The Interfaith Student Council (ISC) is the University Chaplaincy's main undergraduate student advisory and programming board. It is composed of Interfaith Representatives (or their proxies) from the undergraduate religious and philosophical communities at Tufts. The ISC meets weekly during term. While the ISC is limited to formal representatives from Tufts' religious and philosophical communities, we are open to at-large members. Moreover, students who are in becoming involved in interfaith work more broadly are encouraged to join COFFEE, an interfaith collective which meets on Monday nights and CAFE interfaith student Pre-Orientation program. For more information, please contact the University Chaplain, The Reverend Elyse Nelson Winger.
The Interfaith Student Council (ISC) is the peer leadership group for the Tufts University Chaplaincy and is a council of student leaders and representatives from undergraduate religious and philosophical communities on the Tufts campus. The council addresses interfaith engagement on several levels: interpersonal and as representatives of individual communities, as well as with the larger Tufts community and beyond. We seek to create a space for individual, active multifiath understanding and engagement among our council members and for anyone else seeking interfaith resources on campus. For the communities we represent, the council facilitates communication, support, and collaboration.
Through our communities and as a council, we seek to foster active interfaith engagement on campus with the Tufts University Chaplaincy and through campus programs. We also strive to promote and coordinate activism and service, including but not limited to serving our local community, partnering with other universities’ interfaith groups, and responding to global issues. Ultimately, the ISC acts to create a welcoming and pluralistic campus climate at Tufts that encourages interfaith dialogue, questioning, learning, and action.
“The Interfaith Student Council has been an incredible opportunity to learn to reflect upon our own beliefs and the beliefs of others with a sense of curiosity and reverence that I’ve never experienced before. It’s a space in which we can be our full, intentional selves— and in return, we get the opportunity to be receptive to our fellow council members and find the commonality in all of our experiences as humans. We take this commonality and channel it into an event or gathering that everyone is welcome to, so that others can feel the same joyous and friendly energy that we curate in our meetings (with snacks provided, of course!)” - Kate Beveridge '25 (Humanist Community at Tufts)
Kate Beveridge (right) with Ayub Nur, Lena Leavit, Julia Appel on our Pilgrimage of Sacred Sites on Campus Fall 2022
“ISC holds significant meaning for me because it has provided me with a valuable opportunity to engage and learn about various faiths present on our campus. As a board member of the Hindu Student Association, it is easy for me to become engrossed in organizing our own events and interacting primarily with our fellow members. However, this narrow focus can sometimes prevent me from fully experiencing and appreciating the diverse range of activities of different faith communities on campus. Through our weekly meetings, I learn so much about different traditions and events that are happening. ISC also facilitates events such as the Food & Faith event. Here we talked about how food is important to our faith and how it has connected us to family, friends, or people we have just met.” - Raaj Pednekar '25 (Hindu Students Association)
Raaj and friends at Food and Faith May 2023
“The(Interfaith Student Council/Interfaith Ambassador Retreat was life changing, so cute! Our graduate intern Francesca had prepared an exercise about rest, and the lack thereof in our daily college lives. Mixing politics and performance, that activity made me see how an interfaith practice can be crafted around values of art and social-awareness I deeply resonate with. I hope to take this practice further with me in other groups I'm part of.” -
- Muri Mascarenhas '24 (Tufts Buddhist Mindfulness Sangha)
Muri crafting on retreat
The ISC was established in Fall 2013 as a council including formal representation from all of the religious and philosophical student organizations on campus (as requirement of their constitutions), and it meets weekly during the academic year to build positive relationships among Tufts' diverse religious and philosophical communities as well as to promote a spiritually pluralistic campus climate at Tufts through advising, programming, and initiatives. Listed below are some of highlights of the ISC’s initiatives: