Opinion Editorial Topic

The topic that I have chosen to write my opinion editorial on is the unfairness of BYU enforcing parts of their dress code on off-campus housing. The reason I chose this argument was after noticing several different parts of BYU’s dress code being enforced at my own apartment and after thinking about it for a while I found it to be the same at all off-campus housing.

            The first argument that I would make is that the students living at these off-campus housing are not all BYU students. Utah Valley University’s enrollment has gone up by well over 10,000 students since the year 2007. So what that means is that the amount of housing has to go up as well. Many of these students are choosing BYU off-campus housing because of the closeness to their school compared to other housing options. These students have not all agreed to live by the honor code at BYU because they are going to another school, but are being held to some of the same standards, for example bikinis are not allowed at the swimming pools (a strong belief of the LDS faith)

Another argument that I way I add that many of these students who are living in the BYU off-campus housing are not members of the LDS faith. 98.5 percent of BYU are members of the LDS faith, which leaves approximately 360 students who are not members, enough to fill up an entire apartment complex. With Utah Valley University being a public university there students are not required to reveal their religious faith, but it is estimated that anywhere from 50-60 percent are members of the LDS faith, which leaves a projected 14,000 students who are not members. Where I’m getting with all of this is that there are a whole lot of students in Utah Valley, whether BYU, UVU or other smaller schools that need housing, and it’s not fair to force an honor code that is based upon a religious belief in an off-campus setting when many of the people living there are either not BYU students or not members of the LDS faith. A strong standpoint of the LDS faith is the idea of religious freedom and not forcing their belief on others, but by setting this honor code on people who are not at their school or members of the LDS faith is contradictory to the beliefs that they pronounce.

*By the way, I am a member of the LDS church and I support them 100%. I'm not saying the church is false because of this, it's just something that I find to be an interesting subject."