Serenity Room provides students with an escape

By: Melissa Caceres/News Director 

In GC 343, the silence is deafening.

The noise, music and conversation from the first floor of the University’s Graham Center fails to reach the corner room on the third floor – and students like it that way.

The Serenity Room, which opened to students, faculty and staff on Jan. 9, is a room designated for those who wish to unwind in a quiet environment.

Its uses include meditation and prayer, which for many Muslim students is an essential part of their everyday routine.

“To be a Muslim, you must complete five daily prayers and they have to be at certain times. We need to have  quiet, clean environment, free from distractions.” said Sarah Usman, the previous president of the Muslim Student Association, who mentioned that she use to pray in the stairwells and between bookshelves in the Green Library.

The room comes equipped with wall panels to separate the space for each student.

While they are allowed to bring their own floor mats, things such as incense, candles and music are prohibited.

“The idea has a lot of merit since it’s going to hit home with a lot of international students and even just random students who lean towards that path of tranquility and meditation,” said Sanjeev Udhnani, vice president of Student Government Association at the Modesto Maidique Campus.

As a pilot program for the University community, the space is open for use 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“Everything that’s being done now is to garner support for the Serenity Room because we want to show administration [the results] in numbers and how we’re going to measure that data is by having a pilot project,” he said.

Udhnani, who was behind the establishment of the room, said he had been hearing student concern over having a separate, quiet area since summer 2011.

While the space was originally going to be open starting Nov. 2011 to Jan. 2012, by the time it was approved by the Student Affairs department, “it was already finals time.”

Funding to provide the room with panels and other adjustments, cost around $150 total, according to Udhnani.

The money was provided through SGA discretionary funds.

“We’re doing this in the hopes that those who want to observe their faith, meditate, or even just sit and relax,” said Udhnani. “It’s a serene, quiet room that students can go to escape the loud hustle and bustle of GC and have their own little corner.”

With a small corner that is anticipated to bring followers of many different religions, SGC-MMC held focus groups during the fall semester to brainstorm any kind of conflicts and scenarios that might come up in the serenity room.

In 2008, University of South Florida incorporated their serenity room into the design of the 233,000-square-foot, Marshall Student Center to give the institution’s 39,000 students “an oasis in the desert, a harbor in the storm of hectic campus life.”

The University also hopes to do the same by including the idea in the future GC expansion plans.

“It hasn’t been approved or funded yet, but this is definitely something of interest that we would want to dedicate some space to,” said Carlos Carrasco, senior director of business finance and building operations at GC.

Depending on the results of the pilot program, rooms may also be opened at the Biscayne Bay Campus and Engineering Campus.