Nov 21, 2024
On the latest episode of NASPA's Victors in Grad School podcast, host Dr. Jill Creighton engages with Dr. Matthew J. Mayhew and Dr. Renee Bolling to shed light on the often-overlooked aspects of religious and spiritual diversity on college campuses. This episode delves deep into how institutions can create more inclusive environments that respect and celebrate diverse spiritual identities. Their insights provide valuable guidance for educational administrators and student affairs professionals aiming to foster spiritual inclusivity.
Student Spiritual Needs and Inclusivity
Dr. Renee Bolling begins by emphasizing the fundamental role that spiritual support and expression play in students' lives. College students value having access to prayer spaces, meditation rooms, and dietary options tailored to their religious needs, signaling to them that the campus respects and acknowledges their faith. The presence of these facilities does more than meet basic needs; it profoundly impacts students' perceptions of inclusivity and belonging.
Impact of Campus Climate on Religious Diversity
The discussion then shifts to the broader implications of campus climate on perceptions of religious diversity. Dr. Matthew J. Mayhew notes that events such as protests regarding geopolitical issues, like the Israel-Palestine conflict, can heavily influence students' perceptions of how their religious identities are valued on campus. He underlines the critical need for institutions to create environments that facilitate open, respectful dialogue around these complex issues.
Demographic Shifts and Personal Spirituality
A notable trend highlighted in the conversation is the increasing movement among students away from organized religion towards personal spirituality or secular identities. This shift challenges campuses to rethink how they provide spiritual support. Interestingly, their college experiences can either reinforce or reshape their spiritual commitments, suggesting that campus environments have a significant role in students' spiritual development.
The Role of Student Affairs Professionals
Student affairs professionals are at the forefront of fostering spiritual inclusivity. As Dr. Bolling points out, more public universities are creating religious and spiritual life offices, dedicated to supporting diverse religious expressions. These professionals are tasked with not only ensuring students' spiritual needs are met but also challenging them intellectually and promoting bridge-building activities.
Advancements and Challenges in Spiritual Inclusivity
The episode also highlights promising practices, such as providing transportation to spiritual or prayer spaces and enhancing bias reporting systems. However, both Dr. Bolling and Dr. Mayhew stress the ongoing training gap; fewer than 30% of staff in student affairs have formal training in managing religious diversity. They advocate for more comprehensive training programs to equip educators and student affairs professionals to handle spiritual diversity tensions effectively.
Conclusion: Moving Forward with INSPIRES
The INSPIRES index, discussed extensively in the episode, represents a significant advancement in assessing and improving campus climates for religious and spiritual identity inclusivity. Funded by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, INSPIRES provides institutions with a scorecard and actionable recommendations across seven domains, aiding in the creation of more inclusive campuses.
Institutions interested in participating in the INSPIRES survey can access the index website, with the survey closing on December 16.
In summary, this episode of SA Voices From the Field offers a comprehensive look at the multifaceted role of spiritual inclusivity in higher education. As colleges continue to evolve, ensuring that all students feel seen, heard, and respected in their spiritual identities remains a critical aspect of their mission.
TRANSCRIPT
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Student Affairs Voices From the Field, the podcast where
we share your student affairs stories from fresh perspectives to
seasoned experts. Brought to you by NASPA, we curate free and
accessible professional development for higher ed pros wherever you
happen to be. This is season 11, the past, present, and future of
student affairs, and I'm Doctor. Jill Creighton, she, her, hers,
your essay voices from the field host. Today on Essay Voices From
the Field, it's my pleasure to welcome 2 scholars from the Ohio
State University. They're gonna be talking about the work they're
doing with the INSPIRES index, which is an index that focuses on
religious and spiritual identity. Our first guest is doctor Renee
Bolling. Doctor Bolling is WorldView Research Director of the
College Impact Labs Interfaith Projects at The Ohio State
University and has over 20 years shaping the student experience in
US and international p 20 education administration.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:00:53]:
She chairs the NASPA Spirituality and Religion in Higher Education
Knowledge Community, serves on the editorial board of the Journal
of Student Affairs Research and Practice, and mentors international
EDD students through an HBCU. Her research interests include
comparative international education, critical internationalization,
educational leadership, global learning, and worldview diversity,
all topics related to her dissertation, which received the best
practices in research and scholarship award from the International
Education Knowledge Community. Renee earned her PhD from OSU's
Higher Education Education Student Affairs Program, a postgraduate
certificate in religious studies and education from Harvard, an MA
in counseling and human development from Walsh University, and a BA
in sociology from the University of Akron. Our second guest is
doctor Matthew j Mayhew. Doctor Mayhew is the William Ray and Marie
Addison Fletcher Professor of Educational Administration. His
research is focused on how collegiate conditions, educational
practices, and student experiences influence learning and
democratic outcomes, including moral reasoning, pluralism,
productive exchange across worldview differences, and innovation.
