El Camino College students have a dedicated place to practice their religion or meditate.

The college’s Meditation & Interfaith Prayer Room located inside the Schauerman Library’s West Reading Room was established three years ago, dating back to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Library and Learning Resources Specialist Erika Yates was one of the staff members who made the room possible for students. Yates works behind the counter near the Meditation & Interfaith Prayer Room.

She said students have appreciated the addition of the Interfaith Prayer Room in the library.

“The reason why we created it in the first place is because we would have students praying in stairwells, wheelchair ramps, or we’d trip on them in book stacks,” Yates said. “There clearly was a need for the space.”

Yates said that library staff are responsible for monitoring the room.

“It is pretty much open for whomever needs it, you can come and go as you please,” Yates said. “Every now and then there will be some students who go in and want to hang out – and that is not what it is for, so we take them out.”

Electronic Resources Librarian Mary McMillian, said people were looking for a place to go and resorting to corners of the school.

McMillian said that before the room was converted it was unused, but now students have a spot to go and don’t need to ask for permission.

“The room is first come first serve, and is available to students for prayer and silent meditation,” McMillian said.

Library Specialist Carla Cain said the Meditation & Interfaith Prayer Room was created after Muslim students inquired about finding a space to pray.

Cain said library staff wanted a place where students could go and pray regardless of their religion.

“Muslim students would come to the desk asking, ‘Is there somewhere quiet I can go for a few minutes to pray?’ So we got more than one person asking us that,” Cain said.

Cain said more than one person can fit inside the prayer room.

‘If you see the size of it, about two to four,” Cain said. “If it gets too crowded, then we start to wonder what is going on.”

Ayoub Osman, 18, a biology pre-med major, practices his religion in the prayer room and explains the unity the room creates.

“Me and my brothers, we have a group chat – we get together and we pray and text and be like, ‘I’m about to praise Salat thuhr,’ and they all come,” Osman said.

According to Al-Islam.org, Thuhr is the second of the five daily obligatory prayers (salah) for practicing Muslims and is also transliterated as Dhuhr, Duhr or Zhur.

Uthmon Desmond, 18, a chemistry major, practices the Muslim faith in the prayer room and explained his experience when using the space.

“We don’t get bothered by anyone and it’s usually free for us, and if anyone is praying in there, they’ll be respectful,” Desmond said. “It’s completely peaceful.”

Desmond said he has seen people of the Christian and Jewish faith praying inside the Meditation & Interfaith Prayer Room but Muslims use the room the most often.

“Of course Muslims the most, because we pray five times a day, everyone uses it,” Desmond said.

Nursing major Ayah Shwaib, a student of the Muslim faith at ECC said the room brings value.

“It’s very useful, honestly we were very happy when we got the prayer room, I believe two or three semesters ago,” Shwaib said. “I’ve been able to pray all of my prayers in a timely manner because we want to pray on time.”