Atheist, on a Religious Campus

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/03/19/atheist-secular-students-becoming-established-religious-campuses



March 19, 2012 - 3:00am
By
Allie Grasgreen

As calls for interfaith efforts on campuses have increased, so too have complaints from secular students who say they’re being left out of the conversation – complaints that at some institutions, fall on deaf ears. And even though more advocates of religious pluralism are coming forward on behalf of these students, and success stories of new groups on some campuses are inspiring others, many are still having trouble taking hold.

Particularly at religious colleges. Secular student groups at Baylor University, the University of Notre Dame and Duquesne University have been denied official recognition, even as organizations have sprouted up on a handful of other campuses (and at dozens of nonreligious colleges). Students say these groups are essential for providing a safe space to talk freely, but many activists and campus officials are urging colleges not to wait for students to form their own groups, and rather to reach out to them proactively.

Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based organization that promotes pluralism on campuses (with and without religious affiliations), said as many as one in five students who work with his organization are nonreligious. More and more humanist students are choosing Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Methodist institutions, he said.

“They are clearly involved in interfaith cooperation not because they are religious themselves, but because they feel it is a part of their identities to build religious relationships with people of other identities,” Patel said. “They’re tired of having their choice and other religious choices maligned. I think they realize that it’s of a piece together, meaning that when you stand up for somebody else’s right to be religious, you’re standing up for your own right to choose none of the above.”

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