Academic freedom at Brigham Young University

Cecilia Konchar Farr, David Knowlton, Gail T. Houston, were among the more notable controversies, although BYU has stated that these professors' discharge was based on issues other than academic speech.

"[8] In addition, the Northwest Association investigated "almost all" of the allegations that the AAUP had asserted regarding other individuals, concluding that the University had not violated academic freedom.

In particular, BYU compared itself to Gonzaga University, a Jesuit institution which prohibited "open espousal of viewpoints which contradict explicit principles of Catholic faith and morals.

[9] In 1993, BYU revoked the continuing status to Cecilia Konchar Farr, who had publicly advocated a pro-choice position on abortion.

[9] David Knowlton, who had discussed the church's missionary system at an independent Mormon forum, as well as making disparaging remarks about LDS architecture did not have his contract renewed.

[17] Also in 1996, professor Brian Evenson resigned in protest after receiving a warning from BYU administration over some violent images in one of his short stories.

In 2006, part-time faculty instructor Jeffrey Nielsen's contract was not renewed after he wrote an op-ed piece in the June 4 Salt Lake Tribune which criticized and opposed the LDS Church's stance on same-sex marriage.

[18][10] Darron Smith, an African-American, taught a course called "The African American Experience" from 1996 to 2006, when his adjunct faculty contract was not renewed.

[20] In 2011, BYU placed physics professor Steven E. Jones on paid leave in connection with an internal investigation that a paper he authored on the causes finding that the World Trade Center towers fell on 9/11 because of pre-set explosives might not have met "scientific standards of peer review" and his failure of "appropriately distancing himself" from the University in his statements regarding his explosive theory.

[22][23][24] In 2021, the Salt Lake Tribune noted the tension between faith and scholarship (such as openly teaching evolution), and how the LDS Church now calls for a retrenchment which BYU professors fear.