U-Md. Senate Votes to Eliminate Invocation

April 8, 2009

Author: Martin Weil and Susan Kinzie

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/07/AR2009040704634.html

The senate at the University of Maryland at College Park has voted to eliminate the invocation from the school's commencement ceremony.

The recommendation, which must be approved by the university's president to take effect, was intended to be more sensitive to the concerns of believers and nonbelievers, said senate Chair Kenneth Holum.

The senate, which has about 175 members and includes faculty, students and staff, voted 42 to 14 to abolish the prayer, which is a long-standing feature of commencements at many institutions of higher education.

Holum said it was understood that many people on the large and diverse Maryland campus "felt excluded or marginalized" by having any prayer and by the prayers that have been delivered, which they considered essentially Christian in form and motivation.