The Muslim Students' Association wants a prayer room on campus.

LSA Junior Zeeshaan Bhatti, its president, said the group is hoping to discuss the possibility of obtaining a permanent prayer room with University administrators later this year.

But University spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham said the University would not establish a room that is specifically set aside for prayer.

"The University does not provide religious facilities for any of its students, faculty or staff," Cunningham said in an e-mail interview.

Bhatti said he doesn't think a prayer room would violate the separation of church and state. He said the room should be available for all students to use for reflection regardless of their religious preference.

Four reflection rooms on campus are currently available for students and faculty to use. Prayer rooms are larger than reflection rooms and do not provide the secular use that reflection rooms can.

Bhatti said the room would ideally be large, empty and could be used for individual and group prayer and reflection.

No officials from the University were willing to respond to whether the University would sponsor a room - without calling it a prayer room - that met those specifications.

Several schools - including Boston University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Eastern Michigan University - have installed footbaths. Additionally, the University of Michigan at Dearborn is finalizing plans to install footbaths at its student center. Footbaths are oversized, low-to-the-ground sinks most frequently used by Muslims before prayer. Traditionally, Muslims are required to wash before religious ceremonies like the daily prayers that occur five times each day.

The University's Dearborn campus plans to spend about $25,000 to install two footbaths in two bathrooms. The announcement of the plans caused an outcry from many, who said the university was catering to a vocal minority.

Officials said the footbaths don't violate the Constitution because anyone can use them.

Terry Gallagher, director of public relations for the University's Dearborn campus, said that according to the Cooperative Institutional Research Program's Freshmen Survey, 10 to 11 percent of the undergraduate student population identify as Islamic.

At the University's Ann Arbor campus, only 2.3 percent of undergraduate students identified as Islamic, according to the same survey.

The CIRP Freshmen Survey is a self-reported, one-time survey.

Bhatti said installing footbaths is not the top priority for the Muslim Students' Association.

"Footbaths are something we want, but we also would really like a prayer room," Bhatti said.