The mission of the Chaplain's Office is threefold:

****  To provide opportunities for students, faculty and staff to express, learn more about, and grow in their own religious faith.

****  To provide the opportunity to learn about the religious beliefs of others.  To serve as a liaison to communities of faith in the surrounding area and to be a resource for students whose religious needs extend beyond our campus.

****  To provide opportunities for discussion and dialogue on matters of religious belief and ethical behavior.

THE PENDULUM SWINGS

Early in the history of our nation, Higher Education was under the auspices of religious institutions. Various denominations founded colleges and universities and the teaching of moral and spiritual values was a routine part of the curriculum. It wasn't until later that land grant institutions came into being as a part of state government. Even then, state sponsored schools taught moral and ethcal courses as part of a liberal education. Following WWII, the pendulum began to swing toward a more secular approach to education. I remember as an undergraduate having to go to required chapel at my Methodist affiliated university. By the mid-sixties even denominational schools were no longer requiring chapel and required religion courses. By the end of the twentieth century secularism was the order of the day.

Recently two announcements caught my attention. The University of Southern California is seeking a Dean of Religious Life. The announcement states that "the Office of Religious Life works to bring spiritual and ethical concerns into the interchange of ideas on USC campuses, while exploring new ways in which religion-broadly construed- can enhance university life."

The other announcement, which appeared in the Christian Century, was an account of the installation of MIT's first chaplain. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has never had a chaplain in its entire 146 year history! The new chaplain wrote of the change at MIT,"Attention is being paid here to the role of religion in the human experience."

The pendulum is swinging!

                                                                                                                        Don Harrison

                                                                                                                         University Chaplain