add to that, both of which probably amount to a pittance. $1.2 Billion minus $`141 million amounts to just over $1 Billion in subsidies flowing from Churchco to BYU Provo. Add BYU Idaho and BYU Hawaii to that, both of which are really small compared to Provo, and maybe you have another half-billion in total flowing to those two schools.

I guess the church has done a cost-benefit analysis and decided that 1.5 billion a year is worth it to them because they indoctrinate/enslave, what, 20,000 future revenue streams (students) a year for their entire lives?

Exactly. In fact, I had a institute teacher who explained in class that the church had done studies. They determined that if young adults are able to make it through their college years with their "testimonies"(iow, their childhood belief systems) intact, those beliefs tend to stick with them for the rest of their lives. He said, for that reason, the church invests in CES and BYU. So, Dave, he pretty much admitted exactly what you just surmised. The return on investment is astounding when you really think about it.

Deosn't YBU have some lucerative sports broadcast contracts?

Most colleges... with any athletic program do, and there are LOTS of Y grads around the country.

BYUH has less of a need for subsidy, because the PCC makes a lot of money, which is used for the school and the student employments.

Besides indoctrination, BYU also plays another MAJOR role: a huge breeding ground for young cult members.

If Mormon boys and girls were to attend "normal" colleges, the chances of inter-marriage would increase DRAMATICALLY. And exogamy would have disastrous effects on the cult.

For example, without a Molly Mormon wife, how many guys would actually "honor and magnify their priesthood"?

Instead of normal college experimenting, freely dating, and having sex for fun, BYU boys get married in the temple at 21 (and girls at 18), and start to pop babies 9 months after their honeymoon. So they are tied to the cult forever. The whole cycle starts over, and the future of LDS Inc is guaranteed.

Seriously. If they thought their darn religion was strong enough, they'd command each of the revenue streams to go out and hook up with a non-member. There would be twice as much income!

I worked in a department at BYU in the late 90's/early 2000's as a student employee. The manager of our department came back from one of his staff meetings and told us how much it costs (at the time) to run byu provo. He said that it cost about 500 million a year to run the university and student tuition collected at the time was about 72 million. Cant remember why he told us that or if the numbers are accurate, but that is what we were told. Like little robots, we believed everything he told us.

BYU, at 2200/semester, is a REALLY inexpensive place to go to school. I won't send my kids, and I hated the oppressive culture, but I did get 4 very good degrees at a low price, even with all the religious bullshit. BYU really sucks. I can't believe tuition rates aren't a bit higher, even with the future tithing dividends from graduates.

They use student slave-labor for their janitorial, food service, landscaping, physical plant, office staff--as well as "TA" teaching staff.

YBU hires TBM retirees (who are grateful to live and work in Zion) and relatives of GA's to teach--whatever! A retired attorney teaches philosophy, a retired concert pianist teaches voice, the college-dropout wife of a department head teaches design, an MBA teaches psychology. I know these people. They are independently wealthy, and don't need the money or benefits. A private university can get away with murder.

You get what you pay for. The U of Utah was far superior, academically. I went to both schools. The U classes were much more stimulating, because the teachers knew how to make us think.

Brigham Young University—Provo carries the lowest price tag among private colleges and universities that reported tuition and fees data to U.S. News. The Utah school, which is affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, charges Mormon undergraduates $5,300 in tuition and fees for 2016-2017. Non-Mormon students pay double that amount – shelling out $10,500 for this academic year, which is still relatively inexpensive compared with the sticker prices at most private schools.

LEAVE THE CHURCH ALONE!!!! you live your life the way you want to ... i attended BYU and it was the greatest blessing in my life! You idiots!

Are you serious?

First of all, the subject of the thread was how much does it cost to run BYU, not how much they subsidize tuition, though the two are related. Congrats on your tuition subsidy. All the rest of us who went to BYU got one too. I don't see where that is the point.

Secondly, this was a thread from six years ago, which makes your reply a little late to the party. And what are you having a fit about? How is our speculating about the cost of running BYU going to affect your subsidized tuition one way or the other?

Dear Delusional Amanda -

You're supporting a fraudulent cult that does immense damage to its member cultists, a cult that was started by a con man and sexual predator after he failed to sell the copyright to the BOM in Canada – and you call *us* idiots?

Look in the mirror, Delusional Amanda.

ROFL

like medicine, veterinary, dental. MBA and Law have relatively low infrastructure requirements.

There is not a big emphasis on research, which also tends to be expensive, but at most schools is primarily funded by outside grants anyway.

I'd put a ballpark figure at what it costs to educate an undergrad at a school like BYU at $20,000 per student. That's be about $600 million a year, which I think is a good ballpark figure.

BTW, sports income is NOT a pittance. I don't know what it would be for BYU, and it's not a large percentage of the cost of keeping the doors open at BYU, but it's not lunch money either.

BYU has been very good at funding new construction with donations. A lot of Mormons also leave substantial money to BYU, so I think the drain on the coffers in SLC may not be as high as you might think. Not that a half billion a year or so is chump change.

I'm sure they have run the numbers and think they are getting and acceptable ROI (return on investment) at BYU. I mean, the students don't have to clean the toilets for free. Yet.

BYU has some excellent programs though. I recieved a BA and MA there 25 years ago and was very well-prepared for my chosen career.

I'm glad though, that my kids won't be going--especially my daughter.