Faith in Diversity Newsletter - 7.17.25 - Remembering the UNF Interfaith Center - Part V

I expected to be finished with my Remembering the Interfaith Center project by this time, but I ended up extending my timeline, so my series on that history continues!

Two signatures of the Interfaith Center, from its inception through my tenure, were Interfaith Week and the Reflection Room for prayer and meditation. 

Interfaith Week had its origins in a “Religious Awareness Week” launched by the Student Affairs staff and chaplains prior to the Center opening. With the introduction of the professional staff, it became Interfaith Week and soon each iteration had an engaging theme. In 2022, we cribbed on Dr. Seuss with a “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” theme. As with each year, it was an opportunity to explore the religious and non-religious diversity of our campus and world. And the university provides the perfect metaphor for this.   

A University is a Universe of people, and it can feel as spread out and isolated as one at times. You know there is intelligent life out there, you’re just not sure where. Staff, Faculty, and Students can live in our own little worlds, far flung, passing in space.

The answer is not some forced form of peak efficiency (as I sometimes annoyingly reminded my fellow administrators). But we are Better Together. Some of the best things we do at Universities is how we make our universes more integrated, relying on the best of scholarship, student involvement, community engagement, and administrative expertise.

It’s one of the things I loved about working at University of North Florida. There was always room for growth, but we already had many impressive collaborative efforts.

UNF Interfaith Week was an example. It started with Interfaith Center student leaders and staff dreaming about events and themes. In 2021,  Student Assistant Ama led students in planning nearly the whole week; I will take credit for the theme title Eureka moment. Then we passed the baton to Marketing and Publication staff, who produced a fantastic design for us. Interfaith Specialist Bryant Wilcox (who went on to served as Chaplain at Edward Waters University, Jacksonville’s HBCU, in his next role) chased down all manner of nitty gritty event administration. We collaborated with the LGBTQ Center, Asian Students in Alliance, Housing, Campus Ministries, and Philosophy and Religious Studies professors. Various staff and faculty spread the word and shared the effort.

And then the week came, in 2021 including study, celebration, discussion, and spiritual practices across campus. Our little universe. Imagine one of those deep space images, of colorful nebulae and spinning galaxies, just one frame and yet a sense of the whole contained in the part. It’s amazing to see how all the parts fit together.This is what Interfaith Week showed the campus and community each year.

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Through the life of the Interfaith Center, and my tenure, until my last day, the Reflection Room was the room for prayer and reflection found wherever you found the Center. It began on the second floor of Building 2, sharing space with the Women’s Center, before getting its own suite on the 1st Floor in 2017. The Reflection Room moved with it. In my days, the room was single occupancy office size, a helpful resource for Muslim students, praying multiple times a day, among others. It held prayer rugs, holy books, prayer beads, and other items to set a tone of reverence and sacred space. However, it was limited in service due to its minimal occupancy. 

In 2022, as Diversity and Inclusion was under attack in Florida, an Interfaith Center student became Student Government President, campaigning on providing a more robust room to accommodate more students for prayer and reflection. For the next year, students benefitted from that new opportunity. Muslim students were able to pray in groups. Jewish students began using the room more frequently, and it saw a lot of use overall. Though the next SG Student President would not continue this room in Fall 2023, the seed was planted.

Several months later, I came to the end of my tenure at the Interfaith Center. Several days before my last day I got news. And on my last day, after 3 years working to secure a larger prayer & reflection room to accommodate need, through student & staff advocacy, we persuaded the President of the University to designate a permanent space in the Student Union.

I did cry. I worked really hard for it. It is not easy to get space on campus, and we faced setbacks. I had no idea it would happen before I left. To be able to go knowing this has been established for our students, faculty, staff - my heart was full and grateful for all who helped it along.

It spoke to the beauty of our UNF community. It started with Muslim students advocating for themselves, and their dignity led to a resource for all. The Interfaith Center took the administrative lead in advocating, and Interim President Pam Chally and Student Union staff helped establish a temporary space. Then, 2022-2023 Student Government President Nathaniel Rodefer was the one who made it a priority and designated a room in his purview “The Interfaith Space”, where the Interfaith Center was able to document over 550 uses in 9 months. When this space was removed, students spoke up strongly against the loss of that resource, and student media, the Spinnaker, kept the spotlight on this important story. Former Chief Diversity Officer and current VP for Community Engagement and Partnerships Richmond Wynn consistently advocated for this resource, and President Limayem pledged to resolve the issue. When I presented a solution considered in the past but never embraced, a rarely used graduate student lounge, the President finally said yes. And now, 2 years later, you can still find that permanent large Prayer and Reflection room in the Student Union. Even as the Interfaith Center sadly was closed, like other diversity centers at UNF due to state law, nonetheless, this permanent space is established, in frequent use every day, and will remain a resource on campus.

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Thank you for subscribing and see you next time! ~ Matt