Regarding the Feb. 29 editorial, “Alcohol policy infringes on student rights”.

After reading your Friday editorial espousing student action against a part of the university’s code of conduct, which apparently you perceive to be an infringement on student rights, I found myself wondering:

1. Why, with so much injustice in the world and so many individual cases even here in Abilene crying out for Christian involvement and light, would one choose instead to use his platform and powers of persuasion to convince ACU students that they themselves are the downtrodden and disrespected? Does the use of one’s time, energy and talent in rallying people to a lesser “cause” honor WWJD priorities?

2. Why would one choose to attend a university where he feels stifled by a code of conduct of which he was well aware in advance and which he pledged with his signature to uphold?

There are in excess of 4,000 colleges and universities in the United States, and at most of them personal liberty is paramount because the goal of those institutions does not reach beyond academics. If a person is of that persuasion, there are a plethora of choices. So why would an ACU student strive to chip away part of the uniqueness of one of the few remaining institutions that is not like the rest, in order for it to be more like the rest?

3. Why should one’s desire for less restraint be more important overall than the right and desire of many parents and grandparents to have their young people educated in a morally conservative university environment, e.g., one in which the self-policed consumption of alcohol is not the accepted norm?

When we become too mature for stop signs, speed limits and other behavioral restrictions, we have lost touch with the Christian truth that the common good must trump individual liberties and preferences.

Dr. Robert Brown
brownre@acu.edu
associate professor of foreign languages