The inscription on Ohio University's College Gate states the following: Religion
morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind schools and the means of education
shall forever be encouraged.
Although that passage was written more than 200 years ago as part of the Ordinance of 1787, its encouragement of religion as a necessity to the means of education is still applicable in today's setting.
According to a recent nationwide study, college students are developing increasingly high expectations about the roles their universities should play in helping their religious and spiritual development.
Nearly half of the more than 112,000 students who participated in The Spiritual Life of College Students: A National Study of College Students' Search for Meaning and Purpose said that it is essential or very important for their college to encourage personal expressions of spirituality.
In addition, about two-thirds consider it essential or very important for their college to enhance self-understanding
which includes personal beliefs and opinions about spirituality and religion.
Whether colleges encourage those values is still a matter of debate. The study's co-principal investigators, Alexander Astin and Helen Astin, pointed to the failures of universities in that regard as one of the key reasons behind the report.
The project is based in part on the realization that the relative amount of attention that colleges and universities devote to the 'exterior' and 'interior' aspects of students' development has gotten out of balance. We have increasingly come to neglect the student's inner development -the sphere of values and beliefs
emotional maturity
spirituality
and self-understanding
they wrote in the report.
At Ohio University, numerous steps have been taken to promote students' inner development.
Dean of Students Terry Hogan pointed to a number of examples.
Historically
the university has always supported the development of student organizations that have risen to meet this religious need
he said, adding that the number of such organizations has increased over the years.
Also, OU includes a religious and spiritual resources page on its Web site (www.ohiou.edu/students/relorg.html). The page includes a list of religious courses, programs, ministry groups, student organizations, places of worship and a calendar and policy outline for religious holidays.
In addition to those resources, OU also works with members from local religious congregations. The University Interfaith Association, comprising local clergy and campus ministers, advises the dean of students on matters of campus religious activities and student spiritual development.
Rabbi Danielle Leshaw of Hillel, a member in that group, said there is still work to be done.
I think that OU
