In an email sent to students on April 1 by Marybeth Murphy, the Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs at Stevens, a “Quiet Space” was announced to open on campus this coming Fall 2021 semester. The Quiet Space will offer students, staff, and faculty an area reserved for meditation, prayer, and reflection in the lower level of the Student Wellness Center.
In the past, many religious organizations on campus have encountered trouble while finding a definite prayer space. The Newman Catholic office in Jacobus Hall, the building torn down to make way for the new University Center, used to be the prayer space for students of all faiths. With the destruction of this building back in 2019, students strongly connected to their religious beliefs were virtually deprived of a place to pray. Students were previously encouraged to reserve a particular room housed by the Wellness Center for their time of prayer. The issue with this procedure was that these rooms were often unideal and lacked the privacy needed for a proper prayer space. Moreover, these rooms were not permanent — the school’s religious organizations would have to compete with the other 180+ student groups for access to these spaces, making it extremely difficult for students with a set prayer routine to feel comfortable had they lost access to these rooms.
With the announcement of the Quiet Space underway, The Stute was able to get general thoughts from members of the Muslim Student Association (MSA), the Stevens Christian Fellowship (SCF), and a former officer from Stevens’ Diversity and Inclusion group (DNI) regarding the implementation of the new Quiet Space and their efforts in helping to create it.
The MSA (formerly known as MECA) and the other religious organizations (Hillel, SCF, and Newman Catholic) worked alongside the SGA to write up the proposal to present to Marybeth Murphy. It’s been a long time coming as previous presidents have worked towards the same goal, but as the campus is growing, we saw a need for this space and worked hard to present that to the administration. We are very excited to have that space dedicated to prayer, meditation, and reflection and are looking forward to using it when we return to campus.
- Laila Alshafie, President of the MSA
SCF is very grateful that Stevens has accommodated this student request for a quiet space. It will undoubtedly provide students with a much-needed dedicated place to engage their faith, and SCF is looking forward to hosting prayer meetings in this new space.
- James Lepore, President of the SCF
Mohkum Sethi, former Religious Advocate for DNI, has been a devoted supporter of a private prayer space since his first year on campus. He shares an anecdote regarding the struggle for a prayer space from the longtime lack of a definite space in addition to his efforts in advocating for one:
It is important to know that implementing a prayer space on campus is not a new initiative that students came up with. Students have been trying to practice their religion/mindfulness for years and years at Stevens, having to pray under stairwells, in the corner of libraries, and many more inadequate locations/environments. When I was a freshman in 2016 and pushing for a prayer space, even then there were several upperclassmen advocating with me so this is not a new issue. In order to get this initiative through it took a lot of meetings with administration, time and effort writing a proposal, and advocating for the space in general. Overall we are very thankful to all those involved whether they are graduated or still studying at Stevens for making this a possibility as it has never been done before at Stevens. But in order to make sure the space remains intact and continues to grow, providing resources to every religious community at Stevens, a lot of work will need to be done.
The Vice President of MSA, Asim Qureshi, also shared his experience and highlighted why the new Quiet Space is so significant to him as a Muslim and to the MSA as a whole:
I came to Stevens in Fall of 2018 and have been a commuter student ever since, so I have been praying in random areas due to not having my own space at all. A big part of Islam is to pray five times a day, and we used to have an RSO office in Jacobus Hall that we shared with Newman Catholic to pray. After that building got torn down, I would pray virtually anywhere that I could find space with little distraction. I got by, but I wanted to make sure that students in the future would have a place to pray that would always be available because improvised spaces are not very reliable. Other universities have spaces for prayer while some even offer full spaces just for Muslim students like Rutgers University. While we do not have as large of a population of students who would regularly use these spaces, there is no doubting the growing concern and need for such a space. Students have tried in the past and were shut down immediately with the reasoning of a lack of space, and we felt that now was a good opportunity to push this initiative with the new University Center allowing for more accommodations. Laila and I as well as the entire group who worked on the proposal were committed to getting something done with the motivation to create something for the students whose needs were not being met by the university. Now, all that is left to do is to get it rolling and ensure that it expands even after we graduate.
Without social distancing procedures in place, the Quiet Space holds a maximum of 20 people. More detailed information regarding the accessibility of the Quiet Space will become available this coming fall semester.
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