from Salt Lake Tribune editorial pages: “Surprisingly, the controversy of Michael Moore speaking at Utah Valley State College did not die with the departure of Moore’s limousine to the airport or even with the re-election of George W. Bush.
Rather, the issue continues to flare up in different ways in different places and raises serious questions about the role of public institutions of higher education in homogenous communities.
That UVSC does not strictly model its educational program on the normative standards of the surrounding community evidently foments the ire of many local taxpayers who see UVSC’s proper identity as a sort of publicly accessible satellite of Brigham Young University.
Such a view fails to acknowledge the obvious fact that while BYU’s central mission, as a private ecclesiastical institution, is the exploration of reason within the framework of faith, UVSC’s central mission, as a public institution, is the exploration of faith within the framework of reason.
The importance of UVSC to Utah County is directly proportional to the homogeneity of the community it serves. Given the fact that Utah County is perhaps the reddest county in the reddest state of the union, that importance is beyond estimation.”
David R. Keller is director of the Center for the Study of Ethics and associate professor of philosophy at Utah Valley State College.