About the Survey The survey of University of Texas students yielded a total of 383 observations. These observations in turn constitute a nice sampling of students from different years, colleges and ethnicities. Table 1 gives the breakdown of students’ grade levels. Table 1: Student Class Table 2 shows the number of students reporting Number of belonging to various ethnicities. Predictably, the three largest groups are white, Hispanic, and Year In School Respondents African American. With smaller numbers of 1st 81 students reporting East Asian, Asian Pacific, Southeast Asian, and South Asian descent. We 2nd 78 furthermore have a sample of several different colleges. Most respondents belonged either to 3rd 101 Liberal Arts or Natural Sciences. Engineering and 4th 58 Communications students are also well represented. The “Other” category includes 5th 16 students from Pharamacy, Architecture, Graduate Geosciences, Information, Nursing, Social Work, Students 42 and Law. Table 2: Student Ethnicity Ethnicity White American Latino/Hispanic African American East Asian American Asian Pacific American Southeast Asian American Multi-­‐racial South Asian American Arab American Other Native American Number of Students 167 47 23 19 17 16 14 10 4 4 1 Table 3: Colleges College Number Liberal Arts 96 Natural Sciences 90 Engineering 73 Communication 61 Business 37 Education 27 Fine Arts 18 Other 11 We will use the categories presented here, as well as information about student religions to explore how students’ attitudes and expectations vary. First, however, we will explore the social life and responsibilities of the average UT student. This information should be helpful in evaluating programming and advertising attempts. The Social Life of the Average UT Student Figure 1: Friends UT students tend to rely most heavily on their social organizations – secular or religious -­‐ for finding their closest friends. Living situations provide the third most common place where students meet their closest friends. These findings suggest that Christian ministries should target their programming at dorms and collaborations with other ministries. Where Have you Met Your Closest Friends? Classes 10% Work 6% Student organization
s 37% Other 11% Living Situation 16% Religious Community 20% University of Texas students most commonly reported belonging to academic and faith and religion organizations. Other common student organization types include social and philanthropic organizations, Greek life, and sports organizations. Students, of course, participate in all kinds of organizations. The figure to the right simply depicts the most popular. Figure 2
Student Organization Types 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 139 126 81 68 58 52 48 46 43 Student Obligations Most students – 210 respondents -­‐ reported belonging to one or two organizations. Only 50 reported not belonging to any organizations at all with 13 of those students being graduate students. Christian students have a similar breakdown. Of the 223 Christian and Catholic Christian students in the survey, 121 reported that they focus their attention on one Figure 3: Student Organizations Four 12 Zero 24 Three 55 One 57 Two 66 organization or two. Roughly 11% of all students and 11% of Christian students reported belonging to four or more organizations constituting a major use of time. Figure 3 indicates membership among Christian students. Figure 4 shows how often students report participating in student organizations. In addition to showing the breakdown of attendance in the full sample, we break this down to show how attendance rates among Christian students and Catholic Christian students. Catholics appear to attend on par with the general populations whereas Christians are slightly more likely to be more active. Christian Students: Five or Number of More 9 Organizations Engagement in student organizations may mean that students are more likely to attend programming that is geared towards them. It may mean, however, that students are already too busy for additional activities. We also checked how much students worked per week to get a better idea of their commitments. Figure 4: Frequency of Student Organization Participation How often do you participate in student organizations? All Students 103 167 37 68 Almost daily Weekly Christian Students 51 68 9 19 Monthly Almost never Catholic Students 0% 16 37 20% 40% 7 60% 80% 13 100% Figure 5: Work How Many Hours a Week Do you Work? Only about half of the sampled students reported working a formal job in addition to their responsibilities as students. Of students who work, most work less than 20 hours a week. These proportions were essentially identical among Christian and Catholic students, students of different ethnicities, and students in different colleges. Freshmen, however, were much less likely to report having a job, apparently conserving time for social and academic activities. more than 40 hours 1% 0-­‐10 hours 20% I do not have a job 49% 10-­‐20 hours 21% 30-­‐40 hours 3% 20-­‐30 hours 6% Student Priorities Figure 6: Student Priorities – All Students Athletics 39 27 24 40 Purpose 98 63 60 191 59 62 70 33 1 -­‐ Most Important 2 3 Academics 86 80 83 63 41 30 4 70 Spiritual Growth Social Life 16 Career Prep 0% 53 65 57 73 102 65 84 20% 107 65 40% 81 74 60% 48 73 60 80% 20 5 6 -­‐ Least Important 35 100% The above table shows the way students ranked six possible priorities: athletics, purpose, academics, spiritual growth, social life, and career prep. Roughly 50% of UT students surveyed reported that athletics as the lowest of listed priorities, favoring professional pursuits and personal development. On average, the academics and purpose are highest among student priorities, with 43.2% and 38.8% respectively listing these as most or second most important. Spiritual