To support the study of college and its impact on student
development and learning, he's been awarded more than $20,000,000
in funding from sources, including but not limited to the United
States Department of Education, the Ewing Marion Kauffman
Foundation, the Merrifield Family Trust, and the National Science
Foundation. He's published more than 60 peer reviewed articles and
journals as well as how college affects students volume 3.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:02:15]:
He received his doctorate from the University of Michigan. Welcome
to SA Voices, Renee and Matt. Hello.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:02:21]:
Hi. How are you? Thanks for having us.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:02:23]:
Really looking forward to talking to you both today about all of
the work you're doing with the INSPIRES index. But before we jump
into the research and how you're contributing right now to the the
present and the future of student affairs, we always love to get to
know our guests by asking you kind of how you've gotten to your
current seat. So, Renee, let's start with you.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:02:41]:
Fantastic. Well, I'm really happy to be here with you today and
everyone listening in. I started off in higher education student
affairs and residence life like many of us, and then I wound my way
into, k twelve counseling and student support, and ended up serving
overseas in an international school. That got me more and more
interested in this facet of diversity, religious, secular, and
spiritual, or also known as worldview diversity. And so some
questions from practice actually drove me back to a higher ed
student affairs doctoral program where I met doctor Mayhew and
began working on the INSPIRES index and some other projects.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:03:14]:
And, Matt, how about you?
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:03:15]:
Wow. That was really impressive, Renee, I have to say. That was
efficient and well done. I can go on for hours here, but I'll just
say that I have a history with data and numbers and a history in
student affairs. And those histories align with the journey I had
through college. So I started at College of the Holy Cross for my
1st year, transferred to Wheaton College, then to Brandeis
University, and then to the University of Michigan where I received
my doctorate. And along the way, of course, those schools do
identify differentially by way of RSSI or religious, spiritual, and
secular ways of thinking about schools and who they serve. And so
from those kinds of context and those experiences, I kinda came
into the idea that college and university life should prepare
students to have productive dialogue across all walks of life,
including those we typically call religious.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:04:05]:
And so I've practiced that in in not only my professorship, but
also a long way. I was a resident director of a small college
called Fisher College, Downtown Boston, and also I was the director
of student life assessment at University of North Carolina at
Wilmington. So my heart is in student affairs. I actually had a job
in student affairs before becoming a professor of student affairs.
And so all of those kinds of experiences blend together to inform
my work.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:04:30]:
I really enjoy the smallness of our profession sometimes. And just
full disclosure for our audience, Renee and I have known each other
for couple years now having met in that international education
space. And Matt and I just met in the pre show chatter today, but
we are connected to similar people within the profession. So I'm
just gonna give a brief shout out to Ashley Staples, who I used to
work with at NYU, who is I know a mentee of Matt's. So we're all
interlaced in student affairs usually.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:04:55]:
Absolutely. Hello.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:04:57]:
And you all are at Ohio State or as an Oregon State alum myself, I
I always have to give you all a little bit of the business for
being the other OSU, but I'm sure that's not not a thing you all
hear a lot.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:05:10]:
Well, it's funny. No. We do, actually, because Oklahoma State also
tends to have the same sort of introductory jokes and remarks. But
remember, we are at the Ohio State.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:05:19]:
So that might just irritate us a little bit. So That came
out of here.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:05:24]:
Well and to be specific, we're at the College Impact Lab in the
College of Education and Human Ecology at the Ohio State
University.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:05:31]:
Well, the work that you all are doing with the INSPIRES index, I
thought fit in really nicely with our theme, the season of the
past, present, and future of student affairs, particularly with the
present and the future. INSPIRES is an acronym, so I'm hoping you
can start with telling us what it stands for and kind of how you
got here.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:05:47]:
It stands for the interfaith spiritual, religious, and secular
campus climate index, INSPIRES for short, and it's really, an
outgrowth of past research. It's a very much a research based
assessment tool based on past ideals in research, which I I think
doctor Mayhew can tell us more about in a moment. But its intention
is really to provide benchmarking to institutions that they can use
to improve practice for diverse RSSIs, and also to provide
families, students, and the public with a public face facing tool
that they can use for college choice to understand how different
campuses are responding to and helping to support different
students in this diversity.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:06:25]:
That's exactly right. And thank you, Renee, for saying that. So I
