AU's commencement exercises this May will continue to feature a religious invocation, despite students at other universities urging their colleges to remove such a practice from their graduation ceremonies.
The University of Maryland, College Park's University Senate voted April 6 to remove their school's invocation - a prayer offered at the beginning of commencement exercises. UMD President C.D. Mote Jr. announced three days later that the university would continue to include the invocation in its commencement ceremonies.
John Beers, a senior at George Washington University, published an op-ed in the April 13 edition of the GW Hatchet calling for GW to remove the invocation from its commencement ceremonies.
"The general commencement is for all of the graduating students - not just those of faith," he said in the column. "We come together to celebrate [our] achievements, not to pray."
AU is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, while UMD is a state-run, secular institution. As a result, AU's commencement ceremonies have always featured an invocation, originally performed by a Methodist clergyman.
"As a United Methodist institution, it is appropriate that AU would use its own tradition - invoking the blessing of God - for times of transition and life cycle events," said AU Chaplain Joe Eldridge. "It is not intended to marginalize, and an appropriately crafted prayer, respecting diversity in faith expressions, does not create any problems. No one is asked to subscribe to the beliefs of the invocation, any more than they are the beliefs expressed in the commencement speaker's address."
The religious leaders offering invocations have become much more diverse than at the university's original commencements, he said.
"For the coming commencement celebrations at AU, invocations will be offered by an imam, a rabbi, a priest and a Protestant minister," Eldridge said.
Mike Godzwa, the chaplain of Chi Alpha, an on-campus Christian fellowship organization, said he hopes the university will not follow the UMD senate's example.
"It [is] a shame when the decision to make an event more inclusive leads to the suppression of religious expression," Godzwa said. "Rather than making an event welcoming to all, it actually presents the worldview that faith has no place in the public forum."
Jeremy Diamond, a senior in the School of Communication and president of AU Rationalists and Atheists, said he thinks the university should consider doing away with the invocation.
"Our invocation hardly dominates the ceremony, but it is extremely out of place," he said. "It is an insult to students who worked so hard to graduate to then have their hard work credited to a deity, especially one who they may not even believe exists."
Oliver Flynn, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, said he thinks the university should go a step further.
"As a private, Methodist-affiliated school, AU has the right to pray at its ceremonies as much as it wants," said Flynn, who serves as treasurer for the AU Rationalists and Atheists. "However, this is the 21st century ... if AU wishes to be truly cosmopolitan, I do think that it should lose its Methodist ties and continue doing the good job that it does of representing and facilitating a wide range of faith groups."
AU Rationalists and Atheists' efforts have had little effect on the administration. AU will not be losing its invocation anytime soon, according to David Taylor, President Neil Kerwin's chief of staff and the person in charge of planning commencement activities.
"I daresay, when you look back at the founding of any college or university, they all trace their origins to a religion or a branch of a religion," he said. "[AU's invocation] is not meant as disrespect to any non-believers. It's part of the Methodist tradition."
Taylor said he believes AU's invocation means more to the school than just its religious implications.
"It is important for the campus out of respect to the origins of this university," he said. "It is part of the founding by the church."
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