http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650219029,00.html
I think this is great--I didn't know they were cool enough to win a fake award. Heck, I don't even know what the name "Sammie" means, but we'll take it nonetheless. I give the Deseret News some credit for recognizing that BYU is an actual college where young people have a good time, instead of insisting that its students spend all their time in rigorous study, with the occasional break to become engaged.
If nothing else, the article has provided us with this priceless quote:
"I always enjoy my association with our students, even if I'm not up on the
latest terminology."
President Samuelson
And here's the text of the important part of the article, in case the link stops working:
Sober? BYU is full of drollery
By Tad Walch
Deseret Morning News
PROVO — Brigham Young University's sober reputation is cemented in the national consciousness — more on that in a moment — but 2006 proved that humor, if not alcohol, flows freely in the shadow of Y Mountain.
The biggest campus wits included the president of the Board of Trustees and the president of the university. Since those men double as President Gordon B. Hinckley, leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Elder Cecil O. Samuelson, of the church's First Quorum of the Seventy, students have strong ecclesiastical examples of drollery.
Without further ado, then, let's hand out the 2006 "Sammies."
• The first goes to three students who caused a ruckus after they printed and sold T-shirts with Samuelson's image and the phrase "Cecil Is My Homeboy."
The students — Austin Craig, Landon Pratt and Roger Pimentel — dropped off one of the shirts at Samuelson's office and said they would stop selling them if he wished it. Instead, his secretary sent them an e-mail: "The president has no objection to you selling it. However, he wanted you to know that he probably won't be wearing it in public!"
Craig said that proved Samuelson has a sense of humor. So did the comment the president provided for this story: "I always enjoy my association with our students, even if I'm not up on the latest terminology."
The phrase became standard student jargon. One example: The campus comedy troupe Divine Comedy does a sketch where Samuelson is a Superman-like character who flies in to save the day. ("Faster than a Provo engagement, able to leap over the Botany Pond, more powerful than the combined testimony of the BYU Men's Chorus, he's President Samuelson!") During the sketch at a recent show, a student in the audience yelled out, "Go, Cecil."
Improvising, the student playing Samuelson/Superman turned to the audience and said, "Thank you. You're my homeboy."
(Not bad, eh?)
