Letter from the Trustees of the L.D.S. College & Stake Board of Education, 14 March 1892
Salt Lake City, .
President Wilford Woodruff
and Members of the General
Church Board of Education:
Dear Brethren:
In the same communication in which you asked us to release Dr. James E.
Talmage from being Principal of the College, you requested that we should express
our opinion as to the propriety of giving the Seminary at Mill Creek the status of an
Academy. In the matter of the release of Dr. Talmage we had no alternative, as your
letter indicated expressly your desire as to the action we should take. Upon the
other subject, however, you simply asked for an expression of our views.
In complying with this request, we take the opportunity to respectfully
direct your attention to the present position of the College and the circumstances
which have led up to its situation.
According to instructions from the Central Board of Education we were
elected and organized as a Board for this Stake, to have supervision of all Church
schools within it. We were also given to understand that what was then the Salt
Lake Stake Academy would in course of time assume the leading position in the system
of Church schools, and of course all steps that were taken were based on that antici-
pation.
You directed that we should secure the services of Dr. James E. Talmage
for Principal of the institution, and we did as you advised, and were thus enabled
to give the Academy greater prestige, by enlarging the scientific department. In
accordance with this development you instructed us to change the name and title of the
institution, and give it the status of a college. By your direction we also lowered
the tuition fees, thus increasing very materially our annual deficit by decreasing
our income.
At an early stage of our existence as a Board, we took initatory