turned it over to Renee because I couldn't remember because I'm
getting old. And my students call it seasoning, but my daughter
calls it balding. I couldn't remember actually what INSPIRE stood,
but I can give you some of the background and context, and that is
Alyssa Rockenbach from North Carolina State, what used to be called
Interfaith Youth Corps, but is now called Interfaith America. And I
kind of started this partnership a long time ago to try to look at
what religious and worldview identities, how they developed during
college. And we've surveyed over thousands and thousands of
students over hundreds of schools and talked to faculty and staff
along the way. And we learned a lot.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:07:02]:
And, basically, what the INSPIRES index does is it takes
information from all of that research and and really distills it
into one inventory so that we can say that campus x is a welcoming
environment for Jewish students. Campus x might have some issues
with being welcoming for Muslim students. And when we say that,
it's not just theoretical. We've actually asked Jewish students and
Muslim students, what makes you feel more welcome on campus? And
then we turned those ideas into items on the inventory. So
everything on the inventory comes from the voices of the very
people we're trying to help.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:07:42]:
What are some of the things that you're hearing are important for
students who come from spiritual backgrounds, as they're looking at
college choice?
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:07:49]:
The number one thing I would say that kinda cuts across all the
groups, and this surprises people a lot of times is, the idea of
space for support and spiritual expression. So all students, even
evangelical students and students who I don't have identify with
any particular religion or non religious students, When they walk
onto campus and they see that a campus provides prayer spaces for
Muslim students that think, wow, this campus is welcoming toward
all religious identities, even my own. And that came up over and
over and over again with regard to how students were making meaning
of what is welcoming for them. There are welcoming issues and
factors for each group specifically. As an example, for Jewish
students, having, kosher meals provided in every dining facility on
campus is really important. Some institutions have them, but
they're in different buildings across campus. And so, when Jewish
students wanna have a meal with their friends and they don't wanna
have to schlep across campus to friends, sometimes that compromises
whether the the Jewish students can eat with their friends or not.
And so that is something that Jewish students feel is very
important for making them feel welcome is this idea that there are
kosher meals at all dining facilities across campus.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:09:02]:
And we have examples of each of those kinds of things for each
group.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:09:05]:
Let's dig into that a little bit. I think it's it's quite
fascinating to hear that the signal for inclusion may not even be
related to my own identities, but whether or not the university or
the college is is kind of outlying where inclusion happens for
someone who might not identify like me. What do you make of
that?
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:09:23]:
Well, we do see it over and over again. For example, one of the
things that we've noticed is that students are paying attention
when another student is experiencing a negative incident on campus.
They're watching and seeing how it's handled. They're watching to
see how faculty respond. They're picking up on how they perceive
other groups as being welcome or not, and that informs their own
experience of the campus climate.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:09:46]:
You all have been doing this work long before the campus protests
began to erupt regarding Israel and Palestine across the last year.
How are you seeing that work impacted or affected or the the way
that students are responding to the index be affected by the
current climate?
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:10:02]:
It's a great question. We will have some data in about 2 weeks. You
have to invite us back. We actually have a campus, a module as part
of the INSPIRES index that asked campuses how they managed the
campus protests over the course of the last year. And we asked very
specific questions of campuses, and those questions came from
experts in the Jewish faith and Muslim faith as well as
psychometricians and folks on the ground. So student affairs
officers who were dealing with the crisis on a day to day basis, we
vetted the survey to make sure, oh, is this really tapping into the
dimensions that you found to be important on campus? I think
there's a lot to talk about here, but one of the things I'd like to
talk about when this comes up is, you know, how religious diversity
might differ from other forms of diversity. And because folks for a
long time haven't thought about that really or or religion's been
sort of stiff armed as something that is not as central to be an
inclusion as other forms of Folks haven't really been readied for
thinking about religion differently. So let me give you an example
of that.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:11:10]:
There's a logic of choice that oftentimes is is associated with
religion that's not associated with, say, other forms of diversity.
And so there are in the western way we think about religion,
especially, a lot of the students that come to campus think that
religion is a choice. On Tuesday, you can be atheist, and on
Wednesday, you could be an evangelical. And because of that choice
that people have and how they identify, then that kind of makes its
way into diversity conversations as a distinctive, way of thinking
about how do we then inform practice, inform policies on campus
when choice might be something that students are thinking about.
