COLUMN: Newsflash: BYU made a few waves
A bunch of college students got together yesterday to protest a visit by a prominent member of the Bush administration. So what? Big deal, right? It hardly seems newsworthy until you consider that the protest took place at BYU. As in Brigham Young University. In Provo, Utah.
If that still doesn’t amaze you, let me remind you that BYU is the school where not going to church can get you kicked out. It’s the school where instructor Jeffrey Nielsen was let go last year because he wrote an opinion piece opposing the position of the LDS Church (which owns the university) on homosexual marriage. It’s where professor Darron Smith was let go for focusing on race issues in the church. At BYU, a man can even get kicked out for growing a beard (I’m not sure what happens if a woman does).
In other words, the people at BYU are not exactly known for being nonconformists. But over the past few weeks, many of them have thrown a fit about the fact that the church’s First Presidency invited Dick Cheney to speak at graduation. Students protested, saying Cheney was a corrupt man and a horrible example. They raised more than $23,000 to pay for their own “alternative commencement,” which was held at UVSC several hours after Cheney’s speech.
In response, different BYU students organized their own rallies in support of the vice president. There were dueling rallies and discussions of opposing ideas. News media from all over descended on the campus.
Provo hadn’t seen anything like it since 1997, when BYU officials refused to display Auguste Rodin’s nude sculpture, “The Kiss,” when a traveling exhibit of the artist’s work came to the school. Students protested then as well, with signs and clever chants such as, “You must remember this, a kiss is just a kiss!” Other students disagreed with the protestors and protested back.
Soon after, LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley visited campus and chided the protesting students for being so disruptive and contentious. Hopefully no similar reaction will follow the recent controversy.
Through it all, the university and the church stood by their choice. The church responded to allegations of partisanship by reiterating that it advocates no political position. Though many have scoffed at such claims of LDS neutrality, the Cheney fracas at BYU may have convinced some that a Mormon Democrat might not be an oxymoron after all.
Even so, the men in charge are clearly not pleased with the disruption to their quiet campus. Students who wanted to protest on campus were required to remain within a “free speech zone” and given only two hours in which to demonstrate their views. At the conclusion of the two hours, the students’ picket signs were confiscated by university officials, and they were told to disperse.
In any case, it’s nice to see such passion from a student body that is famous for being obedient and not making waves. Whether Dick Cheney is a lawyer-shootin’, torture-lovin’ spawn of Satan or a cuddly, America-defendin’ old grandpa, the fact that the man and the issues he raises are being discussed is important, especially in Utah.
Devin Felix is a senior in print journalism. Comments can be sent to dfelix@cc.usu.edu.