Opinion Editorial

There are two things that we as human beings seem to cherish and fight for. 1. Our belief/religion and 2. Our freedom. So when one of the two is taken away we tend to fight for it. But what if one of the two is taken away because of the other? And even more, what if it isn’t our own belief that is taking away the freedom that we hold so dearly to us.

            At Brigham Young University there is a very strict dress code. Shorts must be knee-length or longer, and shirts must include sleeves, so on and so forth. These dress standards are set because of the belief of the importance of modesty from the Mormon Church, who owns and runs BYU. So I understand enforcing a strict dress code at a university that is both paid for and up kept by a religion, but what I don’t understand, and what I want to talk about in this paper is the fact that some of these same dress standards are enforced in the BYU off campus housing. Now if the housing was strictly limited to students actively attended BYU then I would understand, but with students from BYU, UVU, Paul Mitchell Hair school, etc. all living in these housing it’s not fair to enforce a dress code on housing members that is derived from the religious beliefs of a school that they don’t attend.  Students at BYU understand and agree to the fact that their university along with its dress code is going to be in accordance with the standards set by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. But when these same dress standards, which are based on the faith of the LDS church, are enforced on students going to other universities, who may not be members of the LDS faith, that is when the subject gets a little iffy.  Not all of the same standards are enforced, but an example of enforcing the dress code is the non-allowance of bikinis at the swimming pool. Now whether or not bikinis are appropriate is not the argument, the argument is whether or not it is fair to enforce a dress code on a group of people who have not made the promise to live by these standards either religiously or academically.