Choice is not necessarily something some a lot of folks think
about, say, in the context of race, in the context of GLBTQIA plus
issues, in the context of those kinds of things. But with religion,
especially from the western perspective, choice is something that's
entertained. We have other logics too like coercion. That's a logic
also that might be very specific to religion.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:12:10]:
How does an authentic conversation between people of different
faiths or non faith based tradition, when does that evolve or
devolve depending on whom you ask into a coercive conversation
where somebody's trying to convert me rather than just have an
authentic conversation about lived experiences? So those are the
kinds of nuances that if we hadn't talked about religion, we need
to start talking about it much more readily in order to really
understand where the motivations for some of the protesting comes
from and the policy set to manage the protest.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:12:41]:
Let's back up for a second here, and I'd like to get into some of
the demographics of the average American college campus. I think
you're absolutely accurate in saying that the average student
affairs practitioner maybe isn't as knowledgeable in the DEI spaces
around religion as we might be around racial identity or ability or
sexual orientation, etcetera. So who are our students right now on
the average American campus? How are they identifying? And what do
we know on kind of that metadata perspective?
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:13:09]:
I think that it's very different, Jill, based on the college that
you're asking about. So when we think about things like Christian
colleges or evangelical schools, what the average, if you will,
look or makeup of that campus, it's gonna be very different than
students may be at a public institution, and that's gonna look
very different than students may be at a private institution,
and that's gonna look very different than students may be at a
private nonsectarian institution. And so the way we think about
context really does inform the answer to that question. What we do
know just in general is that over the college experience, there are
more students who are leaving formalized religion and identifying
rather as spiritual and non religious, and that's kind of growing
over time. We've also learned though that there are students, who
go into college with a certain faith based background and they
actually meet other folks, and they discuss ideas and life choices
and purpose and calling with those folks. And it oftentimes
strengthens their commitment to their faith because the students
are able to make their faith their own. And so it's very difficult
to, like, hone in on specific statistics because the context
differs so much.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:14:15]:
That's true. And one of the things that we've done with INSPIRE is
we've looked across institutional type. So comparing institutions
to like institutions, whether those are private, public, have a
religious affiliation, or a particular type of religious
affiliation, trying to compare apples to apples in that sense so
that when they're benchmarked, they're seeing how other
institutions like them are doing serving their populations.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:14:38]:
What is the role of student affairs today in supporting students'
spiritual identity, spiritual growth, or spiritual connection?
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:14:46]:
Well, this could take hours, and I love it. So somebody recently
just asked me to to to talk about this. And there are really a
couple of things and I'll I'll just bring up the the first two that
come to mind. Students are really able to differentiate between
relationships that they find harmful, that they find coercive, and
that they find challenging and provocative. And so the key for
student affairs practitioners is in whatever context they are in,
whether they're putting on a program or an activity, they need to
design an environment where students are challenged, but students
are not harmed by what's going on in that space. And the only way
to do that is for the educator really to shore up their own
knowledge about power in the space, their own knowledge about white
Christian nationalism, and how that's kind of forced its way into
the academy, insidious and sometimes overt ways, but also being
able to wrestle with their own RSSI identity, if you will. Try to
make meaning of that so that they can provide kind of a measurable
vulnerability as an introduction into the context and space. That's
one thing I would say needs to happen.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:15:50]:
The other, and this is critically important, this is really hard,
is for the activities and the programs themselves to be bridge
building. So it can't be that you just have an activity over here
for evangelicals and you happen to invite atheists to the activity
for evangelicals and hope magic happens. There has to be some
intentional bridge building around the program or activity where
conversations enable people to talk about their lived experiences
in ways that are really challenging, but supported by the folks who
are actually in the space running it.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:16:22]:
And this gets to something that you were you were sharing and
asking about earlier, which is that the training that we have in
student affairs around this. We know from INSPIREs that from our
participating campuses, the highest area of folks who have training
in, religious diversity in that background is in residence life and
mental health counselors, and that's at around 30% having that
training. In other areas, academic advising, health center and
wellness staff, career counselors, we're looking at between 6 10%
having training in this area. So this is a very large need in our
in our profession.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:16:55]:
And how do we balance all of the need to be educated and informed
in this situation with what some people would say might be butting
up against the values of a public institution?
