40 years ago today - Aug 5, 1981-Wednesday

[Leonard Arrington]

Word has come to us that Elder [G. Homer] Durham is working out a policy on "conflict of interest" in the Historical Department. This policy includes the following elements:

1. No employee of the Historical Department is permitted to do any research or writing at his desk. This not only includes his work time but he may not use lunch time for the purpose nor stay after work hours to do so. He may, of course, do so on annual leave time if approved by Elder Durham.

2. He has not definitely ruled on the matter but is giving serious consideration to prohibiting Gordon Irving from serving as an assistant editor of the Journal of Mormon History. [[Durham ultimately approved Irving's outside involvement in the journal, for which Irving appeared in the staff box for six years, vols. 7-12 (1980-85).]]

3. No Historical Department employee will be able to use his Historical Department position as a power base for moving into a university or other professional position.

[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]