I have a friend that attends BYU-Hawaii and she posted this on her facebook from a friend of hers M.F. He wrote about the Honor Code office and how it became an issue with two people. I thought it was pretty interesting and thought I would share it with others and your opinions on it.
Sent to the local BYUH magazine and the Honor Code office.
One of the greatest truths ever uttered is the line “The good don’t know how close to evil they really are.” It’s a truth, albeit a difficult one to accept, that more fully embraces a much older saying most are familiar with: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
The truth in these statements is well evidenced in history. The Pharisees for example were not always a diabolically stubborn and arrogant group that resisted the savior, they started off as the priests waiting for his coming. But over time as they took more and more measures to ‘enforce good’, they began to believe more and more in forcing people to be righteous. Once that system was in place, abuse quickly avalanched, and a once righteous group of people ended up being the fiercest to oppose Christ’s coming. They knew better, they were the right ones, and nothing could dissuade them.
BYUH is, like all the BYU schools, a firm believer in what they refer to as an “Honor Code”, a set of rules and moral values that students are encouraged to adhere to. Usually, this isn’t a bad thing. Much like members of the church are encouraged to live certain values, each of the BYU schools encourages its students to stand for something honorable and right.
The problem is that BYUH has of today crossed the line. The honor code as I witnessed it being used today is not a standard of good, but a tool for personal power. Many students have voiced concerns over the recent lockdown of many vague and unexplained areas of the honor code, areas vague enough they are left open to abuse by those who enforce it. For those of you who have not yet had the misfortune of running into the new Honor Code Gestapo, I would like to relate two stories that have both occurred in the last week.
I’m an off-campus student who lives like many students in Hauula due to BYUH’s housing shortages. This puts me several miles from campus, and I walk or bike these miles every day. In order to keep from being a disgusting sticky mess when I arrive on campus, I wear carefully selected athletic shorts. They’re modest, below the knees, plainly colored, and I have worn them both while here and the entirety of my three and a half years spent at BYU Provo, which has no problem with athletic shorts as long as they are modest.
Last week I had the unfortunate experience of being told I was no longer welcome to eat at the school cafeteria because I was wearing these shorts. I was upset. Why had I never been turned away before? They were modest shorts. My garments were covered. They weren’t extravagant or “extreme”. Any attempts to get an explanation were thrown back at my face with a simple phrase: That’s the rule. You can’t eat here.
So I went to the honor code office to voice my displeasure and found myself talking to a senior couple, the McWells. In trying to explain my case (which had to be forced over the McWells constant lack of interest) I reached the point of explaining how I biked from Hauula, Sister McWell interrupted me to loudly exclaim “Well then you can just bike to another university!” and turned up her nose at me.
This was when I decided that the BYUH honor code as it stands now needs to be changed. But what I saw today drove home another fact. That we need to change how it is enforced. Today, once church let out I decided to see what the cafeteria was serving for lunch. Turns out it was snideness, with a side order of derision.
Brother and Sister McWell had parked themselves outside of the front door to the cafeteria and were busily turning away what seemed to be about three out of every four who came to eat. But they weren’t just turning them away, they were acting in what I believe to be the most arrogant and insulting manner I have ever seen in a BYU employee at any school.
I witnessed a group of people walk up fresh from church and almost pass until Sister McWell held out her hand and informed one member of the group that he wasn’t allowed to eat there because he hadn’t shaved. Now, it was clear to see that this clean, well dressed young student had in fact, shaved that morning. There wasn’t even a five o’ clock shadow on his face, just the few whiskers that normally pop up after a few hours. But that wasn’t the clincher.
No the clincher was when she looked right at him and told him in the same manner as you would a two year old barely old enough to understand, “You see, we have standards at this school. And you’re not following those standards. You’re not welcome here.”
Have you ever seen the fifth Harry Potter movie? The one with Dolores Umbridge, the absolutely vile self-assured woman who acts like everyone is a small child that needs to be told what to think and plainly abuses what power she has in every way? The situation here reminds me a lot of that.