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:17:04]:
Well, I think first of all, we need to understand that even though
there's a a general understanding or at least access to language
about separation between church and state, folks need to understand
what that actually means. What that actually doesn't mean is that
you can't talk about religion on campus. You could talk about
religion all you want on campus and whatever space you want.
Separation of church and state has nothing to do with what's
discussed on campus. That's the first thing. The second thing
that's really important to understand is if we don't talk about
religion in spaces where students want to talk about religion, then
how in the world are we educating the whole student? How are we
really getting at their lived experiences if we're saying, oh,
well, 80% of your lived experiences we'll talk about, but the 20%
having to do with religion, that's not welcome here. It doesn't
make sense. And so I think we have to really start to think
holistically about how we offer the educations we do offer at
colleges and universities.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:18:01]:
There's also a distinction between devotional teaching about a
tradition or a worldview and academic or teaching about that
religious, secular, or spiritual worldview and engaging and having
authentic encounters with difference. And that's what we're talking
about here is being equipped to have those encounters in ways that
are productive, in ways that build a a sense of pluralism where
everyone is welcome, and these aren't conversations that we're
afraid to have, but that we're empowered to have in ways that are
respectful and respect the dignity of all students.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:18:32]:
Let's talk about what that training can look like for student
affairs practitioners. What is it that institutions are doing well
right now that leads them to these inclusive spaces?
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:18:42]:
More and more institutions are starting to have multi faith spaces
and spaces for religious identities to feel a sense of safety, have
a safe space that they can go and express their religious identity.
I think where we need to work a little bit more is on these brave
spaces and building up faculty and staff training to be able to,
facilitate some of these encounters. Another area that we are doing
somewhat well in, as was touched on earlier, was accommodations for
different religious and spiritual identities to be able to access
food. We know that food insecurity is an issue across different
groups on campus, but we could be doing better, like Doctor. Mayhew
said, in making sure that this isn't just one place on campus, but
that it's throughout our dining and residential facilities.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:19:23]:
That food element is so critical. I know last year we had Ramadan
fasting happening during a lot of people's finals weeks, which
deeply impacts the students' ability to be successful. We've also
had fasting for other holidays happening in conjunction with all
sorts of other things that could impact student performance in the
classroom. So I think that's one way to to fundamentally connect
where the rubber meets the road really in terms of inclusion.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:19:46]:
One thing that we learned from surveying presidents after the
incidents of October 7th was that there are not enough, religious,
secular, and spiritual or interfaith councils on campuses where
that line of communication is opened up between the university,
between student affairs professionals, and between both students
who represent different religious identities and community members
and community leaders who also represent them. And that's an area
for growth for the profession, and it's also an area that
presidents of universities have expressed interest in.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:20:16]:
Right. I was just gonna say that was so eloquently put, Renee.
Thank you. But I was gonna invite some of my colleagues across the
country. And for those of you who are graduates of student affairs
programs, please call or get in touch with the people who are still
on campus teaching the next generation of of practitioner. A lot of
the programs that we've seen have shored up the curriculum in ways
that spiritual, religious, and secular diversity doesn't even make
it into courses on, student development and learning anymore. It
used to be we had a full year at Ohio State of that course, and
we've actually had to cut back because students wanted other
requirements. And in cutting back, sometimes we miss the whole
conversation because there's just not enough space in the classroom
to talk about it.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:20:57]:
And so I think that that's really important if we do value it and
if students are living it, then we need to have some formal
training in how to think about RSSI work while students are getting
their master's degrees and then moving on into the profession.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:21:11]:
I think one opportunity for us is in thinking about students'
multidimensional identities and even their intersectionality. What
we know is that not everywhere views their religious, secular, or
spiritual identity as a choice. There are definitely religious
cultures, a religious, and spiritual communities of belonging that
are more about praxis or about community than they are even about
belief. And so I think that's an area to think about where this
crossover is between different types of diversity.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:21:37]:
Let's go back to the index. You've worked with dozens and dozens of
institutions. We can see them all on the website. If I'm an
institution that is interested in becoming part of the index
process, what am I going to receive as an outcome? What what is
involved with my students? What information should I be looking
forward to? What can I change of my practice based on the dataset I
might get back?
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:21:58]:
Well, let me provide a context and then I'll head it over. I'll
kick it over to Renee really quickly. So with generous funding from
the Arthur Defining Davis Foundations, we've been able to provide
this index for free for institutions. It's also not a survey of
students. It's one inventory that somebody or a group of somebodies
takes on behalf of their institution that then comes back to us and
we analyze. And analysis will give them some insight. We do provide
specific reporting back to the institutions to give them insight on
how they're doing compared to students like that or or other
institutions like them. Excuse me.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:22:32]:
And so that is kind of what the institutions get. And then what the
what the public gets, if the institution allows their data to go
public, you know, folks are able to see kind of how they're doing
in different spaces. And that's really helpful, not only in the
spirit of transparency, which we hope most institutions have, but
also just giving caregivers and the students the information they
need when they're making college decisions.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:22:54]:
The 2 kind of feedback mechanisms for university are a scorecard
that is produced where they receive a star rating on 7 different
areas or domains, and then they also receive a report that gives
recommendations based on those star ratings. The 7 domains are
religious accommodations, space for support and expression,
structural diversity, institutional behavior, efforts to reduce
negative engagement, and extracurricular engagement.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:23:20]:
The most important thing I think you said is that it's free for
institutions right now due to grant funding. It's very rare that we
get rich assessment tools that we don't have to invest in. Sounds
like there's a time investment, but not necessarily a monetary one
right now. So if I'm an institution and this is speaking to me or
maybe I'm I'm listening, I'm a VPSA and I think we need to do this,
How can we make that happen?
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:23:39]:
Well, I'd love to direct you to our INSPIRE's index website, which
is very simply inspiresindex.org. And we also have QR code access
and other such things that we can share. But right now, there is a
live link direct to begin the survey open through December 16th,
and we're welcoming new campuses to join in.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:23:57]:
Is there anything else you want student affairs voices from the
field listeners to know about this important work that you're doing
with religious identity and spiritual interfaith identity on
college campuses?
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:24:07]:
Well, there's a ton more, and I wish we had hours to talk about
this because this is our life work. I will say with regard to the
index, only because Gillette comes up so often. Even though the
press and other people ask us to rank institutions like who's doing
the best at what, we don't do that. It violates the whole spirit of
what inspires us all about. So we might have a couple of
institutions that we say these institutions collectively are doing
a pretty good job at x or y or z, but we're never gonna say this
institution ranks 1, you rank 2, you rank 3. It just violates the
whole thing. And I think that's really important for folks who are
making decisions about participation, know, that we are never going
to allow that to happen. And so I think that's really important
because in the spirit of what we're trying to do here, which is
bring people together through thinking, strategically as well as
thoughtfully about religious, spiritual, and secular diversity,
it's just not it's not aligned with any of the values that we carry
forward.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:25:00]:
Without naming an institution then, can you identify some of the
practices that are looking really promising in this area that are
happening on campuses right now?
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:25:08]:
Oh, sure. I think, transportation is a big one. So when folks need
to go to different places to pray or to have reflection time or
different spaces on campus, oftentimes that they need to practice
whatever they wanna practice, a lot of institutions are providing
free transportation to those spaces because there's not necessarily
gonna be a prayer space set in every residence hall, for example.
That's a very promising practice that we see folks are engaging
right now. Another promising practice is folks are really starting
to take on the idea of bias reporting in this space and how to
close the loop. So oftentimes, people will will report something or
students will report that something happened, and then they feel
like it goes into an echo chamber, and they never really get
information on what actually happened with their complaint. And so
we do have institutions that are really being very strategic about
closing that loop a bit to ensure that everybody knows that this is
a safe place, and there will be responsiveness when these issues
come up. There's a lot of others as well, but those are the ones
that I've recently been speaking about at least, and there's more
for sure.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:26:12]:
If I may, I think there's also some things on more of a macro
structural level that we're starting to see. It used to be that you
saw religious and spiritual life offices more at private campuses,
and we're beginning to see more of them at public universities,
even flagship universities. And that's exciting to see that
commitment to equity across different types of religious expression
and diversity as something that is protected under our amendment
rights, but also something that can be supportive of students in
their diversity. So that's exciting to see. We know already that
that there's chaplaincy available at public institutions in their
medical schools. It's just not nearly as readily available on the
student facing side for undergraduate and graduate students. So I
think there's a lot of opportunity here.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:26:54]:
I'm going to go ahead and move us into our theme questions for the
season. And again, we're focusing on the past, present, and future
of student affairs. So I'm gonna ask you one question from each
era. So on the past, what's one component of the history of the
student affairs profession that you think we should either continue
to carry forward or alternatively let go of?
