This week I attended the Brigham Young University (BYU) faculty conference at the Marriott Center. The keynote speaker, President Cecil O. Samuelson, started the presentation by recognizing several faculty who were honored by their departments, colleges or other university entities. I was happy that I knew some of the faculty being honored. I delight in their excellence.
I came to hear President Samuelson speak because I knew he would speak about teaching and learning. I really am interested in keeping up with all of the latest developments in the teaching and learning arena. I know that teaching and learning are in the forefront of BYU’s academic mission. I also will be teaching part-time for the BYU Communications Department, so I am officially part of the academic life at BYU. Samuelson asked the faculty to cast their lot and future with BYU. He said that we (faculty) have a heavy responsibility to do what we can. Life, according to Samuelson, has its ongoing purposes and we (BYU) have not arrived to where we need to be. He also admonished us to “be planted in the land of [y]our inheritance.†Instead of comparing ourselves to other universities, faculty at BYU must recognize this is a great day of preparation, and that the preparation will go on throughout our lives. We need to compare ourselves to what we must become.
Along with all of the other requests, he asked us to “arise to the higher ground of excellence†and he backed up his statement by saying that the “Lord provides ‘a more excellent way.’†President Samuelson challenged the faculty to read/listen to all of President Hinckely’s talks that he has given at BYU. I decided to take this request to heart. I went to speeches.byu.edu and found the articles. Most have downloadable mp3s for FREE and offer a variety of different formats, suited to one’s particular media needs. There are about 40 addresses.
I decided to download the FREE mp3s and listen. And just in case anyone else out there wants to do the same or something similar, I’ve added the links to his material.
You can get the full list here.