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Safe at Home
Co-curricular Spaces for Generative,  
(un)safe Conversations
Chris Rosser 
Oklahoma Christian University

ABSTR ACT Third space describes an intentional space where norma-
tive assumptions are challenged by shared encounter with cultural and 
ideological otherness; third spaces open possibilities for transformational 
education. Beam Library at Oklahoma Christian University generates third 
space experiences through co-curricular events that engage the inter-
section of faith and culture. Specifically, our Safe at Home chapel exists 
as a generous (un)safe space that facilitates crucial conversation about 
gender, sexuality, and faith, empowering students who may feel unsafe 
because they are or affirm LGBTQIA individuals. Library initiatives like 
Safe at Home chapel create third space learning experiences, positioning 
the library at the intersection of formation and information, re-visioning 
the library as facilitator of generative conversation in a generously hospi-
table space. As co-curricular entities, academic libraries are aptly situated 
for the creation of third spaces, demonstrating the educational and forma-
tional value of the library as third space.

AT THE INTERSECTION OF FORMATION AND INFORMATION

Greeting. Good afternoon, my name is Chris Rosser, and I serve as 
Theological Librarian at Oklahoma Christian University, a small, 
private, liberal arts institution associated with the Stone-Campbell 
Movement, for any who are familiar with that particular branch of 
American Protestantism’s forking tree. Since Oklahoma Christian’s 
Beam Library is small, I also oversee our instruction and educational 
initiatives. Before we begin, let me say: I’ve been able to attend the 
Atla Annual conference for several years, but had to miss last year 
and definitely noticed the difference. For me, Atla is a place for 



Listen and Learn  211

sharing and sharpening ideas; I always return with new insights 
to pass on to colleagues that make our work as librarians and our 
thinking about our work as librarians better, clearer. I am grateful 
to Atla for these experiences, and I appreciate your presence and 
participation today as we discuss Safe at Home: Co-curricular spaces 
for generative, (un)safe conversations. 

This afternoon, I’d like to share how Beam Library is creating 
third space learning experiences, ideas and initiatives that more 
clearly position the library at an intersection of information and 
formation and that re-vision the library as facilitator on our campus 
of generative conversations in generously hospitable spaces. 

Specifically, I’d like to share with you about our Safe at Home 
chapel, which exists as a generous (un)safe space that facilitates 
crucial conversation about gender, sexuality, and faith, engaging with 
students who may feel unsafe because they are or affirm LGBT+ indi-
viduals. Beyond sharing about Safe at Home, here is the crux of what 
I hope to communicate: as co-curricular entities, academic libraries 
are aptly situated for the creation of third spaces, which in our context 
we envision as an intentional space where perceived normative rules 
and structures are challenged by shared encounters with cultural 
and ideological otherness. To better contextualize Safe at Home on 
our campus, let me first describe the Beam Library, who we are and 
how we serve within the Oklahoma Christian University community.

Oklahoma Christian University is currently undergoing rebrand-
ing—a new, contemporary logo and updated language to better 
express who we are as a University, in particular the importance 
of the life story of each individual student. In the library, we’ve also 
been hammering on language to capture and communicate who we 
are, what we do, and even more specifically how and why we serve. 
Currently, we’re using the construct (in)formation to help communi-
cate how we envision Beam Library existing on our campus at the 
intersection of formation and information. We are re-visioning the 
library as (in)formational third space. You can see here some of the 
language we’re using to help clarify our understanding of what Beam 
Library is and what we do. 

Information is readily associated with an academic library; 
formation of students is perhaps our aspiration, especially as many 
of us work within institutions that make faith formation central to 



212  ATL A 2019 PROCEEDINGS

mission, and it’s likely that all of us desire to form as well as inform the 
students we encounter and the campus communities we serve. But 
the library has a problem: we are a co-curricular space, positioned 
outside the classroom, and it is difficult to meaningfully assess how 
we form and inform students in direct relation to student learning 
outcomes and to University learning outcomes. 

We’ve come to recognize that revisioning the academic library as 
(in)formational third space opens possibilities for transformational 
education and measurable demonstration of the library’s manifold 
value. Before unpacking what we mean by “the library as (in)forma-
tional third space,” let me explain some of the philosophy of teach-
ing that informs our thinking.  

We talk a lot about faith and learning on our campuses. It just so 
happens that ideally the center of learning is also the center of love: 
love and learning each require encounter with that which is not self, 
something different, someone who is other. Lives transformed for 
Christian faith, scholarship, and service—in other words, lives trans-
formed by learning and by love—such lives are necessarily shaped by 
and through encounter with difference. Loving neighbor (difference) 
as self (sameness) is central to Christian faith; similarly, souls enlarge 
by and through encounter with new knowledge (difference). Such 
encounter is central to learning, and the Beam Library intentionally 
facilitates encounter for the sake of learning, as an expression of love. 

