The Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, Advocacy, and Leadership's (IDEAL) move to Tuttleman Learning Center entails a more centralized space that broadens its initiatives, including expanding the new Interfaith Inclusion Engagement Center.  

The center aims to raise awareness and have people from diverse religious expressions come together to discuss differences and intersectionality. It will also be a space where students will have the opportunity to connect with other interfaith organizations.  

Temple University's Associate Vice President and Chief Inclusion Officer, Dr. Tiffenia D. Archie, says, "We have long wanted an Interfaith Inclusion Center because we have always seen religion and spirituality as important to people's social identity. We were finally able to make that happen last semester."  

As part of IDEAL's commitment to interfaith belonging, it will also oversee the Interfaith Council and expand its support staff. Current staff include Interfaith Inclusion Extern Micah Katz-Zeiger, and Dr. Ariella Y. Werden-Greenfield, who serves a dual role as special advisor on Antisemitism and chair of the interfaith council. There are also plans to recruit two Interfaith Inclusion Interns. 

Katz-Zeiger and Werden-Greenfield will work throughout the year, holding listening sessions welcoming various faith-based organizations into IDEAL's space to share their needs. Katz-Zeiger noted, "We want to hear from groups and hear, are there painful experiences you have had here? What restorative/healing programming or experiences can we cultivate here?"   

The office will also host talks and programming in honor of religious events. IDEAL has already hosted a dialogue and film screening excerpt of "The U.S. and the Holocaust," directed and produced by Lynn Novick, Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein. Following this event, Novick also visited Temple to discuss antisemitism in the 1930s and 1940s and what people can learn about the world from this history.  

Additionally, IDEAL is developing an Interfaith Inclusion 101 workshop to equip students and faculty to understand better the diverse practices that people hold essential to their faith. The workshop will focus on understanding and accommodating various religious identities and traditions. It will also extend to the intersectionality between faith-based groups and how these groups can better connect to promote harmony.  

The office will utilize its new space throughout the year to promote talks and education regarding religious identities. Werden-Greenfield said, "IDEAL's new interfaith inclusion team is building relationships on campus and beyond Temple's borders. We hope to expand our Interfaith Council and our interfaith network of student groups, community organizations, and religious institutions, thereby increasing the spiritual and communal resources available to members of our campus as they pursue intergroup understanding and engage in a faith-based practice."