News
Page 4 • Sept. 20, 2019
The Mac Weekly
With Vajid’s departure, college searches for new Muslim chaplain By HANNAH GOLDFARB Staff Writer For the first time since the summer of 2016, there is no Muslim Chaplain on Macalester’s campus. After nearly four years in the position, Ailya Vajid, the Associate Chaplain for Muslim Life, left the college in August for a position at the Hadi Initiative, which supports Muslim life on college campuses. She will also serve as a chaplain at the University of Virginia. Vajid began working at Macalester as a consultant and was later hired as a part time employee in the Center for Religious and Spiritual Life (CRSL). She became Macalester’s first-ever Muslim chaplain. “The hire was two-part, meant to really be a direct support for our Muslim community around practice, observance, questions they might have about their own identity,” College Chaplain and Associate Dean of the Center for Religious and Spiritual Life (CRSL) Rev. Kelly Stone said, “[and] also to be somebody who could be present within our community to speak about Islam, so we weren’t asking students always to do that.” Vajid didn’t take her decision to leave Macalester lightly. “In this kind of work, the students really become your community,” Vajid said. They’re like family. It’s such a relational campus that you feel so deeply connected to everyone. It was a really, really tough decision to leave Macalester.” Transitioning from a small liberal arts college to a public university with a student population ten times Macalester’s poses its share of challenges. “On the one hand, I was hired as a Muslim chaplain at UVA,” Vajid said. “On the other hand, I’m not officially affiliated because it’s a public institution and separation of
church and state.” The Hadi Initiative, based in Washington, D.C., models itself after Hillel in the Jewish community. Vajid’s work there will deal with expanding Muslim chaplaincies to colleges and universities across the country. “They’re [the Hadi Initiative] seeking to create more support systems and professional networks for Muslims in college and at that stage in life,” Vajid said. The field of Muslim chaplaincy has expanded and evolved greatly over the past 20 years. In 2005, according to Stone, there were just five Muslim chaplaincies around the country. Now, there are roughly 70 — split between colleges, prisons and hospitals. “There are efforts to train folks here in the United States, which is different from most training programs for Immans, w[ho] are leaders in mosques,” Stone said. “The skill set they’re building helps equip them for the audiences they’re working with.” Stone believes the growing field and the draw of Macalester itself will make it easier to find Vajid’s replacement. “Macalester is a great place to work where we have a strong interfaith program, a strong pluralistic understanding and orientation of our office,” Stone said. “[That] is incredibly attractive to people who are going into the field and want to work not only with a particular community, but also a diverse community like Macalester.” Understanding the multi-faith orientation of Macalester is especially important, but there are other requirements too. “It’s important for this person to be a good listener and super approachable,” Stone said. “You want someone who you feel comfortable walking in their door and sharing a
piece of your life story or a really tender question that you’re holding.” Aliya Mahmoud ’21 came to Macalester unsure about how she would fit in with the Muslim community. Once she arrived, with Vajid’s help, she became more comfortable with her faith. “I was a little worried to join MSA (Muslim Student Association), and what the community would be like,” Mahmoud said. “But [Vajid] was so welcoming and just so open and encouraged me to meet with her and talk with her whenever. She introduced me to a lot of other students who I connected with.” Ultimately, Mahmoud believes open-mindedness is the most important quality in a college chaplain. “I hope that they find someone who is open about any kind of faith, and is just this welcoming presence,” Mahmoud said. “I know for someone like me who isn’t as traditional or isn’t as practicing, I still felt so accepted.” Stone also stressed that chaplains are available to any student, regardless of religious affiliation. “We know that there is a multitude, in any religious tradition, of identities people hold,” Stone said. “It’s important for that person to be
The Jewish and Muslim chaplains’ office in the CRSL. Photo by Kori Suzuki ’21.
