FHSS HOME @ BYU, USA
Lauding the creation of BYU's School of Family Life, President Boyd K. Packer said Sept. 10 the university can now help carry the Church's vision of the family across the world.

"I know of no greater service that this, the Lord's university, can give to His Church than, through this School of Family Living, `turn the heart' of the young fathers - and the mothers - to their children and the `heart of the children to their fathers,' " said President Packer, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve.President Packer, attending an announcement banquet of the creation of the school in the Ernest L. Wilkinson Center, called the school's formation - which will educate the largest number of undergraduate students studying family issues and relationships in the nation - one of the most important events in the university's history.
President Packer, who commemorated his 74th birthday the same day, was accompanied to the event by his wife, Donna. Also in attendance were Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve and Church commissioner of education and his wife, Kathleen; Elder Merrill J. Bateman of the Seventy and BYU president and his wife, Marilyn; and members of the general auxiliary presidencies.
The School of Family Life will become part of BYU's College of Family, Home and Social Sciences. While the school will have 37 faculty members, other scholars across campus will be associated with the college, conducting family-related research within their own disciplines and teaching family-oriented classes. The school is also expected to strengthen BYU's contribution to family public policy.
Speaking of the importance of taking a position of leadership on family studies in the academic world, President Packer said the importance of family has grown to such a point that "literally the safety of humanity hangs in the balance."
"Powerful and sinister forces are at work against the family," he warned.
President Packer said "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" will become the school's new charter. During his remarks, he quoted the entire family proclamation - one of only five proclamations ever issued by the Church.
"Inevitably [your charter] will be challenged, even ridiculed," he said. "The principles outlined in the proclamation run counter to prevailing views in society. These principles are ours to defend, to share and to implement."
He told the faculty in the new school that they face a difficult challenge.
"There must be a way in the new School of Family Living to address the sacred family relationships in standards of scholarship worthy of a university," he said. "In doing so, you must honor those ever-enduring principles set forth in the Great Plan of Happiness which was revealed to us."
President Packer said the establishment of the school will return BYU to a direction it started to take almost 50 years ago. In 1952, the BYU board of trustees proposed the creation of the College of Family Living, but the vision never fully materialized.
"I'm not sure whether we meet tonight to celebrate a reformation or a restoration," he said. "I fervently hope it is a restoration. That early vision of a College of Family Living was interrupted. That vision can now be reclaimed in this new School of Family Living."
President Packer noted that BYU faculty members in the new school will not only train teachers and write university textbooks on the family, but also will prepare students to be good moms and dads.
"If you succeed - and you must succeed - those teachings and those textbooks will be laced through and through with the moral and spiritual values revealed to the Church whose university this is, without apology or avoidance."
Elder Bateman said the new school will make a difference "in the lives of the young people [attending BYU], in the lives of people in the community, and in the lives of people across the earth."
"If there was a beacon that Brigham Young University needed to be, it was a beacon for the family," he said.
The School of Family Life, directed by James Harper, a professor of family science, builds upon the Department of Family Science, which will be phased out as the new school becomes operational. Dozens of courses on parenting, human development, home economics, clothing and textiles, family history, household financial management and the family proclamation will be taught through the school.
Currently, approximately 2,100 BYU students a year enroll in courses on principles of successful marriage, love and morality, while another 3,300 enroll in courses on successful parenting and human development. Approximately 2,800 students participate each year in BYU classes on the gospel and the family, family financial management, and home skills - such as food preparation, clothing construction and resource management.
Through the new school, BYU officials hope to continue and expand scholarly work which focuses on the family.