Worthen: "Please go ahead." reporter: "First of all...
your reaction; this is quite the assignment."
"I am both honored and humbled, as you might imagine, at this opportunity to serve at the
University.
It's a place I love. I don't consider myself measuring up to those who
preceded me in this but
I have, I take comfort in the fact that this
decision was made by those who I have great confidence in.
And I feel very good about the direction of the University
and I want to thank President Samuelson, that's the one thing I want to make sure I do here,
for
both institutionally for creating the kind of environment that exists here in
in building the foundation on which we can move forward
and personally just to thank him as a mentor of mine.
There are few people have had more influence on me that have been, prepared
me for this
position than has President Samuelson. Yes?
reporter: "Do you have some thoughts about what you would like to envision for
the future for BYU as its president?"
Some very general thoughts. BYU is it different kind of place...
as all of you know. One of the ways in which it's different is that the Board
of Trustees really sets the overall vision for the University, and so I don't
anticipate any radical changes or new directions that are
there, that's been set by the Board of Trustees and the Mission Statement, and your all familiar with that.
Our student body's getting better, our faculty is getting better.
At the same time I found that no one's really
given this kind of assignment just to maintain the status quo.
And so I think within that framework of what we're trying to do accomplish here
that is to provided an environment for these young people to study
"to be spiritually strengthened and intellectually enlarged,"
to use the language of the Aims, we'll keep looking for opportunities to enhance that
experience for them.
reporter: "How do you plan to deal with continuing
enrollment changes caused by the different mission age?"
Well fortunately we've got a little bit of experience in dealing with that
because we have one year under our belt with what turned out to be a
smaller than usual
entering freshmen class with men, and a smaller than usual continuing class with
women
who were out serving missions. And I think it's worked
out quite well so far, and we would anticipate as they come back we'll have
room for those.
We've left a little bit of cusion in there with our enrollment cap to do that. And I
think it will make a difference
particularly having reflected on my own experiences
as a man, as a freshman, not here at BYU but at somewhere else, not everybody takes the
freshman year all that
seriously before the mission my guess is these young men in particular as
missionaries coming back as freshmen
will be more seriously involved in your going to process them
for 18-year-old would have been and so I think that will continue to unfold.
The one other challenge we
will have to think through a little bit is housing because we've relied on
18-year-old freshmen men to be in that housing, and whether they'll want to be there
when their 20-year-old return missionaries is
a bit of an open question at this point.
(reporter:) "President, could you talk about online education and the pressure in the higher-education field about that?"
Yes, I mean that's clearly one of the trends in higher education that we
ought to take advantage of in various ways. I don't think there is going to be a radical new
shift towards online education, but I think that's going to be a component of
everyone's education in higher education and we're doing some things already at
the University with
flipped classrooms and some other things that really
will enable us to to evaluate the best way of doing that and
so I don't have anything specific but it is a trend that we'll be more involved
with.
(reporter): Brother Gibson just talked about husbands and wives progressing together, and I wonder how,
this change will affect Peggy...I don't know if you're going to be giving responses today as well...
Peggy Worthen: "I'm happy to be along with him."
President Worthen:But let me just say this much--I don't think are growing up,
she may get uh, well I'll just say this much, growing up as
a non-LDS person here in Utah, that she envisioned that at some point she would be in
the position she's in right now.
So I don't think that was her dream when she was in high school, but she's been
very supportive
and we'd anticipate that would continue.
(Reporter:) Can you just tell us a little bit about yourself?
Most of us don't know who you are. So maybe you can kind of give us a little background..
Worthen: Maybe it's better that way, I don't know [chuckles] I'm just kidding
Well I like to say, because it's true, that I was born in a town that no longer
exists:
Dragerton, Utah which is now East Carbon City,
Utah. That's still...And for many of you, you're still wondering where that is.
It's in Carbon County and I was raised in nearby Price, we move there when I was
5 years old.
[spells Dragerton for a reporter]
Anyway, I had a wonderful
upbringing. My father was an educator he taught math and somewhat to my chagrin
was the principal the junior high when I went there in Price.
So education's always been important to me.
And I'm...the other thing you ought to know about is I love BYU. I'm a
BYU guy through and through.
I went here undergraduate, I went here to law school, I've spent more than half my
life here.