Beam Library exists as a generously hospitable space for 
encounter at the center of OC’s campus, and the library itself is central 
to our campus. Our purpose as librarians and as educators is to reach 
and transform each student’s heart; we recognize that the truest path 
to the heart is not through the head but through the gut. Therefore, we 
strive to bring learning to spaces of desire. Transforming the heart 
involves reorienting or clarifying desire so that students’ love (i.e., 
desire) vectors more truly toward God and neighbor. Love is both the 
motivation and the goal of our work and teaching. In other words, 
formation is essential to the information we provide. 

For several years now, we’ve understood the library to be third 
space, which as I mentioned is an intentional space where perceived 
norms and structures are challenged by shared encounters 
with cultural and ideological otherness. Beam Library is also a 
co-curricular space, positioned outside the classroom yet integral 



Listen and Learn  213

to classroom learning and student success. As a co-curricular third 
space, our distinctiveness is most clearly demonstrated by our 
ability to recognize, understand, and capitalize on co-curricular 
identity. We are a third space for co-curricular learning; we are a 
third space for co-curricular formation; we are a third space for 
co-curricular encounter.

Meaningful encounter with otherness is the primary context and 
catalyst for transformative educational experiences. And the kind 
of encounter we’re talking about is the context in which formative 
education and spiritual formation happen—encounter with other-
ness is the heart of faith and learning. Librarians and staff under-
stand ourselves as facilitating transformational encounters that 
foster academic growth and spiritual formation. 

Education electrified by formative experience—that is the 
cumulation of our work, the faithful learner’s posture we intention-
ally nurture in our students and within the OC community. As a 
library entity, we recognize who we are and have a vision for who 
we might become. We understand ourselves to be a hub of learning 
and formative experiences within our campus. We are positioned 
at an intersection of information and formation; we recognize the 
library as facilitating generative, complex conversations in gener-
ously hospitable spaces. 

LIBRARY AS CO-CURRICULAR THIRD SPACE 

So that’s some of the thinking that supports and informs how we 
envision the library as third space. While there are many ways of 
thinking about third space, in our context third space refers to 
liminal learning spaces created where dominant culture, with its 
normative rules and assumptions, intersects with difference or other-
ness. Third space is the space between: for individuals, it’s the space 
between I and Thou; in classrooms, it’s the intersection of students’ 
out-of-school experiences, knowledge, and culture and the curric-
ular content, rules, and school culture; in society, third space is 
the borderland where cultural minority groups navigate dominant 
cultural norms.

In a very real sense, the academic library—though considered by 
many (especially librarians) to be the hub or beating heart of student 



214  ATL A 2019 PROCEEDINGS

learning and education—is already positioned on the fringes of the 
classroom, the liminality of in-class and out-of-class experiences, 
the borderland between classroom and cafeteria.

Following trends in student learning, many libraries have shifted 
toward offering intentional space for collaboration—study areas are 
redesigned, “maker spaces” developed, and the library is re-tooled 
as a “learning commons.” The evolving library landscape presents 
a challenge to librarians as we roll up cardigan sleeves, sheath our 
shushing-fingers, and re-imagine what academic libraries are and 
what we’re becoming. 

First, what we are. The library’s reality as a co-curricular institu-
tion presents a challenge for articulating and assessing our value in 
terms of learning outcome achievement. Academic student learning 
outcomes associated with the library and/or information literacy are 
generally connected to class research assignments, while library 
instruction is most often co-curricular. So for librarians, it can be 
difficult to show our value in terms of direct fulfilment of learning 
outcomes. 

Now, what we’re becoming. Envisioning the library as third space 
reflects an emerging trend in librarianship ripe with potential 
for capturing the significance of the library for transformative, 
co-curricular learning. Third spaces open possibilities for trans-
formational learning by broadening worldview, encouraging self-
reflection, and enlarging the soul through formational learning 
experiences. We believe that encounter with difference is both the 
spark and the medium of transformative education. 

As a co-curricular third space, Beam Library is positioned to 
facilitate encounters that simultaneously challenge and shape 
identity. We believe that encounters with difference open spaces 
pregnant with potential for learning, and we believe that learning 
experiences in third spaces should be measured and outcomes 
articulated, assessed, and mapped to University learning outcomes. 

