Protests not new at Y.

Student activism dates back about a century

PROVO — Student protests at Brigham Young University happen only sporadically, but the history of student activism dates back about a century and includes some colorful stories.

In 1910, for example, students took to the streets of Provo over the Prohibition issue, according to the book "Brigham Young University: A House of Faith," by Gary James Bergera and Ronald Priddis.

"BYU certainly has a history of student and faculty protest," Bergera said Friday. "It's not a real lively history, but it's still part of BYU's past and seems like it will be on into the future."

That future is now. The university approved a request this week by the College Democrats student club to sponsor a protest on Wednesday. The demonstration will object to the selection of Vice President Dick Cheney as the commencement speaker at graduation on April 26.

A second campus protest will take place the day of Cheney's speech — if administrators and students can agree on a location. A decision is expected by Tuesday.

Of course, BYU is known for its lack of protests, a reputation earned during the unrest of the 1960s when the campus was nearly devoid of the upheaval that paralyzed other American colleges and universities.

BYU earned national praise in publications such as the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times for its peaceful campus and well-behaved students, although a claim in a school-produced history that there wasn't a single protest march or anti-administration protest during the period is a stretch.

That history was written by Ernest L. Wilkinson, who was the university president from 1951-71 and a conservative whose tenure, perhaps not so coincidentally, saw a politically diverse campus move to the right.

In 1934, in fact, more than 60 percent of students supported U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal welfare acts, according to a poll conducted by the Y News, an early student newspaper.

In 1911, students demonstrated to oppose threats of dismissal made about three faculty members who taught evolution.

And in 1919, they protested in support of the League of Nations.

But by the 1950s, polls showed the student body overwhelming in support of conservative presidential candidates, a trend that has continued.

Wilkinson did regularly invite presidential candidates from both major political parties to speak on campus, which led to visits by Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson. He tried to tamp down student activism at every turn.

During the 1960s, Wilkinson told BYU students in his annual address that participation in a serious disturbance would lead to dismissal. The tough approach wasn't one-sided: Students regularly gave his pronouncements a standing ovation.

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