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:27:15]:
I think a focus on holistic learning and holistic student
development requires us to pay attention to how students are doing
spiritually and their spiritual diversity.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:27:24]:
I think the whole idea that religion is something that we shouldn't
bring up or that we shouldn't actually be intentional about should
be abandoned. Obviously, I think that there's a lot of room in the
way we think about providing services and activities to students,
especially the whole student, like Renee said, for us to
strategically think about how to put these programs together in
ways that are actually bringing folks together and healing
communities.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:27:46]:
Moving into the present, what's happening in the field right now
that's going well for student affairs?
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:27:51]:
Well, I think student affairs is doing a really good job right now
at trying to provide places for students who might be experiencing
some sort of struggle in their journey in college, providing them a
place to struggle, a place to be free about talking about those
struggles, a place to be free about thinking about new ideas, and
whether that is in the residence halls with their, residence life
staff. As Renee said, a lot of the institutions are training their
staff across different functional areas. So we do know the word is
getting out. So wherever students decide to have those struggles,
there's some shining hope that people across functional areas are
actually being trained to talk about these issues with
students.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:28:31]:
I think in the present, we're seeing a good amount of conflict in
our world that it reaches our campuses at times, and that's to be
expected. I think that some of the work that we're doing and
sharing about can provide some tools to campuses to better address
when these issues arise on their campus so that the first time
they're building building relationships and bridges isn't after
something happens, but more proactively before things happen.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:28:56]:
And looking towards the future, in an ideal world, what does the
field need to be doing to thrive towards the future?
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:29:01]:
There's so many things I wanna say that I'm trying to distill it
down into one area here. I think that for the future, higher
education programs especially need to take on the challenge of
training students on how to effectively manage any sort of or
tension on campus due to religious and spiritual and secular
diversity. I think that that's a challenge. I don't know if there's
a lot of people out there who know how to train the trainers or
even professors who know how to train the future generations. And
so thinking about that is really, really challenging, but I think
it's gonna become more and more important as the world shrinks due
to technology. And like Renee said, as things are starting to lean
into college campuses from, from what's happening overseas,
religion's just gonna become more and more important as something
to think about.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:29:44]:
I'm going to piggyback off of that with my answer. I think this
connection between religious, secular, and spiritual or worldview
identity and culture, ethnicity, language, and class, I think
exploring those connections is gonna continue to be important
rather than thinking about diversity in kind of isolated
spaces.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:30:02]:
It's time to take a quick break and toss it over to producer Chris
to learn what's going on in the NASPA world.
Dr.
Christopher Lewis [00:30:08]:
Thanks, Jill. So excited to be back in the NASPA world, and there's
a ton of things happening in NASPA. Doctor Janai Chandler has
joined the, research and Policy Institute for NASPA as the new vice
president for research and policy. With over 17 years experience as
a higher education practitioner, researcher, and policy advocate,
she aims to equip NASPA members and student affairs professionals
with valuable research and policy tools to enhance student and
staff success. Doctor. Chandler is particularly eager to engage
with the 2024 top issues and hear from you about how to best
support your work. She's a proud graduate of the HESA doctoral
program at Florida State University, where she worked in advising
and academic affairs. There's a brand new book in the NASPA
bookstore entitled The Next Act, Realigning Your Mindset, Purpose
and Career.
Dr.
Christopher Lewis [00:31:02]:
The Next Act Realigning Your Mindset, Purpose and Career explores
diverse career development opportunities for student affairs
professionals. The book discusses broadly how professionals can
navigate their career paths within and beyond higher education,
encouraging adaptability and personal growth. Through real life
narratives, the authors offer practical advice on assessing and
aligning one's career with personal passions and evolving
professional goals. They also challenge traditional views on career
advancement, emphasizing the importance of finding fulfillment and
purpose in work. The chapters examine a wide range of career
transitions from advancing within student affairs to moving into
consulting, faculty roles, or even PK-twelve education. By reading
this book, you will gain valuable insights on how to adapt to the
ever evolving higher education landscape while discovering new
opportunities for leadership and success. Whether you're
considering a career shift or seeking to advance your current role,
this book offers a wealth of guidance on finding purpose and
achieving long term career satisfaction. Speaking of the 2024 top
issues in student affairs, this annual survey completed by senior
leaders in student affairs offers you a snapshot of the most
important issues impacting institutions in 2024.
Dr.
Christopher Lewis [00:32:19]:
NASPA recently released the top ten issues in 2024, some of which
include issues in regard to health, safety and well-being,
administration and governance, assessment and evaluation and more.
