There some are places at Brown where a vast number of students have never set foot and may not even know exist. When walking into Emery-Wooley, those who don’t live there generally go only so far as the V-Dub. But explore deeper into the sub-chambers of Champlin on Friday afternoon around 1 p.m., and you’ll find, in the farthest corner of the basement, a heavy door with the words “Brown Muslim Student Association” written on a paper sign and taped on.

Every Friday at 1:15, David Coolidge leads a sermon in this underground hideaway. The walls are painted a pastel green and yellow, and inscribed around the edges of the room is beautiful Arabic calligraphy. When walking into the BMSA on a Friday, pairs of shoes are scattered about the linoleum floor as Coolidge leads the sermon in English and Arabic. The community knows each other well from the weekly prayer service and this year’s hectic Ramadan, which coincided with orientation and the start of classes.

For those who have never set foot in the BMSA or taken a trip to the fourth floor of J. Walter Wilson, it might be news that Brown hired Coolidge this year to take on a full time role as the Associate University Chaplain for the Muslim Community. But Brown, and other Ivy League schools, have been adding positions like Coolidge’s recently: about fifteen universities currently have official Muslim chaplains, with Georgetown being the first to hire one, in 1999, and Princeton the most recent, in August.

Coolidge compares this small group to entrepreneurs. “ We have to come up with our own ways of seeing how Islam fits onto a college campus,” he says, “It’s challenging but exciting.”

What made his hiring more significant was the fact that Coolidge is a Brown alum. He graduated in 2001, after which he spent time writing a dissertation in a Ph.D. program at Princeton and then took a part time position at Dartmouth as a Muslim Adviser. Coolidge says Brown was an exciting professionial opportunity because it provided a chance to give back to the place where he had formed his own intellectual, spiritual, and social life.

“I didn’t want to pass on that,” he says. “To be able to come back and add resources; that was the clincher for me.”

The adjustment from student to administrator at his alma mater has been intriguing for him in that the school is very much the same, but he is still figuring out the flexibility of his schedule and what it’s like to be in an office here. “It has been a pretty steep learning curve for me this semester,” he says.

Being back at school does trigger some memories of the good years, too.

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Robert David Coolidge grew up in the Chicago area but attended prep school at Philips Andover Academy outside of Boston. It was during high school that his passion for theology blossomed.

He regularly attended services of any religion he could. His fascination with religious studies was based both on an academic and historical interest in the subject matter and as a personal outlet. “I was figuring out what I thought about life and the universe,” he says.

His friends often called him a spiritual window shopper.

It wasn’t until his sophomore year at Brown that the six-foot plus, strawberry-blonde man decided that he wanted to convert to Islam. “One day I just went into the BMSA and said ‘Hi, I want to become a Muslim.’”

In exploring his spirituality, Coolidge found himself most spiritual while spending time in nature. Upon reading the Quran, he learned that his connection with nature and a greater power was in tune with passages in the text.

“Din al-fitrah,” says Coolidge, “It is the religion of primordial human nature.”

Like any good teacher, Coolidge knows the value of having inspiration in the classroom. He describes himself in high school as a “hippie who didn’t believe in driving.”  But his mother forced him to take a drivers education course and “the teacher ended up being so amazing that I couldn’t wait to go to class every week,” Coolidge says. “It just shows that a good teacher can spark life into any subject.”

One of his goals since accepting his new position has been to act not only as a mentor and spiritual guide, but also as a teacher. He teaches a course once a week this fall called Thinking Theologically: Reflections on Contemporary Islamic Thought, in which students (both Muslim and non-Muslim) discuss how Muslims intellectually deal with the world and with theological problems.

“I think it’s great. We talk in a completely open manner, engaging in a vey thoughtful and respectful way.”

Coolidge hopes that in the coming years, participation will increase at the BMSA and that the Chaplains Office will come to be used as a real intellectual resource for the Brown community.

“We are smart people who have done serious academic work as well,” says Coolidge of himself and his colleagues.

He is also pushing for a study-abroad program based in a predominantly Muslim country. The world is one-quarter Islam, and it makes sense that there be at least one intellectual opportunity in such a country, he argues. Coolidge also wants to bolster the resources for the Middle Eastern Studies concentration and create a working department.

“He has been very inclusive,” says one student in Coolidge’s theology class, “He goes out of his way to invite people from all different backgrounds to events and to spread awareness. I really appreciate that.”

When asked what this reporter was doing in prayer service, the answer that I was writing a piece about Coolidge sparked prompt—and undertsandably guarded— responses: There had better not be anything bad in there.

Nothing bad here.