SUMMER READING ISSUE
FROM THE EDITORS

Jon C. Dalton and Pamela C. Crosby, Co-editors

In this special summer issue of the Journal of College and Character, we invite you to read some of the most popular articles published in the JCC during the 2007-2008 academic year. Read more at EDITORS

CHALLENGING COLLEGE STUDENTS TO LEARN IN CAMPUS CULTURES OF COMFORT, CONVENIENCE, AND COMPLACENCY
FROM THE EDITORS

Jon C. Dalton and Pamela C. Crosby, Co-editors

Creating an optimal balance between challenge and support in college requires us to call for students to leave the dock regularly, to push out into the open water where they are more exposed and vulnerable. An optimal balance of challenge and support is one in which students are encouraged to venture out but not alone or unprepared. It is this delicate balance of personal nudge and nurture that creates possibilities of deeper learning, confidence, courage and self-mastery. Read the article at EDITORS

LET’S TALK ABOUT RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES: THE NEGLECTED TOPIC IN DIVERSITY DISCUSSIONS ON CAMPUS
FROM THE EDITORS

Jon C. Dalton and Pamela C. Crosby, Co-editors

In recent years the resurgence of interest in religion in the U.S. as well as immigration, higher birth rates, and conversions are making the U.S. more religiously diverse than ever (Eck, 2001). Since 2000 the national coverage of religion has doubled and many newspapers and other media have added coverage of religion. Read more at EDITORS

BEING AND HAVING: SHOULDN’T EXCELLENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION(AND PEOPLE) BE A MEASURE OF WHAT ONE DOES RATHER THAN WHAT ONE HAS?
FROM THE EDITORS

Jon C. Dalton and Pamela C. Crosby, Co-editors

College and university officials have long complained about the methodologies used in the annual rankings of “best” colleges by publications such as U.S. News and World Report, the Princeton Review, and Peterson’s. Read more at EDITORS

GRADUATE STUDENT PERSPECTIVES ON ETHICAL ISSUES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

FROM THE EDITORS

Pamela C. Crosby and Jon C. Dalton and, Co-editors

This issue of the Journal of College and Character focuses on graduate student scholarship and research examining how colleges and universities influence the moral and civic learning and behaviors of students. When we typically think of graduate students, we think of emerging scholars who, for a variety of reasons, must put their professional lives on hold until they complete their degrees. However, the graduate student authors in this issue are already influential leaders in their respective fields, serving others in various capacities while inspiring others to serve. We are pleased to provide these writers a venue to showcase their scholarship—scholarship that is enriched and enlightened by their leadership experiences, as well as their formal academic training and education. Read more at EDITORS

TROUBLED STUDENTS ON CAMPUS: PRIVATE LIVES AND PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITIES

FROM THE EDITORS

Jon C. Dalton and Pamela C. Crosby, Co-editors

The number of troubled students on American college campuses, many with serious psychological problems, has probably never been greater. A longitudinal study involving 13, 257 students over a 13 year period at the Kansas State University Counseling Center (Benton, Robertson, Tseng, Newton, and Benton, 2003) reported a significant increase in problems of a more complex and serious nature among their student clients. Read more at FROM THE EDITORS

COMBATING THE CORROSIVE ELEMENTS OF COLLEGE PEER CULTURE
FROM THE EDITORS

Jon C. Dalton and Pamela C. Crosby, Co-editors

Despite their best efforts to promote safe and learning-friendly student life environments on campus, college administrators very often find that their well intentioned strategies are trumped by some corrosive effects of the student peer culture. In this issue of the Journal of College and Character, we examine some of the ways in which college peer culture can erode and threaten important institutional values and objectives and how educators are responding to some of the most damaging effects of college peer culture. Read more at FROM THE EDITORS

