People frequently ask Waqar Ahmad, a senior from Pakistan, what brought him to Brigham Young University.
BYU is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Ahmad is among the 1 percent of the student body who are not members of the LDS Church.Saying he chose BYU because his brother had a friend who had attended the university, Ahmad explains LDS standards are similar to the moral and ethical standards of his Muslim religion.
"There are a lot of similarities in our lifestyles, that's for sure," he said.
The non-LDS students at BYU can be divided into three categories, says Juliana Boerio-Goates, assistant dean of honors and general education and an adviser to the Catholic students' club on campus.
Athletes make up the largest group of BYU students who are not members of the LDS Church, followed by international students, Boerio-Goates said. Many international students pick BYU because the tuition is relatively cheap and they like the high moral standards the university espouses, she added.
The third group of students includes those who come to BYU because of its national reputation or strength in a particular field.
However, being part of the 1 percent minority can have its drawbacks, as Ahmad has found. Although he likes the environment and people at BYU, Almad has been surprised by the ignorance of the student body.
"They (LDS students) didn't offend me, but I was surprised by their ignorance," he said.
Like many Americans, BYU students are sometimes guilty of stereotyping Muslims, said James Toronto, assistant professor of Islamic studies and comparative world religions and adviser to the Muslim group on campus.
Muslims are asked questions such as: "Are all Muslims terrorists?" and "Do all of you beat your wives?" he said.
"In general," Toronto added, "(Muslims) feel like they fit in very well."
Another challenge is a social one. With most of BYU's social scene centered around the LDS Church, it's sometimes hard for non-LDS students to find social outlets.
"There's an overwhelming feeling of being a minority," said Eula Ewing Monroe, a professor of elementary education, adviser to the Baptist Student Union and a Southern Baptist herself.
"The greatest need (for non-LDS students) is the need for a support system within their faith," she said.
Because of that feeling, the Baptist Student Union hosts a weekly pizza social, to which anyone is welcome, and a Bible-study class more specifically for born-again Christians.
The meetings provide a "spirit of fellowship and community that are missing from the university," Monroe said.
Muslims hold weekly prayer meetings in the Ernest L. Wilkinson Center for the same purpose - fulfilling religious and social needs.
Non-LDS students can be and usually are happy at BYU, but LDS students should remember there are other religions represented among the student body, Monroe said. Respect and an awareness that not everyone on campus is of the Mormon faith are the keys to better understanding, she said.
But she added, "I feel extremely well-treated here in the environment. I really am happy here."
Although non-LDS students normally feel welcome at BYU, their numbers are diminishing.
Bruce Higley, director of institutional research, believes the decrease is attributable to higher tuitions. In 1965, when BYU charged the same tuition for LDS and non-LDS students, the non-LDS population accounted for 5 percent of the student body. Since 70 percent of tuition is paid with tithing - a donation of 10 percent of earnings that faithful LDS pay to the church - officials decided to charge non-LDS students a higher tuition.
After the change in the more than two decades ago, "the total number (of non-LDS students) dropped almost right away," Higley said. During fall semester of 1970, non-LDS enrollment fell to 2.8 percent.
Since then, the non-LDS enrollment has slowly dwindled from 2.1 percent in 1980 to 1.1 percent in 1992, down to 1 percent for fall semester of 1993.
Although the distance between LDS and non-LDS tuitions has remained the same, the higher fees are a deterrent to non-LDS students. The tuition is too high to draw students away from state colleges, Higley said.
"It's getting much, much, much more difficult to get into BYU," Boerio-Goates said.
She believes the decreasing number of students from other denominations is due to BYU's tightening of academic standards and its subsequent focus on the religiosity of those who are accepted. With the high demand of quality students, the administration is demanding higher SAT scores and is placing increased emphasis on LDS standings. The university has that right, Boerio-Goates said, but that probably discourages some students of other faiths from applying.