They recently relaxed the housing rules at BYU, which is a good thing in my opinion because the housing rules were insane. The cleaning checks, the 2 mile radius rule, only landlords that were BYU approved. I couldn't understand what happened, when my kids were faced with this, because when I was a BYU student, it wasn't like that.
It was like that in on-campus housing--I knew that, because my sister Colleen lived on campus for two years, and then she lived off campus, and I visited her, and young me could clearly see that off-campus was better. On-campus was worse than living at home--my mother didn't don white gloves and run her finger along the top of my bedroom door, and then ground me or fine me or whatever if there was dust there.
So when I went to BYU, I never lived on-campus, and I never had cleaning checks, and honestly, if you decided to move in the middle of the year, like I did a few times, you could. There was no insane contract that took all your money. And the landlords then were making maybe between 1200-1800 per month per apartment, instead of the 1800-2400 per month that was normal for my kids when it was their turn.
It was so stupid! Like, the 2-mile rule: say you have a job in SLC that starts at 8 AM, and then you have classes from 2 pm - 8 pm. Obviously, for a really nice commute, live in SLC, drive to Provo in the middle of the day and at night when the traffic is slowing. But you can't do that because of the 2-mile rule.
And then the married rule!! That made me so mad!! You can be an 18 year old girl married to a 21 year old boy, and live wherever you want, and have no cleaning checks, and it can be far away or close, but a 24 year old single girl has to follow all those rules? Being married doesn't make you mature, it only makes you married; married couples can be pretty messy and might need "cleaning checks" more than four 24 year old single people! Like--cleanliness and married aren't necessarily a pair, either.
Oh--also the sexual assault thing. Like, that was a thing in Provo even when Colleen went there long before I got there. Because "this apartment is all girls" is like an invitation--find an unlocked door, a window to crawl in and you KNOW that it is only going to be girls. How stupid is that? Isn't it better if it is a mix of girls, boys, couples in the same building? Like, it is not such an open invitation to predators.
So I am happy, relieved, that though it took 20 years, sanity has prevailed and the stupid housing rules changed to almost normal.
Oh--but my supervisor told me he thinks some lawyers got involved to make it happen. Too many people who need to work in Provo or who go to other colleges who were getting frozen out of places to live by the BYU-approved 2-mile rule rules. Like, they might not WANT a long commute. And they might be perfectly good, kind, honest people who just want to live close to where they need to be AND who maybe start their day with a cup of coffee. (Which--not BYU approved.)
Still. Sanity at last. What a relief.
This all reminds me of a story about BYU housing back in the day. When my dad was growing up in the part of Taber known as "Dogtown" or "Johnson's Addition" their family had two families of great friends, the Harrises and the Francises. Dad's best friend among the Francis family was Howard, and then also Doug who was close to him in age. But he was also friends with Rell, who was born in 1921, all the way to baby sister Jean, who was born in 1932. When my dad died, in 2000, he had outlived Howard and Doug, so mom invited two of the living siblings, Rell and Jean, to sing a duet at dad's funeral. Maybe my kids remember that? (Except Josie who was super sick and popping out with chicken pox--she probably might not remember that.) They sang "Each life that touches ours for good" for a piece of completely off-topic trivia.
So, now that I have told you all this Alberta-relationship stuff you are set up for the story--so, when I was 17 and had graduated from high school early and spent time in SLC with Mary & Don Phillips, I was thinking I might go to the U. So, I was at home and at some church event, and started talking to Jean (Francis) Jensen (whose daughter Nola was my age and a friend) and Jean asked me my plans, and I said that I was thinking about going to the U.
And Jean said, "Oh! I know David Gardner--he is the president of the U! He was one of my room-mates when I went to BYU!"
And I looked at her in absolute SHOCK. David Gardner (a male!) was her room-mate (!) at BYU? (!)
She apparently saw my reaction, because she said, "Oh--see, my dad bought a house at BYU when my older brothers went there, and by the time Keith (born in 1929) and I got there, there were only the two of us for that big house, so we got to have room-mates, and Keith had David and a couple of other friends, and they all lived downstairs, and I had some girls, and we all lived upstairs, and we all shared the kitchen and living room on the main floor."
Which STILL would not have flown at BYU in my day, and certainly not in my kids' day!! I do not know if BYU will ever go back to being as loosey-goosey as it was in 1950!!