THE HIDDEN WORLD OF COLLEGE STUDENTS:
FIVE REASONS WE KNOW LESS ABOUT STUDENTS THAN WE SHOULD

FROM THE EDITORS

Jon C. Dalton and Pamela C. Crosby, Co-editors

Ironically, for all the research and data that colleges and universities gather on their students and for all of their efforts to understand students’ needs, interests, abilities, and aspirations, there is much about today’s college students that is hidden from educators and administrators. Students mask many things about their lives from adult outsiders as a way of guarding their privacy and independence; they obfuscate some things about themselves intentionally and unintentionally through the lifestyles and culture they create for themselves in college. Read more at FROM THE EDITORS

November 2006
INTEGRATING SERVICE AND SPIRITUALITY IN COLLEGE

FROM THE EDITORS

Jon C. Dalton and Pamela C. Crosby, Co-editors

The connections between community service and spiritual growth in college are readily apparent to those who observe college students engaged in these activities. Students who participate in community service activities often encounter compelling social problems and human situations that cause them to probe their beliefs and commitments more deeply. Service learning classes that include structured time for reflection and discussion are especially powerful in this way.

Please click here to download the complete PDF article. From the Editors November, 2006

FROM THE EDITORS

Jon C. Dalton and Pamela C. Crosby, Co-editors

Alexander Astin noted that higher education pays relatively little attention to the inner development of college students, their values, beliefs, and moral and spiritual development (Chickering, et.al, 2005). In this special issue of the Journal of College and Character, we focus on the inner lives of students and especially the forms and patterns of spirituality as they are expressed in the behaviors and beliefs of contemporary college students. At the core of students’ inner lives is spirituality, the inward search or quest for personal meaning, purpose, and authenticity. Articles in this issue examine spirituality in students’ learning and development as well as how colleges and universities are responding to increasing interest in this aspect of students’ inner lives.

Please click here to download the complete PDF article. From the Editors October, 2006

FROM THE EDITORS

Jon C. Dalton and Pamela C. Crosby, Co-editors

Hundreds of thousands of new students will begin college this fall, and most colleges and universities have designed elaborate orientation activities to induct beginning students into the academic and social cultures of their campuses. These orientation activities are usually crammed with advising and registration information, academic and social rituals, campus tours and welcoming activities designed to help new students get off to a good start in their academic study and navigate their way around their new surroundings.

Please click here to download the complete PDF article. From the Editors September, 2006

FROM THE EDITORS

Jon C. Dalton and Pamela C. Crosby, Co-editors

In an interesting senior thesis Daniel Perez (Geng, 2004) a former student at the University of California-Davis, offered a student’s perspective on why so many college students today seem interested in spirituality. Perez noted that the parents of current students grew up in the l960s when traditional religious structures were greatly weakened.

Parents of today’s college students, Perez suggested, may be less inclined to push organized religion onto their children. Moreover, college students have a lot more access to global cultures and belief systems today and this gives them much wider choices about spiritual beliefs and practices. College students are, he argues, less likely to "buy into" a formalized system of religious absolutes. Add to this mix of influences a heightened sense of individual self-interest and a consumer oriented campus culture and it may be more understandable why so many college students today are inclined to create their own personalized belief systems.

In our efforts to understand college students and especially the realm of their inner lives, it is a good idea to listen closely to students’ descriptions and accounts of spirituality. Perez suggested that spirituality among college students is influenced by the great personal freedom youth have today, their exposure to other cultures and religions, and a consumer lifestyle in which personal gratification is a central feature of college life.

In short, as Robert Wuthnow (1998) suggests, this is a time of “designer faith” in which youth seek to discover and sort out a set of core religious beliefs and behaviors that fit their unique needs and convictions. This designer-style approach to religion and spirituality is reflected in the comments of another student, Debbie Nelson, from Bemidji State University: “My own religion. A cobbled-together, messed-up way of thinking that uses bits and pieces from every religion. Technically, it’s a “universal” religion, meaning I subscribe to the basic foundations that underlie the vast majority of the world’s religions (Nelson, 2004).”

