Faculty Spirituality Survey

UCLA's HERI has updated more of its continuing survey of the spiritual life of college students with the spiritual life of faculty. I mentioned this study twice in April 2005 if you care to go through my archives. (note to me--work on better permalinks.) The summary of the survey adds professor's views on their own spirituality. According to this 16 page report at least 70% of faculty consider themselves "religious to a great extent." This seems to run counter to a prevalent view that higher education is anti-religious. It may be that the answer is found on page 11 in how faculty view aiding students with spiritual growth.

For example,
when asked whether “colleges should be
concerned with facilitating students’ spiritual
development,” only a minority of faculty (30%)
agree. This is consistent with the finding, also
mentioned earlier, that most college juniors report
that their professors have never encouraged discussion
of spiritual or religious matters, and never
provide opportunities for discussing the meaning or
purpose of life. However, many faculty also
believe that the following educational goals for
undergraduate students are “essential” or “very
important”: enhancing self-understanding (60%),
developing moral character (59%), and helping
students develop personal value (53%).

I have only given a cursory reading and intend to go back. It would be interesting to see how libraries support spiritual or religious activities. [found via ACL listserv] I especially need to find the list of colleges if available. Did anyone who reads this know of their college's participation?

UPDATE: -- It seems I need to read all my e-mail. This item was also posted on COLL-LIB and received a response regarding a new book on multifaith as well as a blog. It was worth adding to this post.