Wichita State sets Friday town hall on controversy over university chapel

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story contained an incorrect year for when the city took over the university.

Seeking to clear the air on reports of a “Muslim takeover” at Wichita State University’s campus chapel, officials have called a town hall meeting for Friday evening to discuss the controversial renovation of the interfaith facility.

The meeting will feature a presentation and a question-and-answer session with a panel selected by the Student Government Association and the Chapel Use Committee at the public university. It will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Marcus Welcome Center at the university.

The event is open to the public and comes in response to Internet rumors and subsequent news reports that the Grace Memorial Chapel at WSU had been stripped of pews and other Christian trappings at the request of Muslim students.

Eagle research has found that the request to remove pews and other furnishings from the chapel had originated not with Muslims, but with Christian students and former campus minister Christopher Eshelman, who wanted a more flexible space for their worship services.

The renovation exploded across the Internet after an Oct. 2 Facebook post by WSU alumna and donor Jean Ann Cusick, who decried what she called “accommodation” of Muslim students, who have brought in a prayer rug and use the chapel for daily prayers.

Her post was picked up by conservative news outlets across the country, including the Fox News network, which ran an opinion piece characterizing the renovation as a “Christian cleansing” at the university.

During the height of the controversy, WSU president John Bardo empowered a committee to open a discussion on use of the chapel and schedule a town hall to hear from the university community and the general public.

Eric Sexton, the vice president for student affairs, whom Bardo appointed to head the committee, said the town hall will be a “healthy and safe” educational discussion.

Although the chapel situation “is not what it originally appeared to be, we still have people who have questions and concerns,” he said.

Friday evening was chosen for the discussion, despite possible conflict with the Halloween weekend, because it was the only time all the participants were available to get together, he said.

Cusick said she won’t be attending the university’s town hall because “I’ve had enough bad letters from them” about the chapel.

She said she thinks renovation was “a cover-up by the university” because it hadn’t really been publicized anywhere but The Sunflower, the student-run campus newspaper.

Cusick said she still loves the university and will support programs she likes there, but she’s done with the chapel controversy.

Wichita State was originally chartered as the private Fairmout College and was affiliated with the Congregational Church. In 1926, the city took over and it was renamed the Municipal University of Wichita – Wichita University for short.

The chapel was built in 1963, while Cusick was a student and about the same time the institution transitioned from being a municipal university to a state school.

Of the contention that renovation of the chapel was actually a Christian idea, Cusick said, “I don’t know how much I believe that.”

Eshelman said he and other campus Christians started campaigning to remove the pews about three years ago because the fixed, forward-facing pews were impractical for interactive worship, where the message is delivered in a two-way conversation between the minister and the audience.

Although he has since moved to a position as associate pastor at Calvary United Methodist Church, Eshelman has maintained contact and sits as chairman of the ecumenical committee that oversees campus ministry at WSU.

Muslims never demanded any accommodation in the chapel, although some did come on board to support removing the pews, he said.

Eshelman said his first contact with a Muslim student on the matter came late in the process, about the same time then-student-body-president Matt Conklin, a Christian, was preparing a formal request to the administration to have the pews removed.

Eshelman also said reports that a cross and altar had been removed from the chapel were incorrect.

He said the chapel had never had a fixed cross and that the furnishing characterized as an altar was actually an art piece kind of like a pyramid with a flat top, which was impractical for use in a service and sat unused at the back of the building.

Money to build the chapel was donated by the family of the late Harvey D. Grace and carried a specific condition that it be open to all races and creeds.

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 2:32 PM with the headline "Wichita State sets Friday town hall on controversy over university chapel."