Merrill wrote: Merrill found the right man in Thomas J. Yates, a young engineer in the Granite Stake. After the building completed and the curriculum developed, the first released-time LDS seminary opened its doors in 1912. In 1928, Merrill left his position at the University of Utah to serve as the head of the LDS Church school system. Upon Merrill's acceptance, the name of the position was officially changed from "Superintendent of Church Schools" to "Church Commissioner of Education". As commissioner, Merrill faced several unique challenges. Merrill took over the development of the first institute program at Moscow, Idaho. Working with J. Wyley Sessions, Merrill helped develop the basic goals of the institute program, which he felt should be designed to help students reconcile the secular learning of university with the spiritual truths of the church. He wrote: In this collegiate seminary work we are, of course, starting on a new thing in the Church. But if we keep the objective clearly in mind it may be helpful. And may I say that this objective, as I see it, is to enable our young people attending the colleges to make the necessary adjustments between the things they have been taught in the Church and the things they are learning in the university, to enable them to become firmly settled in their faith as members of the Church. The big question, then, is what means and methods can be employed to help them to make these reconciliations and adjustments. The primary purpose, therefore, is not to teach them theology. It is not to prepare them for seminary teachers or preachers of the Gospel. We should, therefore, continually hold before our minds that we want to hold them in the Church, make them active, intelligent, sincere, Latter-day Saints. We want to keep them from growing cold in the faith and indifferent to their obligations as Church members. We want to help them to see that it is perfectly reasonable and logical to be really sincere Latter-day Saints. With the successful launch of institute, Merrill's next task was to facilitate the withdrawal of the LDS Church from the field of secular education in the United States. Most of the church schools had already been closed in the early 1920s, but Brigham Young University (BYU) and several junior colleges remained under church control. In a meeting of the Church General Board of Education in