The University of Kansas is planning to create a permanent meditation and reflection room on campus.
KU will first convert a conference room in the Kansas Memorial Union into a makeshift meditation room in the fall while the university determines a permanent location. The room will be designed as a spot for students to meditate, pray and find some quiet time between class.
The KU Student Senate announced the temporary location in the campus Union on June 25, noting it will be "open to all students, staff and faculty as a quiet place for prayer, meditation, and reflection."
The meditation room will exist in addition to Danforth Chapel, the campus nondenominational chapel. Some KU students found the chapel less welcoming for non-Christians, the Lawrence World Journal reports, and so Muslim students had found themselves praying in the library, empty classrooms and stairwells.
University employees will remove the furniture from the conference room so it is an open space "for people of all faiths and beliefs to use," but no other modifications are planned, a KU spokesperson told HuffPost.
Other universities have taken similar measures to set up meditation rooms in student unions, like at the University of California, Berkeley. Other schools, like Oberlin College and the University of Redlands, have gone further to set up yoga mats and soft furniture in their meditation rooms. Many universities nationwide maintain interfaith spots in their buildings or on campus grounds dedicated for reflection, meditation or prayer.
"College students have a very, very hectic life with so much pulling them in so many different directions," Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel of Chabbad at KU told The Lawrence Journal World. "I think it’s a beautiful idea to create a space on campus where, amidst the craziness of college life, the students can simply reflect."