The NoZe Brothers 'Undressed'

The NoZe Brothers, a group of about 25 male and female students, are to Baylor what cockleburs are to a field of bluebonnets - irritating, prickly, sometimes even a little painful. And despite periodic eradication, they keep coming back, tenacious and tough as any weed must be to survive. But then, a weed to one naturalist may be a beautiful flower to another. How does one characterize the NoZe, a self-proclaimed (and self-acclaimed) satirical, countercultural group whose mission is to poke fun at Baylor, to put the "pie" in piety, the "pun" in punctilious?

They travel incognito, "undressed" in fake plastic noses and black glasses, long wigs and a ragbag collection of retro garb that redefines vintage clothing. They hold their biannual "Unrush," a spoof on the Greek system's recruiting process. They make appearances on campus - arriving at a Dr Pepper Hour last spring to spike the float brew with Pepsi, or undertaking "campus beautification" that turned the water in the fountain behind the Bill Daniel Student Center pink for two days. They come out in force during the Homecoming Parade, where alumni clamor for copies of The Rope, the group's parody of the University student newspaper, The Lariat.

The NoZe also seem to have a fascination with statues. They have painted the Pat Neff statue pink and stuffed Rufus Burleson's hat with combustible materials, lighted them and then called the Baylor Department of Public Safety to report "Burleson is on fire!" They have practiced their own version of theology with the small statue of Jesus Christ, which used to sit in a garden area between Burleson and Draper. Members of the NoZe discovered the statue was not fastened to its base (not their doing, they add) and so began moving it - once simply turning it to face backward on its base, another time setting it in front of the annual KOT Christmas Tree on campus, holding a note warning against worshiping idols.

The group's on-again, off-again relationship with Baylor administrators is tempestuous and troubled. Despite what NoZe members would claim are their best intentions, they somehow keep crossing the line, which they now say they draw with a "really fat Sharpie." Through the years, the group has been thrown off campus for everything from burning the Waco Creek Bridge to being "lewd, crude and grossly sacrilegious," as President Abner McCall said in 1978.

Then in fall 1999, The Rope carried a controversial parody of a study abroad program titled "African American Culture Survey" that included several racial stereotypes. The NoZe had crossed the line once again - big time. The article was called racist, offensive and, most generously, in serious poor taste. This time, the NoZe had offended students as well as administrators. Even supporters of the NoZe chastised them. Students of all ethnic backgrounds gathered on the steps of Pat Neff Hall in protest, calling on the administration to take action against the NoZe.

Dr. Steven Moore, then vice president for student life, met with the students, both on the steps that day and subsequently. He demanded the NoZe become an "official" student organization, following all the regulations outlined in Baylor's Student Handbook, including revealing their identities. The NoZe refused and went back underground. Dr. Eileen Hulme replaced Dr. Moore in December 2001. After the NoZe met with Dr. Hulme and Dr. Dub Oliver, dean for student development, relationships improved. By mid-March 2002, the NoZe officially were back on campus - again. Their first action was to hold a protest asking for signatures to ban their group from campus. Since their latest reappearance, they've been model, if irreverent, campus society members. They held a Homecoming reunion for the Exiled (Brothers who are no longer on campus) last fall, traveled to Harvard in November to visit the Lampoon offices and met with Bro. Short Nose Long, the group's unofficial historian (see the sidebar story "The NoZe Knows Which Way is Up"). Current NoZe Brothers plan to write a history of the NoZe from 1965 to present, to be released this year. Other plans for the spring included bringing a big-name comedian to campus and recording a radio special at KWBU. Inveterate reporter that I imagine myself to be, I sought an interview with the NoZe. I wanted to see for myself who these students are, the noses behind the NoZes. At the appointed hour (actually they were late), four NoZes came, in full undress, to my office in Pat Neff Hall. With me were Bro. Bilbo BaggiNoZe, the shekel keeper; Bro. W. Axl NoZe, former Lorde Mayor and now on the Bored of Graft; Bro. Mu-mu-mu-my SharoNoZe, cunning ... uhh... secretary; and Bro. IgNoZetius Reilly, Lorde Mayor.

