On Tuesday, Feb. 10, Carls for Religious Understanding (CRU) hosted an interfaith discussion titled “Doing Homework While the World Burns” as part of an alt-weekly discussion group organized by the Office of the Chaplain. The event, led by Chaplain’s Associates James Gates ’28 and Dylan Evans ’26, facilitated student discussion on “doing normal things in abnormal times” according to the invitation.

“With this event, we wanted to offer a space for people who feel a little bit overwhelmed by the world around us and things that are going on. There are a lot of things going on in the world, and sometimes it feels hard to be able to dial in on schoolwork, especially at a school like Carleton, which uses trimesters,” James Gates ’28 said. “And so we want to offer a space for people to […] share […] how they’ve been processing, but also […] ways of dealing with […] the things that are going on around us.”

“Politics and the world around us are a big part of what is on people’s minds and hearts right now, and so if CRU is anything, it’s a place to have discussions about things that matter to people,” Chaplain Schuyler Vogel said. “We feel like CRU can be a place where people can help process feelings and emotions, and come together to look at different aspects of those dynamics outside of Carleton and sometimes here too.”

CRU interfaith discussions are held every other week during the term on Thursdays from 5:15 to 6:15 in the Alumni Guest House. Attendees discuss selected topics over dinner catered by Tin Tea.

“I feel like it’s a casual atmosphere, but we do talk about some more serious topics occasionally, or we definitely […] deep dive into topics in a way that doesn’t always naturally happen,” said Theo Borowski, 5th Year Educational Associate in the Chapel and in the Division of Inclusion, Equity and Community.

CRU has existed since the 1980s and has served as a space for discussing religious and social issues through the Chaplain’s office.

“Carls for Religious Understanding is a way for people who are religious and [who are] not religious to be able to have a space to discuss how their other beliefs and morals and backgrounds affect […] how we perceive the world,” Gates said.

While CRU has existed for decades, the group’s role on campus has evolved over time. Last year, the group moved from invite-only to open attendance.

“[There was a] shift from the Council for Religious Understanding to the Carls for Religious Understanding model, which is moving from a space of having it be invite only to a space of inclusiveness and open invitation,” Vogel said. “The [change in] emphasis of the religious nature of it to sort of more human experience, an emphasis that feels like an important part of the history.”

When determining how to focus their events, CRU considers student experiences and what might bring people to their bimonthly events.

“I work with the chaplain’s associates who come up with the topic every time they volunteer to facilitate based on […] their own interests,” said Vogel. “We try to be governed by what people are talking about, what do people need to talk about or want to talk about, and what’s going to be able to draw folks in in a way that feels compelling.”

Gates said that the chaplain’s associates were reflecting on their own experiences as young people grappling with turbulent current events when they decided on the topic of “doing homework while the world burns.”

“During our meeting, we were discussing how schoolwork has felt — it felt more difficult to be able to focus and […] really put our heads into our schoolwork when there’s all this stuff going around,” said Gates. “And so we were discussing it, like, ‘how can we […] incorporate that into a good topic for discussion?’ Because we know that we’re not […] the only ones [who feel this way].”

Many attendees seemed to appreciate the chosen topic.

“The title pulled me in. I wanted to attend to talk with other people who might be feeling overwhelmed by school and the state of the world,” said Samuel Iribe ’26, a first-time CRU attendee.

“I often say things that surprise myself in these conversations. So I love getting to learn about others but also myself,” said Borowski. 

“There were fewer people than I expected, and it was less structured. It made things feel more relaxed and open-ended; this took off a lot of pressure,” Iribe said.

“I think the discussion was really helpful. I’m Christian, so from a Christian standpoint, it was good to be able to share how my religion impacts how I approach the world and how I live and deal with things through my faith,” said Gates. “But it’s also good to hear from other students and how […] their own religious backgrounds, or maybe lack thereof, have impacted their way of going about dealing with things, whether that be through meditation or through church or through […] even community action or music.”

In small groups, students shared how they interacted with their peers and their perspectives to consider the discussion topics, which were guided by a set of questions prepared by Gates and Evans.

“A new perspective I gained was that the world-scale and nation-scale problems we’re facing can’t be solved by individuals alone. Yet, we are all individuals. So what are we to do with that? I think it is helpful to acknowledge this fact,” said Iribe. “I didn’t feel much differently [about our political situation]. I do think it was nice to articulate things I am thinking about and hear that other people feel similarly.”

“In my group, we talked a lot about what places and spaces give you time to relax and recharge and so students talked about places that made them feel like they were at home, or other places that made them feel safe, or where they didn’t have to feel stressed about their schoolwork or be stuck in the Carleton bubble,” said Vogel.

Attendees also stressed that the event’s overall environment made them feel at ease and facilitated greater learning.

“We reached the overall consensus of weak individuals. We can’t change the world, but it’s important to be focused, but also to acknowledge that there is a lot of stuff going on in the world, and not to just disregard the world as a whole,” said Gates. “And as students, […] we have a duty to do our school work and to do our responsibilities. And people who are in the workplace have a responsibility to do their work.”

“The event was super chill and welcoming and I think anyone who can go to a CRU event should go! [It] seems they often have good food, and it’s a good moment to connect and learn new perspectives,” said Iribe.