Keith Perkins, chair of the BYU Department of Church History and Doctrine, says that "officials have established their own symposiums because MHA wasn't allowing orthodox views to be presented. . . . Employees may attend MHA meetings but BYU no longer pays travel costs." Jerry Cahill attributes the policy change to "budget cuts." Two CES employees say "supervisors have questioned them about papers they've published." Stan Peterson, CES associate commissioner, says he knows of no supervisor questioning employees about published works." Bill Russell, for fifteen years a member of MHA and its 1982-83 president, counters with a letter to the editor that "I know of no proposal that has ever been rejected for being too orthodox" while, in contrast, "the program committee for the 1984 meeting, held at BYU, opted not to accept program proposals from four Mormons because of their liberal views." Several BYU history department faculty members later attend the Mormon History Association annual meeting of May 1987 in Oxford, England, with department funding.
[Source: Anderson, Lavina Fielding, "The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology," Dialogue, Vol.26, No.1]
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