In this issue of the Journal of College and Character we explore the domain of spirituality in college students and include a selection of papers and presentations from the 2006 Institute on College Student Values that focuses on the theme “Finding Wholeness: Students’ Search for Meaning and Purpose in College.” These papers add a variety of perspectives on how and why today’s college students are increasingly engaged in spiritual search activities on campus. They expand upon some of the student themes mentioned above and report on what some colleges and universities are doing to responding to this important recent trend among college students.

We are pleased to publish these papers and are grateful to the authors for presenting their papers at the 2006 Institute of College Student Values and for their efforts in preparing the papers for publication. Special thanks to Pam Crosby for compiling and editing the 2006 Institute Proceedings. We hope that readers will find these resources useful in your efforts to assist college students in their search for meaning and purpose in college. We remind you also about the 2007 Institute on College Student Values next February 8-10, and that papers presented at the Institute will be considered for publication in the 2007 Proceedings next July.

References:
Geng, D. (2004). “Spirituality Finds Diverse Paths.” The California Aggie On-Line. Retrieved from the internet

Nelson, Debbie (2004). “Student Spirituality,” retrieved from the internet at http://calstaging.bemidjistate.edu/sites/Spirituality/profiles.html.

Wuthnow, R. (l998). After Heaven: Spirituality in America Since the l950s. Berkeley: University of California Press.

GRADUATE STUDENT PERSPECTIVES ON CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

FROM THE EDITORS

Jon C. Dalton and Pamela C. Crosby, Co-editors

This month’s issue is devoted entirely to articles and essays by graduate students and will be the first issue in JCC's history that focuses on graduate student scholarship and research. Students from all disciplines were invited to submit papers for this special peer reviewed issue.

Among the topics covered by these developing scholars are the implications of the use of unique research methods to measure views of students, staff, and faculty relating to current and ideal character education; a critical look at previous scholarship on politics within the academy and approaches faculty can use to model more effectively character as citizenship; a discussion of how faculty, student affairs professionals, and administrators can positively influence student academic honesty; and an examination of the gap between perceived and actual realities regarding moral development theory and current technology in higher education.

It is exciting that graduate students representing diverse colleges and universities are researching and writing about the big questions relating to college and character and the ways these questions should be addressed in collegiate settings. The editors of the Journal of College and Character are pleased to provide these young scholars who are engaged in studies of character development a venue in which to present their research.

May 2006

Moral Reflection and Social Action

FROM THE EDITORS

Jon C. Dalton and Pamela C. Crosby, Co-editors

As several articles in this issue of the JCC suggest, encouraging moral and ethical development in college students almost always leads them to questions about social justice and responsibility. As Sharon Parks (Big Questions, Worthy Dreams, 2000) argues, one of the paradoxes of the inward journey is that moral introspection usually leads young people to connections with other people and their problems and concerns. The development of conscience focuses inward but leads outward.

The fact that moral reflection can lead students to want to change things and to make a difference with their lives suggests that moral development is inherently a risky business. Educational efforts to get students to reflect on moral questions are likely to foster a discontent with the status quo and increase the likelihood that they will become activists in confronting issues of social justice and equity.

It is probably not surprising, therefore, that most colleges and universities do less than they should to intentionally encourage the moral and ethical development of their students. After all, it is risky to encourage a process whose outcomes can lead to dissatisfaction with the way things are. In their efforts to attract and retain success-oriented millennial students, colleges have become overly concerned with student satisfaction and less eager to engage students in the sometimes uncomfortable process of moral development. One measure, therefore, of a college’s moral influence on students’ development is the extent to which they are actively engaged with issues of social justice and committed to making a moral difference with their lives.

The articles and special features in this month’s issue of the Journal provide some thoughtful perspectives on these and other issues which we hope you will find interesting and helpful.

