REXBURG, Idaho — One nice, quiet summer morning, as President Dieter F. Uchtdorf finished a hike on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail near Salt Lake City, he saw — and heard — a large group starting out up the hill.

It was the Gilbert family, Clark and Christine, their eight children and "many, many friends," said President Uchtdorf, the second counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

That day, he said, the Gilberts "were moving steadily upward and forward." On Tuesday — blustery, rainy and dominated by low, dark gray clouds — the Gilberts formally began to move forward up a steeper incline when President Uchtdorf installed the Harvard-trained innovation specialist Gilbert as the 16th president of BYU-Idaho.

Today's challenges in higher education, including major strains on LDS higher education, cannot be solved with yesterday's tools, President Uchtdorf said during Gilbert's inauguration.

Gilbert, 45, who took office in April, will need to manage an expected annual 6 percent growth in campus enrollment, but President Uchtdorf said Gilbert is particularly qualified to deal with what he called the "acute" challenge of meeting the education needs of the expanding number of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worldwide.

Those challenges come at the same time higher education is changing dramatically.

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Clark Gilbert is settling into his new job as president of BYU-Idaho. But before he went north, he played a key role in keeping the Deseret News from "going south" and out of business.

"President Gilbert, for a season the Lord has placed the destiny of this institution in your hands," said President Uchtdorf, both second counselor in the church's First Presidency and second vice chairman of the church Board of Education. "It is now heading into period often described as the days of the new American university. You are particularly well-prepared and suited for leading this university during such a time. Some describe you as a visionary. At Harvard you studied disruptive innovation. Here at BYU-Idaho you helped to establish an innovative approach to online learning."

Gilbert said BYU-Idaho faculty, staff and students need to be a resource to a worldwide church.

President Uchtdorf called it essential.

"This university and all the schools of our Church Educational System must prepare for further worldwide growth of membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its resulting education needs," he said.

President Uchtdorf hailed BYU-Idaho's online learning program and its unique Pathway program, which Gilbert helped create six years ago and which combines online coursework with local group learning at more than 300 sites in 32 countries from Africa to Europe and South America.

BYU-Idaho classes began on Monday, and President Uchtdorf said a fall semester head count including those online and Pathway students surpassed 43,000, more than those at either of its sister BYU schools in Utah and Hawaii.

About 17,500 of those students are on campus. Another 16,000 or so are in the Pathway program, while the rest are online.

President Uchtdorf said Gilbert's immediate past assignments as president of the Deseret News and with other church-owned entities for the past six years in Salt Lake City helped prepare him for his new job.

"You have built our own Deseret Digital Media and you have strengthened our Deseret Management Corporation," President Uchtdorf said.

In his speech, Gilbert said that since 2000, the number of BYU-Idaho students has tripled, even "as the relative cost per student has declined, a miracle within the church and a model for rethinking education more generally."

The innovations include the online program, the Pathway program and a unique three-track system that divides the school year in thirds. On-campus students attend two of the three tracks in a year, maximizing campus use year-round.

Gilbert, named for the late dean of continuing education at BYU, Harold G. Clark, said BYU-Idaho has a pioneer's heart that is taking church education to Latter-day Saints around the world. He said Mormon pioneers innovated first with vanguard companies and wagon trains, then with handcart companies and a perpetual emigration fund.

"These subsequent advancements were different in design and less familiar than earlier innovations, but they allowed many more saints to gather together in Zion," he said.

Pioneers came to Rexburg in 1883, and Gilbert said the pioneer's heart rested on the valley "for such a time as this, when the Lord would significantly expand his education gathering across the church."

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During Tuesday's regularly scheduled devotional at Brigham Young University-Idaho, Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a change in the leadership of the university.

BYU-Idaho expects a fall 2018 head count of more than 60,000, Gilbert told the Deseret News on Tuesday, with 21,000 students on campus, 20,000 in the Pathway program and more than 20,000 in the online program.

"We face a dual challenge," he said in his inaugural response, "to continue to strengthen our core campus experience even as we pioneer new ways to reach students around the world."

The implications of BYU-Idaho's increasing reach across the church include willingness to collaborate with other church schools.

"It is incumbent on BYU-Idaho to continue to find ways to expand its reach while decreasing relative cost to the church," he said.

Tuesday's ceremony included three members of the faith's Quorum of Twelve Apostles, Elder Dallin H. Oaks and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, both past presidents of BYU, and Elder David A. Bednar. Elder Oaks conducted the inauguration.

Elder Holland spoke at a luncheon before the inauguration and provided counsel. He told Gilbert "remember forever and forever and forever" that BYU-Idaho is the Lord's university, and that means "we have an obligation" to tithepayers and prophets "that this school will always teach and defend and stand for the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

He advised Gilbert to lean into the wind, a reference to the day's gusty weather, typical of the area.

"In Rexburg, you have to lean into the wind," Elder Holland said. "Let me warn you, winds are going to blow in your administration. Welcome them. Face them. Lean into them. They will be carrying opportunities with every gust."

Finally, he told Gilbert to enjoy the assignment.

"Be happy. Keep that terrific Clark Gilbert smile. Be thankful for the opportunity. Make it the happiest time of your marriage and of your family life. These years won't come again."

Elder Bednar was one of four past BYU-Idaho presidents at the event, including Elder Kim B. Clark.

Although the inauguration appeared to be a passing of the torch from Elder Clark to Gilbert, the new arrangement actually renewed their working relationship.

The two worked together at the Harvard Business School, where Elder Clark had been the dean and a professor and Gilbert had been a student and then a professor. Elder Clark brought Gilbert to BYU-Idaho as an assistant vice president in 2006.

Now that Elder Clark is the commissioner of Church Education, Gilbert will report to him again.

Elder Clark said he long has felt Gilbert had the ability to be a university president and that it might happen some day. Now that it has, and they work together, he called it "a sweet thing."

"It's like recess. Remember recess as a child?" Elder Clark said enthusiastically, smiling and clubbing a reporter's arm. "Remember how excited you were that, 'Oh, we get to go to recess!' You know? Well that's how it feels. It's like recess. This is fabulous. It's just so fun to work with him, just a joy."

The other past presidents in attendance were Elder Bruce C. Hafen and Elder Joe J. Christensen, both of whom are emeritus LDS general authorities.

Elder Oaks is the new chair of the executive committee of church education, now that President Russell M. Nelson has become president of the Quorum of the Twelve. The other members of the executive committee are Elder Holland, Sister Linda K. Burton, the Relief Society general president, and Elder Donald L. Hallstrom, a member of the presidency of the Seventy. All attended the inauguration.

Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson, Young Women general president, attended as a member of the board of trustees.

Brigham Young University (Provo) President Kevin Worthen, new BYU-Hawaii President John Tanner and Utah Valley University President Matthew Holland attended as well.

President Uchtdorf also had counsel for BYU-Idaho students.

"My dear brothers and sisters, my dear students, you are among the favored ones to be at this university with the temple in walking distance," he said. "May I ask you to always be grateful for the privilege and joy of being part of this wonderful institution, whether it be as student, faculty or staff? This gratitude can best be shown by daily living according to gospel principles, respecting one another and building strong individuals and families as described in the plan of happiness."

He said Clark and Christine Gilbert and their family will be examples to BYU-Idaho students.

"This family is impressively strong, united, happy and focused," he said. "For me, they are an authentic LDS family who are living the gospel and living it joyfully." Email: twalch@deseretnews.com

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