Supporting Religious Students on Rutgers Campus

Creative engagement is approaching community involvement and awareness in any creative means. This could be with murals, sculptures, music, etc. This can help with creative intervention for underrepresented communities because having events or structures that help bring awareness to the surrounding community which in turn creates room for active discussions about the situation. In the terms of my intended project I will do a street mural as my creative intervention in order to help bring awareness to the rise of racial bias on campus. This is creative engagement because it will help start conversations because of an art influence.

I would be working with the religious organizations and communities on Rutgers campus to help try to show unity between them. These organizations can include groups who are a part of the Rutgers interfaith council; which includes but is not limited to the CILRU, Rutgers Hillel, and the Second Reformed Church. These communities can help give input to help combat the vulnerabilities they feel. Some of these vulnerabilities include violence and harassment. Which is why being able to show that religions can all live in unity with each other is an important aspect of this project.

This mural would connect all of the places that these communities go to practice religion or see as a safe space. Some of these include the Chabad at Rutgers and the Rutgers Hillel for Judaism. St. Peter’s Church on College Ave for Catholicism. As well as the Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers at 122 College Ave. I think religions should be aware of each other to help form a mutual respect for each other and the spaces they share. Also the general population of Rutgers should be aware of what these religious communities face and see if there are ways to support them better. This street mural will help guide these conversations which can help try and improve everyone’s quality of life around campus.

These locations and organizations would also be the change agents. They have the capacity to help raise awareness and bring to light the struggles they want to address and conversations they want to start.

The community of benefit would be religious people who feel negatively impacted, uncomfortable or unsafe by or in their environment on campus.

This is an important project because with religion being a big part of many peoples lives having bias on campus against religions can create an unsafe environment. We have seen a rise in violence and targeted harassment towards religious groups on campus so now is the time to bring awareness to these struggles and have daily conversations about this. This will help as a way to show support for people who are a part of different religions.