The Office of Student Affairs, in association with the Office of the Provost, is currently conducting a search to designate certain rooms on campus as “meditation spaces.”  This undertaking was initiated after the Muslim Students Association requested a room where they could pray privately.

Afraaz Ahmed, senior in engineering and vice president of MSA, explained that religious rituals are very important to Islamic culture.

“Islam recognizes the ego as one of the most difficult things to overcome, and prayer is one of those things to remind us that there is always something greater than us,” he said. “A good way to think about it is our daily prayers are intended to be a step back from our daily grind to appreciate the blessings we’ve been given and to self-reflect.”

Ahmed said that people of the Islamic faith can pray anywhere that is clean and accessible, but given that scripture dictates prayer five times a day, finding a proper spot on campus is more difficult than one may think.

MSA, along with other religious interest groups on campus, has a very inclusive vision for what they would like out of this project.

“Our vision was to see this as a library/multi-purpose space for the use of all students and faculty that can benefit from it,” Ahmed said.

The hope is that the rooms could also be used to serve the needs of students or faculty who may be in need of a quiet room, not just for religious purposes, he added.

In order to see their vision realized, Ahmed and other students contacted Renée Romano, vice chancellor for student affairs.

“(Muslim students) pray five times a day between sunrise and sunset. They usually try to find an empty room or a stairwell, but stairwells aren’t the most ideal,” she said.

Romano said that the rooms would be open to everyone and non-reservable.

Romano has partnered up with Associate Provost for Capital Planning Matthew Tomaszewski, who is tasked with scouting potential locations that could possibly be designated as meditation spaces.

“It’s one thing to have something centrally located,” Tomaszewski said. “What about if you’re on the north side or the east side of campus?”

Romano and Tomaszewski are in the “very early stages” of designating locations and are in contact with the undergraduate library to potentially have a space established there.

“Since we’ve approached the University a few months ago, they have shown that this is a project they’re enthusiastic about and seem committed to,” Ahmed said.

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