Vying for visibility and a stable home on campus, the Muslim Student Association will petition the Student Union Board on March 20 to use Wilder Room 220 as a prayer space and community resource for Oberlin Muslims.
A permanent move to Room 220 would bring MSA into the religious conglomeration in Wilder’s west wing that includes the larger Jewish and Christian organization campus offices. The Office of Chaplains is also in that hallway, though the College lacks a Muslim chaplain.
The push for Room 220 is twofold, according to MSA President Lina Elbadawi. “We recognized space is a big issue, visibility is a big issue,” she said.
Having a permanent office in Wilder among the prominent student religious groups would give MSA a decent home while also planting it in the heart of the religious community, she reasoned.
Last year, the religious group used the Lewis House for prayer. But ever since the organization decided to move to Wilder last semester, the situation has been in flux.
Elbadawi said that she talked to President Nancy Dye, Dean Peter Goldsmith and Assistant Director of the Student Union Tina Zwegat about securing the room for MSA, but was told that it was assigned daily on a first-come-first-serve basis.
“[Last semester], we booked Room 220 daily,” Elbadawi said. In an ad-hoc agreement, MSA was able to use the room from noon until 2 p.m.
But traditional Muslim prayers take place five times a day. The allotted time was not enough to meet the devout Muslim student’s needs.
This semester, matters became more complicated when MSA was stripped of its reservation for Room 220. The Student Union assigned them a permanent floor space upstairs in Wilder 306, voiding their previous arrangement. Though MSA maintains an office in 306, group members and the Office of Chaplains agreed that it was not an ideal prayer space.
“It’s too much like a tunnel,” Elbadawi said. “It’s good for maybe one or two people.” Seven members regularly come to prayers, and MSA’s membership is 35.
For the time being, MSA is using Room 220 on an ad-hoc basis, but Elbadawi said that the situation has caused problems for prayer sessions.
“We can’t store our prayer mats or Qurans.” These are practically essentials for a good prayer space, she said.
Meanwhile, Elbadawi and other group members are actively pushing to get Room 220 as their permanent home.
The Student Senate passed a unanimous resolution on Feb. 25 in support of MSA’s request for Room 220. Shortly afterward, the faculty and student Religious Life Committee released a similar undivided decision on the matter.
“An appropriate prayer space for that organization is important, for faculty and staff as well,” Chair of the Religious Life Committee Stephan Mayer said. Any request by a religious organization for adequate prayer space should be taken seriously, he said.
President of the Student Union Board, Lauren Haynes, said that MSA’s request has not yet been discussed by the committee.
Off the top of her head, she warned, “[Room 220] is a widely-used lounge that other groups use.” But she added that something might be worked out.
Neither she nor Elbadawi would comment on the chances that the Student Union would grant MSA the room.
“I hope because we’re getting support from all these places,” Elbadawi said. “I hope we have a good chance.”
Elbadawi is taking a broader perspective when considering MSA’s future in the expanded, central space.
“There are huge Muslim populations in Cleveland, Toledo and Dearborn, [MI],” she said. “If we want to encourage Muslim students to come to Oberlin, we have to have a good prayer space.”

She hopes the room will also encourage campus Muslims to join the association. “I believe there are a lot of [Oberlin Muslims] that are unaccounted for,” she said, alluding to the low response rate of the religious preference survey given to incoming students by the Office of Chaplains.
“There are many Muslims on campus that don’t know MSA exists,” she added.
But there are also symbolic reasons Elbadawi hopes to secure Room 220.
A proposal presented before the Student Senate outlined one of MSA’s main motives: “Muslim students seek the same recognition that the Student Union gives to other religious communities, such as Hillel,” she said.
While Elbadawi acknowledged that MSA is smaller than some of Oberlin’s other religious organizations, she stressed that size shouldn’t determine importance.
“It’s the question of the chicken and the egg,” she said. “This college has attracted, whether it intended to or not, certain religious groups, and those are the ones you see here. If you say, ‘Well there aren’t any Muslims on campus so why should we support them?’ then don’t worry, there won’t be any Muslims anyway.”