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A former BYU professor has started a petition for BYU to “Bring Back the Beard!”
Activism in the church is sort of like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. If you agitate for change then you are seen as on a spectrum that begins with less than faithful and ends at apostate. The church also seems to be resistant to making changes based on activism and it becomes harder to draw a clear cause and effect line between activism and change. This deprives activists of a feeling of success. If you down agitate then the assumption is that everyone is happy and there is no need for change.
The petition only has 700 signatures. I assume that part of student’s reluctance to sign has to do with the need for them to regular ecclesiastical endorsement to remain enrolled.
I think most students know a petition will do nothing. I think it is more likely that the rule will quietly go away once so many people ignore it that it becomes unenforceable. Already many people have beards, especially now with masks. I often had my hair far longer than allowed, yet was never bothered about it. It seems like BYU lost the war on leggings and yoga pants several years ago, as they are now common on campus and it’s been a long time since I heard anyone complain about it. It’s well know among the students that the only place where the dress and grooming standards are really enforced is the testing center, and even then most have found ways around it. There is sometimes the occasional professor who makes a big deal out of it, and everyone hates them for it, but for the most part people don’t really care.
My BYU student sons have had similar experiences to yours Arrakeen. Mostly only enforced by the testing center and a small number of zealous professors or staff. Dumb question(s) of the day: How often does a student go to the testing center?
Where I went to school we took tests in the same classroom where we attended the class, so a testing center is a foreign concept to me. Are testing centers common in average universities?
Is the goal of the BYU’s testing center to artificially funnel all students to a place where they can be routinely measured against grooming and dress standards? Like, they can’t beard check at church because that’s a whole week’s worth of facial hair, and if they don’t attend church for a few weeks they could really get something going. But students
haveto take tests to graduate, so let’s build a testing center and check them there. Here I’m also assuming that BYU-Idaho has campus police patrolling for people with facial hair or pants with hems that are more than 1.5″ above the ankle.
I was unfamiliar with the idea of a testing center other than BYU as well. As I understand, not all tests are given in the testing center but many are. I believe the aim is to give students more time to take longer exams (as opposed to regular class periods). Most finals are given there. It is the people you check in with at the door who are tasked with enforcing the beard (and presumably other) policies, and they even have razors available to offer the opportunity to go to a nearby restroom and shave. The ID center also enforces the policy, but you don’t have to go there often. I presume other admin offices do as well. BYU Idaho is a different animal all together, and everyone knows that people there are more righteous than their counterparts at BYU Provo. Thus, I would not be surprised campus police at BYU-I are charged with enforcing dress standards – but given the righteousness of students there they probably have little to do.
So, having the testing center at BYU actually has one major benefit. Unlike at other universities, you do not have to take your exams at a specific time. Exams will be available for a few days, and you can choose to go in and take them whenever you want during that time. This helps with planning out your studying and you can spread out midterms and finals to not have to take them all on the same day. Of course, this means some students take the exam before others, which has more potential for cheating. BYU does this because they hope they can trust students’ integrity.
I’m not sure how true it is, but while I was there I heard a rumor that testing center employees had been instructed to loosen up enforcement a bit, I think especially with modesty (I should note the testing center, like most places on campus, is staffed by students). I would guess it would be to avoid the creepiness/sexual harassment that could result from situations like male testing center employees policing their female peers’ clothing. Quote:BYU Idaho is a different animal all together, and everyone knows that people there are more righteous than their counterparts at BYU Provo. Thus, I would not be surprised campus police at BYU-I are charged with enforcing dress standards – but given the righteousness of students there they probably have little to do.
Having some familiarity with BYUI, I can assure you that campus security do NOT spend their time enforcing the dress and grooming standards (at least any more than any other staff or faculty do). And while I know that the last statement was said in jest but, unfortunately, BYUI is not free of things like assaults, vandalism, and theft. Would that it could be!
As for dress and grooming standards generally, I’m not particularly sympathetic to those who want to change them (though they are welcome to try). Personally, I don’t really care what you wear or how long your hair and beard are. However, such standards are not that unique. Many businesses and other organizations impose a dress standard of some sort so it’s not that unusual. Okay, it’s probably not as restrictive as the BYUs and certainly you’re not going to suffer the same degree of consequences for violating the standard. I think the main issue I have with these rules is that they encourage an outward compliance that may not mirror what is in “the heart.” In other words, as long as I shave, I’m a good person. A tempting outlook for some.
OK, new STAYLDS friends, thanks for the comments. Now that I’m a registered member of your group, here’s my view about beards at BYU and why nearly 2,000 have joined our online cause. I hope you will add your name and thoughts like many students, local church leaders, temple workers, and others have after reading stories in the NYT, SLTrib, BYU’s Daily Universe, and international news stories globally. “RESTORING ALL THINGS, INCLUDING BEARDS AT BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY”
By Prof. Warner Woodworth
Many LDS friends are drawing on church teachings to take a somewhat daring action to change BYU policy. We draw on D&C 58 for encouragement where the Lord says to take initiative: “26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.
