Dear Editor,
I recently read The Universe’s EFY editorial. I think that there are some serious problems to be addressed that were glossed over with a bunch of sugary ignorance in the editorial. Although I strongly believe in the mission and purpose of EFY, there are some issues that both the BYU administration and EFY directors need to correct.
I was accepted to attend BYU. I pay to attend BYU. Like me, there are thousands of other students who fall into the same category. For the last three summers I, and others I know, have attended BYU and are now annually annoyed with EFY. EFY is an invasion.
Starting in May, noisy campers and noisy leaders inundate the campus, the Wilkinson Student Center, the lawns and the buildings. Everywhere you look there are loud and often disrespectful groups of EFY people. I can’t find the part of BYU that correlates with a free-for-all, be-obnoxious-as-you-want, summer youth zone. That’s what the university becomes — a summer youth zone. For those of us who are students, who are paying for an education, wouldn’t it make sense if someone, somewhere, with any kind of pull, actually met with the EFY directors and arranged for the cheering, chanting, screaming and obnoxious behavior to be directed elsewhere?
Why doesn’t EFY move more near the dorms or Deseret Towers field for most of the day, then hold its activities on campus in the evening, when there are less students around?
I guess my point is that EFY takes over what isn’t theirs without obvious concern for the courtesy BYU gives them for housing and facilitating their program. As for being considerate on campus, maybe instead of cheers they should practice holding their fingers to their lips and whispering SSHHHHHH.
Tyler Walseth
Santa Barbara, Calif.
