New BYU chief, 'family' meet

PROVO — First he doffed his suitcoat and donned a sweater, a la Mr. Rogers. He peered out above a fatherly pair of eyeglasses and played the good sport when he lost a rigged game of "Operation."

But Brigham Young University President Cecil Samuelson drew the line at singing.

"You keep trying to get me to sing a song, but I'm the president and I don't have to do it," Samuelson said to the laughter of several thousand students who gathered Wednesday night in the Marriott Center for an intimate campus family home evening. "I'm trying to be a good sport, but there's a limit."

The event played strongly on the traditional LDS home evening, with "Love at Home" as the opening song, a flannel board lesson on how Samuelson and his wife Sharon "got together" and Rice Krispy treats for refreshments.

The highlight for many male students was Sara Samuelson, the president's daughter and a University of Utah student. Asked on stage if she had any stories from Samuelson's mission to Scotland as a young man, she drew laughs with, "Not any that are appropriate."

She won the spotlight again during a question-and-answer session led by the president that was supposed to last 15 minutes. Clearly warming to the direct interchange with students, Samuelson fielded questions for 35 minutes, including one about how to get a date with Sara.

"Sara is a 20-cow girl," he said, referring to the LDS cult film "Johnny Lingo." "You need to be prepared with the dowery."

Students learned that the last movie Samuelson saw was "Toy Story 2," that he'll cheer for BYU when it plays Utah's football team in November even though he is a U. graduate and former vice president and that he has a dry sense of humor. After losing at "Operation" when the buzzer kept going off before the holder of a doctorate of medicine could even get his faux surgical instrument close to the patient, he said, "This is the last time we'll ever play this game, I'll tell you that."

He reminded students to adhere to the school's modest dress code on the day a letter to the editor appeared in the student newspaper decrying "BYU women flashing skin around the waistline." He also urged students to attend the weekly campus devotionals.

Student body president Dave Johnson said the home evening program grew out of Samuelson's desire to make his inauguration, which took place Tuesday, more accessible to students. The Primary songs and other familiar LDS cultural trappings appeared to work.

"It was so cool," said Brittany Cook, a freshman from Santa Rosa, Calif. who is majoring in accounting. "It was like home away from home, even with such a large crowd."

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