A large majority of American undergraduates define themselves as spiritual, but the number of students regularly attending religious services declines sharply during college, according to a study by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA.
The study compiled results from two sets of surveys gathered from 3,680 students at 46 colleges and universities across the country. The students filled out a lengthy survey when they entered college in the fall of 2000 and then a follow-up questionnaire in the spring of their junior year.
"Substantial numbers of third-year college undergraduates express a strong interest in spiritual matters," the study concluded.
It cited 73 percent of respondents who reported having a "spiritual experience," 77 percent who said they pray, 78 percent who said they discuss religion or spirituality with their friends and 58 percent who rated "integrating spirituality into my life" as essential or very important.
Members of University religious organizations had mixed feelings about the assessment of college students as overwhelmingly spiritual.
"When I think of spiritual I think of those that are constantly thinking of God and of the afterlife and things along that nature -- with most people I meet and most people I talk to, we usually talk about the here and now and the material aspects of life," said third-year College student Nebil Hussen, president of the Muslim Students Association. "I think that's prevalent across all religions here -- the most important things in life that we put first are the material aspects -- finding a job, making money, taking care of our schoolwork, instead of prayer, studying scripture."
Fourth-year College student Keith Bergstresser, the president of Virginia Atheists Association, took issue with the idea that most students are, or should be, spiritual.
"I've actually found that there are tons of people who aren't religious here," Bergstresser said.
The study found that 22 percent of students said "believing in supernatural phenomena is foolish" and 27 percent said "whether or not there is a Supreme Being is a matter of indifference to me."
Though 65 percent of respondents said they question their religious and spiritual beliefs occasionally and 38 percent said they "to some extent" feel disillusioned with their religious upbringing, only 12 percent said they do not consider themselves to be "on a spiritual quest."
Fourth-year Engineering student Andrew Breton, a member of the Baha'i Association, said spirituality is not necessarily manifest in daily activities.
"People still are more spiritual than church members would give you -- people are thinking about it, taking classes about it," Breton said. "Definitely people are maintaining what they believe even though they're skipping out on important things -- hey, sometimes I go a whole day and forget to eat."
Despite the high number of students who described themselves as spiritual, the percentage of respondents who said they frequently attended religious services dropped during the period of the study. 52.1 percent of incoming freshman reported regular attendance, but of those same students, only 29.4 percent maintained attendance as juniors.
"I don't think that I've seen that in my personal experience, that people during their college career shy away from churchgoing," said third-year Engineering student David McWhorter, the president of Agape Christian Fellowship. "Well, there is a little bit of shying away after first year, people who get involved and then decide not to do it."
The study also reported little spiritual discussion in the classroom. 62 percent of students reported their professors never encourage discussion of religious or spiritual matters and 52 percent said their professors never provide opportunities to debate the meaning of life.
University students argued that the presence of spiritual discussion in a classroom is entirely dependent on a student's course schedule.
"In my personal experience, there's a lot of discussion about religion in classes," said McWhorter, who has taken Religion and Technology as well as Philosophy of Religion.
39 percent of respondents said their religious and spiritual beliefs were strengthened by "new ideas encountered in class."
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