A Conversation With ... Dr. Alexander Astin

Original: AConversation With ... Dr. Alexander Astin

On "Spirituality in Higher Education"

Dr. Alexander Astin is Allan M. Cartter Professor of HigherEducation at UCLA and director of the Higher Education ResearchInstitute (HERI) at UCLA. Astin was co-principal investigator forthe HERI study, "Spirituality in HigherEducation." He has served as director of researchfor both the American Council on Education and the National MeritScholarship Corporation, and is the founding director of thecooperative Institutional Research Program.

What motivated you to initiate this study?

ASTIN: We were approached by Templeton foundation to exploreinterest in study. We were prepared to do it anyway because ofdifferent experiences we'd had in college researchup to that point.

One of major factors was the realization that higher educationhad come to neglect inner life of students, development of values,belief, aspirations, self-understanding, spirituality, fundamentalpart of life, sense of who they are, why they here, meaning inlife, sort of thing. We thought this neglect was ironic in light ofthe fact that great books of western civilization, which usuallyprovide the basis for liberal learning, are very clear aboutimportance of inner life; there is much talk in books of selfknowledge, the kingdom is within, etc. Yet if you look at typicalcollege curriculum, there is very little emphasis placed oninterior things. Through this study we wanted to focus moreattention to this aspect of neglect.

The other line of thought was from freshman surveys over thelast 30 years. Annual surveys had indicated that students wereshowing less interest in developing meaningful philosophy of life,and were more interested in making a lot of money. Those trendswere concerning us that students were more into this kind of focusthan ever before. These were all considerations.

Any ideas as to why there are such high levels of interest inspirituality?

ASTIN: There's a hunger among young peopleto explore spiritual issues. In many ways our society has gone in apolarizing direction, increasing secularism and fundamentalism.This is also reflected in freshman surveys. There has been adecline of student affiliation with mainstream Protestantism, andto less extent Catholicism, and large number of students who saythey have no religion. There's a large number offundamental, non-denominational Christians. Small Christiandenominations have shown growth. There's anobvious change in religious affiliation of young people. Allstudents regardless of belief systems want to explore beliefsystems, very few shut off completely. There are simply differentways of approaching.

Is this a new trend, or this just the first time it hasofficially been evaluated on such a scale?

ASTIN: The latter. We don't have a lotof evidence one way or another on past research in this area.It's kind of unexplored territory.

Why is that?

Astin: It should be noted that there are a number ofindividual investigators who have looked at spiritual life, butthose are located at religious institutions. In terms of largescale national studies, very little work has been done. For thatreason, we're not in a position to talk abouttrends. We have been surveying church-going freshmen, and that hasshown a slight net decline, but it's not adefinite trend. There's a large decline duringcollege, almost regardless of religious affiliation, but not aparallel decline of interest- that gets slightlystronger.

In your opinion, do your findings support the enrollment boomsin Christian colleges over the last decade or so?

ASTIN: At two levels, yes. At one level there is a high levelof interest in spiritual matters, but more to the point are thetrends in the students' religious affiliation.Again, there's a polarizing trend. Christiancolleges would be a receptive place for one pole of polarizingtendency.

Even if many colleges begin to make changes that would supportexploration of spirituality on campus, why are Christ-centeredcolleges (especially within the CCCU) still important?

ASTIN: Yes, they are still important. There are a number ofstudents and parents who want higher education to take place in anenvironment of similar beliefs, a place which explicitly valuesreligious and spiritual issues. That is part of the genius ofAmerican higher education. There is tremendous diversity for thosewho have different needs and desires for what kind of educationthey want. I think that's part of our heritage asa county with great higher education system.

The president of Wellsley College said this study would helpshow where higher education is succeeding and where it falls short.Where does it fall short?

ASTIN: In the relative neglect of the very thingswe're studying. In the neglect ofstudent's interior life: values, beliefs, sense ofmeaning and purpose. I would hasten to add that there are somepromising trends in this direction, for example the growingemphasis on service learning, which started with the advent of thecollege compact, which includes presidents who are intentionalabout promoting service learning on campuses. I'mvery impressed with the impact that this experience can have onyoung people. Helps them begin to question their life choices,career trajectory… we believe that the secret toeffective service learning experience is the use of reflection,which is the best way to get in touch with interior life.

Freshman 101 courses are another trend where young people aregiven opportunity to examine life in light of college experienceand form a plan during college years for how to begin to preparethemselves for family life, work life and community life. Thesecourses deal with meaning and purpose.

What outcome do you desire from your study?

ASTIN: Our hope is that this study will encourage ourinstitutions to put more emphasis on this.