By Mounu Mataele
BYU-Hawaii, BYU-Idaho and BYU-Provo all have an honor code, but the dress and grooming and residential living standards are different at all three campuses.
?The basic honor code?in other words honesty, integrity, morality, chastity, word of wisdom, respect for others? is the same for every university,? said BYU Provo Honor Code Director Steven Baker. ?The main area where most people would notice an obvious difference would be in dress and grooming.?
At BYU-Provo, clothing is inappropriate when it is sleeveless, revealing or form fitting. Shorts must be knee length.
BYU-Idaho dress and grooming standards restrict the same things, but additionally forbid bib overalls, patched, faded, frayed, torn, or tight, formfitting clothing, shorts of any length, sweat suits or PE-type clothing.
BYU-Hawaii dress and grooming standards allow shorts, which must extend at least to the middle of the knee while standing. So-called ?grubby attire? may be worn only in the immediate areas of residence halls and at informal outdoor activities, but not in dining or classroom areas.
Grubby attire is defined as tank tops, shirts without sleeves, midriffs, sweats and jogging attire, work overalls, medical scrubs, military camouflage and the informal lava lava (a piece of fabric worn around the waist).
Residential living standards at the three campuses also vary.
BYU-Hawaii and BYU-Provo residential living standards are just over a page in length and consist only of on- and off-campus visiting hours when the opposite gender may visit and a paragraph about conduct.
BYU Idaho?s residential living standards is titled BYU Idaho Off-Campus Apartment Approval on the campus Web site.
The six pages of guidelines begin by stating all single students must live in approved housing and male and female students must live in separate housing.
Also each apartment must have an apartment manager who supervises up to 60 students. A resident assistant should be hired for the supervision of every additional 30 to 40 students.
Each university has a certain visiting hours for the opposite sex. In Provo and Hawaii visiting hours begin at 8 or 9 a.m.
In Idaho the visiting hours begin at 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, noon on Saturday, and after church on Sunday.
The visiting hour guidelines in Idaho also state there should always be at least three people in the apartment being visited by a member of the opposite sex.
Late overnight passes are required to extend curfew one hour, Sunday through Thursday.
Students had different opinions on the differences in the dress and grooming and living standards.
?I wasn?t really big on showing off my legs anyway,? said Aaron Dahle, 22, sophomore, from Fairview, Montana when asked about not being able to wear shorts while attending school in Idaho.
Dahle said BYU-Idaho officials were also strict about other dress and grooming standards such as shaving. ?If you went to the testing center and you hadn?t shaved, you couldn?t take a test,? he said. ?They had shavers there.
?I think for some people it is a problem because they feel that because of all the structure that the school is treating them like children not adults,? he said.
Dahle said, however, some people enjoyed having the additional rules.
?BYU-Idaho is a little bit stricter,? Dahle said. ?They have a curfew, but a lot of people actually liked it. It forced them and me to get more sleep, kind of like the mission where you have to go to bed at a certain time and wake up at a certain time.?
One student at BYU-Hawaii, said she didn?t feel there was not much of a difference in the honor codes.
?Even though it?s a lot hotter in Hawaii, you still have to have dress standards,? said Losaline Lautaha, 19, sophomore, majoring in English from Laie, Hawaii, who also attended BYU Hawaii.
The differences in the three campuses is shows what each campus emphasizes, Baker said.
?Provo is emphasizing that it is very important that you are not in the member of the opposite gender?s apartments after certain hours,? Baker said. ?But I think BYU-Idaho has a slightly different kind of approach. They have a certain time that people are suppose to be in.?
Sarah Lautaha, 21, senior from Laie, Hawaii majoring in political science at BYU-Hawaii, attended BYU-Provo as recent as two years ago. She said that because BYU-Hawaii a smaller school rules are enforced more.
?The way professors and administration treat the students is more of a child-parent relationship,? she said.
All three campuses review their standards annually.
?We believe the honor code is a system of self governing.,? said BYU-Idaho Assistant Dean of Students Michael Lehman. ?It?s not about being forceful. Every year we do review the standards and sometimes we make adjustments.?
However, changes to the honor code are not ultimately the decision of students or faculty, but of a church board of trustees.