ISS sets up counseling
Some Muslim students say they still feel comfortable at TCU
By Sarah Krebs
Staff Reporter

Middle Eastern students can find comfort and counseling during war with Iraq with the International Student Services or University Ministries, John Singleton, the director of ISS, said Wednesday.

Singleton said 37 percent of the Middle Eastern students at TCU have taken advantage of the counseling services provided since March 21, after the war began.

The Rev. John Butler, minister to the university, said students can come to a number of offices when they need help, and they have been told where they can go for help.

“My concern was that they have an awareness that there are people in the campus who are concerned about their well being and that care about them,” Butler said. “They are as much a part of the community as any of us, and should something happen, they know where to turn.”

Singleton said it is not easy to make someone feel comfortable when there is so much negativity on television and in the news.

“We have focused on making sure they know the resources available to them and letting them know that TCU is very happy and supportive that they are here,” Singleton said.

“To a strong extent, international students do feel at home at TCU. But an event like a war simply puts them in the spotlight.”

Singleton said the main concerns for the Middle Eastern students are that they be allowed to focus on their academics, that TCU remain a place where they are free to be themselves without fear of ridicule, isolation or interrogation and that TCU continues to grow as a global university.

“I think TCU’s sensitivity and attention to these students should not be seen as a competition or questioning of our troops in the Middle East,” Singleton said. “The worst thing that could happen would be for someone to say, ‘Who cares about them. What about our boys in the Middle East?’”

Singleton said he does not want students to shut their ears to the voices of the world.
Diana Awde, a junior computer science major, said though she has not yet taken advantage of the counseling provided, she thinks it is a good idea.

“They’ve had a meeting to promote (Middle) Eastern students and said it was an outreach, but most of the people who are Muslim want to stay in a low profile,” Awde said. “After 9/11, with all the homeland security, I think they’re afraid of being spied on.”

Awde said she is one of a few Muslim students who still covers her head and that she has not been uncomfortable doing so at TCU.

Butler said he was opening his office to those in need because the events happening in Iraq are not a war against Muslims.

“It is a war against a particular country and a particular leader and I think it is important for us to recognize that it isn’t against Muslims,” Butler said. “Christians and Muslims are both affected by this, and how we relate to each other in a world crisis is important.”

Butler said in an e-mail to all students that the war in Iraq touches the lives of people all across our campus community.

“Two locations have been set aside for prayers for those deployed and for the innocent people of Iraq, as well as to honor those who may loose their lives in the battles that lie ahead,” Butler said in the e-mail.

The Student Center Reading Room and the Library Periodical Reading Room each have a book to write the names of friends and loved ones caught in the conflict and identify those who died in the war, Butler said.

Butler also proposed the idea of a Reflection Wall where students could share pictures, remembrances and reflections about the war.

s.d.krebs@tcu.edu