I highly encourage you to go to the NASPA website under Reports and
Briefs, which can be found on the NASPA website under publications
and then reports. You will find the full list of the top ten key
areas, which I've mentioned to you already, and the specific issues
in those areas that chief student affairs officers have listed as
important for our profession. Every week, we're going to be sharing
some amazing things that are happening within the association. So
we are going to be able to try and keep you up to date on
everything that's happening and allow for you to be able to get
involved in different ways because the association is as strong as
its members. And for all of us, we have to find our place within
the association, whether it be getting involved with a knowledge
community, giving back within one of the the centers or the
divisions of the association. And as you're doing that, it's
important to be able to identify for yourself, where do you fit?
Where do you wanna give back? Each week, we're hoping that we will
share some things that might encourage you, might allow for you to
be able to get some ideas that will provide you with an opportunity
to be able to say, hey. I see myself in that knowledge
community.
Dr.
Christopher Lewis [00:33:49]:
I see myself doing something like that. Or encourage you in other
ways that allow for you to be able to think beyond what's available
right now, to offer other things to the association, to bring your
gifts, your talents to the association and to all of the members
within the association. Because through doing that, all of us are
stronger and the association is better. Tune in again next week as
we find out more about what is happening in NASPA.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:34:19]:
Chris, thank you as always for for providing us an informative
NASPA world segment. It's always great to know what's going on in
and around NASPA. And we have now reached our lightning round,
Renee and Matt. So I have 7 questions for you to answer in about 90
seconds. Are you ready to go?
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:34:35]:
Let's go. Let's do it.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:34:37]:
Alright. Question 1. If you were a conference keynote speaker, what
would your entrance music be?
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:34:42]:
Small town girl.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:34:43]:
We will rock you.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:34:43]:
2, when you were 5 years old, what did you want to be when you grew
up?
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:34:47]:
Somebody who traveled a lot.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:34:48]:
Wanted to be my dad.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:34:49]:
Number 3, who's your most influential professional mentor?
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:34:52]:
Dr. Eleanor Nicholson.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:34:53]:
Dr. Ernie Pasquarello.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:34:54]:
Number 4, your essential student affairs read.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:34:57]:
I'll say the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:35:00]:
How College Affects Students, volume 3.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:35:02]:
Number 5, the best TV show you've binged lately.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:35:05]:
I'm a huge Outlander fan.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:35:06]:
The Bear.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:35:07]:
Number 6, the podcast you've spent the most hours listening to in
the last year.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:35:10]:
I'd have to say this one.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:35:12]:
I'm not a big podcast person.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:35:13]:
And finally, number 7, any shout outs you'd like to give, personal
or professional?
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:35:17]:
I'd love to give a professional shout out to the entire College
Impact Lab or COIL Lab team at OSU, the brains and the brawn behind
the INSPIRES index.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:35:26]:
I would like to give a shout out to all of the funders who've
participated in this and all of the institutions that have
partnered with us. There's been a lot of institutions with us along
the way and they stay with us and we do see it as a partnership. So
thank you all for your continued, continued partnerships.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:35:40]:
It's been so wonderful to learn from both of you about the
important work that you're doing on RSSI on college campuses and
the information that you're putting out for all of us so we can
continue to learn, improve our practices. If I would like to get a
hold of you after the show, how can I find you?
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:35:55]:
If you reach us at the inspiresindex.org website, you'll be able to
find contact to our team, and we're happy to be in touch with
you.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:36:03]:
And my email at work, it's publicmayhue.65@osu.edu.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:36:08]:
And, Renee and Matt, thank you so much for sharing your voices with
us today.
Dr. Matthew J.
Mayhew [00:36:12]:
Thank you, Jill. This was great. I appreciate you.
Dr. Renee
Bolling [00:36:14]:
Happy to be here.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:36:20]:
This has been an episode of SA Voices from the Field brought to you
by NASPA. This show is made possible because of you, the listeners.
We continue to be grateful that you choose to spend your time with
us. If you'd like to reach the show, you can email us at sa voices
at naspa.org or find me on LinkedIn by searching for doctor Jill L.
Creighton. We welcome your feedback and your topic and guest
suggestions. We'd love it if you take a moment to tell a colleague
about the show and leave us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts,
Spotify, or wherever you're listening now. It truly does help other
student affairs pros find the show and helps us to become more
visible in the larger podcasting community.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:36:54]:
This episode was produced and hosted by Dr. Jill Creighton. That's
me. Produced and audio engineered by Dr. Chris Lewis. Special
thanks to the University of Michigan Flint for your support as we
create this project. Catch you next time.