SRC and Fight Night confer outside the ring
- posted: 13 Nov. 2007
- scrollnews@byui.edu
While Fight Night was ended, discussions of BYU-Idaho’s jurisdiction began
What began during the Winter Semester 2007 as a few friends boxing in their lounge grew into a regular Tuesday-night event, drawing crowds of more than 700 at venues around Rexburg and raising concerns among administrators and student leaders about the safety and appropriateness of the event.
Fight Night was a focus of a student leadership forum held Sept. 26 with President Kim B. Clark and hundreds of student leaders. The group members counseled on ways to stop the event, which they felt could lead to serious injuries or death. There were also concerns that the event violated the standards of nonviolent behavior set out in the Honor Code.
In response to a request from the administration, student body officers met with leaders of Fight Night on Oct. 12.
While leaders of Fight Night have chosen to discontinue the event, one of its initiators, Patrick Moradkhani, a junior studying business management, said he wished the school had been more concerned with finding out what the event was about during the October council with SRC members.
Moradkhani was also concerned about misinformation being spread among students, especially those who never attended the event. In two months of weekly Fight Nights, there were no major injuries sustained, and boxers were always made to hug after a fight.
Videos on YouTube were another concern of university administrators, because many of them bear the title “BYU-Idaho Fight Night.”
Fight Night leaders took action immediately upon seeing the way the YouTube videos were labeled, asking all video posters to remove any titles that would associate the event with BYU-I.
Zeb Shockley, a sophomore studying communication, expressed worries that students may judge those that were involved in Fight Night wrongly.
“I hope this doesn’t become the righteous vs. the rebels,” he said. “These aren’t evil people participating. I hope the student body recognizes this and that the Fight Night crew and the participants aren’t looked down on.”
What SRC and Fight Night coordinators had to say, in their own words
SRC
It would have been easy for someone to get hurt with people boxing that aren’t professionals. The university could be liable for anything that happened if we didn’t try to stop it.
Jared Mangum, SRC president
We don’t have any bad feelings towards anyone that was involved in it. We have a great deal of love for these people and we think it’s great to cater to student interests. Our only concerns are for the safety of the students, both physically and spiritually.
The videos look really violent, and we don’t want that associated with our school. We want the world to know our students as people who think, feel and act the way our Savior would act.
Nichole Lash, SRC vice president
I think we all went into that meeting with a lot of prayer, seeking for direction. We didn’t want to just stop what they were doing, we wanted to listen to them.
Joseph Anderson, SRC vice president
Fight Night
We never publicized the event as being in any way connected with the university. I guess that’s why I wonder where the line is drawn in the school’s jurisdiction.
There was a great atmosphere at every event, so we just want to make sure that we’re not doing anything wrong and that Fight Night isn’t represented as something it wasn’t.
There was always a great sense of camaraderie. If it got out of hand, we’d stop the fight. I think it got blown out of proportion because of videos that people saw on YouTube, which really only showed the climax of the fights and not the good spirit that was present.
It was a very respectful meeting where we were able to sit down and talk. But the purpose for me wasn’t just Fight Night. I think the whole issue brings up good questions about where the line of the school’s jurisdiction is drawn.
Patrick Moradkhani, Fight Night initiator
