LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley announced that Ricks Junior College, in Rexburg, Idaho, will become a four-year institution. It has been the largest privately-owned two year college in America.

The new school will be known as Brigham Young University-Idaho.

In making the announcement, President Hinckley said, "BYU-Idaho will operate on an expanded year-round basis, incorporating innovative calendaring and scheduling, while also taking advantage of advancements in technology which will enable the four year institution to serve more students."

"That's the objective, to increase the number of students we can serve in the Church Educational Program," President Hinckley said.

As BYU-Idaho, it will offer baccalaureate degrees but will not have graduate programs.

The school will gradually restructure its academic program and will phase out its involvement in intercollegiate athletics.

President Hinckley said of the athletics program, "It takes too much money. It takes a great amount of time and energy. We think that in this instance we would like to change the emphasis. In the first place, Ricks is a long ways from everybody. You have to travel great distances to play. That’s a factor in it. It’s a very costly program. We would hope that with an intramural program of athletics and sports, that the need could be met and that the great emphasis would be on academics."

There is no word yet whether tuition is expected to increase or when the final changeover will be made.

There are now three schools with the BYU name: BYU in Provo, BYU-Hawaii, and now BYU-Idaho. BYU president Merrill Bateman says BYU-Idaho will not be a satellite campus for the Provo school. He says BYU in Provo is likely to see less students wanting to transfer from Ricks now, and that may mean the opportunity to admit more freshmen.