Students protest handling of BYU-Idaho honor code violations
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REXBURG — A large group of students gathered outside campus grounds to demand reforms to how Brigham Young University-Idaho handles violations of its honor code.
Despite chilly temperatures Wednesday, around 150 former and current students held signs and chanted, “What do we want? Reform! When do we want it? Now!” Their goal? Convince the private religious university to change how it handles honor code violations.
The school has declined to comment on the protest.
Participants were invited to write letters that would be delivered to the Honor Code Office with a formal letter listing out the reforms the protesters want in the honor code. EastIdahoNews.com obtained a copy of the official letter.
“As students we believe The Honor Code is important and reflects Gospel principles. However, the unjust investigations and events which occur in the Honor Code Office must change. We request steps to be taken in order to repair Christlike love and increase honor at this university,” the letter states.
The BYU-Idaho protest gained traction after news broke about an upcoming sit-in protest at BYU-Provo regarding its honor code set for this Friday. Protesters in both Idaho and Utah want the universities, both owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to focus less on punishing students who violate their religious honor code and more on helping them.
The rules, which all students sign when enrolling at BYU-Idaho, deal with a wide variety of personal, social and religious conduct students must adhere to, which includes prohibiting sexual activity outside of traditional marriage, where students can live, and what type of clothes or hair styles they can have.
The Church Educational System Honor Code is broken up into five parts on the BYU-Idaho Student Honor Office website: Academic Honesty, Student Life, Ecclesiastical Endorsement, Church Attendance, and Dress & Grooming.
Event organizer Kelsey Woodhouse and a few others delivered the formal letter along with 75 other letters also requesting honor code reform to the Dean of Students Office. Woodhouse said they were told school administrators were too busy to receive the letters personally, so they delivered the letters to the secretary.
“We’re going to keep marching — keep protesting. Our social media’s not going to die,” Woodhouse said.
Woodhouse, who also goes by the name Grey on her Instagram and Twitter profiles, is a former BYU-Idaho student who was kicked out on March 12, according to an email from the school she posted to her Twitter account. She has admitted to multiple honor code violations, which led to her expulsion, but she also says that’s not why she is protesting.
Woodhouse and others participating in the protest were clear they did not want to do away with or even necessarily change the honor code. But they believe school administrators have at times inappropriately handled misconduct, and the protesters want to reform the way honor code investigations and violations are handled.
An Instagram page detailing some of the students complaints against the Honor Code Office at BYU-Idaho was set up here. A similar page was set up at BYU-Provo.
“The policies are discouraging people from coming out about their mistakes and repentance,” BYU-Idaho student Kyle Timmans said.
According to the formal letter, the protesters want honor code administrators to receive training in psychology and sensitivity. They don’t want students to be investigated for violations more than a year old. And they want student advocacy and transparency from the Honor Office.
That transparency includes allowing students to record their interviews in the Honor Office, something Woodhouse said she was not allowed to do. They also want to allow a student advocate present during these interviews as a witness.
The full letter is available here.
No one from the school’s administration attended the protest, nor have any offered to comment on it.
However, Christian Ashcraft, director of the Representative Student Council, was present and talking to the other students.
Ashcraft is like a student body president, but is not elected. The purpose of the council is to gather student opinion and make recommendations to school administrators.
He was adamant he was not there on behalf of the school’s administration.
“A lot of people are genuinely concerned about the procedures and the general practices of the Honor Code Office. That’s probably the top thing that I hear, and that’s probably because of the recent spark coming from BYU (Provo),” Ashcraft said.