“The room used to be an old Delta Delta Delta sorority room.  It had pink carpeting, pale yellow walls, and bright floral curtains: it seemed like a lovely space for a sorority, but it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for in the spiritual room,” said Adam Kirtley, Whitman’s Stewart religious counselor, about the newly renovated Spiritual Activities Room that opened this year.

Since its completion this year, the Spiritual Activities Room has been transformed into what Kirtley hopes will be an inter-faith space. Approximately $11,000 was put in to the renovation of the room, which includes hardwood floors, oriental rugs, a small fountain, pillows, religious texts and a handmade wooden table.

“The theme is very inclusive and flexible: everything can be moved around to shape the space how they want,” Kirtley said.

Although there was a similar space designated for spiritual activities last year, it wasn’t nearly as well suited as the current space, which includes a kitchen.

The Jewish religious group Hillel-Shalom was the first group to use the room. Since the start of the year, they have been using the space to host their weekly Shabbat Fridays.

“The room is quite different from the other spaces we have used, considering in the past we have simply used the various dorm lounges,” said junior Rachel Stein, club head of Hillel-Shalom.  “The space has been working out extremely well.”

The room is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. when the doors to Prentiss lock. Accessibility was a key role in the designing of the room. The space’s old location was closed at the end of last year because “the supposed spirituality room was [being used] like a storage room,” said Whitman Christian Fellowship member and sophomore Allison Gill.

The room used last year was in Boyer, which houses mainly faculty offices and holds strict hours, which made it inaccessible and rarely used. Although the new space is hardly being used for storage, it is hard to say that it has become any more accessible for students.

“The only comments I have heard from people about the room is that it is a little hard find, particularly for those students new to Whitman,” Stein said.

Senior Hilary Davis, member of Whitman Christian Fellowship, agreed with Stein, saying, “It’s not really a space we [Whitman Christian Fellowship] can use, because we worship after nine and Prentiss is locked then. Right now the room is still too inaccessible.”

The Spiritual Activities Room is the only religious space available to student on campus, other than a Buddhist tea room in Olin. Given that approximately 70 percent of the student body indicated that spirituality is important to them, several students appreciate the availability of such a space. “I am really excited to see a space devoted to the spiritual needs of Whitman students,” said Stein.

Students and faculty have been urging the administration to create a space like this for some time. “Last year a lot of people started asking for this to be a priority,” said Gill. “Kirtley [has been] running up against a lot of barriers. It’s an area that up until very recently has been pretty much ignored.”

With statistics suggesting that roughly 50 percent of Whitman students report an affiliation with a specific religious tradition and national trends that show a rise in spirituality among college students, some students are surprised that it has taken so long for an appropriate space to be established. “It’s a lot easier to talk about diversity then to really accommodate for it,” said Gill. “I think that, by and large, Whitman does a really good job: they have a great multicultural center and having Adam Kirtley is great: but I think that for some reason, when it comes to religious stuff, it’s just not a priority for the school and I don’t know why.”

According to the college’s Web site, “Whitman College has prized its independence from sectarian and political control” since its inception, a philosophy that follows general trends showing a secular shift in educational institutions.

However, Whitman “is somewhat unique in that there is no dedicated [religious] space,” Kirtley said. “Having a space which accommodates the spiritual needs of students is important.”

The Spiritual Activities Room is a good step towards accommodating these needs. Yet Kirtley believes there is more to be done.

“I’d like [to] offer more support to religious groups which lack resources in the Walla Walla community,” Kirtley said.

“If issues of faith and spirituality are important to a student, I want that student to feel like their basic spiritual needs can be met at Whitman.”