Excerpt:
The University of Iowa is re-configuring two former offices in the Iowa Memorial Union to serve as full-time prayer spaces that primarily will serve the university's Muslim faculty, staff and students.
The decision, made late last year, comes in response to a long-standing request from the university's Muslim Student Association to offer a centrally located space in which the growing number of Muslims on campus can complete their daily religious obligations.
"The necessity had been well established for a while," said Tom Rocklin, UI's vice president for student life. "It was more a question of when the opportunity to do something came up."