LDS Scene

Elder Hanks Elected to Scouting Board

Elder Marion D. Hanks of the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy was recently elected a member of the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America. Also elected a member was former U.S. President Gerald Ford. Elder Hanks, who heads the Church’s General Scouting Committee, has a long record of service to Boy Scouts.

Project Guatemala

With the general conference messages of love and service giving them additional motivation, some forty Brigham Young University students recently left for a two-month stay in Guatemala.

The project’s purpose is to assist Guatemalans in improving literacy, nutrition, health, gardening, and construction, all services requested by the local people.

All fluent in Spanish, the students will pay their way on the project, and they will spread out across Guatemala to such communities as Guatemala City, Quezaltenango, Coban, and Retalhuleu.

This will be the second year that the volunteer students have visited Guatemala. Last year students assisted in the cleanup following the earthquake. In previous years, student groups have conducted similar work in Mexico.

New Zealand Temple Pageant

The New Zealand Temple Pageant has joined the ranks of other Church pageants. (See Ensign, Feb. 1977, p. 95.) Scheduled for January 19 through 21, 1978, during New Zealand’s summer season, the pageant will be presented free of charge on the New Zealand Temple site. It will feature the First Vision, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the Hagoth story from Alma 63, and Polynesian migration. Emphasis will be placed on the Church’s influence in New Zealand, especially in the area of the families from all over the South Pacific.

Law School Accreditation

The J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University has received final accreditation from the American Bar Association (ABA). The school received provisional accreditation in February 1974. Accreditation signifies the ABA’s recognition of the school’s high quality in faculty, students, and facilities. At the 1975 dedication of the five-story building that houses the school, one of the guests, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Lewis F. Powell, Jr., remarked: “The J. Reuben Clark Law School will not merely be a good one but in due time it will rank as a great one.”

An Indian Record

An Indian chief and three former Brigham Young University students attended the annual Grammy Awards night February 19 sponsored by the U.S. National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Although not a final award winner, a record produced, narrated, and sung by the foursome was selected as one of the top five albums from the one hundred entries in the ethnic traditional category. About half of the material on the album, “Proud Earth,” was written by Arliene Nofchissey Williams, a Navajo who became well known at BYU for her compositions. Sister Williams, the mother of five children, also sings on the album, with Rick Brosseau, another BYU alumnus. The album was produced by former BYU student Stan Bronson. The narration on the record is by Chief Dan George, Swinomish Indian Chief from the Burrard Reservation, Vancouver, British Columbia. Chief Dan George also stars in the BYU movie production A Different Drum, also with music composed by Sister Williams.

Books on Tour

Five publications by Brigham Young University Press have been selected to appear in a globe-covering tour arranged by the U.S. Information Agency. The exhibit, which extends through April 1978, covers nineteen countries and every major continent. The chosen titles are: Custer in ‘76, the first publication of fifty-four interviews with actual participants in the Battle of Little Big Horn; Look to the Mountains, a history of Utah’s LaSal National Forest; Confrontation at Worms, outlining the struggles of Martin Luther; The Great Great Salt Lake, a word and picture tour of the Great Salt Lake; and Fort Bridger, a fifty-year history of one of the West’s most famous outposts.

Addition to Harold B. Lee Library Dedicated at BYU

President Marion G. Romney, second counselor in the First Presidency, offered the main address and the dedicatory prayer at a recent ceremony marking the official opening of the addition to the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University.

The library, originally built in 1961, has now been more than doubled in size with the completion of the six-story, multimillion-dollar addition. The combined facility has become one of the largest university libraries in the United States, with a capacity of housing more than 2 million volumes and seating some 4,800 students.

In addition to its many volumes, the library houses special collections, a highly sophisticated audio-visual system for rerunning taped lectures, a record collection, and special facilities for the visually handicapped.

The information in the library, said President Romney, will help students distinguish between truths and untruths. The great challenge is to be able to always distinguish between the two kinds of information.

In attendance at the ceremony, which was marked by a three-day celebration of lectures, tours, symposia, exhibits, and receptions, was Sister Freda Joan Lee, widow of former Church President Harold B. Lee after whom the building is named.

Performing Groups Honored

Three Brigham Young University performing groups—the American Folk Dancers, the Sounds of Freedom, and the Lamanite Generation—were recently awarded the Valley Forge Honor Certificate of the Freedoms Foundation, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The award cited the groups for “outstanding achievement in bringing about better understanding of the American way of life.” The groups, along with other BYU performing groups, have traveled to many countries around the world, often acting as official representatives of the United States at various functions.