Assessment has become a top priority for many institutions of 
higher education, especially as we seek to maintain accreditation. 
And academic libraries, which as we know have always been central 
to the academic enterprise—providing, facilitating, and instruct-
ing in the use of resources—must also assess their place and value 
within our academic institutions.     



Listen and Learn  215

Probably many of you are familiar with the Association of College 
and Research Libraries study, Academic Library Impact on Student 
Learning and Success (ACRL, 2017), which highlights the value of the 
academic library in terms of its general contribution to learning. The 
report spells good news for academic libraries, outlining empirically 
verifiable ways that the library benefits, enhances, strengthens, boosts, 
and increases student learning and success. Note, however, that each 
of these positive terms—benefits, enhances, strengthens, boosts, and 
increases—positions the library in an auxiliary relation to the core. 
The glaring problem for assessment in terms of the centrality of the 
academic library in fulfilling student learning outcomes remains: 
the library is a co-curricular institution, and information literacy 
instruction or research interactions are often peripheral to the courses 
in which projects are assigned, and therefore instruction is difficult to 
assess in terms of direct support and fulfilment of student learning 
outcomes. 

In other words, because student learning outcomes are connected 
to class research projects, while library instruction—whether in 
class or individual, virtual or face-to-face—is co-curricular, librar-
ians face a challenge in directly assessing and mapping our instruction to 
student learning outcomes and, consequently, to program or university 
learning outcomes. The problem, bare-bones: for instruction librar-
ians, it can be difficult to show our value in terms of direct fulfilment 
of learning outcomes, to meaningfully show how we both form and 
inform students.

CHAPEL AS NORMALIZED “THIRD SPACE”

So, we’re thinking about how to assess our capacity to both form and 
inform students. Briefly, I’d like to introduce you to two third space 
weekly chapel events the library facilitates as illustrative of the 
formational power and potential of third space creation.  

In our context, we are able to capitalize on a normalized type of 
space—weekly chapel meetings—and enfuse chapel with third space 
learning experiences. Students at Oklahoma Christian University 
are required to attend a certain number of approved, spiritually-
oriented events, including chapel events. For several years, the 
library has facilitated Beam Chapel and Safe at Home Chapel. These 



216  ATL A 2019 PROCEEDINGS

chapels offer librarians and library staff an important means for 
demonstrating our connectedness to the spiritual life and forma-
tion of our campus community. 

Let me briefly overview Beam Chapel, which introduced us to the 
vibrant potential of third space learning. For thirteen semesters, 
Beam Chapel has intentionally offered a dynamic space for engag-
ing gritty questions that impact faith and the culture(s) we inhabit, 
questions arising from the dark of film, literature, and television. 
We envision Beam Chapel as a third space: in relation to our larger 
campus community, Beam Chapel hollows out a space for acknowl-
edging, questioning, celebrating, and critiquing assumptions about 
faith, popular culture, and inherited traditions from a multiplic-
ity of backgrounds and beliefs. Through chapel, librarians foster 
meaningful conversations and contribute to the University’s spiri-
tual mission of transforming lives for Christian faith and service. In 
fact, Beam Chapel recently received a very positive write-up in the 
Oklahoma Humanities newsletter. Semester themes are second-
commandment driven: Beam Chapel exists at intersections of faith 
and popular culture as a reflective and questioning space where 
participants discern together how to enact the commandment to 
“Love the neighbor as the self.” This orientation characterizes Safe 
at Home chapel as well. 

Since Fall 2015 Safe at Home chapel has existed to provide a safe 
space for thoughtful and respectful conversations about gender, 
sexuality, and church. Facilitators of the chapel hope to encour-
age dialogue, foster positive relationships and understanding, and 
increase experiences of feeling “safe at home” for all students. So, 
Safe at Home exists as a generous, liminal, (un)safe space that fosters 
connection and facilitates crucial conversation about faith, gender, 
and sexuality. 

By using the construct (un)safe, we acknowledge the reality that 
this chapel is not entirely “safe” despite best intentions. Certainly, 
characterizing the chapel as a “safe space” does not imply coddling 
students by telling them what we think they want to hear or protecting 
them from difference or dissent. On the contrary, Safe at Home offers 
an important space for acknowledging students who may feel unsafe 
because they are or affirm LGBTQ+ individuals. Safe at Home chal-
lenges participants toward hospitality and love; in fact, our mantra is 



Listen and Learn  217

Romans 13:10, which reminds us that “love does no harm to neighbor; 
therefore, love is keeping the law.”

