The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle
The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle
The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

Great Debate: Lowering LDS mission age: good or bad?

September 18, 2013

The Great Debate

Lowering LDS mission age: good or bad?

LDS missions better prepare future students

Universities suffer financial loss

When it was announced last October by the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during General Conference that the minimum age for Mormon missionaries was being lowered to 18 for men and 19 for women, a collective gasp went through the audience. It would have been understandable if the biggest gasp had come from the office of admissions at the U, but for different reasons.
The change of age requirement for missionaries immediately had an effect on Utah colleges and universities. Widespread concern over major drops in enrollment and tuition revenue became a serious issue that schools such as the U would have to deal with. The U followed the lead of other Utah universities by instituting a new deferred enrollment policy which allows students to defer their enrollment for up to seven semesters.
The changes by the LDS church for missionaries combined with the reactive change in enrollment policies by schools like the U have led to additional scrutiny and criticism over the role missions play in universities as well as the lives of Mormon students. Some have argued that the policies of deferment by the U and other universities is a sign of pandering to the state’s largest religion. They have suggested that the age change is a way for the LDS church to get their youth on missions before they are tainted by the college experience.
The truth is, those critics are a 100 percent correct on both counts. The real question is why anyone would have a problem with these changes in the first place. The first priority for universities, besides tuition money, should be the individual educational experience for each student. The U’s deferment policy meets both of those issues by ensuring that LDS students who return from their missions will resume their studies at the U instead of another, more accommodating school. It also allows those students the opportunity to prepare themselves for college by having the experiences an LDS mission can offer.
Having to wait a year between high school and going on a mission imposed many drawbacks on LDS students. They would either have to go to school and have their studies interrupted for two years, get a job or spin their wheels doing nothing. Being able to immediately leave for a mission after high school is a far more effective policy and helps prevent LDS youth from having to deal with the difficult social choices that come with going to college straight out of high school.
Some would argue that this is a tactic by the LDS Church to prevent their youth from going directly to college because they are worried they will diverge from the LDS Church. The LDS Church should be worried: college provides students with a great deal of freedom and new ways of thinking that can greatly influence for good or for bad. Serving a mission can help LDS students become better equipped to deal with the diverse social and educational experiences college has to offer.
Going on an LDS mission before attending college also provides many benefits for LDS students that other non-LDS students don’t necessarily have. Serving a mission teaches missionaries how to prioritize their time for study and the importance of working with others to accomplish goals despite personal differences. Missions also supply opportunities for leadership and learning communication skills. While the average college student may spend their first two years out of high school stumbling awkwardly through the perils of the college social scene, missionaries are learning and practicing important skills that will better prepare them for school and life in general.
In 2011, Businessweek published an in-depth article on how LDS missions produce leaders and the inordinate amount of LDS holding top positions in major corporations and in politics. The article concludes that serving a mission seems to give an edge to LDS students over the average student. Mitt Romney was quoted as describing his mission as humbling and said it was only the time in his life “when most of what I was trying to do was rejected,” which likely helped prepare him to deal with the 65,455,010 rejections he received in the aftermath of the 2012 election.
Dave Checketts, who was formerly CEO of Madison Square Garden and president of the Utah Jazz said, “What happens on a mission is that you grow up pretty fast. You’re dealing with adult problems and adult issues … and you kind of get a sense for how you’d like to live your life; you get serious about life, about school, about work.”
These are all attributes and skills that every student should have before they attend college for the first time. It stands to reason that universities would be willing to make enrollment exceptions for students with these type of skills. To those critics who think this is just an attempt by the LDS Church to mold the minds of their youth for another two years, have no fear — there will be plenty of opportunity during four years of college for all that hard work to be undone.

Contact Aaron Clark at [email protected]

Major changes within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are presenting consequences for Utah’s universities’ enrollment. Oct. 6, 2012, LDS church leaders announced they were dropping the age for youth mission service. LDS men can now serve missions at 18 years of age — a change from 19 years of age. The age that LDS female missionaries can serve changed from 21 to 19 years of age.
It is difficult to ascertain why these changes came about, but many theorize that it was necessary to boost the number of missions being served — which it has.Men sent to the mission field immediately after graduating high school has placed a burden on enrollment revenue for Utah universities, since LDS students are the majority in most public schools.
KUTV News reported that this Fall Semester, the U lost an estimated 4 percent in admissions, likely because of the new mission age. UVU lost 7-8 percent, SUU 4-6 percent and Weber State 5-6 percent. Millions of dollars in revenue have been lost. It will surely be a travesty if non-LDS or non-mission serving students are forced to make up the deficit with fees or tuition hikes.
Furthermore, U president David Pershing instituted a discriminatory deferral policy to favor the LDS church. Prior to the mission age change, there was no safety net in place to assist students who needed a leave of absence after beginning school. Now LDS missionaries are granted deferment for seven semesters, the time required for LDS missions. All students must be considered equal, or it is a violation of church and state separation.
A high percentage of young LDS males in Utah feel more compelled by family to serve missions rather than having an actual interest to serve. At 19 a young man has more opportunity, especially in a university setting, to establish individual and sexual identity with new friends that support and strengthen a choice either to go or not to go on a mission.
Another concern is the significance of social structure in the late teens. Our youth tend to validate their ambitions though developing friendships during high school and college. When an 18-year-old is plucked from his high school friends and sent off for a two-year mission with others he has never met, it is a shock to the system.
When the same young man returns home after the mission, he will begin his college life as a freshman at the age of a junior, without pervious college experience. This could alienate advantageous social interaction.
It is easier for parents to push an 18-year-old directly from high school to the mission field. Professional teams that write for Psychology Today have published a plethora of eye-opening articles and journals that describe the horrific mental effects suffered by people who are forced, coerced or shamed into religious aspirations.
It seems that everyone would have been better served without the changes.

Contact Rose Jones at [email protected]

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