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Creating Islamic Studies
Mian is working hand-in-hand with faculty such as Seesemann to create the Islamic Studies program. "The administration does take the students very seriously. It's not us against the administration, it's us working with the administration," says Mian.
One struggle has been the administration's hesitance to recognize the need for the program. It's not that the university thinks the program is a bad idea — rather, they don't necessarily feel it needs to exist outside of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Acosta-Licea has been working to refute that assumption. "[Asian and Middle Eastern Studies] doesn't give you a complete understanding, so to do that is to very much undermine not only your understanding of Islam but to perpetuate the ignorance that's in our society," she says.
The program also suffered a setback after The Daily Northwestern published an editorial that Acosta-Licea, Mian and Seesemann claim implied the program would exist to aid Muslim students' spiritual growth.
"That is really ridiculous. The idea of this program is to increase the knowledge of all Northwestern students, regardless of their background and whether they're religious or not," Acosta-Licea says.
She plans to focus on raising student awareness next year, but Safdari says he's been impressed with the level of student support that already exists. The creation of an Islamic Studies program was a central tenet of Safdari's campaign. "There are a lot of open ears… I'm surprised at how receptive other groups are," he says.
An Islamic Studies program should have been established "yesterday," Mian says, but he will wait as long as it takes for the university to recognize the need and give Islamic Studies an office. "I think it's time for the university to definitely step up and endorse this program."
"I'm pretty sure that Islamic studies program will get established. It's just a matter of time. Obviously, we'd rather have it sooner than later," says Mian.