College experience tests students' faith

 As a practicing Muslim, Silvia Silvi is expected to pray five specific times each day and fast during certain times of the year. However, since beginning college at Wilkes University in 2006, Silvi has admitted to skipping prayers due to classes and other school-related obligations. As a result, she feels as though her faith has weakened.

“We have specific prayer times, and most of that happens while I’m in classes. So, I can’t pray as much as I used to,” said Silvi, a P1 pharmacy student.

Since Wilkes University is the only private, secular four  year institution in the area, a wide variety of faiths are practiced on campus.

According to statistics provided by Brian Bogert, assistant director of Institutional Research, a percentage of Wilkes students stop identifying with a religion altogether between the time they begin classes at Wilkes and graduation. Surveys are distributed at freshman orientation and then again before graduation to gather this information.

In 2004, 8.4% of incoming freshman selected “None” when asked what their current religious preference was. Before graduation in 2008, the same students were surveyed again and this time 14.3% selected “None” as their answer. These numbers show an increase in approximately 6% of students who no longer felt that they identified with a particular faith.

In addition, the number of students who had initially answered that they preferred Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, and Presbyterian faiths also decreased.

In 2007, The Washington Times reported that 59% of students who graduate from college with a bachelor’s degree or higher admit to attending religious services less often than they did before beginning school.

“I think while breaking people up into groups can create cliques—where the Muslim students stay over here, and the Catholic students stay over here, and the Christian students stay over here —I think Wilkes, who for many years didn’t permit faith-based groups, did it for that very reason. They wanted them coming together to have those conversations to understand and support each other. But I think by having the various groups, they can learn and grow, and become more educated in their own faith-based tradition as well,” said Theresa Monaco, Interfaith Coordinator at Wilkes University.

According to Robert Shearn, associate campus minister at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, students often disaffiliate themselves with organized religions when they begin college; however, of those that leave faith behind while at school, many return to a different religion and are deeply committed to it.

Shearn says that this may be due to the influence that parents have over their children’s religious practices in their earlier years. Once in college or away from home, students tend to find a faith or religion that they feel is better for them. Because it is something they chose, they may be more passionate about their beliefs and practices.

Both Silvi and freshman Kim Feliciano say their families influenced the faiths they identify with.

“My mom and I are very close. So she can just kind of see how unhappy it makes me that I find it so much harder to make it to mass [since starting school] and to really keep up with faith the way I used to. So, my mother can see how hard it is for me. She was a huge encouragement for me to change to a school where that would be easier for me,” said Feliciano

According to Monaco, there are many reasons why a student’s faith may be questioned, weakened, or altogether forgotten during their college years. The most prominent being the stress of school work and decrease in free time to dedicate to practicing their religion.

“I would say that my faith has kind of weakened a little, because of all the conflicts. I’ve been trying to get it back on track,” said Silvi.

Erin Wimer, a junior English secondary education major says her relationship with God grew stronger after coming to college.

She said, “Coming to college made my relationship with God much stronger. I’ve been in so many situations where He is the only person I have to rely on. On campus we have a Christian Fellowship Club where I met a lot of other Christians with whom I can talk to about any struggles I am encountering. The club has also been a place where I experienced spiritual growth through worship, fellowship, and scripture.”

Students may also find that their beliefs don’t match others on campus and fitting in with a group of friends is difficult. Many times, students may feel as though they may have to sacrifice their religious beliefs to have a social life.

“While most of the campus would probably profess themselves to be Christian in some denomination, whether that be Catholic or Protestant, the majority of them don’t take it very seriously. So when someone does come along, who takes their faith seriously, there is kind of a, ‘I’m a Christian – you can do that stuff’ the dismissing of the sense that they want to take it more seriously,” said Monaco.

In some cases, the availability of school support may not be evident or strong enough for students to feel comfortable expressing their faith on campus.

“I feel that Theresa does a great job as campus [interfaith coordinator] but I don’t think the university as a whole really supports us. I say that because there are many things that we want to do, but sometimes the question is, ‘how much can we get away with before the school pulls the plug?’ Not in a bad way, but the school wants to not have to deal with it, and that’s what makes me feel that [faith] is not an important issue,” said Feliciano, who is leaving Wilkes at the end of this semester to attend an institute with a chapel and larger, more active Newman Club on campus. Newman Club is a national Catholic campus ministry group.

As a college affiliated with the Catholic religion, King’s College also finds difficulty accommodating students of other religions. Approximately 75% of King’s students are Catholic; therefore, many attend the masses and devotional practices that are held on campus.

Not all students find it harder to practice their religion at Wilkes.

“The nice thing about being in Wilkes is that I can easlily practice my religion at any one of the many nearby synagogues. Campus Interfaith has been a great asset because I am able to meet with others to talk about religion,” says Rachel Rubinstein, a sophomore entrepreneurship major who identifies with Judaism.

Shearn and other members of King’s Campus Ministry department attempt to reach out to students of other religions—and even those of agnostic beliefs—through programs such as Prospective on Scripture, which is similar to Wilkes’s Feast on Faith, and service projects.

While King’s is a Catholic institution and Wilkes is secular, both institutions agree that in order to show all students that they support their religions or faiths, they have to provide a neutral prayer room.

“I really think that it is incumbent upon the campuses to make provisions for this to happen... To offer a space where students can go and pray five times a day if their faith requires. We don’t have such a space here on King’s campus. We do have a chapel, but it’s a decidedly Christian chapel. I think it would be good for us to put something in place that’s kind of a neutral place where students from other faith traditions can go and pray or worship in ways that are appropriate for them,” said Shearn.

“The idea of having a sacred space on campus is something that universities across the country have put in place. Usually, it is set up to be a universal space. So it is something that any faith tradition can use,” said Monaco.

According to Dr. Maria Suarez, director of the Center for Global Education and Diversity at Wilkes, one room in Chase Hall has been designated prayer room for Muslim students, but she has found that most students have continued using a room located in the basement of the Farley Library, which had been used as a prayer space in the past.

“We have not been contacted about any specific issues, and because the Interfaith Coordinator is housed in Student Affairs, we offer our collaboration – we talk – but there hasn’t been anything very specific where they’ve requested our collaboration. So I don’t know of any specific issues students are having,” said Suarez.