Defend change to WSU chapel

Wichita State University had it right in May, when it made changes in the campus chapel to give Muslim students a proper place to kneel and pray.

What’s disappointing is that WSU administrators are now re-examining the accommodation in response to criticism, rather than explaining and defending it as in keeping with being a public university with a diverse student body in a country whose founding principles include religious pluralism.

In an Eagle article on the controversy, which erupted on Facebook, it was left to student body president Joseph Shepard to defend the renovation, noting that the complaints are “coming from off-campus, not from the students here.”

The change in furnishings, including removal of a tiny altar and replacement of pews with portable chairs, is being taken by some as anti-Christian. But the stated purpose of the Harvey D. Grace Memorial Chapel and the donor who funded it in 1963 was that it welcome all creeds and races. Over the years the cozy building has been the setting for weddings, memorial services, recitals, nondenominational gatherings, Holocaust remembrances, Martin Luther King Jr. observances and post-Sept. 11 prayers. It’s part of what makes WSU a community as well as a college.

Perhaps WSU officials could have better communicated with the campus community about the renovation before and as it occurred. Now, the second-guessing seems like a slap at the 1,000 Muslims who are Shockers, including many who pay the higher tuition rates and fees required of international students. And as the fall enrollment decline shows, WSU needs to prize its foreign students and attract many more.

For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman

This story was originally published October 7, 2015 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Defend change to WSU chapel."