By MICHAEL HYTE
Many BYU students are forging ahead with their crusade on the California same-sex marriage issue despite opposition and a lack of official university support.
Jean Wooley, a student at BYU from California and an intern at the Jacobsen Center for Service and Learning is spearheading student efforts.
BYU has not encouraged any of its 5,000-plus students from California to vote either way on the proposition.
A number of BYU students want to raise awareness among students from California about Proposition 22 and their opportunity to vote on it, via absentee ballot.
Wooley initially asked the university to provide a list of BYU students from California. The request made its way up through proper channels. However, when it reached the office of associate BYU general council Michael Orme, he advised that the university not provide the list, because of legal considerations.
Orme said the university realized raising awareness is something the students can accomplish just as well on their own without the university’s backing and without raising legal issues.
“The decision not to get involved is a decision driven as much by policy and public relations as it is by legal concerns,” Orme said.
Orme also said that BYU’s decision to remain neutral is consistent with the role of non-profit organizations in political matters and elections.
Similar decisions were made by the BYU-Hawaii administration when a comparable proposition was initiated in that state.
Wooley and other student volunteers were able to generate a list of BYU’s California students on their own.
Wooley received permission from the Jacobsen Center, where she is an intern, to use the student center after hours. She and other students have been using the Jacobsen Center and its computers to send email to BYU students from California urging them to vote on the issue.
The email they are sending encourages students to vote on Proposition 22, but does not ask them to vote any particular way.
However, BYU has not given any support — officially.
The matter at hand, known as the California Marriage Initiative, or Proposition 22, is intended to define marriage in the state of California states that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” The proposition is on California’s March 7 ballot.
Traditionally, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has remained neutral in political matters, encouraging its members to vote but not how to vote.
“We deal only with those legislative matters which are of a strictly moral nature or which directly affect the welfare of the LDS Church,” Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley said in the general priesthood session in last year’s general conference. “We regard it as not only our right but our duty to oppose those forces which we feel undermine the moral fiber of society.”
Although the LDS Church has taken a visible and vocal stand in the state of California in favor of Proposition 22, BYU policy holds that, in light of being a non-profit organization, the university will not endorse political persons or causes.
The Jacobsen Center has also allowed Wooley to use her cubicle at the student center as a distribution center for registration forms used to request absentee ballot status.
The question remains whether or not the university has truly stayed neutral on Proposition 22, since these efforts are being carried out using BYU property and facilities.
“Part of the Jacobsen Center’s purpose is to help students to get involved and provide service. It is
Jacobsen Center Policy to allow student employees access to the computers after hours. This is not unique to this
initiative.”
“The Jacobsen Center is not sponsoring this. I only support Jean Wooley and other students in their
citizenship and their desire to make a difference,” said Kau.
The question is also raised as to whether any efforts to encourage voting on Proposition 22 by means of university channels can be viewed as neutral.
Carri Jenkins, director of Media Communications at BYU, said, “The University has not taken a stand on Proposition 22. Students who become involved do so by their own choice.
“We encourage them to follow the dictates of their conscience and become involved in community and political matters.”
Not all students from California are as equally receptive to the efforts.
“I am sick of receiving e-mail about the subject. This is harrassment,” said Ryan Belka, 18, a freshman from Redlands, Calif., majoring in political science.
See related stories:
Some question BYU’s neutrality on Proposition 22 1/25/2000
Congress discusses family rights in relation to international policy 11/15/99
Catholic leader defends LDS involvement in Knight Initiative 10/21/99
Catholic Church joins in California campaign to prevent same-sex marriages from becoming legal 10/18/99
President Hinckley: ‘Why we do some of the things we do’ 10/03/99
