BYU, while also teaching religion classes part-time. After earning his master's degree, Holland became an Institute of Religion teacher in Hayward, California. He worked as an institute director in Seattle, Washington. Holland attended Yale University and earned a second master's degree in American studies, and later a PhD in the same subject. At Yale, Holland studied with American literary scholar and critic R. W. B. Lewis and authored a dissertation on the religious sense of Mark Twain. He was an instructor at the LDS Church's institute in Hartford while he was a student at Yale. While studying at Yale, Holland served as a counselor in the presidency of the LDS Church's Hartford Connecticut Stake. Leadership at BYU and CES Holland served as an institute director in Salt Lake City after earning his PhD He also served as director of the Melchizedek Priesthood MIA and as chair of the Young Adult Committee for the LDS Church. In 1974, at the age of thirty-three, Holland was appointed Dean of Religious Education at BYU. While dean, Holland founded BYU’s Religious Studies Center and became its first director. From 1976 to 1980, he served as the eleventh commissioner of CES, replacing Neal A. Maxwell, who was called to the First Council of the Seventy. During this time, Holland also served on the board of directors of LDS Hospital and of the Polynesian Cultural Center. In 1980, Holland was appointed to succeed Dallin H. Oaks as president of BYU. After a search committee was formed, as a favorite candidate of the First Counselor in the LDS Church's First Presidency, N. Eldon Tanner, and the protege of the chair of the executive committee of the BYU Board of Trustees, Gordon B. Hinckley, Holland was appointed less than two days later. As the church's Commissioner of Education at the time Oaks was released, Holland was supposed to compile a list of candidates to be the next BYU president. Instead, he was unexpectedly notified of the First Presidency's intention to make him president. After his appointment, rumors on campus cited the decision as "politically motivated". Before he arrived in Provo, Holland reduced the number of vice-presidents to four and increased the number of assistant and associate vice-presidents over academics. Holland easily transitioned into the role of president. He was familiar with the president's duties, since he had worked closely with Oaks as the Commissioner of Education. He placed