That prevents wonderful opportunities for me, but it also prevents some
challenges in terms of
making sure that we have people with a little bit broader perspective involved in this
as well. But that's one thing I can tell you is I love BYU
and I'm a BYU guy.
(Reporter:) "Are there any changes you plan to make right off? Or anything that we're going to
see differently in the new leadership here?"
I don't think right off, again, certainly there won't be
any radical change. I'm sure in the process of time, in the coming year we will
evaluate things and there will be changes
but I don't have anything specifically here for in mind at this point
for two reasons again I think it's it's we're in pretty good shape where we're
at
number two it really is one where the Mission's not going to change
in any fundamental sense at all. It's really a question
just how do we better achieve that mission.
(Reporter:) President, can you talk about the last few years as you've been Advancement
Vice President, how that experience working with President Samuelson may inform, or may have
helped you prepare for this...Have you been looking back on that since getting this?"
I have. And there may be some
thought that some of you may know that the areas I work with include
BYUtv
and Athletics. Those are important parts of the University but I realize
that their
not the core of the University. Those are great places. But what I've learned from that
is that opportunities will present themselves and
consistent with our message the real key is to be
looking out over the horizon looking for opportunities that are there.
And it's not only in those areas but I think throughout the University
and then acting with great confidence once we know where we want to go
because there have been some changes as you may have noticed in athletics and in
BYU
Broadcasting over the past few years. That was not necessarily a conscious plan saying at the
outset "we've got to change things"
as much as being responsive to opportunities that presented themselves
and I think that's one of the key
opportunities, the key lessons I've learned, is that if you keep focusing on the mission,
opportunities will come up that we can
enhance what we're doing.
(Reporter:) "What's the one thing you worry about most since you found out...when did you find out you were..."
I found out about six weeks ago and to be honest with you think I worry the
most about, to use the term that
President Hinckley once used in one of his speeches, is that I might "muff it" at some
point through this, because I really don't
consider myself in the same category as those who have served before.
And as I say, I take great comfort in that those who
made those decisions--I have great confidence in them but
there's been that thought in my mind about it, in terms of being able to
accomplish the things that need to be done.
(Reporter:) "What are you worried about with the youth here...these kids...what are your...
I mean obviously this is a religious organizations
your based on faith, and with the world in the way it's going today...
many of these youth are fallen
they're dropping out of school or they're going other places. What are your concerns?"
The concerns really are.. for those who come here
my biggest concern is that we won't provide as much
strength and help as we could. The ones who come here really are fairly
committed
and they understand the mission and I think one of the things we need to do is
keep reinforcing that
mission about why they're here, not only here at the University, but why they're here
on earth.
And they are very well prepared, I think in many ways
they clearly are our best asset.
I think we just need to keep making sure that we
provide them with every opportunity that they need.
Along those lines, this isn't your question, but I've thought we need to be more careful
to express appreciation to those who have shaped these youth before they come
here.
They are extraordinary yout, and they do wonderful things. And tought rightly
the
things that they accomplish while they're here. But it's in large part because they come
from homes and from communities
where they have had a lot of opportunities and have done a lot of really good things.
And so I say, I'm not as worried about them,
in once sense I am worried about them, but it really is providing and meeting
what we should be providing to them rather than what they're going to
take from.
(Reporter:) "Will you be continuing, do you know, to serve as an Area Seventy?")
Yes, I will be until I'm released. Now that's... I'm not sure when that is, and that decision will
be made by others. But
for right now I will continue to serve in that calling.
(Reporter:) And then quickly...Do you hope that you will be the subject of 'Whoosh, Kevin!' " [all laugh]
Ya know, that's actually another think I've thought about...
and that was sort of organic with the students. There's part of me, and again I'll
just be honest with you,
that I think it's a wonderful tradition, I think it's great,
and I think it really ought to be associated with President Samuelson.
I have nothing against it if they want to continue, my fear is that
ten years from now on after my success it'll be 'Whoosh, somebody else'
and they will have lost sort-of a special connection they have with President Samuelson.
And that really was an organic thing from the students in I'll leave it up to
them, but from my own thinking
I just assume they'd come up with something different in some ways. Not that I care
about as much, but I think as a way of
remembering President Samuelson. Well, thank you all.