Contact Us
Jessica Mackinnon
Director of Public Information
jmack@dom.edu
(708)524-6289
Dan Armstrong
Public Relations Manager
darmstrong@dom.edu
(708)524-6452
Director of Public Information
jmack@dom.edu
(708)524-6289
Dan Armstrong
Public Relations Manager
darmstrong@dom.edu
(708)524-6452
Lund-Gill Chair Eboo Patel Brings Interfaith Focus to Dominican
Dominican University is embracing interfaith dialogue as a key academic and cultural focus
for its students and community through an intensive partnership with the pioneering Interfaith
Youth Core (IFYC), an organization founded by Eboo Patel, the university’s Lund-Gill Chair for
2011.
“Higher education is the place to take on the challenge of advancing interfaith cooperation,” Patel explained during his keynote address at the 2011 faculty convocation. “I think that the Catholic colleges and universities in America can take the lead in showing the country and the world what a model of interfaith cooperation looks like.”
Patel, a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, founded the Interfaith Youth Core in 2002. The group trains college students to work with other students and community groups to foster respect, understanding and shared service among different faith groups.
In 2010, the university entered into a formal, multi-year partnership with IFYC known as a Model Campus Engagement. The goal of this partnership is to advance a culture of interfaith cooperation and understanding at Dominican University.
The initiative is strengthened by the university’s ongoing commitment to increasing the interfaith literacy of its students through academic coursework, interdisciplinary seminars and lectures.
In June, Dominican hosted IFYC’s summer lnterfaith Leadership Institute for students, staff, and faculty throughout the Midwest region. For four days students and their campus allies were prepared and inspired to mobilize interfaith activities on their campuses.
Dominican’s own student-run Better Together IFYC chapter has been tasked with leading on-campus interfaith programming for peers, and establishing opportunities for interfaith service with local community organizations.
In partnership with the IFYC team, the university also has launched the Interfaith Engagement Series, which hosts monthly meetings to discuss non-Christian religious traditions prevalent in American religious culture. The four-part series will celebrate key holy days from the Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Jewish traditions.
The group also will guide Dominican’s participation in the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, an initiative inviting institutions of higher education to commit to a year of interfaith and community service programming on campus.
Among the projects Dominican has undertaken as part of the Challenge are a collaboration enabling students, faculty, and staff to volunteer with Exodus World Service to support and form relationships with newly arrived refugee families, and programming to address hunger through community gardening, supporting the Oak Park Food Pantry, and raising awareness about hunger.
Liberal arts seminars for students also will incorporate interfaith themes. All freshman are reading Living Buddha/Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh and all sophomores are reading Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Benares by Diana Eck.
Dominican’s University Ministry office has opened two interfaith prayer rooms for use by all students, one at the Main Campus and one on the Priory Campus. At the Main Campus interfaith prayer room, the Ministry team offers a weekly universal contemplative prayer.
“The timing of this initiative is pertinent and powerful,” says President Donna M. Carroll. “ Looking forward, interfaith dialogue and cooperation are vitally important to the creation of healthy communities, and a university like Dominican, with its own strong Catholic tradition, can be a catalyst for encouraging such conversation.”
Patel is teaching an honors seminar course on the history of interfaith cooperation during the fall semester. He will give a public lecture on November 1 at 7:00 p.m. in the Martin Recital Hall.
“Higher education is the place to take on the challenge of advancing interfaith cooperation,” Patel explained during his keynote address at the 2011 faculty convocation. “I think that the Catholic colleges and universities in America can take the lead in showing the country and the world what a model of interfaith cooperation looks like.”
Patel, a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, founded the Interfaith Youth Core in 2002. The group trains college students to work with other students and community groups to foster respect, understanding and shared service among different faith groups.
In 2010, the university entered into a formal, multi-year partnership with IFYC known as a Model Campus Engagement. The goal of this partnership is to advance a culture of interfaith cooperation and understanding at Dominican University.
The initiative is strengthened by the university’s ongoing commitment to increasing the interfaith literacy of its students through academic coursework, interdisciplinary seminars and lectures.
In June, Dominican hosted IFYC’s summer lnterfaith Leadership Institute for students, staff, and faculty throughout the Midwest region. For four days students and their campus allies were prepared and inspired to mobilize interfaith activities on their campuses.
Dominican’s own student-run Better Together IFYC chapter has been tasked with leading on-campus interfaith programming for peers, and establishing opportunities for interfaith service with local community organizations.
In partnership with the IFYC team, the university also has launched the Interfaith Engagement Series, which hosts monthly meetings to discuss non-Christian religious traditions prevalent in American religious culture. The four-part series will celebrate key holy days from the Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Jewish traditions.
The group also will guide Dominican’s participation in the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, an initiative inviting institutions of higher education to commit to a year of interfaith and community service programming on campus.
Among the projects Dominican has undertaken as part of the Challenge are a collaboration enabling students, faculty, and staff to volunteer with Exodus World Service to support and form relationships with newly arrived refugee families, and programming to address hunger through community gardening, supporting the Oak Park Food Pantry, and raising awareness about hunger.
Liberal arts seminars for students also will incorporate interfaith themes. All freshman are reading Living Buddha/Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh and all sophomores are reading Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Benares by Diana Eck.
Dominican’s University Ministry office has opened two interfaith prayer rooms for use by all students, one at the Main Campus and one on the Priory Campus. At the Main Campus interfaith prayer room, the Ministry team offers a weekly universal contemplative prayer.
“The timing of this initiative is pertinent and powerful,” says President Donna M. Carroll. “ Looking forward, interfaith dialogue and cooperation are vitally important to the creation of healthy communities, and a university like Dominican, with its own strong Catholic tradition, can be a catalyst for encouraging such conversation.”
Patel is teaching an honors seminar course on the history of interfaith cooperation during the fall semester. He will give a public lecture on November 1 at 7:00 p.m. in the Martin Recital Hall.
Dominican University
7900 West Division St.,
River Forest, IL 60305
(708)524-6289
webmaster@dom.edu