After eight years at the Office for Religious Life (ORL), incoming Dean Theresa Thames has developed a deep appreciation for the relationships she builds. It’s a gift, she says, to use her role to learn about students, her colleagues, and campus community members.
“A question that I often lead with is, ‘How is your heart?’ And when I ask that question, I absolutely mean it,” Thames said during an interview with The Daily Princetonian. “I want to know: how is your heart, outside of your grades, outside of [your] activities?”
In Thames’s time as Associate Dean of Religious Life and the Chapel, cultivating meaningful relationships with students has one of her top priorities and will continue to be one as she replaces Dean Allison Boden as the ORL’s Dean of Religious Life and the Chapel. Boden retired at the end of July after 17 years in the position.
Thames joined Princeton in 2016. She received her B.A. from Howard University before receiving her Masters of Divinity from Duke Divinity School and completing her Doctor of Ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary. She then worked at several churches in the Washington D.C. area.
At Princeton, she has led interdenominational worship services, provided care during times of grief, and has even led yoga meditation classes across campus.
Thames’s focus on relationship-building was shared by her predecessor, Dean Boden, whose legacy she hopes to continue as she brings her own ideas to the role.
“I really have been handed a gift,” Thames said. “I’m following in [Boden’s] legacy of 17 years here at the University; being able to build on her legacy, but also having the depth and breadth and space to be creative in my work. My hope for this first year is to continue to build on the foundation that’s already in place, but also to explore new ways that I will embody this role.”
In her first year, Boden expanded the ORL’s chaplaincy program to include positions for Muslim and Hindu chaplains. Dr. Vineet Chander became the first full-time Hindu chaplain at a U.S. university and Imam Sohaib Nazeer Sultan was one of the first University Muslim chaplains in the United States.
“We just had a greater number of Hindu and Muslim students who [were] looking around at the amazing resources for the Jewish community and for the Christian community and saying, ‘You know, these folks have chaplains, and they seem to do a lot for them. Let’s try that.’ And the answer was, ‘You’re right,’” Boden told the ‘Prince’ in an interview.
Additionally, Boden recognized Rabbi Eitan Webb as an official Chabad on Campus chaplain in 2008, building connections with Jewish life on campus.
“Learning about how [Boden] interacted with students [and] people across campus allowed me to really go beyond what might be thought of as ‘religious life’ and think about the intersections of meaning-making across campus,” Thames reflected.
As she looks to extend Boden’s legacy, Thames has turned her focus to securing the longevity of some of the newer programs established. For instance, Princeton established the Rose Castle Foundation in 2019. Rose Castle hosts group workshops on reconciliation, or “helping people hear one another” in Boden’s words. Since their first trip, students have attended workshops at the castle every fall break.
Beyond looking at the upkeep of the ORL’s newest projects, Thames noted that she looks forward to continuing to adapt the office’s services to the evolving needs of Princeton’s students.
“I sometimes feel that there’s an idea that the adults on campus, we talk more than we listen, and I really want us to think about what it means to be active listeners and partners with our students,” Thames said.
Thames also considered how the ORL can accommodate an expanding campus, hoping to hold more activities in south campus to create more “campus-wide engagement.”
She also mentioned expanding programming past the ORL’s home in Murray Dodge Hall to other parts of campus.
“How can we use the spaces that we have available to really occupy them? Some spaces aren’t used all the time … How are labs used? … there are other ways that we can be in other buildings and do meditation or do small circle talks,” she remarked.
“The campus is expanding even more, so what are ways that our office can not only have a larger footprint but have deeper relationships [and] wider connections across the campus? I’m really looking forward to having deep conversations with people, hearing about what they’re interested in, and also learning more about what it means for Princeton to grow and expand our student population,” she said.
Elisabeth Stewart is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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