Des Moines Register
08-03-07
ISU professor: Remove cross from chapel
The university's president instead will study whether to add other religious
symbols or worship spaces.
By LISA ROSSI
REGISTER AMES BUREAU
Ames, Ia. - An Iowa State University professor is pushing for the removal of a
cross located in the center of a chapel inside the ISU Memorial Union.
Warren Blumenfeld, who teaches in international and curriculum studies,
asked ISU officials to replace the cross with a sign that expresses the
nondenominational purposes of the space.
Blumenfeld was among the ISU faculty members who opposed the recent hiring
of a chaplain for Iowa State athletes. Blumenfeld says that also could ostracize
students who do not have the same religion as the chaplain.
ISU President Gregory Geoffroy said in a letter to the Ames Tribune published
Thursday that instead of removing the cross, he will evaluate whether to increase
the visibility of other religious symbols and faiths in the chapel and identify more
convenient and appropriate spaces to accommodate those who profess other
beliefs.
"It is and always has been our goal to make room for the personal religious
needs of our campus community members - whatever their beliefs," Geoffroy
wrote. "This would not be accomplished by removing a religious symbol from the
Memorial Union Chapel."
Geoffroy was responding to a letter Blumenfeld sent to local newspapers
published this week that questioned why a cross, a Christian symbol, was in a
publicly supported university.
Mark Arant, the director of the Salt Company, a Christian student organization at
Iowa State, said he does not necessarily need a cross to pray at the chapel, but
he thinks the controversy over the cross is a "bummer."
"I think it's kind of a sad state of where our culture is in terms of fighting against
our Judeo-Christian heritage and roots as a nation," Arant said. "We are trying to
find our identity as a nation. Are we going to let our history define us?"
The University of Northern Iowa does not have a chapel at its student union. The
University of Iowa has a chapel located near the student union, with a cross
inside that is removable, said David Grady, director of university life centers at
the U of I. There are no other religious symbols in the U of I chapel, he said.
Blumenfeld, who is Jewish, also rejected the idea of placing other religious
symbols in the ISU chapel.
"There's about 2,000 religions in the world," he said. "If you try to be inclusive
and put a symbol of every religion, there won't be space to walk in there."
The ISU chapel, established in 1955, is a small space tucked behind a small
library in the Memorial Union.
A large wooden cross is at the front of the room.
Muslim and Buddhist students interviewed on the Ames campus said they had
not spent time in the chapel and were not offended by the cross's presence
there.
Bashar Gharaibeh, 27, an ISU student from Jordan, said the university might run
into problems having the cross because it is a state-funded institution. But he
said he was not personally offended by its presence on campus.
"The chapel is also open for Muslim students who want to perform prayer," said
Gharaibeh, a doctoral student in computer engineering and the president of the
Muslim Students Association at ISU. "Personally, I don't feel excluded by having
another religious symbol."
Some Christian students oppose efforts to remove the cross.
"I think it's fine the way it is," said Jesse Antelman of Des Moines, who will be a
junior this fall. "I don't understand why they would want to take it down. For one,
it's always been there. It's a point of reference for people. If I need to go
somewhere to pray, it's an aid for my ability to pray."
Reporter Lisa Rossi can be reached at (515) 232-2383 or lrossi@dmreg.com