The University's chaplains are working together to establish a student fellowship to foster interfaith discussion on campus.The program, Brandeis University Interfaith Leadership Development Fellows Program (BUILD), is being financed by a grant in the "hundreds of thousands of dollars" from the Department of Homeland Security, Protestant Chaplain Rev. Alexander Kern, the director of the program, said. Wellesley, the University of Maryland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts University also applied for the grant, Kern said.

The chaplains have extended the deadline for student applications beyond last May. They are still seeking a diverse range of applicants.

The student fellows will help plan campus events and speaker programs. Kern said an Interfaith Awareness Week may be in the works, as well as an opportunity for students to volunteer in community service events at local congregations.

The initiative is an expression of "newly rejuvenated public and active interfaith chaplaincy," also visible in the weekly peace vigils for Iraq the chaplains lead with students. Kern attributed the new activism to the recent arrivals of new Catholic and Muslim chaplains in the past year-and-a-half.

Kern expects around 30 students from all religious backgrounds and with "all degrees of observance in terms of their faith" to participate in the fellowship.

Although the funding will run out in December 2008, the organizers hope the program will be able to continue beyond that date, Kern said.

Both Kern and former Jewish chaplain Rabbi Allan Lehmann said the program began with informal discussions between Lehmann and Catholic Chaplain Walter Cuenin and a group of Jews, Christians and Muslims last fall.

Kern said that the plans for the fellowship began to take shape through a one-day retreat they organized last April at the Walker Center in Newton in which 12 students participated.

Rebecca Kolber '08, who participated in the retreat, said she was impressed with the chaplains' interfaith dialogue efforts during the retreat.

"They had actually gotten together and done what the program is about," Kolber said.