Guilford is widely known as a religiously diverse and tolerant college. But as students settle into campus, do they continue to view the school as a spiritually supportive place? Do they find the community religiously transformative? Or does apathy weigh on their shoulders atop a mountain of different spiritual opportunities?

Many clubs and organizations across campus are trying to promote awareness of the variety of perspectives and faiths that students can learn about here on campus. If student sentiments are to be taken at face value, Guilford’s spiritual forum may be falling on deaf ears. Although quite diverse and rather tolerant, community participation remains under-developed.

“I would suggest that there is a sense of spiritual apathy on campus,” said Sports Information Director/Assistant Director of Athletics and faculty advisor of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Dave Walters. “It’s up to the students to really pursue those things of interest to them. No matter how many religious activities and events there are, if there’s not an interest on the part of the individual student, those opportunities are not going to be enjoyed.”

 The Guilford Community of Religious Observants (GCRO) is a team of students and faculty who work to cultivate the spiritually enriching environment of Guilford by putting together an open forum for students of any background, including non-religious students, to be heard and respected.

“I am consistently told by students that Guilford is a place where religion and spirituality has a place at the academic table,” said Director of the Friends Center, Campus Ministry Coordinator, and GCRO advisor Max Carter. “At the same time, I have been told by some students that the expression of certain religious sentiments can be met with opposition — enough to make them uncomfortable.”

Part of what makes us a diverse and tolerant campus is our community’s actions as a whole. Individuals may bring biases and complicated past experiences, but we learn tolerance as a group.

“People are hugely more tolerant and accepting in group settings. It’s easier to cast judgment when you’re not around (people of other faiths), but in a classroom setting I have bonded with many people who have different beliefs than I do,” said GCRO member and junior Yahya Alazrak.

However, this does not excuse hateful actions within our community, such as the recent anti-semitic bias incident in Binford or the previous incidents in Bryan Hall.

“The Guilford community could stand to be more tolerant,” said student President of the Buddhist Meditation group Sasha Lipton Galbraith. “I’m not suggesting that Guilford is worse than any other community, but I think that there is so much responsibility we have as an institute of higher education to identify our biases and learn about them.”

Some groups feel that this responsibility is not being taken as seriously as it could be, leading to respectful apathy from students and faculty alike.

“Guilford, although much more religiously tolerant than a lot of other institutions out there, still has plenty of room to improve,” said student President of the Pagan Mysticism Group Kelly McGregor. “It is a very religiously diverse institution that strives to represent as many walks of life as the students wish. However, it is often the more popular groups that are encouraged and/or promoted by the school. For clubs like ours, there is simply a ‘live and let live’ approach being enacted … essentially, you can meet, we just don’t want to know about it.”

“I have heard from some students that is almost uncool to be religious of any kind,” said Assistant Academic Dean and Faculty advisor of Hillel Barb Boyette. “There is an interesting mix of students we have here — some who are religious, those who are not but respect it, and those who are not religious and don’t get why others are.”

A recent unscientific survey conducted by The Guilfordian anonymously polled 120 students about religious diversity and tolerance on campus. Of the responses gathered, 13 percent identified as religious, 35 percent as spiritual, 22 percent as both, and 30 percent as neither.

Furthermore, the students polled seem divided on whether Guilford was very diverse, fairly diverse, or not very diverse at all. The majority agreed that Guilford has a wide variety of religions represented, but how well they are represented and if that denotes actual diversity seems undecided among many community members.

“There is religious diversity on campus, but I don’t feel that all of it is accurately represented,” said student President of Hillel Ali Krantzler. “Some students are hiding under the covers when it comes to their religion. I think it’s easy to say, ‘I don’t feel comfortable in this community,’ but you can only say that so much if there are a variety of meetings put on for you to attend. There is a give and take to all of this.”

The statistics that The Guilfordian gathered indicate that we do have a diverse campus. There are students from a wide range of different religious backgrounds, and many have groups that represent them on campus. The lack of awareness regarding the clubs seems to be the factor that keeps them from gaining traction.

Most of the responses to the survey asking what students would like to see change in regards to religion on campus revolved around the bias incidents and a need for increasing religious tolerance and awareness.

But for this to happen, there needs to be more student participation in activities that encourage inter-spiritual learning. Sixty-four percent of the students polled did not specify anything they would like to see changed.

“When more people are able to come out and be completely true and honest to themselves and others about who they really are, that’s when we can start having open dialogue about religion,” said junior and GCRO member Audrey Henneman. “The anger and animosity only rise when we don’t understand ourselves.”