Exploring Institutional and Student Engagement With Religious Diversity in Higher Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: Religious Diversity in and Beyond Higher Education: Building a Common Good Through Religious Pluralism

Abstract

As a central collegiate outcome, higher education institutions often espouse to educate students to actively engage in our diverse democratic society (AAC&U, 2007). Graduates must be prepared to effectively bridge across lines of difference, including religious diversity, to address a range of complex social problems. Higher education has an opportunity to influence how educated citizens engage religious and nonreligious difference. If higher education is going to shape the narrative on interfaith engagement in society, institutions need to acknowledge the importance of students’ religious and nonreligious identities and intentionally address religion as important factor in society and academia (Jacobsen & Jacobsen, 2012). Thus, students need to both understand and cooperatively engage with others who orient around religion differently. But how are colleges and universities creating environments to support meaningful interactions across religious difference and opportunities for interfaith collaboration?
Research teams at Interfaith Youth Core, New York University, and North Carolina State University are investigating religious diversity in higher education through two surveys, the Campus Religious and Spiritual Climate Survey (CRSCS) and the Interfaith Diversity Experiences & Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS). These surveys employ the “inputs-environment-outcomes” model as the conceptual framework (Astin, 1993) and are grounded in higher education, religious studies, and sociology literature (Eck, 2001; Hurtado, Milem, Clayton-Pederson, & Allen, 1999; Putnam & Campbell, 2010). With over 60 and 120 participating institutions respectively, CRSCS and IDEALS provide a comprehensive set of data, informing practitioners and researchers about student perceptions of religious and spiritual climate, student engagement with religious and interfaith experiences, and the impact of college environments and experiences on a range of student outcomes including religious pluralism orientation.
During this session, I will present a series of findings that illustrate the state of student and institutional engagement with religious diversity today. CRSCS data will illuminate student perceptions of religious campus climate and attitudes toward students of other religious and nonreligious identities. Preliminary data from IDEALS provide an overview of institutional interfaith practices and a snapshot of the

Author

• Ben Correia, Interfaith Youth Core