ETA:

I was just notified that the Tariq Ramadan lecture has been posted on you tube, so I plan to watch that this week.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to watch it before this project is due, but I am excited to see the event that I was looking forward to!

Week 11:

Upon completion of this project, I have many more questions than answers.  Which I think might be the point.  I have always been proud of my openness to people different from myself, but I was shocked to realize that this project helped me to make my first Muslim friend.  As a Women’s Studies degree holder and a feminist, I have committed myself to working to make the world a better place for women.  And yet I had never talked to anyone about the significance of the veil in Islam, and – in addition to the religious connection – what a feminist statement that might be. 

            I am sorry that I did not have the opportunity to interview a Jewish student this term, however that is the religious tradition I am most familiar with.  I would have liked to have talked to more students, and this project reminded me how much I enjoy my chances to interact with students on campus.  My role as a fundraiser limits my student connection, which is one of the only things I dislike about my job. 

Moving forward, I hope to continue to grow in my understanding of diverse student populations.  As John Hardt has said, “the atheist on campus is as important as the Jesuit.”  Dialogue with people who are different from us is what allows us to grow, and I hope that I will take with me the commitment to discovery that this project has encouraged in me.

Week 10:

This week, I received an invitation from VN to join her for a MSA sponsored event at the lake shore campus.  I was pleased that it would be held on a Saturday afternoon, and agreed to meet her there.  The MSA had arranged for Tariq Ramadan, Oxford Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies to speak on the topic “Islamic Principles, Western Perspectives, and the Arab Awakening.” 

Unfortunately, when I arrived on campus, I found out that the event had been postponed due to the speaker not arriving on time.  VN had found out about the delay earlier in the day and had tried to reach me, but I missed her email.  I was disappointed to miss this event, because I anticipated it being a situation where I would be the odd person out, and would be taken a bit out of my comfort zone.  I went to the room the event was scheduled to take place in, but because the event organizers had communicated via the facebook page, student attendees knew not to show up at the scheduled time.  I didn’t see VN, and it was unclear whether the event was delayed or cancelled, so I made the decision to return home.

This was to be my primary exercise for the week, and I used up much of the time I allocated for it in transit.  When I arrived home, I did some online research on Tariq Ramadan, who seems very interesting, but I don’t have much depth to report this week.

Week 9:

This week, a brief letter to the editor in the Chronicle of Higher Education caught my attention.  This letter dealt with Christian Privilege, which – to this point in the project – had not been a concept that had occurred to me to cover.  I went looking for an academic article on this topic, and settled on “Christian Privilege, History, and Trends in U.S. Religion” by Ellen Fairchild.  This article really had an impact on me.  I am so unaware of the privilege I walk around with every day.  I am white.  Heterosexual.  Christian.  Born and raised in the US, as were several generations of my family before me.  Sometimes I bemoan the fact that my family doesn’t have a lot of traditions.  We are so very “American” that we don’t know much about where our ancestors came from.  Our holidays are the typical Christian American holidays, and we don’t have anything special outside of that. 

I have a fairly diverse group of friends, and have been invited to Orthodox Easter celebrations, Summer Solstice events, and Hanukah parties.  Whenever I am invited to something out of the norm for me, I find myself jealous.  I want that connection to who I am, to where I have come from.  I have moved so far from religion, and my family is so far from who we were before we were American, that we have nothing unique to us anymore.  In my privileged bubble, I have never once stopped to consider the downside to having a non-typical experience.  Hanukah falls during a time when the whole country is bombarded with Christmas messages.  No one worries if Ramadan falls during finals.  My son’s public school was closed for a “local holiday” on Good Friday, but Passover went without mention. 

As a Catholic institution, I am not yet sure what I feel Loyola’s responsibility is to students of diverse religions.  But I am certainly much more aware of the variety of challenges non-Christian students face on our campus.

(http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.flagship.luc.edu/doi/10.1002/ss.302/pdf)

Week 8:

This week, our class readings and discussion allowed me an opportunity to reflect on the two student interviews I completed.  Baxter Magolda’s theory of self-authorship is an interesting lens to use to try to understand the development that these two students are undergoing while on campus as undergraduates.  I wonder about the progression through the phases of self-authorship from arrival on campus to the time that they leave, and what impact the external influences of exposure to another religion have on their personal definition and identification of their faith. 

VN was very interesting in this sense, as she took a dramatic step in her external declaration of faith shortly before coming to Loyola.  By deciding to wear the veil, she placed her religion front and center for everyone to see.  It seems to me that she completed phases 1 and 2 as a high school student, and came to Loyola is stage 3.  The choice to wear the veil was living out her beliefs, and doing so against the wishes of her parents was even more so an act of self-authorship. 

MA, although older than VN, does not seem to be as far down the path toward self-authorship.  She seems to be confused about the role of religion in her life, and concerned about the potential of returning to Nepal where she will have to confront her confusion about the importance she places on Hinduism in her future.  In particular, her concern about her family’s reactions to her “American ideas” on religion tell me that she may be in phase 1.  When in Nepal, she did not question her faith, even though she attended a Catholic school where attempts were made to convert her.  But, once separated from her family and in an unfamiliar setting, she became more open to the idea of Catholicism, and has delicately approached acceptance of Catholic religious ideals while here on campus.  MA might benefit (if maintaining a commitment to Hinduism is important to her) from a stronger tie to a Hindi community either on campus or in the Chicago area.

Week 7:

This week I met with a Hindi Loyola student, and it was a completely different experience from my last interview.  VN is a sophomore whose parents live in the Chicago area.  Her sister is a freshman at Loyola, and they have a very close relationship with each other and with their parents.  MA, the Hindi student, is a graduate student from Tibet.  Her family lives in Tibet, and she is struggling with whether to remain in the US after graduation or to return to Tibet to be closer to her family.  MA was extremely shy, and for every question I asked, I had to practically pry the answer out of her.  She seemed almost embarrassed to be talking about herself, and was very uncomfortable discussing Hinduism.

