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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 2003)
Noriko Miyazaki Emerald Members of the Muslim Students Association come from many different cultural backgrounds and enjoy sharing their experiences. Campus religious groups provide open belief forum The University's variety of religious and ethnic groups serve to aid and enlighten the campus community By Noriko Miyazaki Freelance Reporter College is not only an arena for education and academia, it can also operate as a venue for cultural en richment and self-realization. Uni versity-affiliated organizations offer students and faculty an opportunity to enhance their personal views of life and spirituality. The University now houses 28 reli gious-oriented student bodies on campus, and those can become excel lent opportunities to educate oneself outside the classroom. "It will bring you whole new di mensions," said Mona Alzubair — who has helped run the Muslim Stu dents Association, located in EMU Room 202 for more than two years. Alzubair said the group is com prised of a wide variety of students coming from different cultural back grounds who have all enjoyed learn ing from each other. Last year, MSA group members shared their religious ideas and thoughts with "student representa tives" from more than seven other countries overseas. "We are from Asia, Middle East, Africa and United States. We are a very diverse group, which makes us all unique," Alzubair said. "But at the same time, we try to keep good bal ance of leadership." She said religious faith or ethnicity does not come before the valuable ex perience of sharing and understand ing one another in the group. "It's a student association," she added. "Everyone is welcome; every one can be a member." MSA does not limit its potential to share religious faith and cultural com plexity to the group. Group members have organized several religious events and have cooperated with the Eugene Middle East Peace Group, a local peace activists' group, to provide the community with a better under standing of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how to promote peace in the region. Buddhists For Peace, another Uni versity club, also offers unique oppor tunities for the campus community. BFP recognizes itself as a fairly new and novel student group. The group was formed two years ago and is the only active Buddhist group on cam pus, according to group organizers. "A lot of people probably haven't heard about (the group)," BFP co founder and member Austyn Young said. "So, we're trying to get the word out because it's important to have diversity.' Young said the group wants to offer more options to students and have them gain the positive experience she has had through the group. In the club, members share inter national philosophy of peace, cul ture and education, chiefly guided by Lotus Sutra, the supreme teaching in Buddhism. Besides the weekly readings of the religious teaching the group hosts in termittent campus events. BFP organized an interfaith confer ence called "Building a Culture of Peace" at the Knight Library last year in hopes of achieving mutual under standings and fostering peace among various religious groups. "We invited people who are Christ ian, Muslim, Jewish and had actual dialogues," Young said. She said the conference discussed the field of religion and science and attempted to share the similarities among current scientific findings on their religions. BFP holds weekly meetings every Thursday at 7 p.m. in the EMU Inter national Lounge. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship similarly provides the campus with a forum to learn about the religion and discuss what it means to be a Christian. Tricia Miyashiro, a two-year Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship member, said she hopes to see new faces now that school has begun. She said the group is open to both Christians and non-Christians, and the purpose of the group is to explore the universal fellowship among the campus community. Turn to RELIGION, page 10B 6W9L0 r Center for Family Therapy UNIVERSITY OF OREGON • Individual, couple and family therapy • Affordable sliding scale fee • Daytime and evening hours Are You Readyfor Change ? For information or to make an appointment, call (541) 346-3296 The Center for Family Therapy (CFT) is an affordable counseling agency staffed with intern counselors from the Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) Graduate Specialization at the College of Education, University of Oregon, The MFT graduate program is nationally accredited with COAMTTE and approved by the Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists. 'N w you roiunt&er fifMi !ri ^ community m low _1Vav“.vw cm you* sports? v$\ ^\\ \ :7X vo you $n\ cm# '/OUCAN! Get involved! Stop by the CIP office in the EMU BREEZEWAY or call 346-4351 to find out more! CIP Community Internship Program j Center Registrar edu/-counsel 346-3227 Career Center uocareer.uoregon.edu Student Life 346-3235 studentlife.uoregon.edu 346-3216 / University Health Center healtiicenter.uoregon.edu 346-4441 Student Financial | Aid & Scholarships J financialaid.uoregon.edu 346-3221 registrar.uoregon.edu ^ 346-3243 PARS (Physical Activity & Recreation Services) Admissions J pars.uoregon.edu X—^ 346-1041 admissions.uoregon.edu 346-3201 University Housing housing.uoregon.edu 346-4277 STUDENT AFFAIRS studentaffairs.uoregon.edu UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
