Finding fellowship on campus

Portland Press Herald
By BETH QUIMBY, Staff Writer
Saturday, December 9, 2006

University of Southern Maine junior Danielle Ripa spends her Saturday nights a little bit differently than many young college students.
Instead of attending dorm parties or hitting the books, Ripa attends Mass at St. Anne's Church in Gorham. Then she heads down to the church basement to cook and consume a communal meal with the Newman Club, USM's club for Catholic students. While prayer and dish duty in a church kitchen are probably not high on most college students' Saturday night to-do list, it suits the eight to 10 regulars at the weekly event just fine.
"Being religious is important even when there are other temptations to do other things," said Ripa, of West Newbury, Mass.
While religious groups such as the Newman Club are definitely a minority among student clubs and organizations on Maine's college campuses, many of them are thriving. The Hillel Club for students interested in Judaism at Bowdoin College in Brunswick draws crowds at its bagel and latke brunches. More than 60 people showed up at the panel discussion on what it means to be a Muslim sponsored by the Muslim Club at Colby College in Waterville. College chaplains report that although not everyone wants to be associated with a particular religion on campus, spirituality is blossoming on campuses both in Maine and across the country.
"The research is pretty clear. They are far more spiritual," said Bill Blaine-Wallace at Bates College in Lewiston of today's college students.
Bates is home to nine different clubs with a spiritual orientation, including the Christian Fellowship, Hillel, the Hindu Awareness Group, The Bahai Association, the Christian Science Organization, the Buddhist Dharma Society, the Muslim Mushada Association, the Unitarian Universalists Fellowship and Within Reach, a progressive Christian group that focuses on questions of faith. They were all founded by students and are led by students.
"They are established out of the desire of the students and the energy and passion for continuing oozes from the (student) community," said Blaine-Wallace.
Some students say they join religious clubs to hold on to their identities away from home, while others say they are turned to clubs to explore different spiritual paths.
Adriana Nordin Manan, a Colby senior, said she would never have joined a Muslim club back home in Malaysia. But when Nordin Manan found herself a member of a religious minority at Colby where there are only a handful of Muslim students, she felt a strong urge to educate her classmates about her religion.
"It makes me smile when I think I am the president of Colby Muslim group," she said.
Michael Peiser, a senior, said he would not have considered Bowdoin unless it had a Hillel branch on campus. He grew up in a religious family in Newton, Mass., a Boston suburb with a large Jewish population. He said he wanted to make sure there was an active Jewish community at college. The group has been on campus for five years, has 150 members, with about a third of those showing up at weekly meetings. The group is known for its social events, including dances, Chinese dinners, and sponsorship of campus-wide events, such as last month's Stand Up For Peace, a comedy duo popular on the college circuit.
Some campus chaplains say they try to provide support and encouragement to the student- led spiritual groups by sponsoring interfaith events that highlight the common links among different religious faiths.
This year, USM's Interfaith Chaplain's Office is sponsoring a series on artistic expression and spirituality with programs that include a look at the use of calligraphy in different religious texts, sacred poetry and the role of food in religion.
Bates College is sponsoring a series of speakers who share their life stories to jump-start spiritual discussions about the meaning of life and other topics.
The series regularly draws 30 or so students, which is a crowd on a weeknight at Bates when many students are focused on their studies, said Blaine- Wallace.
"People are starved to be in conversations about matters that are important to them," said Blaine-Wallace.
That is why Paul Condello, 19, of Fryeburg, a sophomore at USM, attends the Thursday night Newman Club meeting.
"It is not uncommon to learn something, and we can discuss matters that are not part of the general curriculum," he said.