A state university has become the first in Alabama to offer faith-based dorms to students who meet certain requirements.
The dorms, which opened in August at Troy University, have brought both praise and criticism.
“Over time, our students indicated in surveys that their interest in faith and spiritual issues is very high compared to students across the land,” said John W. Schmidt, Troy’s senior vice chancellor for advancement and external relations. In building the dorms, the university was “meeting a need for student housing but also satisfying some of our student requirements.”
The John Henry Cardinal Newman Center residence hall was built to “provide a forum for discussing one’s faith,” Schmidt said. “We believe we have an obligation here at the university not only to teach a person how to earn a living but also how to make a life.”
The center creates a sort of “ministry corridor.” The Catholic Church has rented space for a chapel on the premises and the Baptist Campus Ministries (BCM) building is next door, with Methodist and Presbyterian ministries following in a row.
To live in Newman Center, a student must maintain a 2.5 GPA, submit a recommendation letter from a minister or other community leader and be engaged in some sort of community service, Schmidt said. The idea has been well received by students, he added. “Once it became known (that Newman Center was opening), 376 students filled that residence hall almost immediately.”
But the dorms haven’t opened without challenges. Andrew L. Seidel, staff attorney for the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, wrote a letter Aug. 1 to Troy’s chancellor, Jack Hawkins Jr., explaining that faith-based housing was a “constitutional concern.” He wrote that “giving preferential treatment to Christian and religious students in housing decisions violates provisions of the Alabama Fair Housing Law, as well as corresponding provisions of the Fair Housing Act.”
Initially university spokespersons had indicated that the dorm would give preference to Christian students, but Schmidt has since rescinded that idea.
“The housing is open to all faiths, even to those who don’t have a faith,” he said, explaining that atheism is a kind of faith, “a faith that there is no God.”
The dorm is intended to foster a community of discussion and diversity, Schmidt said.
Kyle Ganus, president of Troy’s BCM and a member of Bush Memorial Baptist Church, Troy, said some students who live in Newman Center say they have enjoyed the atmosphere so far, especially freshman nervous about ending up in a party atmosphere. Others say it’s not much different from other dorms.
But Ganus, a junior, said he believes it could also be a pitfall for Christians when it comes to sharing their faith and making disciples.
“I think it’s way too easy for us to clique up when we should be spreading out and living life with the other people on campus,” he said.
At least two other schools — one in Florida and one in Texas — have faith-based dorms.
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