As you flip through these pages, you’ll probably notice that University of Utah students wrote most of the articles and columns. That’s because faculty members at Brigham Young University have, for the second year in a row, prohibited the staff of BYU’s student newspaper, The Daily Universe, from teaming up to create a joint rivalry guide previewing the two schools’ annual football matchup. (Unlike The Daily Utah Chronicle, The Universe is controlled by BYU administrators who are used to censoring student speech.)
In past years, the newspapers joined forces and readers enjoyed a mix of perspectives. Former Chronicle editors even temporarily abandoned their principles and allowed BYU faculty members to review the guide’s content prior to publication to ensure it complied with BYU’s Honor Code.
The effort appears to have been in vain. Last year, the partnership dissolved when The Chronicle brokered a deal to have the guide inserted into The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News. BYU faculty refused to let students participate because they feared something awful, such as an advertisement for a bar, might appear alongside the guide.
This year, BYU faculty indicated early on that they would not entertain a partnership. One Universe staff member with whom I spoke said the decision came down from top BYU administrators, or “the suits” as he called them, who deemed The Chronicle’s coverage in past rivalry guides too racy and inappropriate for their campus.
While BYU’s refusal was unfortunate, a few BYU students were willing to submit articles as freelancers. We’ve also worked to ensure that our coverage is as unbiased and fair as possible. Go Utes!
We hope you enjoy reading this guide and appreciate the hard work dozens of student journalists put into it. For more coverage leading up to Saturday’s game, visit
www.dailyutahchronicle.com.
Dustin Gardiner