Bared bellies bother BYU

PROVO — Brigham Young University is going through a midriff crisis of sorts.

Female students who choose to wear the popular combination of short shirts and low-riding pants or skirts are the norm at American colleges and universities, as well as high schools and even elementary schools.

It's not unusual at BYU, either.

Which is the problem.

Bare midriffs go against the church-owned school's dress code, which promotes modest dress and lists "revealing" clothing as inappropriate attire.

First-year BYU President Cecil Samuelson devoted a campus address Tuesday to reminding students of that.

Samuelson said he has fielded complaints about bare midriffs since President Gordon B. Hinckley, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called him as BYU's 12th president in March.

Samuelson has addressed the issue with students more than once, but it was one parent's reprimand that he said "penetrated me like a sharp dagger" and prompted the full-length response Tuesday.

The dagger came courtesy of the mother of a student at a reception during parents week in October. Samuelson said the mother told him "she was trying to help her daughter dress more modestly and wear less form-fitting clothing. Her daughter," Samuelson continued, "said something to the effect that her professors and even on one occasion the president himself had seen her and not said anything critical of her dress and appearance."

Samuelson also read from a letter he received from a former BYU student in December. "It shocked me to see so many tummies on the campus while I was attending my 50th-year reunion in October," the letter said.

"I don't know how many tummies she actually saw on campus," Samuelson said, "but it doesn't take all the fingers on one hand to count 'too many.' Some adult women I know have mentioned that a few of you look like you are wearing your much younger sister's T-shirts."

After the devotional, some students said bare midriffs are difficult to miss on campus.

"You see it every day," said Brian Shelley, a junior from Alpine majoring in business.

Elizabeth Crane, a freshman from Salt Lake City majoring in culinary arts, is glad Samuelson broached the subject. She and Shelley said male students must play a role in encouraging women to dress appropriately.

"Modest girls get upset because they're trying to get attention in other ways besides their bodies," Shelley said. "When they see immodest girls getting all the attention, it discourages them from dressing modestly."

Samuelson told students the issue is critical.

"External appearances do matter," he said, adding that clothes, hair, makeup and jewelry send specific messages, some unintended.