Alone and Unobserved

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks on America’s Most Peaceful Campus (AKA Brigham Young University). Here’s AloneAndUnobserved.com’s timeline of events:

• March 8, the Linford & Romney campaign, frontrunners in the student body elections primary, are disqualified due to a very tortured reading of BYU’s already tortuous campaign rules.
• March 10, student leader coordinator and BYUSA advisor Todd Hendricks writes a letter to editor at the Daily Universe (BYU’s student paper) calling for more transparency in BYUSA elections.
• March 17, Hendricks fired for disloyalty by Vernon Hilpren, the Dean of Student Life at BYU.
• March 24, the Daily Universe publishes an article about the upcoming visit from Soulforce’s Equality Ride. The article notes that it is unlikely that the visit will result in any change in BYU’s policy.
• March 30, a Daily Universe article shows the impact Hendricks firing has had on campus fashion.
• March 31, BYU students hold a silent protest of the lack of free speech on campus (read a Daily Universe editorial here and letter to the editor here; the Salt Lake Tribune article here and letter to the editor here).
• April 6, BYU cancels a free speech forum featuring a screening of Steven Greenstreet’s documentary, This Divided State–but Greenstreet manages to screen the film anyway in a different classroom. BYU administration calls Greenstreet’s actions “unfortunate.”
• April 10, thirty-three Equality Riders visit BYU under very strict limitations. Five are put under arrest and escorted off campus after shouting to onlookers that BYU’s anti-gay policies were killing gays. Read the Tribune article here. The most disturbing part of the article: “BYU police officers, dressed in suits, and several university officials monitored the discussions in front of the Wilkinson Student Center and broke up groups they considered too large.” Big Brother is watching you!

Maybe BYU students are finally getting tired of the insane amount of crap they have to put up with in order to live the peaceful, event-free existence they’ve grown used to. Yes, it’s at the expense of diversity, openness, dialogue, and their own free speech–which they haven’t missed, for the most part, since they only use it to regurgitate the content-free blurbs they’ve been fed by Salt Lake. Get a life. Visit another college campus, where, yes, the grass isn’t as green or as freshly sodded, but where you won’t be crucified or expelled for sharing your own personal opinion.

BYU, grow up.