Study on Sprituality in Higher Education

Beginning in 2003 at UCLA, a group began a 7-year study that focused on Spirituality in Higher Education. The goal of the study was to examine changes students make in their lives during their college experience and how their college experience shapes and develops their spiritual qualities. The study is the first national longitudinal study of students’ spiritual growth. The actual text related to the findings will not be released until later this year.

After researching and collecting data from 14,527 students at 136 colleges and universities, the researchers develop the idea that “higher education should attend more to students’ spiritual development, because spirituality is essential to students’ lives.” The study was able to provide the researchers with information to help implement programs to helping students develop spiritually. The reasoning behind their idea of colleges helping students grow spiritually is that they believe that it will create “a new generation who are more caring, more globally aware, and more committed to social justice than previous generations.”

The researchers measured each student by creating two sets of measurements for Spiritual Qualities and Religious Qualities. Under Spiritual Qualities, they measured Spiritual Quest, Equanimity, Ethic of Caring, Charitable Involvement, Ecumenical Worldview. Within Religious Qualities, they measured Religious Commitment, Religious Engagement, Religious’Social Conservatism, Religious Skepticism, Religious Struggle. Through these areas, the researchers found that even though religious engagement declines during the college years, students enhance their spiritual qualities during this time.

At the conclusion of the study, the group asked themselves three questions:

1. What college experiences are most likely to promote students’ spiritual development?

2. How does growth in spiritual qualities such as Equanimity, Ethic of Caring, and Ecumenical worldview affect traditional outcomes, such as academic achievement, leadership skills, and satisfaction with college?

3. If colleges and universities emphasized activities and practices that promote spiritual development, how would traditional outcomes such as academic performance and leadership development be affected?

The researchers were able to conclude that by engaging in inner work (self-reflection, meditation, contemplation), students were able to improve their spiritual qualities. In terms of spiritual questing, students showed an increase when faculty encouraged them to explore questions of meaning and purpose.

As a whole, this is a very interesting study. I think once the results are “physically” published, colleges and universities will be able utilize the research. Of course, the students will benefit the most if the findings are actually realistic and institutions are able to create programs that enhance spirituality. One of the main reasons I like the study is because it focuses more so on student spirituality and not necessarily religious beliefs.

http://www.spirituality.ucla.edu/

"I can't believe it IS butter!"

Despite being known as a very well-respected educational institution and other accolades, Harvard University is not necessarily considered the “founder” of student protest. Harvard University is known as having the first student protests in the United States, well, at least on the grounds of the U.S. The first recollection of protests on university campuses can be traced back to the 1700s at Harvard.

The Great Butter Rebellion of 1766 is considered the first student protest on American soil. Asa Dunbar, the grandfather of Henry David Thoreau, led the charge for this particular protest when he proclaimed, “Then arose Asa, the Scribe, and went unto Butter stinketh, and we cannot eat thereof; now give us, we pray the, Butter that stinketh not.” This particular protest centered on food at the college. The faculty condemned Dunbar and others for insubordination. As a result of this protest, the Board of Overseers for Harvard met and asked for confessions of the insubordination and received none. The Board demanded that peace be restored to the campus without changes.

Two years later, a much larger scale protest took place called The Great Rebellion of 1768. Again, college food was the center of this protest. Riots accompanied this protest and resulted in an even more unsuccessful outcome. Severe penalties were enforced upon the students who participated in the protest.

Before the fighting of the Revolutionary War broke out, a sense of patriotism stretched across the student body of Harvard. Two Tory students brought tea into the Dining room in 1775 which resulted in riots on campus.

A few years later, in 1780, the most successful student revolt in college history took place. The students took a mild approach to this protest and sought out President Samuel Langdon. After several resolutions were passed by the students and much to the pleasure of the students, Langdon resigned from his position with the university.

These protests established a great starting place for the development of protests over time. The foundation created by these protests can be seen in protests during the 60s through today.

Page link: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1963/5/3/riot-rebellion-pthe-statutes-of/

Restorative Justice in Higher Education

"The way that you see how you affected people is very powerful."
Dustin, Colorado State University

In an April 2009 article in The Chronicle (“With ‘Restorative Justice’, Colleges Strive to Educate Student Offenders”), Sara Lipka claims that “student-conduct administrators around the country are hailing restorative justice as the next big thing.” With the process of restorative justice, students at fault are able to claim responsibility for their mistakes while learning a lesson that would hopefully prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future. A blend of mediation and restitution, it seeks to resolve a conflict by identifying the harms caused and devising, with suggestions from both victims and offenders, an agreement to repair them. This form of justice involves cooperation from both the offender and the victim. In a way, the process involves both mediation and restitution. The offender learns how and why a situation harmed the victim and is then offered the opportunity to remedy the situation. The article also makes mention that restorative justice “not only offers an alternative to the legalistic conduct systems colleges now shun; it also resonates with so many mission statements about personal growth and community.”

A company called Restorative Solutions provides classes that teach the process to college administrators. On their website, they highlight five steps that help the process, and they are listed as follows:

• hold students who harm accountable for their actions.
• provide those harmed with a safe place to share how the incident impacted them.
• give students, faculty and residence hall staff a voice in helping the respondent (offender) make things right.
• develop an effective alternative to the traditional system of judicial affairs.
• create a culture of belonging and caring where community standards are relied upon for setting and correcting behavior.

Several institutions across the country have begun to bring restorative justice into their disciplinary systems. For example, Clemson University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan have all begun to implement this policy. At Michigan, some student cases have even begun to consist of a restorative conference rather than a disciplinary hearing. The article includes several instances that range from remedying a situation involving students releasing a bullsnake in a lecture hall to students riding through a farmer’s pasture to a drunk student terrorizing a family at their own home. Stuart Field, a biology instructor, claims that “It can really stick with them and go a long way towards affecting future choices.”

http://chronicle.com/article/With-Restorative-Justice/30557/
http://www.restorativesolutions.us/colleges.html