For religious students, a university is often a hard place to maintain faith. College is a place to learn, but it is also considered a place to meet new people and shed an immature identity for one more suited to the world of adult responsibilities.
In this new environment, with its new sets of daily obligations, many students find it difficult to hold onto faiths they once held fast. This is where the collegiate faith communities hope to help.
In the world of campus faith, the soft-sell of organized religion now rules.
Many on-campus religious groups are trying to make religion more compatible with the busy student lifestyle, forgoing more traditional religious sermons and services and instead opting for free meals, joint discussion of both religious and secular topics and easy-to-apply lessons. These techniques, organizers say, can reach out to students from all over the spiritual spectrum and offer them some stability in a usually hectic college career.
The Baha’i Campus Association has used its message of unity through spirituality to help students find a place where they can feel safe and spiritually fulfilled.
Ariel Olson, the Baha’i liaison to the University and former University student, runs the Baha’i youth group on campus and said that although the organization doesn’t attempt to convert students, they do encourage students who are interested to come and learn about the teachings of Baha’i.
The Baha’i faith began in 1844 and follows the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, who believed in the unity of God, his prophets and the human race. Baha’i combines the beliefs of many different religions and tries to find commonalities through which all people can come together and be a unified people, not divided by gender, race or religion, Olson said.
Olson, who grew up in the Baha’i faith, said keeping her faith during her transition from high school to college was easier for her than for most students. When she came to the University in 2001, Olson said it was only natural for her to seek out a Baha’i community to be a part of, but that she has seen other students struggle to find their faith in a new environment.
“I think it depends a lot on a student’s maturity,” Olson said. “Some students get distracted in college, but those who are mature have their faith wherever they go.”
In order to help Baha’i students keep their faith alive in college, the Baha’i youth group holds weekly discussion groups where both members and other interested students are welcome to join. The discussions begin with prayers and then center around topics of spirituality that relate to students and their lives in college.
Olson said that Baha’i acceptance and tolerance of religious diversity should encourage students who feel lost spiritually to come feel welcome in the Baha’i faith.
“You don’t have to worry about whose God is right because everyone’s path to god is right for them,” Olson said. “With so many distractions in college, I think it’s really important for students to have spirituality in their lives.”
The Episcopal Campus Ministry has been on campus for almost 25 years, and throughout that time has been trying to give the University’s Episcopalian community a place to call home. The ministry’s pastor holds campus office hours on Thursdays to promote the ministry and the Episcopalian faith, although it gains members primarily through word-of-mouth.
Neal Thrussell , a University freshman and resident of the campus ministry home, said that he too found it easy to keep his faith in college. Thrussell said he grew up an Episcopalian and was never forced to go to church. Because of that, he said, he found his own connection with religion that he wanted to maintain on his own in college.
While he admitted that his own path to maintaining his spirituality was easy, he also said that he understands why students often find it hard to keep their faith in a new setting.
“When kids come into college, they find who they are and they don’t necessarily want to follow what their parents did,” Thrussell said. “They want to find their own way, and a lot of the time, church isn’t the way for them so they find some place else to fulfill them.”
For those who wish to maintain their faith, however, Thrussell said the Episcopal Campus Ministry offers weekly discussions where students can bring topics to the table and discuss them in an open and welcoming environment.
“Instead of having sermons, we have discussions,” Thrussell said. “It tends to make people feel more comfortable.”
While many campus religious groups cater to one religion in particular, the Wesley Foundation Campus Ministry wants students of all beliefs to feel welcome and safe inside its walls, said campus pastor Warren Light.
The Methodist ministry, which touts the motto “open hearts, open minds, open doors,” is home to people of all religions, races and sexual orientations and tries to be accessible to any student searching for emotional or spiritual stability, Light said.
“It’s natural for people to feel a sense of loss when you come to a university because when you gain so much, you have to give up so much too, and that can be frustrating,” Light said. “But along with that, there can be loads of opportunities to find new sources of faith.”
In order to give students new opportunities to find their own definition of faith, the Wesley Center provides free meals throughout the week where all students are welcome to come, eat and discuss matters of faith, advocacy and liberation, Light said. They also have speakers, show movies and host student events in the hope that they can have something interesting for all cross-sections of the student body, Light said.
Above all, Light stressed that because students are pulled in so many directions by so many new things in college, they need a place to go and be able to talk about their concerns and feel safe.
“I think that part of what faith institutions should be doing is helping with to liberate students and also helping them when they’re feeling down,” Light said. “Faith is a process, and part of that process will take you many different places, and it is important to the Wesley Center to be open to the different places that students are at.”
For more information on the faith groups mentioned in this article and many more, visit the Office of Student Life’s diversity Web site at http://diversity.uoregon.edu/main.htm.
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Many students find it difficult to maintain their spirituality when entering a university setting, but the religious groups on campus are trying to reach out to students and make them feel welcome in the University’s faith community. To find more information on the religious groups on campus, visit the Office of Student Life’s Diversity Web site at http://diversity.uoregon.edu/main.htm.