BYU limited in what it can say about party probe

PROVO — Brigham Young University officials have a multitude of reasons to jealously guard information about possible honor code violations by football players at a January party.

Millions of reasons — millions of dollars.

Spurred by a curious public, both national and Utah reporters have scrutinized a Jan. 16 party at a Provo residence.

There were allegations of sexual activity both illegal and illicit at the party, attended by current athletes and recruits.

While police ruled out criminal activity before the first published reports about the party surfaced, BYU's honor code, which prohibits alcohol and extramarital sex, has created a frenzied speculation about how many players will be disciplined and how.

Officials at the LDS Church-owned school have said only that they are investigating possible honor code violations involving the players, providing neither names nor details. Their position didn't change Wednesday.

"We are still in the process," said Vern Heperi, the dean of students.

While Heperi said the relative silence is a sign of BYU's respect for its students, some officials are uncomfortable they can't say more in the school's defense. However, they are kept from giving a larger response by a federal privacy law called the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA.

FERPA became law in 1973 but grew sharper teeth in 1988 when Congress required educational institutions to adhere to the privacy act if they receive a single dollar, directly or indirectly, in federal money.

BYU indirectly receives millions of dollars in federal funding each year in the form of Pell Grants and student loans given to students. It also is the direct beneficiary of research grants, including $1.2 million from the Department of Education for BYU's new Center for the Study of Europe, which opened in September.

On a campus where each student's tuition already is subsidized by a hefty amount of money tithed to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — subsidies that run into the hundreds of millions of dollars a year — failure to comply with FERPA is not an option.

FERPA prohibits the release of a student's educational records without the student's consent, and BYU conducts training for administrators, faculty and staff to avoid running afoul of the federal government.