April 2006

FROM THE EDITORS

Jon C. Dalton and Pamela C. Crosby, Co-editors

In Values of the Game (l998) Bill Bradley writes that sports provided him not only with great joy but “values that can shape a lifetime" (p. XV). Participation in sports seems to have a similar impact on many people and several of the writers in this special issue of the Journal of College and Character describe the life-shaping influence of sports in their own lives and the lives of others. Participation in sports can provide great enjoyment as well as lessons in character that, as Bradley argued, stay with you for a very long time.

Yet sports are also an arena of great controversy in the college setting as well as in American popular culture. Scandals involving athletes, coaches, and athletic programs regularly plague colleges and universities and, at their worse, can threaten the moral integrity of institutions and their leaders. Collegiate sports and coaches remain a focus of passionate praise and blame for their moral influences on young people and institutions of higher learning.

In this special issue of the Journal of College and Character, we examine the moral influences of sports and coaches in the higher education setting. This issue includes interviews with college presidents, articles and essays and special features on the topic. Authors examine why sports and coaches have such power for moral influence, good and bad, and why it is urgent for colleges and universities to monitor and guide the impact of sports and coaches on student athletes, college student culture, and the broader moral ethos of higher education institutions.

Jon Dalton, Editor
Pam Crosby, Associate Editor

February 2006

The recent findings of the Spirituality Project at UCLA indicate that about three fourths of college students report that they are personally engaged in a search for meaning and truth. These same students report, however, that they seldom have the opportunity to discuss these issues in classroom settings or in interactions with faculty.

It is not surprising that college students find it difficult to raise moral and spiritual concerns in college classrooms since these topics are often regarded as too personal for discussion in academic settings. Many faculty are concerned about indoctrination and the introduction of highly personal and subjective viewpoints in classroom discussions. Students, on the other hand, often feel that the things they care most deeply about, that matter most to them, are relegated to the periphery of intellectual inquiry.

The Spirituality Project findings suggest a need for more opportunities for dialogue about the place of purpose and meaning in undergraduate learning. The findings indicate that students want the things that they care about most to matter in their academic work and to have opportunities to explore their relevance to what they are learning. Learning that helps students connect cognitive and affective domains can be educationally very powerful and deep. At the same time the classroom should not become a place for proselytizing and testifying about one's own personal moral and religious convictions. Such behaviors polarize discussion and make real dialogue about purpose and meaning all the more difficult.

One of our current challenges is to find more creative and meaningful ways to handle such difficult dialogues in order to make higher education more relevant and connected to the inner lives of college students.

In this issue of the Journal of College and Character some aspects of this important higher education debate are examined.

Jon C. Dalton
Editor

Pamela C. Crosby
Associate Editor

Winter 2006

College students' growing interest in spiritual quest topics and activities is one of the reasons many college educators are exploring ways to make new connections between learning and spirituality in collegiate life. Through most of their history American colleges and universities have recognized and advocated the integration of mind, body, and spirit as an important aspect of higher learning. Over time, however, and especially in the latter half of the twentieth century, higher education increasingly relegated concerns about purpose and meaning to the private sphere of students' lives. This bifurcation of mind and spirit in the academy and its detrimental consequences for the learning and development of college students are drawing much attention in current higher education research and educational practice. We examine several aspects of this problem in the January issue of the Journal of College and Character.

This issue is the second in a two part special series of the Journal of College and Character that focuses on the theme, "Finding Wholeness: Students' Search for Meaning and Purpose in College." In this issue authors discuss ways in which colleges can help students to connect and deepen their sense of meaning and purpose in academic involvements such as classroom work, honors programs, mentoring, and global citizenship. Other articles in this special issue offer insights on how wholeness can be encouraged through special programs on spirituality and the contributions of scholars whose work has important implications for spirituality, purpose, and meaning.

Finally, two important recent books are reviewed that examine the role of religion in faith-based institutions and why good teaching must be rooted in one's deepest sense of self. We hope you find this issue and the companion November 2005 issue to be helpful resources in your efforts to understand and to encourage the moral and spiritual growth of college students.

Jon C. Dalton
Editor

Pamela C. Crosby
Associate Editor