MA was raised in Tibet, and attended Catholic school there because of the poor quality of the public school system.  We talked extensively about the religious teaching she experienced there, which she said was extensive.  It seems, in her experience, that a pressure to learn about Catholicism is considered a fair trade for a higher quality education, but she said that it had no impact on her as a child.  She was never interested in exploring Catholicism as a religious option for herself.  I told her that it sounded like a negative experience, and she shrugged.  She said that she appreciated the education, but she wouldn’t consider it an enjoyable experience.  So how did she end up in the US at a Catholic university? 

MA had quite a bit of trouble answering this.  She said that the morals of the school were appealing, as was the focus on having a broad world view and a commitment to social justice.  She also felt that she was familiar with Catholic institutions and would be able to navigate well through the religious aspect of the curriculum.

Yet when MA arrived at Loyola, she found herself in somewhat of an identity crisis.  She said that she has struggled to find her place, to find friends, to form bonds.  She does not feel connected to the Hindi student group, but also does not feel completely comfortable with non-Hindi students.  She is interested in learning more about Catholicism, but conflicted about what that means for the faith tradition she was raised in. 

At this point in our discussion, MA told me that she thought she was the exception to the rule, that many of her Hindi friends are happy with their Loyola experience.  I asked her what it was about herself that she thought caused this discontent with the experience, and she was unable to articulate an answer.

She said that she is extremely nervous at the prospect of returning to Tibet, that she is scared she won’t fit in there any longer, either.  She is waiting to hear if she will be offered any of the positions she has interviewed for and, if not, will be leaving the US.  This seemed to be an emotionally difficult time for MA, and I ended the interview wondering if our conversation would have gone differently at a different time in her university experience.

Week 6:

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to interview a Muslim undergraduate student.  When I received an invitation to MSA’s Muslim awareness week, I was disappointed that I could not fit any of the events into my schedule (they were all in the late evening at the lake shore campus).  I emailed back and forth with an SBA student who is active in the MSA, and he arranged to introduce me to VN, a female Muslim undergrad here at Loyola.  In our initial conversation, I was struck by how open and approachable she was, so I asked her if she would be willing to meet me for a more personal conversation.  She was excited to hear about the Voice project, and agreed to talk with me the following week.

The first thing we discussed was the veil that VN proudly wears.  She commented that it was the first thing people see when they meet her, and is therefore a significant part of her identity.  She confessed, however, that she often forgets that it is there, and wonders why people look at her with an inquisitive expression.  She told me the story of how the veil came into her life: although her mother began wearing a veil when her brother was born, she discouraged her daughters from doing the same.  In post September 11th America, her mother felt that it was an unnecessarily dangerous expression of their faith.  Despite this objection, VN began wearing the veil when she was 16.  The family was moving from the South to Chicago, and she felt that this dramatic life change was a good time to make a dramatic declaration of her faith’s importance in her life.  The morning of her first day at her new school, she put on the veil before coming downstairs.  Her parents were anxious, and tried to change her mind, but she persisted. 

I asked if she got any negative reaction from her new peers, and she said that the response was mostly positive.  She has felt more strongly tied to her faith since wearing the veil, and has not regretted her choice.  I asked whether she had found the same acceptance at Loyola, and she said that she felt completely accepted, welcomed, and embraced here.

As we transitioned to talking directly about her Loyola experience, I asked my most pressing question.  Why, as a Muslim, did she choose a Catholic university?  She laughed, and told me that her family had moved to Chicago for her dad to take a position at Loyola’s medical school, so she had very few other options than to attend Loyola.  Additionally, she graduated from high school a year early, so her parents wanted her as close to home as possible.  VN shared that they did not look into any other schools when she applied to Loyola.  Had she not gotten in, she would have waited a year until she was the traditional college age before applying elsewhere. 

In hindsight, VN feels that she would choose Loyola again, even if given other options.  The values of the institution are important to her, and she feels that they correlate closely to her personal values.  She has also found herself to be pleased with the required exploration of other faith traditions.  She has enjoyed her theology classes, and has felt more closely tied to her Muslim faith due to the consideration of other ideas.  I asked if she thought she was the exception in this case, or if other Muslim students she knew felt differently, and she told me she thought that most students feel that they benefit from dialogue with students different from themselves.  She has not heard objections to the theology requirements from anyone in her social circle.

VN shared with me that all of the religious student groups have their offices on the same floor of the Mundelein Center.  She finds this to be a wonderful example of the phrase “a home for all faiths.”  There are regular opportunities for interaction among the student groups, and opportunities for casual encounters in the common areas around the offices.  VN feels that this allows for a greater awareness of the events and activities of the other groups, and places them all on the same level of importance. 

I learned so much from my conversation with VN, and I was thrilled to hear that the “Home for all faiths” slogan is true in her experience.  The only suggestion for improvement that she offered was the possible creation of a prayer space on the water tower campus.  VN prays 5 times daily, and needs a quiet space to do so.  The facility on the lake shore campus is perfectly suited to this, but water tower only has a study space in the library allocated for this use.  It is not widely publicized, and she told me that she only found it by accident.  It seems like this could be an easy fix with a great benefit, so I told her I would pass the feedback onto a colleague in the mission and ministry office.

After our visit, VN and I emailed back and forth several times.  We really got along well, and both enjoyed the conversation a great deal.  She told me that it was nice to explain core aspects of her faith to someone who was unfamiliar, and that she learned/remembered a lot from the exercise.  We plan to keep in touch!