LETTER: BYU rejects must not judge

Editor,

I’ve attended USU for a year and a half and during that time I’ve noticed that a good percentage of the students here are nothing more than BYU rejects. There is such a huge LDS influence on campus I think this school should be renamed Northern Brigham Young University.

As a member of the LDS church, I have to say coming from out-of-state has really been an eye-opening experience. I’ve been taken back more than once by the narrow-mindedness and social ignorance many students here seem to possess. And it seems to me that the non-LDS students who choose to come to this public university are alienated by the local culture. Our church teaches tolerance and acceptance of others and their beliefs, but sometimes I think we lose sight of what that entails.

Although, I’m sure a lot of what I call narrow-mindedness is unintentional it’s still disheartening and leaves people with a bad taste, which, in my opinion, is one of the worst things a member of our church could do.

I think, as LDS students, we need to realize that this is not a religious-based school, and stop assuming the person sitting next to you attends our church. Logan is a great town and we have a beautiful campus that has a lot to offer, but we also have a reputation of being a super-conservative Mormon school. This is too bad because having that reputation holds diversity at a minimum and hurts the overall quality of our education here. So, before the next time you invite someone to your ward’s family home evening or bring up your mission in a class discussion, consider for a second that there are people at this university who don’t want to know, and that they have just as much right to be here as any of us.

Greg Merrell