An Interfaith Prayer and Meditation Room on the second floor of the LSU Student Union will now be available as a quiet place for students to meditate, pray and reflect.
LSU Student Government resolution, SGR No. 9, proposed to add an Interfaith Prayer and Meditation Room. It was passed in the 2017 spring semester, and the room is now available for use. The resolution was written by SG speaker of the senate James Mickler, executive press secretary Beth Carter, former E. J. Ourso College of Business senator Gabriel Chatelain, College of Humanities & Social Sciences senator Maxwell Martin, former University College Center for Freshman Year senator Whitney Osburn, former College of Human Sciences & Education senator Kelsey Sanders and former Manship School of Mass Communication senator Kelsey Wheatley.
“The idea originally came to us from the international community on campus,” Martin said.
“[They] needed a place more centralized to be able to pray during the day.”
The room, which is located on the second floor of the LSU Student Union, to the right of the Information Center and vending machines, is open during the Union’s hours of operation and is a very relaxed space, Martin said.
While there are rules, crafted by a select committee, they are “pretty lax,” Martin said, and in place to ensure the space is kept clean and respectful of inclusivity. SG does not provide religious texts inside the Room, but allows them to be brought.
“Campus is such a busy enterprise here,” Martin said. “I think it is really important that we have a space where people can duck away and take care of whatever they need to take care of.”
Martin said the biggest hurdle SG has faced since its opening is that the Room is getting the word out about its existence. In addition, he said the reasoning behind the grand opening was in hopes to continue and to let the community know the room is available.
While the room has been open since the beginning of the semester, Martin said he is unsure of how the room is being used, but he does know students have used the free resource.
“The good thing about [the Room] is, it’s not something where we put a certain amount of money in needing a certain amount of use to justify it,” Martin said. “It’s there and maybe one month nobody will go, and then the next month [there will be] a thousand kids using it.”
Before SG transformed the space, it was being used by the Union as storage for the last two years, Mickler said. He also said the funding to provide seating and other decor for the room came from LSU Auxiliary Services, none came from SG.
In the future, Mickler said he hopes to have various religious and spiritual groups donate materials to be available to anyone using the space. He also said SG may fund more functional furniture to be put in the space, contingent on how much students use it.
“[The space] is for everyone, even if you’re not religious,” Mickler said. “Everybody
sometimes has that rough day and needs a quiet spot. This is a quiet spot in the Union for everybody to meditate and reflect on any thoughts that they have.”

Gallery • 2 Photos

Christa Moran

The quaint Interfaith Prayer and Meditation Room is located in 210A on the second floor of the Student Union on Monday, Oct. 9th, 2017.