Rumee Ahmed, Brown's first Muslim chaplain, and his wife, Community Director Ayesha Chaudhry, will leave Brown at the end of the semester, concluding two and a half years of work.
They have both accepted tenure-track positions in Colgate University's Department of Religion. They will each begin teaching after the completion of their dissertations - for Ahmed that will be this fall, and for Chaudhry, next fall. Associate University Chaplain Ahmed is a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia, and Chaudhry at New York University.
"We are sad to be leaving," Chaudhry said.
They were "blown away by the students," Ahmed said. "That's what we're going to miss the most."
The idea of having a Muslim chaplain had been considered since 1998 but was not realized until Ahmed was hired in January 2006.
Chaudhry said many other universities followed Brown's example by creating Muslim chaplain positions, expanding existing ones or turning existing volunteer positions into paid posts.
The position at Brown was "the first of its kind," Ahmed said. Chaudhry said most other Muslim chaplain positions that existed were voluntary and required only five or 10 hours of work per week.
In addition to building on existing programs like Thursday dinners at the home of University Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson, the couple focused on expanding resources for Muslim students.
"The idea we had when we came here was to build a safe space for students to express religiosity," Ahmed said. "Being religious on any campus can be a potentially alienating experience. Students feel they have to guard their religiosity."
Ahmed said he wanted students to explore their religions and be self-critical.
"(Ahmed) was there to challenge your faith and make yourself stronger in your faith," said Rashid Hussain '10, president of the Brown Muslim Students' Association.
Ahmed and Chaudhry worked with the BMSA to plan events, bring speakers to campus, aid student communication with the administration and provide guidance, support and advice for students.
The couple opened their doors every other Monday night for "dhikr" - "remembrance" in Arabic - and dinner. Hussain said by being so welcoming, they "fostered a sense of community."
One popular initiative was the establishment of a nightly "iftar" dinner during Ramadan for Muslim students to break their fasts together. They organized food for 60 to 70 students for 30 consecutive nights, Chaudhry said.
After the first year of the program, the students gave them a thank-you card. Chaudhry recalled that one junior wrote, "You have changed what it means to be a Muslim on campus for me."
She said the message made everything - all the stress of organizing the program for the first time - worth it.
Nida Abdulla '11, a BMSA member, said she appreciated that the food came from restaurants instead of dining halls. She also said on Friday nights the students received a special treat - pepperoni pizza.
Normally, because halal dietary restrictions prohibit pork and set other guidelines for the preparation of meat, many Muslim students are not able to eat pepperoni pizza.
Ahmed and Chaudhry, Abdulla said, would buy halal meat from local butchers and give it to the restaurant to use in the food.
The nightly "iftar" was open to all students. Hussain said he thought the chaplain managed the diversity of Brown's religious community well by recognizing the different sects of Islam as well as encouraging interfaith dialogue.
"From the time that we met him, we thought he was an amazing choice. It was a pretty unanimous decision," said Lamia Khan '08, former BMSA president and a member of the search committee that hired Ahmed.
During Ahmed's time at Brown, the number of Muslims, especially practicing Muslims, on campus has grown, Khan said.
Abdulla, who made an appointment to meet Ahmed when she visited Brown the summer before her senior year, said the presence of a Muslim chaplain influenced her perception of the University.
"That made a good impression," Abdulla said. Brown "had someone to support me and my faith."
Khan said the role of a Muslim chaplain was still being defined when Ahmed was hired. "It was something he had to make his own," Khan said.
Ahmed and Chaudhry said they would have some input in the search for a new Muslim chaplain.
"We care very much about the position," Chaudhry said.
Ahmed also said he hoped for the creation of a multi-faith chaplaincy to represent faiths not part of the Abrahamic tradition.
Other officials from the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life were not available for comment.
Ahmed and Chaudhry said they would focus on their roles as professors at Colgate. Teaching is nothing new to Ahmed, who taught a Group Independent Study Project on classical Arabic, Saad Yousuf '08, a former BMSA executive board member wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
But Ahmed said he has no plans to give up being part of campus life at Colgate just because he'll be spending more time in the classroom. "We told them we want to get involved in student life," he said.
