BYUI President Kim Clark says goodbye to Rexburg - East Idaho News
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BYUI President Kim Clark says goodbye to Rexburg

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President Kim B. Clark
President Kim B. Clark

REXBURG – After a decade as president of Brigham Young University-Idaho, Kim B. Clark is leaving the institution to serve in an ecclesiastical role for his church.

The 66-year-old was recently sustained as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He begins serving in that capacity May 1.

Clark held a press conference Friday where he expressed gratitude for his time in Rexburg.

“It’s harder to leave Rexburg than it was for us to leave Boston, and I think that’s because of the people here,” Clark said. “We loved Boston, but somehow the connection here has been deeper and more powerful for us.”

Before coming to BYU-Idaho in October 2005, Clark worked as the dean of the Harvard Business School in Boston.

During the conference Clark related some of the highlights of his tenure. He called the BYU-Idaho Pathway program a major accomplishment for the university. The online education program provides a way for some 6,000 students around the world to take classes in preparation to enter post-secondary education.

“Pathway has given hope to lots of people that didn’t think higher education was an option for them,” Clark said.

He also spoke about the major building projects undertaken in the last decade. Clark oversaw a major remodel of the Manwaring Student Center and the massive construction of the 435,000 square foot BYU-Idaho Center.

A new Central Energy Facility, Centre Square student housing facility and a Science and Technology Building also are underway.

Clark leaves BYU-Idaho as a much larger place than when he started. When Clark started at BYU-Idaho in 2005, full-time enrollment was 11,273 students. This semester full-time enrollment is 16,738, but those are only the students on-campus.

“Today, this semester, if you look at all the people that matriculate onto our campus from our online degree program and Pathway it’s more like 43,000 students,” Clark said. “The university has really grown and … it’s just going to continue to grow.”

Clark Gilbert
Clark Gilbert

Clark’s successor, Clark Gilbert officially takes over at BYU-Idaho Monday. Gilbert was most recently the CEO and president of Deseret News and Deseret Digital Media.

East Idaho News will publish a full-length video interview with Gilbert later this month.

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