INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS SERVICES FAIR AT LEICESTER UNIVERSITY

This afternoon I’m helping out at the University of Leicester’s International Students Services Fair, which is being held at the O2 Academy in the Percy Gee Building (aka Students' Union). The Council of Faiths is supporting the International Chaplaincy with their display, mainly though the loan of our pop-up banners.

We took part in this fair in 2010 and 2011; both of those were very busy events. The O2 Academy was rammed with students on both occasions and there was a great variety of exhibitors from the university itself and the wider community in the city. This time, there's hardly a quarter of the exhibitors compared that there were in previous years (most of them promoting internal services provided by the university itself) and even fewer students. It’s still worthwhile being here; we help several students with enquiries about the International Chaplaincy and local faith communities, but compared to the last two years, it’s very quiet indeed.

Next to our display (or overlapping it, as you can see from the presence of our banners in the photo above) is Amarjit Sanghera, currently operating as @CampusCops on Twitter. Between us we seem to be the busiest corner all day - as you can see in the photo below (we're top right).

During a brief break in the Student Union Starbucks, I pick up an email inviting John Coster and I to attend a meeting on Friday, in advance of the Big Launch of Leicester Speaks (scheduled for Monday 8 October). John and I were Co-Chairs of Leicester Speaks in its first and second years but we both agreed at the end of the 2011 event that we wouldn't be doing it this year. Somehow or other, that hasn't got through to whoever it should have gotten through to and we're still signed on!

After having lugged the exhibition the short distance down to the Gatehouse (home of the International Chaplaincy) a the end of the day, I get to sit a spell with Akua and Wahida, of GBMag, who were exhibiting at the Fair. GBMag describes itself on its Twitter profile (@GreatBritishMag) as "the ultimate lifestyle guide for international students in the UK, with information and advice on living in the UK, British events and cool free giveaways". I like their tops!

The International Chaplaincy is holding on to our exhibition for use in other Freshers Week events over the next few days. So our banners are sleeping in the Gatehouse for a little while. I've kept one "generic" banner back to use in the Street market Community Fair at De Montfort University Students Union on Thursday.

WORLD FAITHS ADVISORY GROUP AT LEICESTER UNIVERSITY

At the University of Leicester's Chaplaincy Centre (The Gatehouse, University Road) for a meeting of the World Faiths Advisory Group (WFAG). Present today are Rev Canon Dr Stephen Forster (Coordinating Chaplain), Ian Snaith (Chair, WFAG), Shaykh Ibrahim Moghra and Resham Singh Sandhu.

 

A regular topic for discussion at these meetings is how to engage more effectively with faith-based student societies on campus. There's a list of religious [sic] societies on the University of Leicester Students' Union website. If we were to judge by these pages alone, it would be hard to say which ones are currently active on campus. Anyhoo, from this list, those societies who currently receive the minutes of WAFG as well as an invitation to its meetings include:

• Catholic
• Christian Union
• Hindu Society
• Islamic
• Jewish Society
• Navigators
• Sikh

From this list, faith-based student societies which currently don't receive minutes of WAFG or an invitation to its meetings but which will, from now on, if active contacts can be identified:

• Ahlulbayt Islamic ("People of the House": Shi'ih Muslims who trace their lineage back to the family of Muhammad)
• Bahá'í 
• Believer's Loveworld
• FLASH: Freethinkers of Leicester (Atheists, Secularists & Humanists)
• Krishna Consciousness Society
• Leadership International
• Pillarz
• Radical Youth Christian Society

One of the ways discussed by which these societies could be coaxed into responding to WAFG would be by circulating a questionnaire / survey (at the start of the next academic year) enquiring if they've experienced any difficulties in hiring meeting rooms or any other facilities on campus. It could be asked at the same time what uses the various societies would have for such facilities. (And if you're bothered by inconsistencies in the names above, faithful reader, I've represented each of the societies here by the same names which are shown on the Students' Union website.)

One of the proposals that's been bubbling under WAFG's meetings has been the desirability of having an event that will  go some way to engaging faith-based student societies on campus and showcase the facilities available to them at the Gatehouse. Well, here it is: Revd Bonnie Evans-Hills (photo above), Assistant Priest at St Peter's Church, Oadby, will speak on "Feminist Issues in a Contemporary Multi-Faith Culture" at the Gatehouse, Tuesday 26 June, 1200. This will be a followed by a light lunch at 1245 and it'll all be over by 1400. The Octagon meeting room will hold up to 50 people. Hopefully, this will be the first in a series of WAFG lectures, which (hopefully) should take place twice a year.