27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.
28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.
29 But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.”
Now the beard policy isn’t the most important thing in our lives. In my own humble life, I labor fulltime without compensation as a radical but voluntary champion of social change in 62 countries helping our church members and others to combat poverty, fight racism and other injustices, seek to strengthen civil society, raise good families, and practice living the gospel. But we believe it’s time for change at BYU.
So hundreds of advocates for a new BYU policy allowing campus beards are going to
http://www.change.org to sign the petition. I invite everyone to join #BringBacktheBeard.As close friends know, BYU students over the years have requested I be the campus beard club advisor for several groups. I sought to be supportive and there were various efforts for change. Throughout last year’s COVID-19 pandemic, many BYU males grew good-looking beards to please themselves, spouses, friends, and others. While the campus was largely shut down, some faculty colleagues, as well as men and women students, alumni, neighbors, and others asked me to mobilize folks in another attempt to change a long-term misguided policy. So, I finally agreed to do so once again.
Please go to
http://www.change.org and sign if you agree that this last vestige of the 1960s should finally be swept away by the light of a new and better campus. My several paragraphs below on the petition explain the misfortunate origins and perpetuation of an old, false narrative. As support grows, many will join the cause. Be one of the first, and please invite others.I apparently need to explain why and how petitions for changing an organization or culture can lead to positive results. Signatures through petitions cause lots of changes, despite executives who try to deny reality. It’s always been the case. Not that leaders sometimes reverse their own rules or policies. But most of them are extremely resistant to new ideas or better practices. Why? Because traditional things become the norm. That is why such people rise up the chain of command as “leaders” because they are conformists who toe the company line. BYU is typical.
If you check out the background of campus beards, a bit of Mormon history may explain how the policy against allowing men to grow beards occurred. It happened because of one (unnamed) administrator who succeeded in manipulating the LDS church president when he was gravely ill in a hospital. The new rule was thus signed by his secretary using the president’s typical signature. No leader since has apparently considered reversing that action, just like rules become rules all the time. They remain long-term because of tradition. In my MBA courses, I used to give my Marriott School students an annual lecture about organizational practices. It was titled: “We’ve always done it this way.” In it I encouraged students to question things and not quietly conform. Why? Because not looking to improve things crushes innovation. Real leaders challenge the status quo. Think of Jesus, Gandhi, MLK, Jr., Mother Teresa, and many more. To quietly “go along to get along” is corrosive. Such a mindset stifles new ideas and risk-taking. Whether Joseph Smith, Copernicus, Eliza Snow, or Steve Jobs, words like “That will never work” have prevented society from real growth and creating more humane cultures.
With respect to having a beard, BYU is desperate to recruit more extremely bright students. It’s lost many because of outdated policies and cultural biases. There have been dozens of cases of BYU administrators caving to pressure in the past. Here are just a well-documented few:
When women were not allowed to study or teach at BYU, when the “Y” on the mountain was not allowed, when playing football was banned as a campus sport, when student congregations were rejected at BYU before being accepted decades later, when women demanded to wear pants, when black athletes were first recruited, when rock music was banned from all campus events, when the LGBTQ club was finally allowed after 22 years of requests, when Critical Race Theory (CRT) was first taught in campus courses, when LDS members from Latin America were eventually allowed to enroll as BYU students, when alternative commencements occurred to protest right wing speakers and corrupt business officials, when the idea of having international development and dozens of other majors was approved, when student government was not acceptable at BYU but later was and finally women students were “allowed” to run and occupy student government offices, when students demanded a campus health center after years of administrative resistance, when Black students were finally welcomed to attend BYU and later when a Black Student Alumni Association was OK’d, when men were required to have beards, and later when not, when scientific evolution was banned and later restored as a major theory in all BYU science classes, when the idea of having a missionary training program was proposed by RMs (Returned Missionaries) but rejected before it was finally approved, when women were not allowed to work in custodial and grounds crew jobs before they became the majority, when BYU students protested U.S. wars and foreign policies and were at first denied permission to hold rallies before being allowed, when students demanded a larger football stadium and also a much larger library, and hundreds more policy changes from BYU students. In spite of naïve assumptions that policies come from top down, the reverse is usually the case at BYU and other schools. In fact, this is how real change comes in most organizations most of the time, whether political, religious, business, education, and/or social. In fact, bottom-up change is the norm, as the thousands of my students who took my courses on organizational behavior, leadership, social change or other classes learned in our studies and research.
So to friends seeking to “STAYLDS,” please join the cause. Also, recruit your families, your priesthood quorum and Relief Society folks, your work associates, your neighbors and beyond. The time is now! Or better said, the time has been right for this change since 1964 on the BYU campus. Yes, big institutions are slow to make good decisions. They’re even worse when it comes to correcting a wrong. But these are the days to improve our lives, in matters small and large.
Thanks for adding your perspective Prof. Woodworth. The stayLDS website does not really endorse or support any specific movements, petitions, etc. However, individual members are free to engage to their heart’s content.
Good luck to you!
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