TUCSON, ARIZ.
The Steward Observatory Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona is world renowned; it provides high-quality optics for some of Earth's largest telescopes.
People across the globe use the mirrors made on the campus in central Arizona to gaze far into the heavens.
Across campus another group of students do something similar, said Norman W. Gardner, director of the Tucson Arizona Institute of Religion: They gain a heavenly perspective as they have a clearer view of spiritual things.
"That is what we do at the institute," said Brother Gardner. "We feel like our job is to help point young people toward spiritual things and have a clearer understanding. We want to deepen their testimonies. Through their time at the institute, we hope their conversion is strengthened."
Located in the heart of the University of Arizona campus, the Tucson institute was dedicated in 1937 by then-Church President Heber J. Grant.
The institute has had a presence in the area for so long that the University of Arizona campus has built up around it.
In May 1936, Alando B. Ballentyne — a member of the University of Arizona faculty and a prominent Church leader in Tucson — began looking for a site for a future institute near the campus. He found property and directed fundraising efforts. Construction began in early 1937.
"We are an island in the middle of a very busy campus," said Brother Gardner.
The building, classes, faculty and other Latter-day Saint students seem to draw Church members to the institute, he said. More than 550 students will take classes in the fall, he added.
In fact, the institute has become exactly what President Grant said it would during the dedicatory prayer more than 70 years ago. "May there never be any influence here that is contrary to truth and righteousness and that which is good and proper," President Grant prayed.
Sarah Kim, who just graduated from the University of Arizona in mathematics, found the institute to be all those things.
"It is a place of refuge," she said. "It is a place of learning, a place to strengthen my testimony."
Located near many sorority and fraternity houses, students say the institute is their social club.
Margaret Preston, an engineering management major, said the institute really feels like home. "It is a place to make friends and spend my time away from campus," she said.
The institute was a place where Ashley Robison, who recently graduated in deaf studies, wanted to be the first time she walked though the doors. "Everyone here has my same beliefs and values," she said.
Brandon Kim, a business management graduate student, said the institute is different than the rest of campus. "That is why I come here: to get away from the world."
Regardless of why they come, Brother Gardner said they share something in common with each other — and their fellow students who work in the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab on campus. Each gazes into the universe and tries to bring it into clear focus.
At the institute, Brother Gardner said, "We want them to see with a clearer view, kind of like what they do at the university across the street."
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