Campus chaplaincy · Russell Sage College
Care for the whole student.
Darren Gundrum is the chaplain at Russell Sage College, and the Spirituality Center he oversees is open to every student and every tradition, including none at all. Office hours, a weekly discussion table, Mindfulness Mondays, meditation classes, and de-stress bags when finals come around. Care, never conversion.
TAUM has kept a chaplain on the Russell Sage College campus since the ministry began. Darren Gundrum is the only chaplain at Sage, and the Spirituality Center he oversees is open to every student, every member of staff, and every tradition, including none at all. Chaplaincy here is about care, never conversion.
Students come from Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, Protestant and secular backgrounds, and a good number arrive with no interest in religion whatsoever. That is welcome too. The work is pastoral counseling and theology, and it is also service projects, wellness support, meditation, yoga, and a safe room to sit in when the week has been long.
Every week
Open Discussion Table
Tuesdays at noon, Buchman. Come and say what is on your mind. No agenda, no sign-up. Different staff and faculty join the table each week.
It is also when you can write a gratitude slip for the gratitude tree painted on the wall of the Spirituality Center.
Mindfulness Mondays
At the Spirituality Center. A chance to start the week a little more centered and a little less wound up.
Office hours
Darren is on campus ten hours a week, with hours set around student schedules rather than against them. Students drop in, and so do staff who need someone to talk to.
Through the year
De-stress bags at finals
Handed out every finals week, and at other hard points in the semester, with tips and cards for getting through it.
Ashes to Go
Offered on Ash Wednesday, to anyone who wants them.
Random Acts of Kindness Day
Suggestion slips written for college life, plus kindness buttons and plushies.
Meditation classes
Offered whenever someone asks for them.
The Sage food pantry
We supply food to Gator Claws-it, the student-run pantry at Sage, and students come to TAUM to help put it together.
Campus partnerships
Darren works alongside Sage’s wellness and academic teams, joins the weekly Campus Coffee Hour, and builds programs with faculty across departments.
There is no playbook any more
Very few students arrive at Sage looking for an established campus ministry to join. So Darren builds relationships one at a time, finds out what each student actually needs, and walks alongside them. Students who are curious about difference, and students who are wary of faith entirely, both get the same welcome. Between 150 and 200 students, faculty and congregation members took part last year.
How congregations can help
Campus Ministry is the one program TAUM runs that cannot receive public funding. It exists because denominations, congregations and individuals choose to pay for it. There are four straightforward ways to help:
- Put together care packages for students
- Donate food to the Sage pantry
- Run a toiletries drive, because food is not the only thing students run short of
- Help assemble the de-stress bags near the end of a semester
Talk with the chaplain
Darren Gundrum, Chaplain and Spiritual Advisor
518-244-4522 · gundrd@sage.edu
Darren also speaks to congregations and groups about the ministry, in person or over Zoom. Ask him directly.