The acceptance of faith: religious students and the campus society

“Freshman year, I was really appalled by the Street and the concept of the Street,” Kantzer said.

Kantzer, a nondenominational Christian, is one of many religious students on campus whose core personal beliefs are tested by seemingly routine elements of campus culture. Activities like drinking — a normal part of weekend nights for most students — can conflict with fundamental religious values. And while students said the University community has proven surprisingly accepting of their religious beliefs, coming to college inevitably prompts those who actively practice religion to reexamine their faiths in a new light.

The Street, the social epicenter of campus for most undergraduates, presents an obvious challenge for religious students navigating college life for the first time.

“To a certain extent, if you try to live by the principles of your religion, if you do your best to abide by those principles, you can’t in good conscience do certain things on the Street, or engage in certain relationships, or do things that for other people are a normal part of the college life,” explained Brian Stephan ’11, a practicing Catholic.

For some, religious conviction coincides with a lack of personal desire to take part in life on the Street.

“I don’t think it’s inherently evil,” Peter Westman ’12 said of alcohol use. “But like, the kind of [Tiger Inn] stereotype with everyone getting drunk and pouring beer over each other — that doesn’t attract me.” Westman, who is Lutheran, does not drink because he is underage.

Like Westman, Stephen Pollard ’12, who describes himself as a nondenominational Christian, doesn’t drink. And while he thinks drinking is acceptable, Pollard said he believes underage drinking and getting drunk are sins.

Similarly, Qin Zhi Lau ’11 follows a Buddhist tenet that forbids consumption of intoxicants like drugs or alcohol.

But despite the fundamental disparity between the drinking culture on the Street and the restrictions of their faiths, these students said they felt comfortable going to the eating clubs, largely thanks to friends.

Though he usually stays away from the eating clubs because they are not his ideal night out, Lau explained that when he goes out, he does so with friends who respect his beliefs.

“I’ve been really appreciative of Princeton because there’s no peer pressure,” Lau said, explaining that some friends in similar positions at other schools have had negative experiences.

Pollard goes to the Street with friends from his integrated science courses, who don’t necessarily share his religious values. Their understanding, he explained, has made him more comfortable expressing his own views.

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“They’re always cool with me being like, ‘I need to go back and go to sleep’ on Saturday nights because I have to go to church on Sundays,” he explained.

Alison Boden, dean of religious life, explained in an e-mail that the nature of students’ social experiences at Princeton can vary widely, and she acknowledged that some students do face obstacles.

“The type of challenge depends on the particular religious backgrounds of individual students,” Boden said. “Some will be quite uncomfortable with any socializing that involves alcohol; others will have no issue at all with alcohol and go to the Street often.”

Kantzer explained that despite his initial reaction, he soon came to feel differently about the eating clubs. “Instead of the Street being a place where people come to do evil things, it speaks more to the loneliness that people have, and the high stress that people have on campus, and the need that people have to relieve that stress in one way or another,” he said.

But regardless of how comfortable they feel with a night out on the Street, for many religious students, the eating clubs’ importance lies not in the Saturday-night taproom but the weekday dining room.

Lau and Westman chose not to join clubs, both saying that they do not frequent the Street. Lau is a member of the 2 Dickinson St. Co-op, while Westman lives in Whitman College and has a University meal plan.

Other students, however, noted that their experiences as eating club members have not conflicted with their religious beliefs. Clubs have even provided some with an extension of their religious communities.

Carter Greenbaum ’12, a practicing Jew who attended an orthodox Jewish synagogue, keeps kosher at home and follows a more flexible diet while at school.

Though he said he is aware of the “relic” of anti-Semitism at the University, particularly at the eating clubs, he said his experience on the Street has been entirely positive. “I’ve never felt excluded,” he said. “Maybe that’s because I happened to join a club where a lot of students are active [in the Jewish community].”

Greenbaum, who is a member of Tower Club, was not the only religious student to note that his eating club was particularly conducive to a religious community.

