[Tuesday, October 22, 1968.] The most important business of the day was a consultation I had with a
number of administrators as to what action we should take with respect to
students who we find sell or use marijuana. We decided that with respect to
those who are selling marijuana, they would be terminated immediately. We still
have under consideration those who merely use it to see what it’s like.
One can occupied our particular attention. We have in the student body
just one American Negro, and reports are that he is selling marijuana. I had
given previous instructions that before we suspend him from school he had
better be convicted in the courts; otherwise while untrue, there would be a
public clamor to the effect that he was being suspended because he was a Negro.
Some of my lieutenants have objected to this policy, saying that we ought to
treat him as we have done other students and suspend him immediately without
regard to the outcome of a trial. I recognize that the proposal I had made
gives him preference, but I am not sure but what it’s the wise course. I have
decided I would take this up with my Executive Committee before making final determination.
(Ernest L. Wilkinson, Journal, October 22, 1968, in Educating Zion: The
Diaries of BYU President Ernest L. Wilkinson, 1951-1971, ed. Gary James
Bergera [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2025], 529)
