All twenty members of BYU's sociology faculty sign a three-page letter to BYU president Rex Lee on 14 March affirming their support of the church and of BYU but protesting the ecclesiastical interrogations of some members about participating in scholarly symposia. Since a temple recommend is required as a condition of employment at BYU, ecclesiastical action can affect academic standing and job security. An unspecified number of "individual faculty members, department chairs, and groups wrote memos supporting the rights outlined in the sociology department memo," according to a follow-up article in Sunstone. Four days later the Daily Universe publishes an unsigned editorial by the Daily Universe Editorial Board," claiming that Sunstone is not an academic forum. According to Sunstone, the editorial is "ghost-written in part by a professor." Edward Kimball and Eugene England jointly write a letter to the editor defending Sunstone as both academic and professional. David Knowlton, whose remarks at B. H. Roberts Society (not Sunstone) were quoted anonymously in the editorial, also writes a letter of good-humored protest at the editorial's position. The next month the Universe publishes an article quoting three faculty members from religious education agreeing with the anti-symposium statement.
[Source: Anderson, Lavina Fielding, "The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology," Dialogue, Vol.26, No.1]
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