Jennifer Prokop, Tempo Editor
For students who are passionate about social justice issues, there is a new group on campus that combines standing up for those issues along with improving communication between different faiths. “What IF?” focuses on having people of different beliefs come together to work toward different justice topics.
Adam Setmeyer, University Minister/Coordinator of Retreats and Social Justice Education at Lewis, explained what the new group hopes to achieve and why it was something that was needed on campus.
“We came up with the idea [in the] fall of 2010,” he said. “The Center for Ministry and Spirituality at Lewis did the Symposium on Interfaith Work on Immigration Reform, and when we were doing that, we had a representative from the group Interfaith Youth Core come out and [had] workshop training for students on interfaith dialogue. Basically it just inspired us to start this group. It’s really young, and we’re just getting rolling.”
The group has had one event so far that took place a few months ago that dealt with immigration reform. Although immigration reform is not the only topic that the group plans to address, it is something they do plan to focus on.
“We’ve had one event so far, and what it was in last November, we did a vigil at what’s known as the Immigration Customs Enforcement,” Setmeyer said. “They have these processing centers. It’s kind of like the middle road between once you’re arrested before going to prison and being deported. We did a candlelight vigil there to pray for those who were detained at that time; to pray for the “Dream Act,” which was going to be voted on; at that time it was going to be voted on that week. It didn’t get voted on that week, and when it was voted upon, it didn’t pass.” Setmeyer explained that the symposium inspired them to have the emphasis on immigration reform as well.
“Part of what ‘What IF?’ is going to do is combining the faith with service, but particularly we’re going to focus on immigration. It’s not to say everything we always do is going to have an immigration focus. Because we started with that symposium, we are kind of keeping it is as our mission.”
“What IF?” is different from other University Ministry groups on campus because of the emphasis on incorporating ideas from different faiths to achieve social justice.
“One of the main differences is starting from the very beginning with the idea of having all different faith voices in the mix,” said Setmeyer. “Now being a primarily Catholic and Christian school, most of our student body is Catholic and Christian. So that’s not always the easiest goal to fulfill, but at least we want to make that open. It’s not completely different from other things, but I guess the focus is the key word. The fact that it’s focused on doing justice, but through all different faith traditions.”
Although the group is still in its early stages, they do have some ideas for the rest of the semester.
“So this semester, the group is really just getting started, but we’re looking to maybe do just two more events this semester,” Setmeyer said. “Maybe something that’s information-based, like a lecture. [For] Cult. and Civ. points [or invite] an inspirational speaker on campus that could talk about what happens when people of different faiths come together to work for justice. And then the other activity will hopefully be another service project or justice related project.”
Student Liana Vantrease, who is part of the “What IF?” organization, discusses what made her decide to get involved with the group.
“I have always been passionate about social justice issues, but I was not doing much about it,” she said. “I felt like a hypocrite because I was preaching as if I were a social justice advocate, but the next step is to go out and do something about these issues that are often overlooked, viewed as unimportant or ignored entirely. After attending a seminar on campus pertaining to ‘welcoming the stranger,’ I was motivated to form a group on campus that will advocate for issues such as immigration, so I am hoping to inspire others to become as passionate about this issue.”
She also talked about why students should take part in this new group.
“We hope to raise awareness about equality issues, and encourage the student body at Lewis to take an active role by becoming the voice for those that are oppressed,” Vantrease said. “This group is important to have on campus because ‘What IF?’ raises awareness about issues that are often viewed as unimportant or ignored, but they affect so many lives including some of the students who attend Lewis. We would like people of all faiths and traditions to come together and take action to better the world.”
“What IF?” is open to all students that are interested in joining. Their first meeting of the semester is on Feb. 2 at 4 p.m. in the Family Room of the ministry building. Setmeyer also said that any student who is interested in joining the group, but cannot attend the first meeting, should contact him about it.
“We don’t have the plans yet laid out for the semester, so people who come to the meetings will get to put in their input, and they’ll be heard loud and clear,” said Setmeyer. “That’s when we’ll start generating ideas. Generally we’ll meet either weekly or every other week for the semester.”
For more information about “What IF?,” visit www.lewisu.edu.
Jennifer Prokop
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