OREM — It's been said that the lyrics of the theme song to "Gilligan's Island" can be sung to the melody of "Amazing Grace."

At Utah Valley State College, some people believe the lyrics and melody of UVSC's fight song can be swapped with some success with Brigham Young University's fight song, "Rise and Shout."

Yet, almost as sweet as grace "that saved a wretch" would be a stadium full of UVSC fans who actually knew the school's fight song.

Aside from a handful of student government leaders and longtime professors, few know "Stand Up and Cheer, UVSC."

UVSC's fight song is sung at basketball and volleyball games, although the pep band does not accompany the crowds at volleyball games. Student government leaders sing the song in meetings.

On Monday afternoon, a group of 16 college administrators and professors sang (and in some cases learned) the song with band director Wayne Erickson. The group also discussed how the song must be altered when UVSC becomes a university on July 1, 2008.

At the meeting, one UVSC vice president commented to a reporter that he was glad she was not recording their singing.

Another vice president showed with hand motions and drumbeats from his mouth how a rap version of the song could be performed.

All but two members of the group, which is called the Image Committee and is charged with studying logos, colors and seals, voted in favor of keeping the song, albeit with some minor changes.

The ending of the UVSC song "sounds like a rehashed, (half-)baked version of 'Rise and Shout,"' the BYU fight song, said Marcus Vincent, UVSC's art gallery director, who would have preferred a new song.

Steven Clark, UVSC faculty senate president, who also would have preferred a new song, recognized the two songs' resemblance and believes too many words are crammed into UVSC's song.

"I have a disc with 70 fight songs," Erickson said. "After (listening to) the sixth, they all sound the same" with mentions of the school colors and mascot, and typically including the words "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

But there are some admitted similarities between the BYU and UVSC songs: UVSC's fight song was composed in 1982 by Clyde D. Sandgren, who wrote the BYU fight song 50 years earlier.

UVSC's fight song is "not as good as 'Rise and Shout,"' Vincent said.

That led Cameron Martin, an assistant to UVSC's president, to sing BYU's fight song. Then he began to sing the University of Utah's fight song, but abruptly stopped after the words "Utah man."

"It's sexist, too," he said. "Ours is PC."

Committee members laughed.

Throughout the years, the lyrics to UVSC's fight song had to be altered to accommodate name changes — Utah Technical College at Provo, Utah Valley Community College, then Utah Valley State College.