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Cornell University

Student & Campus Life

Office of Spirituality and Meaning-Making

People getting food from a buffet.

Welcome! Whoever you are, wherever you are on your journey, we are here for you!

The Office of Spirituality and Meaning-Making (OSMM) is the home of spiritual life on campus for students of all religious and secular identities, ethical backgrounds, and worldviews. As a unit within the Dean of Students’ Centers for Student Equity, Empowerment, and Belonging, we work together with Cornell United Religious Work (CURW) to support religious observance and community, spiritual exploration and wellbeing, and interfaith engagement and learning.

Located in Anabel Taylor Hall, our multifaith community includes more than 40 affiliated chaplains and spiritual leaders and more than 50 student organizations. Whether your current path is religious, spiritual, or secular, we are here to listen, provide spiritual care, and help you navigate life’s questions.

Mission:
The Office of Spirituality and Meaning-Making nurtures and supports the spiritual wellbeing of students who are religious, spiritual, secular, or searching. Together with CURW, we provide spaces, communities, and experiences for observance, exploration, ethical reflection, and meaningful connections.

Vision:
We strive to cultivate beloved community where students feel safe, wholly welcome, and empowered to authentically articulate their spiritual or religious identity. We aim to prepare graduates who are spiritually engaged, ethically conscious, committed to socially responsible action, and ready to engage difference with curiosity and compassion.

Values:
Our values are grounded in our commitment to spiritual wellbeing.

Spiritual Wellbeing is the expanding experience of meaning, purpose, connection, and wholeness. This expanding experience is integral to human flourishing and wellness, both for individuals and communities. Spiritual wellbeing is cultivated by religious and secular wisdom, practices, communities, values, and beliefs.

The Office of Spirituality and Meaning-Making guides, nurtures, and enhances spiritual wellbeing by inviting students to:

  • Believe: We encourage students to explore and ask questions, to identify their deeply held values and beliefs, and to strengthen their sense of belonging, purpose, and transcendence. 
  • Belong: We facilitate opportunities for students to know and be known, to love and be loved, by inviting students to understand their identities, to connect with supportive communities, and to learn skills in interfaith engagement and connection across difference. 
  • Become: We challenge students to grow into wholeness, to take care of their full selves and relationships, and to live with intention and purpose in service of the common good.