Students discuss their experiences as members of Tufts' religious minority

For students who identify as religious or spiritual, Tufts offers a wide array of options for them to practice their faith on campus. This includes the presence of Buddhist, Catholic, Jewish, Humanist, Muslim and Protestant chaplains on campus.

However, there are some students who are members of less-populated religions on campus, referred to as "minority religions." According to the 2017 Spiritual Interests Survey, out of 1,525 responses from first-years, seven percent identified with minority religious identities.

Erika Madrian is a junior who identifies as part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the Mormon Church. Growing up religious her whole life, she knew that the presence of religious communities would be important when considering her college choices.

“I came into college knowing that I would actively want to practice my faith on campus,” Madrian said. “That was a really big factor just because Mormonism is not a particularly common religion. Places where I applied [to] were places where I knew there were particularly strong Mormon communities.”

As a result, when she visited Tufts, she made sure to explore the religious aspects of campus, in addition to the more conventional tour.

“One of the typical things Mormon people do is visit on a weekend so they can go to church and see what the congregation is like," Madrian said.  "So I went to the congregation [and] I told them I was looking at Tufts and all the Tufts people came and told me where to go."

At Tufts, Madrian joined the Latter-day Saints Students Association. However, due to the very small population of Mormon students on campus, the club has dwindled down to just two members, including her. To actively practice her faith with other college students, Madrian goes off campus.

“When I came in, there was a club for Mormon students. It's kind of fallen aside just because we’ve had people graduate and it hasn’t really repopulated. So there’s only two of us right now — if you were to ask TCU [Tufts Community Union], we don’t exist,” Madrian said. “But Boston has a great congregation that brings together students from all of the areas. Tufts itself has a very small Mormon community, but Harvard, which is right down the road, has lots of people, so it’s really easy for me to go hang out with them.”

Madrian said she has never felt like a minority in terms of her religious stance. She has never received a negative response to her religious beliefs, but is often asked about certain practices of the Mormon faith, such as abstaining from alcohol consumption.

“Ideologically sometimes I feel like I’m in the minority, because Tufts can be very hyper-liberal,” Madrian said. “It can be tricky to know where I stand because at Tufts I feel like I’m too conservative, but then at church I feel like I’m not conservative enough. It’s been an interesting exercise in challenging what I really believe rather than just blindly following what someone has been telling me my whole life. Overall, though, people at Tufts have been very respectful of my religion.”

Ann-Marie Lee is a sophomore whose religious background is multi-faith. While she was raised as a Catholic, she has studied other religions that have led her to alter her own religious identification.

“I broadly identify as interfaith," Lee said. "I have been raised and am culturally Roman Catholic, have spent years seriously self-studying eclectic European and Asian paganism and folk religion, am a part of a local pagan community, and have adopted Daoism and Buddhism as faith paths.”

While Lee was religious in high school and identified as Roman Catholic, Daoist and pagan, it was not a factor in her college choice. At Tufts, she continued to explore her various faiths alongside other students on campus.

“I found lots of people who shared common facets of their beliefs and faith practices with me, but no one who has exactly shared my unique, syncretic blend of religious faith,” Lee said. “I'm on the e-board of the Buddhist Mindfulness Sangha, and would consider that to be one of my cherished faith communities. I deeply regard and love the interfaith community at Tufts.”

Lee is satisfied with the resources available for religious students on campus, and has even helped form more resources, such as the student organization Community OF Faith Exploration and Engagement (COFFEE).

“I absolutely fell in love with the chaplaincy staff and all the chaplains. My first semester as a freshman I also teamed up with a friend to create and establish the interfaith student group at Tufts, COFFEE, after we both completed the CAFE [Conversation Action Faith and Education] pre-orientation. So some of the resources for students of minority faiths were already in place and institutionalized, and some I helped facilitate,” Lee said.

Lee elaborated on the aims of COFFEE as an interfaith community, including for students who are not spiritual or religious. According to the 2017 Spiritual Interests Survey, the two most popular religious, spiritual and philosophical identities chosen by first-years were agnostic and atheist.

“We strive to be a group welcoming of all students, especially of minority faiths who have no formal space or organized faith community on campus, who want to engage in deeper, more meaningful discussions. We're also explicit about inviting in atheist, secular, agnostic, non-religious and questioning students,” Lee said.

Raveena Longia is a junior who identifies as Sikh. As someone who grew up in Medford, she has been going to a local gurdwara her whole life. Because she doesn’t speak Punjabi, she has always struggled with how intertwined her religion and culture are.

“Somebody asked me once, 'Are you culturally religious, or religiously religious?' and my family’s definitely culturally religious,” Longia said. "So when I came to college, that’s when I started exploring the principles of Sikhism — how do I want to identify it, what parts of it do I want to relate to and how can I apply that to my own life. I wanted to move away from 'Just because I was born in this, therefore I should practice it or identify with it.'”

At Tufts, she found it difficult to find other students who identify as Sikh. Like Madrian, Longia found that the existing club for Sikh students, the Sikh Students Association, is so small that it does not meet regularly. However, she has discovered that there are more spaces off campus for Sikh students who are actively practicing their faith.

“I didn’t find other people who were Sikh when I first came to campus and the Sikh Students Association isn’t really running, but there’s a temple in Medford and another one in Everett. Also there’s a health initiative at Tufts called Sharewood, where you can volunteer at a gurdwara in Everett, which is really cool,” Longia said.