A group of students will protest the firing of BYU employee Todd Hendricks today, the same day he has been invited back to the university to discuss an appeal he filed over his termination.

Hendricks was fired on March 17 after he wrote a letter to the student newspaper asking for more transparency in student elections for the Brigham Young University Student Service Association. He refused to sign a document allowing him to resign his position, get one month of pay and three months of health benefits that would have required him to keep quiet about his firing. He said BYU also asked him to write a retraction and provide names of people he had discussed the matter with.

In his letter, he complained that a 10-member commission made up of nine students and one employee, which has the power to disqualify candidates for election, remains anonymous and is vulnerable to being influenced by administrators.

Hendricks and his wife, Hilary, said they thought the first appeal had been denied, but when he went to pick up a written explanation, he was told it was still "in process." Then came the call asking them to meet with Jan Scharman, vice president of student life, today at noon. Hendricks could file two more appeals.

At 1 p.m., students will be in Brigham Square voicing their discontent over the firing. Senior anthropology major Neil Ransom said students are fed up with not having a voice on campus. There is "no protocol for students to make suggestions or to have BYU change, even though we're supposed to be the major reason this university exists," he said.

He said he hopes the protest, in which he estimates about 40 students will participate, will let students be heard.

"I don't think BYU can shut everyone up," Ransom said.

The students plan to sign honor code-like documents pledging that they will stand in a chalk circle until 3 p.m., and cover their mouths with duct tape with BYUSA written on it.

Senior English and anthropology major Ashley Sanders said the point is "to emphasize -- through our silence -- that BYU students have no legislative voice."

Hendricks said he has a prior engagement and cannot attend the protest, but, "If there's any way for dialogue, I'm very supportive of that."

Sanders called BYU's actions "a symptom of a far more disturbing epidemic of rule theology and corporate poverty of conscience."

She said the real problem has been ignored. "The more critical issue here is that BYU, in true form, used the rhetoric of 'honor' and 'loyalty' and threatened job security in order to continue propping up their image of righteousness to the rest of the world," Sanders said.

Ransom said BYU has not addressed Hendricks's concerns.

"BYU hasn't responded or come out at all and said that any of Todd Hendricks's claims are false, so we have to assume they are true, and if that's the case, BYUSA doesn't represent students at all and is very controlled," he said.

BYU spokesman Grant Madsen said BYU has received no request for a public forum, as outlined in the school's public expression policy.

"For someone to do a public forum on campus, they need to go through this procedure, the public expression policy, submit a request that gets reviewed, and none of that's taken place," Madsen said.

Sanders said the approval could take days. "I feel like the approval process is an inertia firewall that keeps students from responding promptly to campus issues."

Madsen said the honor code that all students sign wouldn't bar the protest.

"It's certainly not prohibited by the honor code, but the students need to follow the procedure if they want to have something like that be reviewed," he said.

Sanders said she wrote a letter to BYU President Cecil O. Samuelson about Hendricks's firing on Wednesday but received no response.

She's one semester away from graduation and worries about being retaliated against, but she's taking her chances. The speech policy has sponsored a "culture of apathy" on campus, she said.

"Students don't have much control," Sanders said. "It's just whatever the administration decides to do and how they decide to react."

Anna Chang-Yen can be reached at 344-2549 or annac@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.