If you attend BYU (or any of its affiliates), you're aware that students must adhere to an Honor Code.
Considering how specific this code is, there is an awful lot of debate about what it means to follow it. And the BYU-Idaho campus has even more restrictions.
Today, a new rule was set up there. (See this article.)
I have a few thoughts about this. But first, let me share a couple of personal examples:
1. Walking on campus, I passed a girl who was wearing modest attire: a long-sleeved top, boot-cut jeans, boots, and a jacket. However, her jeans had horizontal slits up past her front pocket lines. (I have actually seen the horizontal tears more than once, but this was the highest up the leg that I'd ever seen them. Usually they stop mid-thigh [which is technically still against the Honor Code]. I've also seen them on both endowed and non-endowed students.)
2. While visiting Clark on campus, I passed several girls who wore long-sleeved tops, boots, skirts, and leggings. However, their skirts did not even extend past the reach of their hands. (Did your mother ever enforce that rule?)
3. I remember that it started raining one night while I was headed home. I had a lot of trouble walking because I was wearing flip-flops (permissible on BYU-Provo campus) but they had no tread. I also remember silently denouncing the Honor Code because it specifically states, "shoes should be worn in all public campus areas."
Now, I don't share that last example to say what a saint I am compared to these other girls I have mentioned (and don't worry, while all my examples include females, I've seen plenty of guys try and flout the Honor Code, too), I just wanted to share it because it's not always clothes that are in question. Also, to say that I don't always have warm fuzzies for the Honor Code.
However, I was a student then and I had signed the Honor Code which meant I had agreed to follow the rules. I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to come to school here, so I just went with it.
I was listening to a talk by Elder Neil L. Anderson a couple of months ago and he said the following: "There are times we honor our agreement simply because we agreed to it." A few minutes later, he continued, "obey them [the rules] because you signed your name, saying you'd obey them."
What other argument can I make? When an apostle of the Lord says that you should hush up and buck up, you do it. No arguments.
6 comments:
First of all, why did you post this at 2:00? Second of all, yes. Third of all, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgAlQuqzl8o
Amen, sister.
I. Agree. When the leggings thing came back and I saw girls wearing those with short skirts on campus, it bothered me. In my opinion, it's really not that different from just wearing the skirt, as the leggings are sooooo tight. I like what you had to say at the end ... you agreed to it, so live it. Period.
(P.S. I got into a small argument with a "friend" from high school earlier this year about the whole Brandon Davies thing. He was super ticked about what BYU did in that situation. He thought the honor code was insane and couldn't understand why BYU would have such a thing. Basically, I told him it didn't matter. What did matter is that BYU has the honor code, EVERYONE signs/agrees to it before they can even apply to come here, and BYU was simply enforcing the agreement. Kind of the same idea, no?)
It kills me when people get all up in arms when they are expected to conform to an agreement that they signed. Why is this a surprise, people? Did you think the Honor Code Office just wanted your autograph?
I think part of their ire comes from the fact that the agreement is being changed after they signed it. When they signed it said one thing, now they've added another clause, ostensibly in midsemester. In any other contract situation, that would invalidate the whole contract or mandate a resigning to be legal. BYU-I, being theocratic in nature, however, can tell their students that if they want to "keep their honor," they'll obey the new terms. As a private institution, BYU-I can do that, no argument there. However, I don't think we should come down too hard on the people complaining that the contract they signed and the rules they "agreed" to live by are suddenly changed without input from them.
Good point, Evie. I hadn't considered the fact that it's in the middle of the semester. And I'm sure that students could use that to defend the skinny jeans fad until the end of the semester. But I don't think that the excuse would last beyond the end of the semester, since students are required to restate their commitment to follow the Honor Code every year and BYU-I has the different "tracks" that their students are on.
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