Is this what the honor code is supposed to represent? If the honor code is to be enforced, there is a right way to do it and there is a wrong way to do it. This is the wrong way. This is in fact one of the worst ways that the “honor” code could be enforced. And yes, I surround it with quotes because as it is being enforced now, there is nothing honorable about it. It’s a sham. For the “honor” code to be honorable, it would be left to the decision of the student, not enforced by an all-to-eager couple hunting for infractions.
Part of the current problem with the “honor” code stems from what I said earlier about it. The “honor” code is very vague in several areas. No athletic shorts is a prime example. What’s wrong with athletic shorts? Nothing is said. I can see a clear problem if someone arrives at the cafeteria with a pair of shorts covering about as much as a speedo, or a bit more, but when someone shows up wearing a pair of below-the-knee plain black shorts, what is the problem? What determines whether shorts are indeed athletic? I’ve seen several pairs of shorts that are ‘approved’ that don’t look very different from the shorts I’m wearing. Is there a list of brands I should be avoiding? Has BYUH decided that Adidas are permissible but Nike shorts are not? Seems to me that shorts make much more sense than a pair of business slacks, one is cool and refreshing, the other is hot, muggy and leaves you sweaty. Also, lets ignore the argument that one is “unprofessional” is worthless. My field won’t hire people wearing ties because of bad experiences with so-called professionals. I happen to own my own development studio. The “unprofessional” argument is just a way of justifying enforcement of a personal opinion.
There are other grey areas as well. The honor code states that all men must have a “Clean-shaven appearance.” Who defines what is and isn’t clean shaven? The young man I saw turned away from the cafeteria had plainly shaved several hours earlier, is BYUH going to put in a series of “shave-rooms” so that every man on BYU campus can shave every five hours in order to be “clean shaven” enough to eat? Currently these vague areas are where the advantage is being taken by those who have been given the capacity to enforce them.
The grayest area by far that deserves mention is BYUH’s supposed use of facebook. Now I will state right up front that the BYUH honor code office in the same sentence will both deny ever using facebook and say “but it’s public information anyway”, which casts a lot of doubt on the first half of the statement. I’ll simply add that while it may be public information, the law is saying otherwise to those who assume it can be used, having decreed facebook as “protected content”. A word to the wise BYUH, if a student caught you snooping on their facebook page as many have voiced concerns over, you could be facing serious legal problems.
Now a word about enforcement. Clearly there is something wrong with BYUH’s “honor” code if it is enforced through belittlement, insults and threats. First of all, if the majority of your student body is actively breaking a rule which you set in place, the issue probably isn’t that the students are being unreasonable, it is far more likely that you are. Secondly, if the reaction to the active breaking of the rule is to enforce a form of tyranny, to take away the students choice in the matter, to belittle them, to insult them in order to bend them to your will, then you may as well drop the pretense of the “honor” code altogether. We should already know by now that forcing someone to do right is the wrong way to do things. Then there is the irony of people wearing the “respectable” clothing being the ones acting in a derogatory manner, which I’ll leave at that.
To summarize, BYUH has overstepped its own bounds in enforcing a document which is at odds with the students. Rather than admit the possibility of change or engage in one-to-one discussion, BYUH’s honor code office has gone on the attack. BYUH claims to be working towards “…moral, ethical, and spiritual enrichment…” but I fail to see how it lives up to that standard when it verbally attacks and insults students for disobeying loosely defined “honor” values the school itself claims to live by. BYUH needs a change now, both in the “Honor” code an in its own structure.
Change is in no way unheard of. BYU Provo has made many changes over the years. Until the 80s, women were not even allowed to wear pants on BYU campus, until enough women revolted that BYU Provo realized that it in fact had to change and in the end nothing was wrong with pants.
I call for a change. BYUH’s “honor” code is anything but in the manner it is currently being enforced, and areas of the “honor” code itself are up to myriad interpretations. The honor code needs to be approved by the students, not used as a tool against them. One last word in this regard, I find it not at all in balance that the standards of BYUH’s “honor” code are higher than those required to hold my temple recommend. If the standards are so high that one can enter the temple but not BYUH something needs to change.
