Deseret News | UVSC creating a community council

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UVSC creating a community council

Civil dialogue on hot-button issues is its aim

By Laura Warner

Deseret News

Published: Friday, Oct. 1, 2004 9:51 p.m. MDT

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OREM — Utah Valley State College said Friday it will create a community-relations council made up of community leaders and college officials to promote civilized discussion about hot-button issues.

The public outcry over Michael Moore's speech on Oct. 20 prompted the school to form the council, which is intended to "create dialogue in the community on an ongoing basis," UVSC spokesman Derek Hall said.

UVSC hopes it will serve as a communication channel between the public and school chiefs.

"It's just going to be a place for discussions like the one going on to happen," Hall said of the just-created council. "We're trying to include the broader community. It's not just the college trying to pull the community along."

UVSC Academic Vice President Brad Cook will head the council, which will be co-chaired by the Rev. Dean Jackson, lead pastor at Rock Canyon Church, and Jack Zenger, chairman of UVSC's Board of Trustees.

And the council plans to add 15 more members. Students and school staff also will be asked to serve on the panel.

The council hopes to head off divisive debate by providing public forums for people who live in Utah Valley to talk about what's happening at the school — and how what happens at the school impacts the surrounding community.

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"We live in a culture that understands the idea of debate. However, we do not have a good grasp of the concept of dialogue," Jackson said.

Hall said he has received more than 15 pages worth of e-mails — many too vulgar to publish in the Morning News —denouncing the college for its decision to invite Moore to campus.

Some tickets to the school's annual scholarship ball — which sold out in record time despite the Moore controversy — have also been returned with nasty messages included, he said.

And President William Sederburg, as well as student government officers Jim Bassi and Joe Vogel, have been appalled by some feedback they've received.

"I've been disturbed by the threats," Sederburg said. "Threats are not civil discourse. Civility needs to be the key word."

E-mail: lwarner@desnews.com