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Show WINTER 2013 UHQ pp 4-90_UHQ Stories/pp.4-68 12/5/12 9:38 AM Page 73 Vice-President Hubert Humphrey in October 1966, Wilkinson complained that he had been pressured into allowing the Vice-President to speak, and was particularly annoyed that he had not had enough time to provide a Republican rebuttal.43 Less than two years later, Wilkinson refused to cancel classes for U.S. Presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Still, an overflow of some fifteen thousand students packed the George Albert Smith Fieldhouse to hear Kennedy quip, “I had a very nice conversation with Dr. Wilkinson, and I promised him that all Vice-President Spiro Agnew with Democrats would be off the campus by BYU President Ernest Wilkinson, sundown.”44 In late 1970, Wilkinson accom- May 8, 1969. panied Bar r y Gold- water and Utah’s Repub-lican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Laurence J. Burton, to the school’s Homecom-ing Assembly. Over the protests of student body officers, Wilkinson invited Goldwater, who had not been cleared, to address the captive audience.45 During the late 1960s, trustees expanded school policy to prohibit speakers who “engaged in programs or movements antagonistic to the Church or its standards.” Wilkinson interpreted this to bar “atheists,” “subversives,” “those [having] any link with Russia or who would destroy our country,” and “those who would defame or ridicule our concept of strict morality.” 46 Because conservative speakers remained a dominant presence, complaints persisted. “It is my impression,” wrote BYU political 43 Wilkinson, Diary, October 15, 17, and 21, 1966; “Vice-President Humphrey Visits BYU,” Daily Universe, October 24, 1966; Wilkinson, Memorandum of a conference with David O. McKay, October 24, 1966, Wilkinson Papers. 44 “Kennedy at BYU Wednesday,” Daily Universe, March 25, 1968; “Kennedy Speech Attracts Capacity Crowd,” Daily Universe, March 28, 1968. One student remembered the experience as “something I would never have predicted and will never forget. It was stunning” (Brian Walton, E-mail to Bergera, November 29, 2011). Wilkinson recorded: “I really think that Bobby is more competent than his brother [John F. Kennedy]—helped in large part by his legal training, but I still don’t trust him” (Diary, March 27, 1968). 45 “At Forum,” Daily Universe, October 20, 1970. 46 Board of Trustees, Minutes, March 6, 1968; Wilkinson, Memorandum for Trustees, December 15, 1969, Perry Special Collections. 73 L. TOM PERRy SPECIAL COLLECTIONS STudENT POLITICAL ACTIVISM |
