Memorandum

Date: June 4, 2021

To: York University Facilities Services.
From: Abdi Ahmed
Re: Lack of adequate faith spaces.

I am writing to express my concern to the York University Facilities Services about the lack of
adequate faith spaces at York University - Keele Campus. As a member of the community, it
hurt to see students struggling to find a place to exercise their faith. The problem is that the
designated religious/meditation center is overbooked, overcrowded, and is too small to
accommodate the student body on campus. The center is situated far from many of the learning
buildings within campus, this forces students to find alternative areas that. Students and
community members including myself have resorted to praying/meditating in the hallways,
classrooms, staircases and library areas. The Scott religious center, which is the official faith
space of the campus, is a shared space for all faiths. The space provides a place for students to
introspect, meditate, pray and exercise their faith. However, the centre cannot adequately provide
enough space despite the increasing number of community members that want to lean on their
faith in this formative stage of their life. With the re-opening of the campus in the fall and the
concern about the effects of the pandemic, it is paramount for the Facilities Services to
reconsider the matter of expanding the number of faith spaces. It is also crucial to acknowledge
the impertinency of faith-spaces in relation to the student bodies well-being and success. Below
are some findings of the research I have conducted to further illustrate to you the benefits of faith
and faith spaces and how being able to practice on campus can help a student’s well-being and
success.

Faith and Student Well-being

Prolonged hours of studying and meeting deadlines can immensely alter the well-being of
students. To cope with these pressures, many students use their faith as a coping mechanism.
They go to the faith space/centre to practice their faith and nourish their mind by
meditating/praying or reading religious textbooks. Many students also go to this space to find
connection and increase their sense of belonging. Many studies have shown the connection
between student’s well-being and faith. People with more faith have reported greater well-being
and sense of purpose. In their study on the prediction of life purpose, loneliness and well-being
among college students, Gabrielle Pfund and Cindy Miller-Perrin found positive correlation
between faith, faith communities and student’s life purpose and well-being. They wrote “Faith,
whether expressed by church attendance, devotion to one’s religious beliefs, or more abstractly
as spirituality, has shown to negatively correlate with loneliness and to positively correlate with
life purpose and well-being”. They also wrote “Faith communities could be a potential avenue
through which college students might overcome struggles with loneliness, purposelessness, and
negative well-being”. Furthermore, a recent research by Mayo clinic has found that people’s
faith, religious involvement and spirituality are linked with better health outcomes, coping skills,
health related quality of life, less anxiety, and depression. And so, having many faith
spaces/centres will create more communities and this will help student’s health and well-being.

Faith and Student Success.

Faith also plays a critical role in student academic success. A review of 42 studies conducted
between 1990 and present has found adolescent with stronger religiosity earn better grades, are
less truant in secondary school, and complete more years of higher education. People who
practice religion have been found to be healthier and are happier, which indicates student
academic success.

Given these profound impacts faith has on students, it becomes incumbent upon the university
Facilities Services to seriously consider the role of faith and faith spaces/centre on campus. The
Facilities Service should not be concerned with the cost of making more spaces available. My
upcoming recommendation report will highlight ways the Facilities Services can rethink and
support this important aspect of student’s life without additional costs to the university. The
report would outline steps the Facilities Service can take to create more spaces within learning
buildings and how involving student faith groups can facilitate the creation of these spaces.

PART 2: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Academic Journal:

1. Pfund, G. N., & Miller-Perrin, C. (2019). Interaction and Harmony in Faith

Communities: Predicting Life Purpose, Loneliness, and Well-Being Among College
Students. Journal of College and Character, 20(3), 234–253. https://journals-
scholarsportal-
info.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/details/2194587x/v20i0003/234_iahifclawacs.xml#body-
S0004

Pfund, G. N., & Miller-Perrin, C., argue in their study, the importance of faith and faith
community in student well-being. They conducted a survey and analysis to support their
conclusions. The authors explored how faith directly relates to the student’s sense of purpose,
well-being, and loneliness. Scholars Portal is a repository of millions of scholarly articles drawn
from journals covering every academic discipline. The portal is available to Ontario university
students and their professors, who will be familiar with the site’s intended purpose and authority.

Current magazine:

2. Roberts, N. F. (2019, August 22). Science Says: Religion Is Good For Your Health.
Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolefisher/2019/03/29/science-says-religion-is-
good-for-your-health/?sh=3e12982f3a12.

Roberts, N. F. explains the need for the medical research community to further study the link
between faith activities and believes in its influence on health and health care. She uses examples
from past research on the influence of religion to explain why more research focused on this
topic is needed. Dr Nicole highlights the role faith plays in explaining the unexplainable to
patients and how this role needs not to be ignored or discounted anymore by the medical research
community. Forbes is an American business magazine whose readers are high-net investors,
business owners, and tech decision makers. The readers will be more inclined to believe the
author’s arguments, as the magazine is more reliable.

Web Article:

3. Staff, G. (2018, October 8). The surprising benefits to spirituality in college. Gateway.
https://unothegateway.com/surprising-benefits-spirituality-college/.

Staff, G. argues the benefits of spirituality on campus and how it can help the student’s health
and academic success. He uses a study conducted by Stanford University to illustrate the benefits
of religiosity on campus. Staff emphasizes the need for a faith space on campus and how faith
plays a role in student well-being and academic success. [SENTENCE 4] The Gateway is the
official university of Nebraska student newspaper. It caters to the university students and
provides everyday news and sports.

Two additional sources

4. Kornas-Biela, D., Martynowska, K., & Zysberg, L. (2020). Faith conquers all?
Demographic and psychological resources and their associations with academic
performance among religious college students. British Journal of Religious Education,
42(4), 459–470.https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2020.1740168

Kornas-Biela, D., Martynowska, K., & Zysberg, L. tested in study the connection of religiosity
and academic attainment. They explored two models of psychology, namely, the psychological
capital and psychological resilience, to test the link between religion and academic success. They
conducted this study to prove the link between religiosity and academic success. Taylor &
Francis is journal content platform that specializes scholarly articles and academic books. The
journal is peer-reviewed, and this gives their reader confidence in the content's reliability. The
audience for Taylor & Francis is mainly academics and researchers.

5. Horwitz, I. M. (2020, October 4). Religion and Academic Achievement: A Research

Review Spanning Secondary School and Higher Education. Review of Religious
Research. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13644-020-00433-y.

Horwitz, I. M. analysed 42 studies to determine how religiosity and religious background are
associated with short and long-term academic outcomes. Horwitz reviewed the studies to explain
three major findings. Horwitz uses the review to clarify any lingering doubts about the
connection between student academic success and their faith. Springer is a global scientific,
technical and medical portfolio. The main readers are researchers, students and decision makers.