Students might remember him for keeping BYU on the cutting edge of technology, increasing Devotional attendance and encouraging modesty. But what legacy would President Merrill J. Bateman like to leave behind when he completes his tenure at the end of April?

"That I really cared about the people and their potential and helping to shape an institution that would allow young people to reach their potential — and not just young people, but faculty and staff as well. Everyone," he said. "If you can help people live a better life and have a better life, that’s the most important thing you can do."

President Bateman, who was sustained to replace Elder Cecil O. Samuelson in the Presidency of the Seventy for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at general conference April 5, began his tenure at BYU Jan. 1, 1996. He said he has found his greatest joy at the university in his relationships with faculty, staff and students.

"Hey — those 30,000 students have kept Sister Bateman and I about 10 years younger," he said. "And I mean that seriously. You bring life to us — energy — and we love it."

And although he might not immediately age 10 years when he leaves, he said he will miss the interaction he has had with members of the BYU community.

"I’ll miss walking across campus and saying hello to people, which I have loved to do," he said. "It’s just fun to see people’s faces light up."

President Bateman cites his opportunity to team-teach a few Book of Mormon classes as a highlight of his time as president.

"It helped me because I could learn from them (other teachers), but I also learned from the students. It also got me closer to the students. I could interact with them and we could talk about things that I thought were important and also their issues," he said.

Both teaching and attending monthly stake conferences, he said, "were really a spiritual outlet for me — a spiritual renewal, an opportunity to relate closely to people about what I consider to be very important things, and that’s the gospel of Jesus Christ."

President Bateman’s leadership at BYU was marked in part by the university’s adoption of four institutional objectives that focus on the mission statement and the aims of a BYU education.

He woke up in the middle of the night, he said, and began to think of four succinct statements "that would capture really the essence of what we were and where we wanted to go, and those four simple statements came to me."

The objectives are 1) educate the minds and spirits of students; 2) advance truth and knowledge; 3) extend the blessings of learning; and 4) develop friends for the university and the church.

"I didn’t think the statements would have the impact they have had," he said. "I thought it would give us some direction … but I think what it has done is that it’s given us a very simple vehicle by which we can talk about who we are and not be concerned about the spiritual aspect of it."

Fulfilling, in part, some of those objectives, President Bateman has made mentored-student learning a priority of his administration. In the first year of the mentored-student learning environment program, $300,000 was distributed to colleges for the program, and that number jumped to $10 million in the third year.

"For me, the learning process is really peaking somewhere in the 18- to 25-year-old, and so I felt for a long time that college-aged students needed to be challenged more, and it was a time when they could be taken to the edge of the discipline and that they were interested in the frontier," he said.

He wanted to begin the program in part because BYU had a reputation for producing little research.

"When I first came to BYU, there had been very strong statements about BYU being an undergraduate teaching institution," he said. "If you take that to the extreme, it means you don’t do any research. My personal experience has been that the very best teachers I have ever had were extraordinary researchers. … I wanted to legitimize the research process and then tie it to the teaching and learning responsibilities of the university."

"It’s a great way to challenge young people to give their very best."

Although his calling has kept him busy for the past seven and a half years, he said for the most part, he has not felt any serious burdens.

"The only heavy feeling I’ve had is when I’ve made mistakes. It just felt like, you know, I wished I could have done that one better," he said. "And so you just pray a little harder and try to think a little longer before you make the next decision."

President Bateman said the assistance of his wife, Sister Marilyn Scholes Bateman, has helped him fulfill his calling.

"If you have someone by your side who believes in you and supports you and cares about you, it makes all the difference in the world," he said. "And we’ve both been stretched in terms of trying to use what talents we have to be a blessing to people, ... but always, whenever there are tough times, if you know there’s someone that really cares about you and believes in you and believes in the mission that you’re engaged in... it makes all the difference in the world in terms of being able to carry on."

Sister Bateman agreed.

"We’ve tried to make it a joint calling for both of us," she said. "Obviously there are things that he had primary responsibility for in terms of the university itself. But in terms of the way in which we interacted with people and hosted people and in terms of the activities we were involved in, it was a team thing. My husband’s always like that anyway. He’s great that way."

But the calling has still been a challenge for these parents of seven children and grandparents to 28.

"We’ve missed a lot of the things we’d like to be a part of with our family," President Bateman said. "We’ve not always been able to go to soccer games or the T-ball games."

And though he will remain busy with his new calling, he said, "We expect to see a lot more of our grandchildren, participating in various kinds of activities, whether it’s dance, or sports or whatever they participate in."

And his advice for his successor?

"(Elder Samuelson) is a very astute observer, and it’s not clear that I can teach him much of anything." After pausing for a few seconds, he continued, "I’m going to teach him how important it is to wear blue."

Elder Samuelson accepted the suggestion graciously.

"I’d say that’s good advice," he said. "I have a blue suit in my closet. I have a blue tie on my tie rack."



Copyright Brigham Young University 16 Apr 2003