As I walk to and from class, I notice a significant group of diverse students. I credit part of this to the fact that Eastern University accepts many different types of people regardless of their ethnicity and religion.
Having a number of students of different races and religions can help us all get a taste of different backgrounds and culture. The community shines from the lives of its students, and having students with different views on religion helps to broaden different perspectives on that religion.
When we apply to Eastern, we have to check a box saying that we’ve read its mission statement. This would imply that we also agree with the mission statement, although I am sure a lot of students simply check it without thinking, and continue forward with their application process.
Eastern students should not have to subscribe to a certain religion in order to receive education. Students come to Eastern for a variety of reasons. Some come to Eastern because it is close to home or because Eastern has a good Christian environment.
Eastern is unique with the way it embodies a type of Christian environment even for non-Christians. There are certain rules that we have to abide by, but it’s a good thing to have certain rules embedded into our lives and disciplines that we have to follow regardless of our religion.
For example, the visitation rules and open doors policy that Eastern students have to follow teaches us discipline and respect for the opposite sex, while at schools like Penn State you would not have any such rule. There is also easy access to church every Sunday morning, Sunday night worship in the Dining Commons and Wednesday morning chapel.
One of the major reasons students come to Eastern is because of its dedication to faith, reason and justice. Even though this may mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, if we were all of the same religion, we would not learn about each other. If Eastern were to consider religion for admission of students, the campus would become stagnant.
Different religions among students not only give us a better background on different groups of people, but gives us a way to look at how the campus should be centered around being pleasing everyone. Someone of a different religion can determine how they would want to be treated.
A diverse campus really helps our student environment. The fact that new students come in every year with diverse religious views ensures that our campus is constantly changing, and the campus must meet the needs of the student population.
Eastern does a good job of giving non-Christians a chance to learn about the religion and a chance to change. Diversity among the students at Eastern is imperative as it benefits the students and the university.