Currently, thirteen coordinators from departments across campus 
help to advise, plan, and direct the chapel. Three librarians serve as 
coordinators of the chapel with other faculty and staff who represent 
a diversity of perspectives on questions of gender, sexuality, and 
Christian faith. Coordinators recognize the enormous complexity of 
such questions; society, biology, and the Bible resist easy answers. 
Our shared goal is to provide a theologically-informed ethic by 
which students learn to navigate complexity, guided primarily by 
an orientation toward love for neighbor. Coordinators believe that 
this chapel and the chapel coordinators themselves are valuable and 
necessary for Oklahoma Christian: valuable because they mentor 
and show compassion to students for whom compassion desperately 
matters and necessary because the chapel serves as a “pressure valve.” 
Questions of sexuality, gender, and church have not become highly 
politicized or volatile on our campus, and we believe the existence of 
Safe at Home and the gentle, behind-the-scenes work of coordinators 
(and others as well) increases students’ experience of OC as home and 
provides an avenue for loving and respectful discourse.  

The term safe space refers to people as well as places. We envision 
three primary functions for coordinators: 

Information: We help establish OC as an informed community.
Communication: We facilitate dialogue with administration and 
others. 
Advocacy: We protect privacy, preserve dignity, and position 
ourselves alongside the vulnerable (i.e., those who feel unsafe at 
home). 

For students who are questioning, Safe at Home is a source of both 
information and formation. Some are questioning personal identity; 
others are questioning beliefs; many are questioning responses by 
church and family to LGBT+ individuals; many are likewise question-
ing what it means to “love the neighbor as the self.” Safe at Home as 
third space intentionally fosters orientation toward love for neighbor 
so that both students and non-student participants have reported 
deepened willingness to love and engage those whose thinking is radi-
cally different and even perceived as adversarial. As one participant 



218  ATL A 2019 PROCEEDINGS

noted, “It has really helped me to try and be more empathetic with 
people who are not affirming.”

Among other implications, “safe at home” implies protection, inclu-
sion, and embrace.

Protection: a campus culture is intentionally fostered that 
promotes understanding.
Inclusion: spaces for formation and channels for communication 
are developed so that LGBT+ students are afforded voice and place 
among this community.
Embrace: a generously hospitable campus culture is intention-
ally fostered so that LGBT+ students experience welcome in the 
name of Jesus. 

We believe that love obligates us to deeply care for all others regardless 
of personal perspective or conviction. By working to foster a gener-
ously hospitable campus culture, Safe at Home exists to better fulfill 
the vision that OC is home for LGBT+ individuals in our community.

ASSESSING LOVE AND LEARNING IN CO-CURRICULAR 
SPACES

Because of its longevity, we’ve articulated, mapped, and been 
measuring outcomes for Beam Chapel, primarily via an electronic 
survey. Results are encouraging and demonstrate the significance 
of Beam Chapel in terms of student formation.  

Oklahoma Christian University has established a constellation 
of seven University Core Outcomes. In order to better assess how 
Beam Chapel helps to fulfil student learning outcomes related to 
University learning outcomes (ULO), librarians developed and 
deploy a yearly survey that maps responses to articulated outcomes. 
Through Beam Chapel: 

• Students will recognize that faith, discipleship, and Christian 
spirituality are not compartmentalized but richly inform all 
aspects of life, including our experience of literature, art and 
culture. (Maps to the ULO Active Faith.)

• Students will explore Christian faith within the milieu of popu-
lar culture. (Maps to the ULO Foundational Knowledge.)

• Students will participate in a community of information and 



Listen and Learn  219

resource sharing. (Maps to the ULO Information Literacy.) 
• Students will be more critically reflective in the ways they 

think about and engage elements of popular culture (e.g., 
film, music, TV, art, etc.). (Maps to the ULO Creative and Criti-
cal Thinking.)

• Students will share ideas through discussion and student-led 
presentations. (Maps to the ULO Effective Communication.)

• Students will gain a better appreciation for otherness and for 
the implications of love thy neighbor as thyself. (Maps to the ULO 
Personal, Social, and Global Stewardship.) 

Chapel facilitators foster meaningful conversations among partic-
ipants and demonstrate the library’s capacity as a significant space 
for transformative learning, as evidenced by participant survey 
responses, some of which are displayed on the slide. Also, from Fall 
2017 to Spring 2019, fifteen students led presentations; two students 
presented with us at a national conference where we talked about the 
library as third space, and their presentations became part of their 
Honors capstone projects.

Concerning Safe at Home, over the years we have requested quali-
tative feedback from students (and non-student participants), but this 
semester we developed an anonymous survey instrument which we’ll 
likely use for several years; responses map to the University Learn-
ing Outcome for Personal, Social, and Global Stewardship (primarily 
because this outcome recognizes the importance of fostering aware-
ness of and appreciation for diverse thinking and identities). Twenty 
student-participants responded to this semester’s survey; we’re OK 
with that number since it reflects about 40% of weekly attendance 
this semester. You can see the simple instrument we developed on 
the slide. 

To the prompt “Chapel has increased my awareness of LGBTQ+ 
identity on campus,” 95% indicated that experiences in chapel have 
been formative in this way. Eighty percent indicated that experi-
ences in chapel have “increased my sensitivity to LGBTQ+ identity on 
campus”; 80% indicated that experiences have “increased my under-
standing of LGBTQ+ stories”; and 80% indicated that experiences in 
chapel have “deepened my compassion for members of the LGBTQ+ 
community.” To the prompt “Chapel has increased my awareness of 



220  ATL A 2019 PROCEEDINGS

allies on campus,” 90% indicated that experiences in chapel have been 
formative in this way. 

Safe at Home chapel has now weathered early storms that threat-
ened its sustainability, and we are beginning to hammer out outcomes 
that capture and communicate formation through this third space 
experience. I’d like to share a few examples of student feedback that 
connect well with the transformative third space experiences we’re 
hoping to generate.

One student comments that chapel experiences have helped in 
“understanding my neighbor. Understanding helps my love for them 
grow.” Another student reports, “I never really had too much knowl-
edge on this subject, despite being part of the LGBTQ community. This 
chapel is really good for learning more of people’s personal knowledge 
and opinions of this, and that’s very valuable.” And another student 
comments, “As Christians we’re kinda expected to keep anything 
that doesn’t fit the mold on the down low, so being gay or transgender 
is frowned upon. By talking about it and getting rid of the mystery 
about being gay or transgender really helps me love others, any way 
they come!”

Since the chapel averages between ten and fifteen faculty, staff, 
and guests weekly, we also surveyed non-student participants. One 
respondent notes that the chapel: 

has given me language to encourage others to support those 
who are minorities. It is critical that Safe at Home continue to 
provide vocabulary to talk in “current language” about those 
who are on the LGBTQIA spectrum. Language helps individu-
als on the outside know that others different from themselves 
exist.

Another non-student respondent noted, “Throughout my time in 
Safe at Home I believe the stories and experiences that people have 
shared have been the most moving and helpful. When you can put 
yourself in someone else’s shoes it always helps put things in a new 
perspective.”

Negative feedback from both student and non-student 
respondents primarily focused on the one-sidedness of Safe at 
Home conversations. For example, a student commented, “Chapel 



Listen and Learn  221

has served as an echo chamber for the exact same idea each week.” 
This student went on to describe their desire for a more debate-style 
experience, two views pitted against each other, iron sharpening 
iron with clanks and sparks and heat. We have intentionally resisted 
debate. Safe at Home is a co-curricular third space that is also a chapel 
space; it is thus a sacred space for holy encounter, a space for learning 
to love both difference and sameness, a space inhabited by many who 
are our campus community’s most vulnerable members. For students 
on our campuses who experience challenges from mental health and 
mental stress, third space can become a space of welcome, respite, 
and hope. As one student commented, “Safe at home has offered this 
interesting idea of respite, a sanctuary away from ‘home’ in which 
the hard questions can be truly dug into with a passion and drive to 
actually understand, to better ourselves and therefore the lives of 
our neighbours.”  

In our context, Beam Library facilitates encounter with difference 
by engaging the intersections of faith, gender, sexuality, and popular 
culture, fostering conversations that are often perceived as taboo on 
a campus like ours. Re-visioning the library as third space helps us 
realize the potential of co-curricular third spaces on our campus. 

Through third space initiatives, we hope to better position the 
library at the intersection of formation and information. Generative 
conversation in a generously hospitable space characterizes both 
Beam and Safe at Home chapels. We’re developing ways to meaning-
fully assess both if and how students are formed by the third space 
experiences intentionally provided by the library.

So now, we’ll open up for questions and discussion, but in 
conclusion here’s a recap: on our campus, the library is positioned 
at an intersection of information and formation; we recognize the 
library as facilitating generative, complex conversations in generously 
hospitable spaces. Beam Library is striving to be an (in)formational 
third space. I’ve appreciated this opportunity to share with you how 
the library—itself a co-curricular space—can intentionally create 
third space experiences and how we can meaningfully measure those 
experiences to better demonstrate the manifold value of the library. 
So I’d love to continue this conversation and hear about your own 
initiatives like Safe at Home chapel that create third space learning 
experiences. Thank you for listening today. 


