Believe what you will

As seniors drink off the memory of their theses and juniors sweat bullets over their junior papers, important stories are sometimes overlooked by those with their snouts in Solo cups or books. The Office of Religious Life (ORL)'s decision to grant chaplaincies to Princeton's Muslim and Hindu communities may be one such story. Last week, the search committee for the new position of Coordinator for Muslim Life wrapped up its work, examining a short list of several fine candidates. The University community will benefit considerably from formally including Muslim and Hindu voices in the ongoing dialogue over the role of religion on a secular college campus.

Princeton has shown itself to be a leader in what has become a larger conversation encompassing Islam, faith, secularity and the ever-shrinking world. Few other campuses have recognized Muslim chaplaincies, and at present, there are no full-time Muslim chaplains in the Ivy League. At the same time, however, many schools in the United States are confronting issues of cultural transformation as more devout students seek public accommodation for private practices. Even within independent Islamic groups, the debate over what the religion should require of believers living above the college quad is a fierce one. Rules concerning dress, prayer and diet are far from uniform among the world's 1.2 billion Muslims. The formal recognition of Islam at Princeton encourages the University community to enter into discourse that treats Islam as a vibrant and equally valid system of belief that has much to offer Princeton and the world.

While for obvious reasons Islam has captured the interests of Americans of every faith in recent years, the importance of the yet-to-be-named coordinator for Hindu life should not be forgotten. The formal recognition of a non-Abrahamic faith at Princeton represents a positive and inclusive step. That this new position (along with the Muslim equivalent) eschews the moniker of chaplain demonstrates the University's willingness to allow faiths their own vocabularies. Put another way, we are permitting religions to speak for themselves.

Everyone on campus — religious or not — has been well served throughout this process by ORL's decision to respond to student demand. This spring, as other groups apply for chaplaincy, the University should remember the value of student input. It is a positive development that today more students are being recognized officially as members of a community of faith; let us pray that such support continues to be offered when needed.

Joy Karugu '09, Ben Herzberg '10 and Arthur Ewenczyk '09 recused themselves from this editorial.