“I don’t feel a need for religion in college. It, somehow, just doesn’t fit.”

I’ve heard this sentiment echoed repeatedly over my three and a half years at Cornell from students of various religious backgrounds and family structures. Upon arrival on campus, freshmen often send daily religious observance home with their parents, along with curfews and the plastic drawers that just don’t fit in their dorm rooms.

Religion and college are, in many ways, fundamentally incompatible. Religion, in most cases, is about preservation — preserving a way of life, traditions and set beliefs. College is about evolution; it’s the period of time an individual’s lifestyle and beliefs change again and again. College campuses foster environments of perpetual questioning and skepticism; the way students view the world is often challenged and reexamined, making strict practice of religious tenets and traditions unrealistic for most students.

Balancing old and new commitments, values and interests is hard. As president of the Cornell Hillel Jewish Student Union, I constantly struggle with how to foster an inclusive and diverse Jewish — religious, cultural and social — community on Cornell’s campus. And personally, I grew up in a family that sat down together for Shabbat dinner every Friday night. I always feel an inkling of guilt every time I tell my parents my Friday night was spent with a Pinesburger and friends at The Pines rather than with challah at a Shabbat dinner.

Rites of passage and life cycle events also characterize religion — birth, coming of age, marriage, raising a family, death. These events that often reconnect followers with their faith are, for the most part, absent from the daily lives of most college students. When these joyous or painful events do arise in a college community, religion is just one of many support networks available — especially on a campus like Cornell, where counseling services like EARS, CAPS and Campus Life professionals are prevalent. Students often return to their faiths after college — when new environments lead alumni to seek out communities and life cycle events begin to reappear on the horizon.

While the college environment is a difficult place for strict ritual observance, it often encourages reevaluation of one’s beliefs and understanding of other faiths. A 2004 study on the spiritual lives of college students by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA found that more than two-thirds of surveyed freshmen said they prayed, almost 80 percent believe in God and nearly half were seeking opportunities to grow spiritually. In May, The New York Times reported a renewed interest in matters of religion on campuses across the country — including increased enrollment in religious courses and majors, discussion groups and the emergence of residence halls where religion is a topic of daily conversation. Members of a college community are also often skeptical of organized religion’s divisiveness and religious acts may not be practiced regularly, but students are still grappling with questions of faith and how it relates to their lifestyles.

Cornell has historically been known for its separation of religion and higher education. At its birth, the University was considered a radical experiment as a non-sectarian institution without an official religion. In fact, when Sage Hall was renovated in the 1990s, the cornerstone from its construction was recovered and it contained, along with various Cornelliana of the day, a letter written by Ezra Cornell on May 15, 1873, that addressed non-sectarianism. The letter stated: “I desire to say that the principle [sic] danger, and I say almost the only danger I see in the future to be encountered by the friends of education, and by all lovers of true liberty is that which may arise from sectarian strife. From these halls, sectarianism must be forever excluded, all students must be left free to worship God, as their concience [sic] shall dictate, and all persons of any creed or all creeds must find free and easy access, and a hearty and equal welcome, to the educational facilities possessed by the Cornell University.”

The University has been acting to combat “sectarian strife” ever since. On a campus that promotes and strives for diversity, it is a challenge to bring together religious groups with fundamental differences and disagreements. Interfaith dialogue and programming is fostered in Anabel Taylor Hall, where 25 various religious communities coexist under one roof. Events like last Monday’s Interfaith Discussion Forum, hosted by the Hindu Student Council and many other religious groups, bring together students of various faiths to explore each other’s basic tenets and beliefs and to gain a greater mutual understanding.

These conversations are essential for the maintenance of a religious community on campus and provide opportunities for students to consider issues of faith even if they are not practicing on a daily basis. Understanding one’s own ethics and values, as well as the beliefs of others, is a critical element of a comprehensive education. Events that examine religion and spirituality from an academic, intuitive perspective may provide an opportunity to “fit” religion in with the college mindset and lifestyle.

Elana Beale is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be contacted at ebeale@cornellsun.com. Slope Song appears alternate Mondays.