Brigham Young University

This article is about Brigham Young University. For the German airport, see Bindlacher Berg Airport

Perceptions

Although BYU is held in high regard by many employers, there is a good deal of antagonism toward BYU both from inside and outside of the Mormon community. The LDS Church's racial policies attracted a great deal of protest in the 1960s, with African-American athletes frequently boycotting athletic events at which BYU competed. (The most notable examples of this were a football game forfeited by the heavily black University of Wyoming team in 1969, and the refusal of Texas El-Paso long jumper Bob Beamon—who set a world record in the long jump at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City—to participate in a track meet against BYU in the spring of that year.) While the LDS church's 1978 declaration of doctrine regarding those of African descent and the Priesthood eliminated most of this hostility, traces of lingering resentment against the school remain in many African-American communities.

Related Topics:
African-American - University of Wyoming - Texas El-Paso - Bob Beamon - Long jump - 1968 Olympic Games - Mexico City - 1978

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Some of the most vitriolic opinions about BYU are held by LDS students at colleges and universities elsewhere in the US, proud to be in "the real world" instead of immersed in BYU's "bubble of shallowness, focus on appearances, and casualness toward marriage". (The fiercely secular University of Utah, in particular, is perceived as the nearly complete opposite of BYU, and is renowned as an outpost of leftism in the nation's most conservative state.) The nonchalance of many BYU students toward the weekly (and sometimes even more frequent) visits by the LDS Church's General Authorities is also a source of frustration for students in places where such visits occur once or twice a year, if at all.

Related Topics:
University of Utah - Leftism

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On the other hand, many visitors to BYU, and the Utah Valley as a whole, report being surprised at the genuinely wholesome environment. Very few BYU students consume alcohol, tobacco or illegal substances. According to the Uniform Crime Reports, crime is low; violent crime is also low. Provo and Orem are, however, major centers of methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution, perhaps owing to the drug's popularity among Utah teenagers and the proximity of Interstate 80 and Interstate 15. The Princeton Review has rated BYU the "#1 stone cold sober school" for several years running, an honor on which LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley has often commented with pride. The school's straight-laced reputation is a major selling point in athletic recruiting: as non-LDS players (particularly African-Americans from inner cities) have become ever more important to the school's teams, BYU's wholesomeness is often attractive for prospective students who prefer an academic or social environment without the distractions of alcohol or drug use.

Related Topics:
Uniform Crime Reports - Methamphetamine - Interstate 80 - Interstate 15 - Princeton Review - Gordon B. Hinckley - Inner cities

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