MINDFUL REFLECTION

MATT KENNEDY WORDS :

BLAKE POOLE & LOGAN WAGNER ART :

Sometimes, we really do need a break. A moment for ourselves.

The daily demands of life — classes, relationships, family, jobs — can pick away at a student’s composure. Respite from all that chaos can range from exercise, to socializing, to sleep, to mindful meditation. Many colleges and universities have a space available for students to contemplate and reflect based on personal or religious beliefs.

In January 2021, such a place is coming to Colorado Mesa University.

The CMU Center for Reflection is in the final stages of the architecture and design process and will begin construction this summer. The university has planned to build a sanctuary/chapel building for the better part of the past three years and is in the final process before physical construction starts. The building is estimated to cost the university $1 million.

“For a long time we’ve had

students, community folks, faculty and staff just talking about the fact that there really is no place for students to really take time for themselves,” CMU President Tim Foster said. “To just sit and decompress, reflect, pray if they want to pray or whatever, to contemplate life.”

The new reflection center will be a non-denominational building and available to all CMU students to utilize for meditation, prayer and quiet time. The building will feature the sanctuary itself, which will be able to hold up to 70 people, according to Foster. There will also be a grass quad, enclosed atrium connected to the

building and a reflection garden along the sidewalk bordering the sanctuary and quad.

Architects assigned to the project went through the process of analyzing and creating ideas that would encourage inclusion and diversity without portraying bias to a certain religion or belief.

“You gotta give people the ability to come and do their own thing,” Foster said. “Some people don’t want to be reminded of church, while some people want to feel like they’re in a church. So you try to balance all of those.”

Administration and architects must consider whether the building will be flexible enough to be well-utilized by students. Ultimately, the space will be utilized based on the preferences of the student body, though President Foster says it will not be a designated study space. “It needs to be a flexible space. It needs to be a space that [students] can come in; they can think. But naturally, I want to come in and sit and kind of do my own thing,” Foster said.

Multiple student leaders from faith-based and non-faith-based clubs and organizations were invited by the school to attend a meeting with the architects designing the sanctuary in order to give feedback and suggestions near the beginning of the Spring 2020 semester. Overall, the meeting drew positive feedback. Members of organizations on campus appear

to anticipate the construction of the building and regard it as a positive asset for CMU.

Nate Robertson, the CMU campus director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, was a student and baseball player at CMU and currently runs one of the largest campus ministries at the university.

“I am super encouraged to see that our student body has so much of a say in this [sanctuary],” Robertson said. “I really think that gives the students value and brings to light the needs desired for our campus.”

“I think it’s really cool, if not else for the architecture, garden and atrium,” CMU junior and KMSA General Manager Mia Fairbanks said. “I don’t see myself using it, though I am religious, just because that’s not what I would do personally. But, I think it’s a great resource, and I think it’s a good place to just get away, especially if you live on campus.”

Only time will tell how popular the Center for Reflection will be when it makes its debut come wintertime. ▪

Rendering of future Center for Reflection building.

ILLUSTRATION: