For many, adjusting to college life extends beyond textbooks and residence hall food, and into religious practices. University students, breaking away from their families and churches for the first time, are faced with newfound freedoms and choices, and deciding whether or not to preserve their faiths can be a challenge.
“University generally is the first time your faith has to be your own,” said Justin Devine, a University graduate and first year staff member at Campus Crusade for Christ.
Devine said living with thousands of students with different beliefs and backgrounds was a challenge he faced as a freshman, especially with the pressures in college life to follow mainstream culture, including drinking and smoking.
Students in Devine’s residence hall would smear food on his door as a statement against his Christian beliefs.
“It was miserable for a year,” he said, adding that he understands that some people have been “burned” by religion and often associate Christianity with those feelings.
Other University students arrived during Week of Welcome concerned about the difficulties they would face in preserving their faiths.
“I was prepared to battle for (my faith),” said Andrew Eoff, a University freshman living in the substance-free DeBusk residence hall.
Eoff said he, and his friend, tried to overcompensate for their fears of losing their faith and attended daily scheduled events around campus.
“We felt like we were spiritually numb,” Eoff said, adding that he quickly realized he needed to find a way to incorporate his faith into everyday activities that could revolve around his studies and college life, including praying while he walked to class.
Gabe Alvarez, a University freshman, said he has come across struggles practicing his faith while living in the residence halls.
Every Friday he lights Sabbath candles and prays, Alvarez said, even though candles are not allowed in the residence halls. He doesn’t want to join a University Jewish organization, he said.
Creating environments and activities for college students to discuss and explore their religious beliefs is an important aspect in helping students preserve their faiths, said Mike Alverts, director for Campus Crusade for Christ.
“We really believe anybody has a next step,” and college is a time when students decide if they want to take it, whatever it may be, Alverts said.
Alverts said he heard around 70 percent of students lose their faith while in college. He believes a main factor of this is lifestyle changes, such as leaving home and the loss of parental motivation.
“Living off the fumes of your parents” is different than owning your faith, which college students do by taking the initiative to practice and pray on their own, Alverts said.
Tal Clerman, program director for the Oregon Hillel, said that college is a time when students are faced with the question of what their religion means to them as adults.
Some students “don’t regularly have a need for spirituality,” Clerman said of some of the group’s members who only attend services once or twice a year.
For more information on University religious organizations go to www.uoregon.edu/~jeremyhp/rda/list.html
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