Opinions

Advisors play a crucial role

In print | March 27, 2008

We would like to respond to Julian Chender’s column from March 20, entitled “MSA challenges need for spiritual guidance.” We are deeply disappointed that Chender felt no need to speak with any student from a religious group with a spiritual advisor before publishing veiled accusations that such figures act as administrative spies and declaring them unnecessary to campus life. As long-time board members of Ruach and active participants in Jewish life on campus, we feel that we can speak to the wonderful impact spiritual advisors can have on the Swarthmore community.

While Chender interprets the Muslim Student Association’s decision to forgo a religious advisor to mean that all such advisors are redundant, we interpret this information to mean that each religious culture on campus is unique and should have the right to determine which structure best befits their particular community. Many of the MSA’s justifications for rejecting a campus Imam, while completely reasonable for the MSA, simply do not apply to Swarthmore’s Jewish community. The MSA, for example, receives extensive support from campus faculty. This semester, Ruach had to cancel its annual Latke-Hamantaschen Debate, because we could not find two professors (Jewish or not) willing to participate. Our semesterly Professor Shabbats are sparsely attended. We simply have no reasonable expectation that any Swarthmore professor is regularly available to act as a resource to our community.

Unquestionably, Swarthmore’s many Jewish advisors over the years have all made vital contributions to Jewish life. Whether by working tirelessly to promote communication between the proliferation of Jewish groups, acting as a unifying force in the Swarthmore Hillel, running workshops on how to lead Shabbat services, providing useful expertise, or counseling individual students in need of spiritual guidance, our advisors have done nothing but improve our sense of community and connection to each other as Jews. For these reasons and more, the Jewish community has for many years been working to make the Jewish advisor a permanent, full-time position, eliminating the frequent turnover that we feel is damaging to the cohesiveness and continuity of strong Jewish life on campus.

Contrary to Chender’s insinuations, the Jewish advisor does not in any way provide administrative “control over ‘how religious groups should or should not act on campus’.” (And we would like to know the attribution of that quote, please.) None of the Jewish groups on campus has ever been approached by the administration or the Jewish advisor and been instructed on our activities, prohibited from certain actions or in any other way interfered with. Regular meetings between advisors and deans are not evidence of a conspiracy. Our wonderful Jewish advisor, Jake Rubin, provides advice when asked and makes general suggestions, but never demands. As with all campus life, Swarthmore’s Jewish life is student-organized and student-run.

Finally, we feel obligated to point out in response to Chender’s facetious contention that all clubs on campus have the right to an advisor, that Swarthmore’s spiritual advisors are not attached to any club. They act as a resource for anyone in need, one could even say especially for people who find themselves alienated from the clubs geared towards their spiritual community. The resources of the spiritual advisors are thus not confined to one group of students alone, but in fact open up greater possibilities for diverse religious life for everyone. And should the Hindu students or Baha’i students decide to push for a spiritual advisor, we would support them.