"I have felt very keenly the feelings of many of our young men concerning this terrible conflict," he said. In defense of conscientious objecters he added, "A man has to live with his conscience, his principles, his convictions and testimony, and without that he is as miserable as hell. Excuse me, but I believe it."

Not all of the activity in the 1960s was political. One year, more than 2,000 angry students who wanted extended Christmas vacations assembled at the football stadium, burned the dean of students in effigy and attacked the school cafeteria with raw eggs.

Student protests have decreased in number since 1982, when students demonstrated against a campus visit by Gen. William C. Westmoreland, former commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, during the annual campus Military Week.

Large banners, anti-war flyers and black armbands confronted Westmoreland.

But protests have continued. Last year, with the administration's permission, about 200 students staged a campus protest to decry the firing of a staff member who had criticized the BYUSA elections process in letter to the editor of the student newspaper The Daily Universe.

One student held a sign that read, Enter to Learn and Learn to Shut Up."

"I'm glad it's happening," another student said. "It kind of makes me feel like I'm at a real college."

That protest took place on March 31, 2006. Over the next two weeks, three more protests that included students happened without university permission.

First, on April 6, a documentary filmmaker screened his film in a campus classroom after the student who invited him was told he couldn't.

Then, on April 10 and 11, the Soulforce Equality Riders demonstrated on and around campus, resulting in the arrest of a handful of students who joined the protests.

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com