SETTING UP FOR ANNUAL GENERAL MEEETING

A flying visit to Guru Amar Das Gurdwara, Clarendon Park Road, where Leicester Council of Faiths is holding its Annual General Meeting this evening.


I rendezvous there with Clive Sutton as he drops off our set of eight banners. He's returning them after they'd been used at the University of Leicester International Chaplaincy, which was celebrating its 20th anniversary last week.


We're welcomed by Sewa Singh, who always greets me as "Mr George" (which I like).  After a bit of a reccy, we decide that the best place for the display is in the short corridor leading off the reception area, as shown in the photo above. That's Sewa Singh walking away from the camera.

INTERNATIONAL CHAPLAINCY 20TH ANNIVERSARY

The International Chaplaincy at the University of Leicester has borrowed our exhibition (set of 8 pop-up banners, plus a selection of leaflets, brochures, bookmarks, greetings cards) for the second time in a month to put on display in the Gatehouse on University Road as part of the celebration of their 20th anniversary.

They're holding an "open house" at the Gatehouse, University Road, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. Our exhibition will be on show there for those three days. Visitors will be able to see the range of faith communities that we represent and take away information about how to contact us and how to draw on our services.

LEICESTER UNIVERSITY WELCOMES INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

To the University of Leicester, Percy Gee Building (aka Students' Union) this afternoon. We're supporting our friends in the International Chaplaincy with their display at the International Student Welcome Programme. I helped put up all nine banners from our exhibition in Queen's Hall, upstairs in Percy Gee on Monday morning for a couple of days of fairly relaxed engagement with new arrivals from overseas. Today everything has relocated downstairs into the O2 Academy for this more intensive marketplace event.

As well as providing information about the diverse faith communities in Leicester, we're helping offer a more personal service today, by helping students newly arrived in the city find an appropriate community with which to become involved or an accessible place of worship. I've brought with me our list of places of worship in Leicester and it helps us find the right places for a number of students who have arrived here from abroad. This printed list has been in use since 2004 (long before my arrival at Leicester Council of Faiths). Today I realise for the first time that it doesn't include any Roman Catholic churches. How can that have escaped everyone's notice for seven years? And if it has been noticed, why on earth are we still using it?

Something else I notice today is that some students who have come here from other parts of the world where they have not been used to freedom of expression and of thought appear to look on the opportunity to experiment with religion or belief the way we might more traditionally have thought of students experimenting with sex and drugs and rock’n’roll. Interesting thought …

In the photo: Council of Faiths banners on the International Chaplaincy display - Nightline Bear and friend in the foreground.

WORLD FAITHS ADVISORY GROUP AT LEICESTER UNIVERSITY

 

At the University of Leicester's Chaplaincy Centre (The Gatehouse, University Road) for a meeting of the World Faiths Advisory Group (WFAG). Present today are Dr Stephen Forster (Coordinating Chaplain), Dr Ian Snaith (Chair, WFAG), Clive Sutton (Quaker contact, WFAG), Clare Taylor (Head of Student Welfare Service).

Most of our discussion relates to the upcoming Freshers Week and International Students Fair. The Council of Faiths will be taking part in the latter but not the former, as exhibitors have to pay a rather prohibitive amount per diem to take part in Freshers Week. The International Chaplaincy has asked to use our exhibition banners for three days in the International Students Fair (Monday 26 - Wednesday 28 October). They also want to use them for another three days (Wednesday 12 - Friday 14 October) as part of activities on campus to mark their 20th anniversary, an occasion which goes under the title, "Striding in the Spirit". The International Chaplaincy will be having a marquee on campus and hosting a number of activities in there and other sites nearby.

WORLD FAITHS ADVISORY GROUP AT LEICESTER UNIVERSITY

 

At the University of Leicester's Chaplaincy Centre (The Gatehouse, University Road) where I've been invited to discuss ways of refreshing the relationship between Leicester Council of Faiths and the Chaplaincy's World Faiths Advisory Group.

I share a brief but welcome lunch with Dr Stephen Foster and Dr Ian Snaith: Coordinating Chaplain and Chair of the World Faiths Advisory Group respectively. We talk about the founding, past development and present state of the group and discuss ways in which Leicester Council of Faiths might be able to help it develop its services in future.

