2008 Woodie Awards
Inter Club council supports prayer room
Dan Sealana
Issue date: 6/19/06 Section: News
Monday, June 19, 2006
De Anza College's Inter Club Council voted Wednesday to support a campus interfaith meditation room.
The motion to endorse "the idea of having a Peace Room for contemplation, meditation, chanting, and prayer" built on campus was approved without objection. Earlier this month, the De Anza Associated Student Body Senate voted to endorse designating a meditation room.
However, the senate's version of the endorsement did not list "prayer" as one of the proposed uses of the room.
Church and state
One of the biggest obstacles proponents of the room face is concern over the separation of church and state.
De Anza currently has seven active religious clubs on campus. All seven clubs are eligible to request funds from the ICC, whose yearly budget is allocated by the student senate.
Religious clubs are free to do virtually anything with their funds, from purchasing evangelization materials to donating to outside religious organizations and churches.
Precedent
If De Anza builds a meditation room, it will not be the first public college to designate a room for prayer and meditation.
San Jose State University has a Spartan Memorial on campus. The memorial was originally designated as a chapel when it was built in 1952, according to the Spartan Daily.
According to the SJSU Web site, the Spartan Memorial is available for weddings and "other ceremonies."
The University of California Davis plans has plans to build a "reflection" room on their campus, according to a December 2005 article in UC Davis's newspaper, The California Aggie.
In 2003, The University of Michigan opened a "reflection" room after years of requests from students, according to The Michigan Daily.
De Anza College's Inter Club Council voted Wednesday to support a campus interfaith meditation room.
The motion to endorse "the idea of having a Peace Room for contemplation, meditation, chanting, and prayer" built on campus was approved without objection. Earlier this month, the De Anza Associated Student Body Senate voted to endorse designating a meditation room.
However, the senate's version of the endorsement did not list "prayer" as one of the proposed uses of the room.
Church and state
One of the biggest obstacles proponents of the room face is concern over the separation of church and state.
De Anza currently has seven active religious clubs on campus. All seven clubs are eligible to request funds from the ICC, whose yearly budget is allocated by the student senate.
Religious clubs are free to do virtually anything with their funds, from purchasing evangelization materials to donating to outside religious organizations and churches.
Precedent
If De Anza builds a meditation room, it will not be the first public college to designate a room for prayer and meditation.
San Jose State University has a Spartan Memorial on campus. The memorial was originally designated as a chapel when it was built in 1952, according to the Spartan Daily.
According to the SJSU Web site, the Spartan Memorial is available for weddings and "other ceremonies."
The University of California Davis plans has plans to build a "reflection" room on their campus, according to a December 2005 article in UC Davis's newspaper, The California Aggie.
In 2003, The University of Michigan opened a "reflection" room after years of requests from students, according to The Michigan Daily.
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