As any frustrated college-aged seeker could tell you,
spiritual sustenance is not often easy to come by in the halls
of higher education. But soon, there may be new statistical
evidence to prove it. This fall, the Higher Education Research
Institute at UCLA will be administering a survey to 90,000
first-year college students at 150 American universities.
Funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the survey seeks to
understand students' spiritual development by asking them
questions concerning their spiritual experiences and beliefs,
and it will follow up with the same questions two years later,
when the students are juniors.
Pilot surveys of nearly 4,000 college students, conducted
over the past four years, have already shown some interesting
results. For example, fully 77% of students believe that
“we are all spiritual beings.” On the other hand,
21% are convinced that “in the future, science will be
able to explain everything,” and 31% concede that
“it is futile to try to discover the purpose of
existence.” Most troubling is evidence showing that the
atmosphere of academia appears to leave little room for serious
philosophical dialogue concerning spirituality: even though 75%
said that they were searching for spiritual meaning and purpose
in life, 62% reported that their professors “never”
encouraged discussions of religious or spiritual matters in the
classroom. Indeed, when asked how they had changed since
entering college, a mere 13% reported that their
“spirituality” was “much stronger.”
If the results of the larger survey (to be published in the
spring of 2005) are anything like these preliminary findings, we
can look forward to an extremely provocative study—one
that might reveal not only the spiritual yearnings of America's
youth but a disturbing lack of soul in our academic
institutions. For the full report and upcoming results, go to
www.spirituality.ucla.edu.