The Chaplaincy here is a Christian service, funded almost entirely by the Church of England. The university itself contributes a relatively small amount, funding the part-time post of International Chaplain (a position filled at present by my friend and colleague - and member of Leicester Council of Faiths - Julie-Ann Heath). This natural inclination toward Christianity can bee seen on the Chaplaincy's website, where a link for local places of worship leads to a page where every entry is for one Christian denomination or another.

The Gatehouse itself has only recently begun to be used by groups from outside the university's Christian community. A Buddhist group now meets here regularly. There is a generic "quiet room" on the first floor, into which individuals may bring items they need for prayer or meditation. Muslim students have been given their own facilities to use as a prayer room elsewhere on campus.

The World Faiths Advisory Group works with students and staff, mostly on issues of faith provision on campus. Historically, it has played the role of firefighter - called into action when there's a blaze to attend to, but asked to do little if anything in helping reduce the risk of fire in the first place. Stephen and Ian talk about some of the specific issues that the World Faiths Advisory Group has addressed, such as the clash of lecture times with the times for prayers observed by Muslim students.

The group has recently adopted a new constitution which (it is to be hoped) will allow it to function in ways more relevant to the needs and interests of the university today. It has undergone a process of mainstreaming its presence and services, to align with other relevant functions of the university, such as that of the Pro-Vice Chancellor, who is responsible for equalities across the board.

I brought the Council of Faiths exhibition (all nine pop up banners) to support the Chaplaincy stall at the International Students Fair held at the end of September last year in the O2 Academy (Percy Gee Building). I've been asked to do so again for that occasion this year. 

Stephen and Ian would like our assistance in obtaining more consistent representation at meetings from representatives of the city's faith communities. Although some of those representing these communities on the World Faiths Advisory Group are themselves members of Leicester Council of Faiths, there has not been, until now, someone on the group to represent the Council of Faiths itself. It's agreed that I will play that role from now on.

They're also asking St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi-Faith Society to play its part in reinvigorating the World Faiths Advisory Group.

The Chaplaincy will have access to an intern for six months from the start of the new academic year. Among that intern's tasks will be the bringing together of leading figures from the university's different student faith societies to work on matters of common interest.

We tentatively agree on proposing a fortnightly series of presentations hosted by each of the student faith societies in turn, starting early February 2012. This series would take as its theme an issue of interest to all faiths and on which they all have something interesting to say - but something deliberately non-contentious that is unlikely to lead to argument and disputation (e.g. education, family, pilgrimage). If Leicester Council of Faiths can contribute to the success of such activities, then by lending our assistance to the World Faiths Advisory Group we'll be able to demonstrate achievement of some important set us by the City Council, namely:

• To encourage and promote the knowledge and understanding of the beliefs and practices of the various faith communities in the city.
• To increase understanding and tolerance of religion for public benefit by bringing together members of different faith communities.
• To organise public inter-faith events.
• To consult and co-operate in social issues and other matters of concern.
• To raise the profile and public awareness of faith issues within the communities of Leicester.

One hand washes the other.

After the meeting, I cross University Road to the Student Union in the Percy Gee Building and sit on the outdoor terrace at Starbucks there, to do some work on my laptop. It's not the kind of thing I'd usually do, but it's very pleasant there in the warm sun and mild breeze. The lime trees across the road in Welford Road Cemetery are blooming, filling the air with their intoxicating scent - and there are no smokers on the terrace to spoil it. When I was a postgrad student at the University of Leicester about 15 years ago (I took my Masters in "Modern Literature: Theory and Practice") there were precious few amenities or facilities for students. I found the campus quite depressing actually, especially in the winter months. It was dead in the late afternoon and early evenings (particularly noticeable on the course I took, as in the first year, classes finished at 1630 and in the second year at 1800). Cafes and restaurants (or should that be singular) on campus closed around 1630 and there were only two places to go; the library, where there was nothing to do except get your head down and read (or, occasionally, just get your head down) or the bar in the student union. The only hot food available was from a lone burger bar parked up outside the Charles Wilson Building. I wasn't vegetarian then, but still, I never did. The whole place was most unwelcoming. I never felt that I belonged to the university community then and spent as little time on campus as possible. Things here are very different now. The campus at the University of Leicester is a very attractive place. it's a pity that, with the changes in access to Higher Education that have been introduced recently, fewer people of similar background to mine will be able to experience it.