The laughter of playing children can be heard amid the chatter of college students at Hillel on Friday nights. It may be unusual for Hillel attendees to show up with their own children, but at Franklin & Marshall College, students aren’t the only regulars. Many professors and their families celebrate Shabbat on campus, too. The close student-professor relationship is the reason why senior Jessica Fink came to F&M, a small liberal arts school. “Whether or not I actually speak to my professors at Hillel, I feel that seeing them around campus, and at Hillel, enhances the feeling of community and familiarity that makes F&M so special,” Fink said.

Jun Chen is a non-Jewish New Voices writer at Indiana University. In Part I of a three-part series called Non-Members of The Tribe, Chen writes about her own experiences getting to know the Jewish people and about why young Chinese have an affinity for the Jews. In Parts II and III, coming over the next two weeks, she will profile other non-Jews who have become deeply involved with the Jewish community in Bloomington, Ind.

Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.)–Before the media coverage, before the videos of police brutality and before six Wesleyan University students were arrested for their roles in Occupy Wall Street, Wesleyan students awoke on the morning of Sept. 25 to an unexpected sight on a familiar grassy knoll–someone had erected a tent city on Foss Hill. The hodgepodge of hurriedly assembled canvas aimed to raise awareness about the burgeoning protest movement that started in downtown Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, as well as create a community that would sit in solidarity with the protesters during the school week. The protestors gathered support from Out House, a campus outing club, which donated the tents and other materials used by the tent protesters. Foss Hill, the Wesleyan version of a quad, was chosen for its central location and availability.