Monday, April 3, 2006
Brigham Young University... ugghhh
Todd J. Hendricks, the BYUSA coordinator, was fired after writing the following letter that was published in BYU's newspaper "The Daily Universe."
[blockquote]BYUSA's special interests
As a coordinator with student leadership and adviser with BYUSA, I share my concerns about the BYUSA student body elections and the recent disqualification of candidates. Each year, a full-time employee takes a turn rewriting election regulations, then appoints a student to chair the elections committee that will ensure candidates' compliance.
Conflict of interest and anonymity can hamper the committee. The committee comprises 10 students who are anonymous to the student body but, through associations in BYUSA, generally have strong ties to one or more of the candidates or to a full-time employee. The committee meets every evening prior to and during elections to discuss reports of "infractions" - complaints filed by candidates against one another, often anonymously, in hopes of securing penalties for the opposing team.
It is a system that rewards collusion and exaggeration. In addressing alleged infractions, the committee's anonymous identities and confidential proceedings sometimes cloud judgment. Special interest, rather than actual student votes, may thus determine the BYUSA presidency.
It is important to scrutinize candidates during election week, but it is also important to scrutinize the methodologies of the election's sponsors. I encourage the campus community to work with next year's BYUSA president and Student Advisory Council to establish clear election criteria and procedures. The elections committee must be housed outside BYUSA so the election outcome will not be decided by student leadership, full-time staff and volunteers with special interests. Proceedings of the committee must be fully transparent and, with few exceptions, disclosed to the press. Decision makers must be held accountable before the student body, whose election this is.
Todd J. Hendricks
Coordinator, BYU Student Leadership[/blockquote]
Can anyone fill in the blanks for me? What was in that letter that merited an employee's termination? I think BYU has a problem.
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First, let me say that I am no expert on the subject. I've been trying to glean the story from biased newspaper articles, editorials, students, and websites. Near as I can tell, someone goofed. Maybe not in firing Hendricks, but in the way they did it. I am not saying he has a fair argument, or that either side is right. I'm just saying, from what I've seen of the situation, it seems to me that neither side can be completely accurate in their claims, and I refuse to believe that he was fired solely for the letter (which is also BYUSA's stance, by the way- and they are only the student association, not the official BYU administration). My belief that he may have deserved to be fired does not stem from the fact that I go to BYU- a lot of BYU students are up in arms about this. There was a large protest on campus last Saturday, partially in support of Hendricks. Also, I knew the BYUSA candidate who was disqualified from the election this year through the infraction process Hendricks addressed in his letter. I supported him- even voted for him in the primaries. I even support Hendrick's point that there should be reform in the election process. But I think those using him as a martyr and claiming BYU is shutting down free speech are wrong. The affair was bungled, no doubt, but it was the mistake of a few individuals, not something to be blamed on BYU as an institution. These things happen everywhere. I'd simply advise people not to jump to conclusions- I don't think we know the whole story.
ReplyDeleteAll that I can say is that you made a good comment, Cami. We need to make sure that we know both sides of the story. The only side we know right now is that of student opinions and Hendricks' personal opinion. We don't know the reasons why he was fired, according to the BYU student administration. However, I think that maybe we have a right to know. As far as things seem right now, it looks like he was fired over the letter that he wrote, which, in my opinion, was not out of line.
ReplyDeleteSometimes people just suck at their jobs. They suck so bad that their are numerous valid reasons that they should be let go. But for some reason or another the boss tolerates them and allows them to continue at their current position. But then, maybe the employee does something that doesn't warrent being fired, but the boss is so fed up with him anyway because of all the crap he has done thus far that this is the straw that breakes the camels back. If he had only done this one lame thing that the boss didn't like, there would be no grounds for fireing him. It would be very unlawful. But because of all the stupid stuff that has gone on that he could have lawfuly been fired for, his time is up. I have no idea if this is even remotely close to this situation, but I know of a couple of people who fall into this category.
ReplyDeleteWell BYU isnt known for their freedoms. According to [url=http://www.lds-mormon.com/byu_aaup.shtml]http://www.lds-mormon.com/byu_aaup.shtml[/url]
ReplyDeleteBYU has been rated as the one of the least free institutions of expressing ideas.