It was a fast-paced, hard-hitting, ruthless interrogation - and that was their interview of me. But when I did get a chance to broach a few subjects, I made some interesting discoveries. I share some of their comments below (note: quotes listed are from all four, usually in tag-team fashion): On being countercultural within the culture: "It's a tough thing. They tell us we go over the line sometimes. I've never actually seen this line, but I am color blind. And the line is always moving." On the value of The Rope: "The voice of the paper has to be independent or else it's no better than any other publication on campus. It is important that we maintain our right to publish what we believe we should publish. It's not something that's taken lightly. I believe the group has an intention, if I may say, an ethos, and we try to adhere to that. It's a satirical source, but it is a news source, and at least it offers opinions that run contrary to what other student publications have to offer." If they have a faculty sponsor for The Rope: "No. We used to. I think he was found bound and gagged in Las Vegas, and that was the end of it. No one reads it besides us before it goes to press." On anonymity: "A lot of guys will have their glasses around their neck at graduation. I think the anonymity is 50 percent tradition now, not as much necessity. At the same time, I don't think it's something we'd be willing to give up. Keeping anonymous, people can read it (The Rope) with a clean slate; they don't have to channel it through what our personal beliefs are. We win as a team; we lose as a team. The ideas are what we want to get across, not personal glory." On accountability: "We have self-accountability. When all of us got in (to the group), we weren't allowed on campus. We knew what was happening. We paid our penance. We came in right after that Africa story. You've seen the grand change that has taken place. There are reasons for why that article happened. We have our own filters." On the results of the study abroad story: "People got really upset, but in the aftermath, nobody was 100 percent right. I don't think we were completely in the wrong. I think some good came out of it in the end. They had a conference on race relations at Baylor; it sort of brought that issue to the forefront. It broke that taboo. We angered some, but at least they were talking." On the group's relationship with Dr. Eileen Hulme, vice president for student life: "None. We have some very simple requirements for friendship. One is having the gang over every now and again. She never invited us over." On the group's relationship with President Robert B. Sloan Jr.: "I think Sloan's a closet fan. We've had happier times with Dr. Sloan. Now, I don't know if we really would want to get back together with him. It's just best for us to go our separate ways. Like a good breakup, I think we're still going to be friends, we'll occasionally talk to each other on the phone ... we just need some space." On who the typical NoZe brother is: "Look for the guys in big noses and dark glasses. There's really not a typical member. We're the most diverse group on campus, easily. We span all categories - socioeconomic, ethnicity, race, politics. Some of us are nihilists and have no beliefs at all ... some of us don't know what nihilists are. It makes for very long, labored discussions. The one characteristic (of a member) is that you really like Baylor and you think that there needs to be an independent voice. What ties us together is that we think what we're doing is important and needs to be heard. If we weren't saying it, then no one would, and the University would be worse off. That's the idealism that you enter the group with. We think very highly of ourselves." On the integration of faith and learning: "I'd like to see the integration of learning into some of my classes. I have faith in learning. I have faith I'll have a job some day."

I didn't make anyone cry in our interview, but I did make them sweat. Well, actually, they were just hot in their full regalia in my warm office. As I suspected, though, there is more to the NoZe than their wigs and fake noses. Behind the wisecracking and repartee were deep thoughts that would make Jack Handy pause. When I asked them what their ideal Baylor would be like, the first response involved a slide running directly from the top of Pat Neff Hall into the fountain on the mall. But then, there was more (again, in tag-team responses): "I would hope the students would be open to examining the things around them. I have no problems whatsoever with Christianity, but I think blind Christianity is a mistake. People are sometimes afraid to examine other religions, but it just makes your beliefs stronger in the end. I don't think a Christian mission means that we can't look at and study everything in the world. Furthermore, if education is really the goal of each student here at Baylor, certainly they'd want to be exposed to as many opinions and as many things as possible." And why do they do what they do? "We like Baylor or we wouldn't be here. That's what drives us. If we didn't care, we wouldn't print anything - that's an important point. I think that's something that's lost when people read The Rope, this notion they generate about us that we're just this extreme anti-Baylor organization, but that's kind of silly. If we didn't want to be at Baylor, then we wouldn't be. We could very well go someplace else." The NoZe Brothers are radical, controversial and antiauthoritarian - words also used to describe another brother, this one from the New Testament. Although it's a comparison they don't make, Bro. Reilly does use Jesus Christ as a true example of what Christian education should be: "When you read some of the things that Jesus said in the Bible, some things that he went through, it's so exciting, because people were always questioning him. Jesus would meet these things head-on and would want to discuss them." They stand millimeters from the Baylor bubble with "pens" at the ready. They stick their fake noses into places no one wants them to be. As for the future: "We're going to see what Baylor does and then we're going to respond. When we think they can do no worse, 'Wow! New Rope!'"