Wyoming Catholic College

While Brigham Young University prides itself in being the nation's most "stone cold sober" campus, a new Catholic college may well challenge the Provo school's reputation for a strict code of conduct.

Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyo., which will welcome its first students in August, seeks to provide a classical education, complete with religious instruction and wilderness experiences, according to its president.

But be forewarned: The school forbids students from watching, possessing or using a television, video game system or cell phone while at school or in the segregated dorms. Personal computers will be used solely for students to write papers — no computer games allowed. No Palm Pilots, either. There will be no Internet access, except at the college's public work stations, where faculty can oversee what is being viewed.

The technology ban includes an exception for iPods, personal music players and stereos that are kept at a low volume level so as not to disturb other students.

Segregated dorms are the mandatory housing arrangement. Possession of alcohol or illegal drugs and underage drinking (including off campus) is prohibited, as is visiting in dorms of the opposite sex. Students violating the rules can be dismissed.

The Rev. Robert Cook, a priest and Stanford-trained attorney, is one of the school's founders and will serve as its first president. He knows the rules would create havoc at the vast majority of American colleges and universities, but he's determined to show students that they don't need "inferior technologies" or other moral distractions while they're concentrating on their education.

"We tell them 'God gave you the greatest computer ever created,"' inside their own heads, adding, "You need to take four years to learn how to run it. Leave these inferior technologies behind for four years, then return to them." The rules are spelled out in the school's code of conduct, which each student must agree to before being admitted.

Cell phones will be permitted only when students travel "for safety purposes," he said. No electronic equipment will be allowed in classrooms: "They'll have to take notes with a paper and pencil" instead of a laptop computer.

The rules were an integral part of the way the Rev. Cook and his counterparts — Bishop David L. Ricken of the Diocese of Cheyenne and Robert Carlson, a philosophy and literature professor at Casper College — designed the mission and vision of the school, which expects to enroll only 32 students come August.