Being the new kid on the block can be tough. Ask any freshman and they'll tell you the same, but few groups on campus feel the sentiment as acutely as Conversations, Action, Faith, and Education (CAFE), the three−year−old pre−orientation program that was founded to encourage interfaith dialogue and experiences among new students.
The program's organizers hoped it would catch on after its numbers grew between its first and second years from five to nine participants. This summer, however, the number of first year students that participated in CAFE dropped to six, leaving the program's organizers to deliberate about the optimal size and structure of a pre−orientation program whose peers have consistently seen yields in the hundreds.
Amid changes to the pre−orientation process that placed all five programs under the supervision of the Undergraduate Orientation Office, CAFE was the only program to shrink.
According to CAFE's coordinators, the program's low numbers during its first years might be because of its emphasis on interfaith discussion.
"A lot of it has to do with the profile of the incoming class," co−Coordinator Elliott McCarthy, a senior, said. "It's a very self−selecting group since a lot of people are uncomfortable with this sort of dialogue."
While students groups tend to grow over time, CAFE leaders and coordinators say they view any impetus towards expansion with mixed feelings. CAFE leader, junior Duncan MacLaury said the program's format is ideally organized for a small group of students. The precedent of small group discussions would need to be reformatted if the program grew, he said.
"It's built around mainly dialogue among leaders, coordinators, and freshmen in the Interfaith Center," MacLaury, said. "[There is an] emphasis on learning about other faiths and beliefs in an atmosphere that was very open to dialogue and questions."
This dialogue is made possible by virtue of the small number of participants, McCarthy said.
"We prefer our group to be small and don't see it getting extraordinarily large," he said. "If you have a group that's too large it takes away from the essence of the program," he said.
University Chaplain David O'Leary agreed that growth would not necessarily improve the program.
"If you expand too much, then you can't have the small group discussions. You lose that level of intimacy and sharing. It'll be a unique problem to have if we encounter that," O'Leary said.
While large−scale expansion is not on the docket at least for the coming years, MacLaury admitted that there is room in the program for more interest given the unexpectedly small yield this year.
"We want to keep growing, but dialogue is always better between smaller groups of people dialogues with 30 people is hard," he said. "This year we were hoping for 10 to 15 so we could have whole−group dialogues, and then also break up into [smaller] groups," he said.
Co−Coordinator McCarthy's long−term hopes for the program include a moderate increase in size.
"Next year I would love to get to 10 [students]; in five years maybe 20; in 10 years, 40," he said.
Another consequence of the of the program's small size is that it has been unable to achieve financial solvency thus far. The Office of the University Chaplain, O'Leary explained, plays a significant role in funding the program
"What is charged nowhere close to covers the expenses, and if the students are on financial aid, then they pay even less," he said. "The fee for CAFE nowhere covers the expense...that's where my office comes in."
CAFE originally existed as an extension of an on−campus interfaith initiative called Tufts Pathways, whose funding for programming during the school year came from a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In addition to general interfaith dialogue, the program worked specifically to foster discussions between Jewish and Muslim students as a reaction to elevated conflict in Israel as well as anti−Islamic sentiment following the Sept. 11 attacks.
The grant expired before the start of the 2008−2009 school year, and the group opted not to reapply, according to McCarthy.
"We chose not to reapply but to create a student group which would be more sustainable and accountable, and also not rely on the government," he said. "[We] shifted from an official large−scale event to more of a student group seeking knowledge and to improve interfaith relations on campus."
As part of the CAFE pre−orientation, participants visited a number of local religious venues, including the Christian Science Center in Boston, a Saint Anthony's Feast celebration in the North End, a Catholic mass, a mosque in Roxbury, and Buddhist center in Medford. At each of these sites, students had the opportunity to engage in discussion with various religious leaders.
"[CAFE] encourages new ways of thinking for the freshmen," MacLaury said. "It's also enriching and growing for the leaders. We also go out to the communities and see these different practices and then come back and talk about it."
"I definitely gained a much better understanding of other people's faiths and more of a respect for where other people are coming from in their faiths," freshman CAFE participant Edward Lowe said of the excursions. "I think meeting with those people and interacting with them was the biggest lesson for me."
CAFE doesn't exclusively exist as a pre−Orientation it will continue to host dialogues, work on community service projects centering on interfaith issues and organize events. Additionally, this year CAFE will collaborate with a new student organization called the Interfaith Social Action Group, which aims to bring different student religious groups together to work on community service projects and social action initiatives, according to O'Leary.
"CAFE couldn't manage all of the ‘Action' in CAFE," O'Leary said, referring to the ‘A' in the name's acronym. "There was a small group of students who want to do more."