able to meet people where they are, and walk alongside them as opposed to leading them to a particular destination.” To get more student input regarding the hire, the CRSL held open listening sessions throughout the week. “It’s been really important to us that we are able to hear feedback from current students, particularly our Muslim students, since this person will be the primary point person to support that community,” Stone said. MSA President Shireen Zaineb ’20 has been involved in the selection process. She attended the first listening session and hopes to be on the student search committee. “We had our first listening session this past Friday,” Zaineb said. “We shared back what was important to us personally and what we felt would be important for first-years, for the general student body, to have in someone who would take Ailya’s role.” At the listening session, students discussed qualities a future chaplain should have — from academic credentials to personality traits. “People seemed to really want someone kind and caring and warm,
and a lot of that comes from what they saw in Ailya,” Zaineb said. “It was nice to see how she has shaped this image of what a good chaplain is in a lot of people’s minds.” Vajid was heavily involved with MSA, and had a major impact on the group. “Ailya started at Macalester my first year, so we were sort of getting used to college together. I’ve been really close to her since the first semester of my first year,” Zaineb said. “A big part of this year is figuring out how to be without a chaplain, while still making the first-years feel supported.” The CRSL hopes to post the position by the end of September and begin the interview process in the late fall. “I think it’s really important to have a chaplain in the lives of religious students, and especially in the lives of Muslim students here at Macalester,” Zaineb said. “It’s a really small community, it’s really tightknit and it’s pretty diverse. Because of that, we tend to band together around a lot of things — and Ailya was always really essential to that.” • hgoldfarb@macalester.edu
Caribou Coffee robbed at gunpoint, no injuries By REBECCA EDWARDS News Editor The Caribou Coffee opposite the Campus Center at 68 Snelling Avenue was robbed at gunpoint early on the morning of Thursday, Sept. 12. While there were no injuries, the police report indicates that approximately $900 was stolen from a safe in the back room. The St. Paul Police Department’s (SSPD) investigation is ongoing. Sam Hopkinson ’20 arrived at the store at roughly 5:00 a.m. the day of the robbery to work the opening shift. Standing in the parking lot, he saw a man he didn’t recognize get into a car and drive away while his manager exited from the back door of the store. “My manager came to the front door to let me in and said, ‘so, I was just robbed at gunpoint’,” Hopkinson said. “I called the police.”
While Caribou does use security cameras, Hopkinson said that the individual in question had a bandana covering their face and may not have been identifiable on video. Hopkinson said that despite the drama of the situation, the store has largely recovered from the shock. “I think that people are for the most part not super fazed by it,” he said. “I haven’t thought about it too much since, and I don’t really think people are especially worried about it happening again. “I don’t know where that dude got that gun,” Hopkinson continued, “but that’s mostly what worries me; that it’s so close to a college campus. It was a handgun, so it’s not like he had an assault rifle, but I don’t like people walking around with firearms.” SSPD provided extra security for the shop during opening and closing hours for several days after the attack. Sydney Bailey, the store manager
present at the robbery, declined to be interviewed by The Mac Weekly while the investigation is ongoing, but noted that having extra security helped people at the store feel safer in the immediate aftermath of the robbery. Caribou district manager Rianna Matter added that Caribou’s safety protocol requires that no employee ever be alone in the store, and that adherence to that policy may help prevent further crime. As a whole, though, according to SPPD Public Information Officer Sgt. Michael Ernster, robberies in St. Paul are down significantly this year. “I can tell you that we have had approximately 379 robberies in St. Paul this year and this number is down 6.7 percent from last year at this time when we had 406,” Ernster wrote in an email to The Mac Weekly. “This is out of 173,000 calls for service so far this year in Saint Paul.
“Any robbery is one too many,” he continued, “but they are a small percentage of overall crimes.” Ernster wrote that the SPPD recommends that anyone in an armed robbery situation comply with the demands of the burglar. “Do not do anything that would jeopardize your safety,” he wrote. “Call 911 immediately. If possible and safe to do so, watch the route of escape the suspect took and document anything you see (vehicle description, clothing desc, direction of escape... etc).” In an email to The Mac Weekly, Associate Director of Security Bill Collumbien wrote that Macalester security is “actively patrolling campus and investigating suspicious activity reports” in order to diminish the likelihood of gun violence or armed robbery on campus. Collumbien also suggested students “walk in groups or [with] se-
curity escort services” if they feel unsafe. Macalester SAFEWalk employees are available for escorts from 9 p.m to 1 a.m. seven days a week. Ernster noted that while there is no way to completely nullify the possibility of a robbery at any given location, there are a few preventative measures businesses can take. “I wish there was a foolproof way to prevent these crimes,” he wrote. “Many employees are very busy going about their business when working and don’t pay close attention to who is coming and going. “An alert employee may be able to notice [a] customer who is acting peculiar or is asking inappropriate questions about the business,” he continued. “In theory, the more a suspect thinks the employees are paying attention, the less [likely] they are to follow through with the crime.” • redward1@macalester.edu