When Brigham Young University, then known as the Brigham Young Academy, was founded in 1875, one of the foundational principles established by Dr. Karl G. Maeser was providing educational opportunities to adults during evening hours. Since then, evening classes at BYU have been a staple that has granted countless students' opportunities that they would not have had otherwise.
This long-standing tradition of evening education has gradually developed into a more structured and formalized system. Established in 1956, the Department of Evening Classes works in collaboration with other departments around campus by offering evening courses to both degree-seeking students and non-degree-seeking individuals who qualify for registration through the BYU Office of Visiting Students. With over 350 evening courses offered during fall and winter semesters, there is a class that can fit into just about anyone's schedule.
“We do evening classes because it creates flexibility, and that flexibility extends in a lot of different branches,” said Kyle Mammen, Program Administrator for the BYU Office of Visiting Students. “Undergraduates regularly fall into that conflict where there are two classes you have to take in the same semester, and if they’re offered at inconvenient times with each other, we can create evening sections, that then creates more flexibility within any given semester.”
With flexibility being a central aim for evening classes, it also opens the door for others through BYU Continuing Education programs like FlexGE or Post-Bacc Prep. These programs provide access to BYU courses for students not yet admitted or individuals returning for career advancement with graduate degrees.
Evening classes also provide opportunities for students to learn from various instructors, including industry professionals, full-time BYU faculty, and adjunct faculty. One standout example of this is New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, who teaches an evening creative writing class every winter semester at BYU. “Brandon Sanderson does not need to be an English professor here at BYU,” said Mammen. “But it provides our students with an opportunity to take a class from someone who's actually doing the work right now.”
In doing so, this enriches a student’s experience with applicable and real-world insight that is intended to respond to the demand. Between making general education requirements more accessible or finding a qualified adjunct instructor to teach a language course. “Our goal is to help students find what is right for them,” said Mammen.
Looking to the future as BYU Continuing Education continues to grow, Mammen’s current focus has turned to growing the population of post-baccalaureate students. With many graduated individuals returning for additional coursework for career advancement or graduate programs, this added focus on the Post-Bacc Prep aims to help students find what is right for them.
Part of looking ahead Mammen also highlighted the importance of being adaptable. “Higher education is looking at ways to become to be a lot more adaptable than it is” he said. “And that’s one of the things that I love about working at Continuing Education is that we can be a little more adaptable.”
The Department of Evening Classes and Office of Visiting Students are committed to helping a wide variety of students complete their college education through accessibility, additional opportunities, and flexibility. In doing so, evening classes help accomplish BYU Continuing Education’s mission to “[inspire] lifelong learning to benefit the world.”
When asked to give a one-sentence endorsement for evening classes, Mammen put it simply, “My big message is this: BYU is more flexible than a lot of people think, and evening classes are one of the ways we can be more flexible with who we enroll.”
All courses taught through Evening Classes can be found online in the University’s official class schedule.