Assessing Contexts and Practices for Engaging Students' Spirituality

Abstract

1 ______________________________________________________________________________ s the incoming editor of the " Spirituality on Campus " column, I begin my editorship with a reflective essay on assessment of spiritual climates and initiatives on campus. Before I explore this topic, I would like to share a few thoughts on my vision for this column and extend an invitation to those who wish to contribute an essay in a future issue. I envision " Spirituality on Campus " as a venue for collaborative contemplation and dialogue around spiritual and religious issues that affect our work as scholar-practitioners in higher education. The essays shared in this space will endeavor to inform readers of promising practices, emerging concerns, innovative solutions, and relevant findings from current research. Moreover, this column is intended to stimulate creative thinking and invoke new directions for research and practice by posing questions for the readership. It is with this latter objective in mind that I turn to the topic of this first installment on assessment. It is quite evident that issues of spirituality and religion in higher education have emerged as an area of interest and concern among postsecondary scholars and practitioners in recent years. Colleges and universities in the United States are historically rooted in religious contexts and traditions, having served as important sites for theological education and training of religious clergy in centuries past. Yet, as the purposes of higher education institutions have evolved far beyond the mere transmission and perpetuation of religious doctrine, the nature of higher education's relationship with religion and spirituality has become increasingly complex (Cherry, DeBerg, & Porterfield, 2001). Higher education scholarship in the last decade has endeavored to address a host of important questions: What is the appropriate role of religion in public and private postsecondary education settings? What is meant by the elusive term, " spirituality, " how is it distinct from religion, how is it measured, and how might it enhance the educational aims of colleges and universities? How is spirituality relevant to student and faculty life? What aspects of college student development relate to spirituality, and how can college settings facilitate this development? At the same time that these questions have begun to be explored empirically, educators have initiated programming to infuse dimensions of spirituality into campus curricula and co