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Brigham Young Rescinds Diploma of Excommunicated Alum

October 20, 2008 RSS Feed Print

Brigham Young University has revoked the diploma of Chad Hardy, a 31-year-old alum who was excommunicated in July by the Mormon church for, among other reasons, producing a 2008 "Men on a Mission" calendar that featured shirtless Mormon missionaries, the Associated Press reports.

Hardy attended BYU graduation services in August, after his excommunication, but on September 30 received a letter from a top school official saying that a nonacademic hold had been placed on his record. "If in the future you are reinstated as a member of the church in good standing, you are invited to contact my office regarding your possible eligibility for the awarding of a degree," the letter read.

Hardy told the AP he intends to fight the decision "tooth and nail."

His calendar has sold nearly 11,000 copies, with sales seeing a particular boost after news of his excommunication broke.

Tags:: Brigham Young University,; religion

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As a former and very brief BYU student, I can attest every incoming student has, by requirement, signed the famous honor code agreement before beginning the admissions application. In this contract the student agrees to follow all stated and defined rules; this includes keeping a shirt on and not representing the institution with mockery. BYU is a private school founded, funded and managed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, hence they can do whatever they want. In brief it isn't a public university. Students have no grounds for complaints when attending this school as they know exactly what awaits them before ever stepping foot on campus. Truthfully, many students break the honor code in someway as I did many times; however as other BYU students and myself know, quiet double standards of the righteous are usually unnoticed and/or dismissed After the end of a successful semester, this Midwesterner chose to transfer back to The Ohio State University, a more socially sensible and academically prestigious institution.

Jeff Olden of OH 9:27PM February 05, 2010

I'm always amused by these clowns who go to BYU because the reputation is excellent and the tuition is low, but they don't want to follow the rules and they constantly want to poke the Mormon church in the eye while living off its largesse. Such individuals are, in the Utah Mormon vernacular---ignorant.

Lance Hamner of IN 5:48PM August 20, 2009

I had a couple friends sent back home to other countries after using the Fword...once. And I was kicked out of the cafeteria a number of times for having shorts less than 1/10 of an inch over the knee (yeah the guy pulled out a ruler). When I attended BYUH I was told directly that I could not be hired for a part time job because I was not a Polynesian. Furthermore I was also told by my bishop to "Go home to the mainland" and that I was "taking up a spot his worthy Samoan nephew should have got". I wasn't prejudicial when I went there, but sure was when I got back.

Don't think so of FL 7:15PM February 09, 2009

Brigham Young Rescinds Diploma of Excommunicated Alum

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