Help! My campus isn’t multi-faith!

Elmhurst College Chapel

Things I didn’t think about when applying to colleges: the party atmosphere, proximity to grocery stores, the importance of a fabulous library, whether the sidewalks are heated (Elmhurst’s are!), and a plethora of other things…including the religious make up of the campus. I didn’t know, coming to college, I would expand so far beyond my 17 year-old Lutheran-youth-group-church-nerd-self in acting on my beliefs and convictions regarding social change and faith-based organizing; I didn’t consider that I might want to attend a college with more religious diversity (or heck, diversity in general). I don’t know that I even thought about religious diversity in much earnest until, in my first week of college, someone invited me to Spiritual Life Council and I went because they did service work.

Elmhurst is 42% Roman Catholic and 21% Protestant, with 29% of our student body “Other, not affiliated, not reporting”, we have all of five active student organizations centered around a religious identity (out of more than 100 clubs and organizations), and yes, sometimes that makes interfaith cooperation an up-hill battle-

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