This fall, the university unveiled its new Interfaith Center at 58 Winthrop Street, a completely renovated building that created a more welcoming home to religious life at Tufts.
However, in addition to the new building, which some attribute to growing student involvement and interest this year, major changes have been made to the role of the people who are the face of on-campus religion: the Tufts Chaplaincy.
Tufts has four chaplains representing Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism and Islam that are overseen by University Chaplain David O'Leary.
"This year, with the new Interfaith Center, I think there's a huge surge [towards student religious involvement]," O'Leary said.
Along with the center's physical transformation have come changing qualifications standards for university chaplains. While the position requires a master's degree in divinity, O'Leary said a growing number of chaplains have double degrees and other credentials.
"I can now boast that all the chaplains have the minimum requirements, and four of the five have well beyond those," O'Leary said. "It's the first time we've had everyone so well-credentialed."
The increasing qualifications of Tufts chaplains is the result of changes to the hiring process that have placed a greater emphasis on the need for fully certified and credentialed university chaplains.
Shareda Hosein, the Muslim chaplain, explained that formal for Muslim chaplains qualifications were not necessary in the past, as their main function was to provide religious guidance for Muslims in prisons.
"Because of an evolution in the greater need [for Muslim chaplains], there is also a greater need for certification and credentials," Hosein said. "I was hired [by David O'Leary] because I have had that formal education."
The hiring process is complicated somewhat by the fact that only two of Tufts' five religious chaplains are paid employees of the university. Because Tufts does not fund the salaries of the chaplains whose religious entities can fund them externally, Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, Protestant chaplain Jeff VonWald and Catholic chaplain Ann Penick are all funded through outside religious sources.
As university chaplain, O'Leary is paid by the university.
The only other university-paid chaplain is Hosein, whose contract is funded by Friends of Goddard Chapel. Her position was added this year and is the first-ever paid Muslim chaplaincy at Tufts, though an unpaid position existed before that.
"In the past [my position] has been done on more of a volunteer basis, but now there is a new shift to have the funding come from the university," Hosein said.
What differentiates the Muslim chaplaincy is the Islamic faith itself, which has no ordination process. As a result, prospective Muslim chaplains must interview individually with the institution for which they will work, rather than with a religious organization.
"[Muslim chaplains] are in groundbreaking roles, as a result of the newness and uniqueness of the concept of Muslim chaplaincy," Hosein said. "Because of this, each one of us functions as our own independent entities."
But this approach to Muslim chaplaincy may only be temporary. Hosein said she would like to see the greater structure of the university-represented Islamic faith come under transformation in future years.
"In the next five to 10 years, I could see an organization, like Judaism's Hillel, evolving for the Islamic faith," Hosein said.
For the other chaplaincies, salaries come from larger religious entities such as the Archdiocese of Boston, or from other areas of the university unaffiliated with the chapel. Summit, for example, does not receive university funding for his chaplaincy, but is paid by Tufts as a faculty member for teaching courses in music and Judaic studies.
Penick's and VonWald's positions are funded through overarching religious entities. As a result, Tufts has less say in their statuses and roles on campus.
Penick, who is paid by the Archdiocese of Boston, experienced this firsthand when her job was altered due to funding issues. Her position was cut to part-time in July of 2006 as a result of budget cuts by the Archdiocese as a result of payouts from the Church's sexual abuse cases.
"I don't know what the financial future of the Diocese holds," she said. "I'm concerned."
O'Leary said he would like the university to influence more strongly such shifts and changes, but that Tufts' say in the matter is extremely limited.
"We can write letters, but there's not really too much you can bring to the table when [an outside source] is paying our chaplains - there's a missing principle of leverage," O'Leary said.
Although three of the five university chaplains' salaries are paid by outside sources, Tufts is still active in the chaplain hiring process.
"The process of becoming a university chaplain usually happens when the greater religious entity proposes a candidate, and then the university offices check the candidate's background information and credentials," O'Leary said. "Then, all the information is sent to Ballou, where the university president then has the ultimate decision of whether or not to accept the candidate."
Like Penick, Summit said that International Hillel plays a similar role for Jewish chaplains, but that it is not wholly responsible for appointing Jewish chaplains to university positions.
"When I was hired through the Hillel board, the leadership of Tufts Hillel and the leadership of the university were both involved in the process," Summit said.
No matter where the funding for different chaplains comes from, all five work together to ensure a diverse religious community at Tufts.
"I've enjoyed the interfaith aspect of religion here at Tufts - especially to be able to share the differences in our faith practices; to be able to acknowledge each other's faith, rather than try to convert each other," Hosein said. "People are interested in conversations about interfaith - it comes from wanting to understand each other and coexist peacefully."
