I consider BYU's honor code to be a great privilege. Being able to go to a school that upholds standards on sex drugs and alcohol makes my college experience much more enjoyable.
But during this year's honor code week I supposed to wear the honor code t shirt for a few of my shifts. I was willing to do this but the idea of keeping that shirt made me uncomfortable.
Another great privilege of attending BYU is it's tuition price. Few if any institutions offer such a great return on investment. I think compliance with the honor code, including wearing their t-shirt for a day, is a pretty small price to pay for what the school has to offer.
I think I can say that I enjoy BYU's honor code, but don't have quite the same feelings about an honor code week.
There are people who like to say things such as, "there are a ton of [unmarried] students at BYU having sex in the dorms," or "Provo has one of the highest rates of Rape in the country." I think these statements come from people whom are scared to come across as naive. The impression I get is that a large majority of the students here don't need an honor code to tell them not use alcohol or coffee, or that they can't have sex outside of marriage, or that they should go to church.
At a zone conference when an Elder or the mission president holds a white handbook and mouths the word "obedience" about 3 or 4 things come to mind. These are rules about being alone with opposite sex, when to wake up, when to study, when to leave, what websites not to use, etc. These aren't unimportant there's a lot more in the white handbook than just that. When you hear "honor code" there are at least two things that come to mind. 1) You can't have a beard. 2) You can't have people of the opposite sex in your apartment after given hours. I don't complain about these rules. But I worry that the spirit of honor code emphasis might give them too much weight.
When I was about 16 I had a lesson in Priests' quorum about habits. There was some fort of object lesson with some sort of tokens with words like "pornography," "alcohol," "swearing," "laziness," "procrastination." I said something like "if procrastination and pornography are in the same boat then I'm in trouble." I love BYU but sometimes feel like I'm being told that growing a beard is in that same boat as pornography.
My issue with wearing an honor code t-shirt is that I feel like I'm sending a message that if someone is a little irked that they have to shave, or that they can't have opposite gender friends hang out past midnight at their apartment, then they also must not appreciate being able to go to a school where the law of chastity and the word of wisdom are expected. I'm not suggesting that the honor code change, but I don't want to send the message I've described.
I'm generally a big fan of t-shirts. When I was young I collected Pokemon cards, when I was older I collected state orders, recently it's been t-shirts. Since the beginning of Fall Semester I think I've collected around half a dozen t-shirts. Some of them are about things I don't know or care about. So the fact that I didn't want to keep this shirt is pretty significant. The laundry room for my apartment complex has a bucket with a lid that says "clothing donations for the needy." That's what I did with it.