Robert Marsland ’11, who is Catholic, is a member of Charter Club, along with Stephan and Pollard. He explained that he joined Charter in part because several Christian friends were already members. The club tries to ensure that he and his like-minded friends are comfortable in a numerous ways, he said, including through the organization of “events where alcohol isn’t the primary focus.”

But the Street has not always welcomed religious diversity with open arms. The infamous “dirty Bicker” of 1958 caused a national scandal when 15 of the 23 sophomores who did not receive selective bids were Jewish. Some bicker clubs also have a history of forcing new members to eat oysters, which are not kosher.

Students noted that this impression of the University’s past still plays a role today.

Greenbaum was the first person from his orthodox Jewish high school in Irvine, Calif., to attend Princeton.

“The only person affiliated with my high school from Princeton was a parent who had a terrible experience at Princeton, and he said he would never let his daughter apply to Princeton,” Greenbaum explained.

Gavi Barnhard ’13, who is an orthodox Jew, described similar reactions about Princeton from back home in New York City.

“When I tell people who come from more traditional Jewish schools, they’re surprised that there are any observant Jews on campus, and that we have ... a Jewish dining hall, because of [Princeton’s] history [of anti-Semitism],” he explained.

Yet current students’ beliefs about religious tolerance on campus offer a sharp contrast with earlier characterizations of the University.

“Princeton is very conducive to the religious life,” said Jahnabi Barooah ’11, who identifies as Hindu. “It’s a place where I have been able to think about what I believe, and why I believe those things, and how it impacts the things I do.”

Barooah, who said she grew up in a nominally Hindu though largely secular family, didn’t truly embrace religion until she arrived on campus and discovered a vibrant religious community. “My faith journey started once I got to Princeton,” she explained.

“It’s a religious community,” Greenbaum said of the University. “It’s a community that values observance.”

Their positive views persist even despite certain limitations that some religious students’ beliefs place on their daily lives.

Barnhard, like many orthodox Jews, follows dining rules that restrict him from eating in facilities that are not deemed kosher.

While the University requires all freshmen and sophomores to purchase meal plans, the Center for Jewish Life is the only place on campus with a kosher dining hall.

“You end up eating at the CJL three meals a day,” Barnhard said. “When it comes to dinner you feel like you’re seeing the same people day in and day out, which can get to you.”

“I know other college campuses, they have a kosher food section [in regular dining halls], and I think that model could work better for someone looking to broaden their social circle,” he said.

More than just an inconvenience, the lack of kosher facilities also requires many orthodox Jewish students to be very active in reaching out and forming friendships with non-Jewish students, Barnhard explained.

But Mark Grobaker ’11, who is active in the Catholic community on campus and a member of Charter, said that religious students at Princeton “have a much better situation than at other schools.” While the religious community is in some ways separated from the rest of campus, he explained, the atmosphere is still one of positivity and acceptance.

“Identifying as a religious believer in a way that impacts your day-to-day life, you definitely place yourself in a minority,” he said of his own beliefs. “But I’ve never felt oppressed or marginalized.”

In fact, Grobaker added, sometimes the acceptance goes beyond just respect. Several of his secular friends are “enamored” of his Catholic group of friends, he said. “They might not understand it, but they’re attracted to it.”

The pervasive attitude of religious acceptance goes both ways. Not only, as several students noted, do secular students accept or even embrace the religious community, but each religious subset of campus is tolerant to other people’s beliefs.

“I’ve never felt proselytized to,” Greenbaum said. “I never felt like people were trying to convert me, whereas off campus I have.”

In many ways, the challenges experienced by some religious students in daily University life are merely extensions of their struggles to choose overall lifestyles in accordance with their faiths.

“It’s a daily occurrence to live the good life,” Stephan said. “I have certainly had to choose to do what is right ... I have to choose what is right on a daily basis.”

This is the first of a three-part series on religion on campus. Tomorrow, a look at religious groups.