growth, social life and career prep made up the middle ranks of student concerns. Figure 6: Student Priorities – Christian and Catholic Christian Students Athletics 24 10 13 24 Purpose Academics 52 27 37 44 125 25 47 36 49 50 38 23 28 17 1 -­‐ Most Important 2 3 Spiritual Growth Social Life 6 Career Prep 0% 49 34 41 35 38 48 39 20% 46 47 41 47 40 52 39 40% 60% 80% 15 14 4 5 6 -­‐ Let Important 28 100% Christian Students responded in a very similar way, though they valued spiritual growth more highly and career prep less highly. What Appeals To Students? Roughly 35% of students reported that they would be interested in attending a bible study on campus, while another 35% reported that they might be interested. These numbers were predictably higher among Christian students, with only 17% reporting that they would not be interested. Neither student ethnicity nor student grade level made a noticeable difference in their interest in this activity. Roughly 42% of students said that they would be interested in visiting a Christian church. Another 31% answered the same question with a maybe. When asked what would make a visit to a Christian church the most appealing to them, students overwhelmingly answered “an invitation from a friend.” To put the magnitude of this response in perspective, 193 students answered this way, while the number of responses in the next largest category, “Location and ease of access” was only 32. Among students who answered that an invitation from a friend was most appealing, 45% said that they would be interested in visiting a Christian church and 38% said maybe. Since invitation seems to be the strongest way of reaching out to students, we analyzed the question asking “Have you ever been invited to a Chrsitian church or campus ministry during your time at UT?” Out of all respondents, 80% had been invited to a Christian church while 89% of Christian students had been invited. Transfer students were slightly less likely to have been invited to an event, but the numbers did not change across student of different ethnicities or years in school. What is the Student Experience of Making Friends and Religious Community? We wanted to know how difficult or easy students found it to make friends at UT. We further wanted to know more about the student experience of forming religious community while at UT. We further explore potential differences in these experiences among students of different religions, grade levels, and majors. Table 4: Making Friends How Would You Describe Your Experience Making Friends at UT? Number of Students Very Easy 93 Somewhat Easy 206 Somewhat Difficult 80 Very Difficult 5 While some students do find it difficult to make friends, most students find it relatively easy to make friends. These numbers do not vary much over different religious groups, colleges, or grade levels, with the one exception that freshmen students are slightly more likely to find it difficult to make friends. Figure 7: Making Friends We find similar results for students’ experience forming religious community. Most students find it either Student Experience very easy or somewhat easy to connect Making Friends with a religious community. Surprisingly, this does not vary much by 1% students’ college, level, or – most Very Easy surprisingly – religion. While Protestant and Catholic Christians are somewhat 21% 24% Somewhat more likely than the general population Easy to find it easy to engage in religious Somewhat communities, their reporting is not Difdicult significantly different than that of 54% students with no religion. Furthermore, Very Difdicult these numbers did not vary across transfer students and non-­‐transfer students. Table 5: Religious Communities How Would You Describe With Religious Communities at UT? Number of Students Very Easy 139 Somewhat Easy 145 Somewhat Difficult 71 Very Difficult 29 Of those students answering questions about their faith before coming to UT and after coming to UT, only three religious groups contained enough observations for meaningful statistical analysis: Protestant Christians, Catholic Christians, and None. Tables 6 and 7 give the numbers in each group before and after UT. Table 6: Faith Before Changing Faiths While At UT Figure 8: Those Christian Before Coming to UT Christian Other Agnostic Christian Catholic Hindu Jewish Muslim Religion Before Coming to UT Christian Number of Students Reporting 162 Catholic 93 None 67 None Figure 9: Those Catholic Before Coming to UT Table 7: Faith Since Religion Number of Since Students Coming to Reporting UT Christian 150 Catholic Other Catholic 73 None 89 Agnostic Christian Catholic Hindu Jewish Muslim None All faiths showed drop-­‐offs and transitions. Figures 8-­‐
10 show how students transitioned from their initial faith during their time at UT. While most students keep their original faith, there is substantial transition between the top three during college. Figure 10: Those Reporting Their Religion as “None” Before Coming to UT None Other Agnostic Christian Catholic Hindu Jewish Muslim None The transition from Christianity or Catholicism to no religion is likely of specific interest to campus ministers. For this reason, we delve more deeply into the reasons formerly Christian students decided to leave their faith. Not many students gave their reasons for leaving, but those who did were more likely to say that having no religion made better sense of the world than being a Christian. The most common reason these same students gave for practicing less was either a lack of belief in God or skepticism due to science. Among students who transitioned from no faith to either Protestant or Catholic Christianity, the strongest reason for increased religious practice was finding a strong community or close friend in a Christian group. Figure 11 summarizes students’ attitudes towards Christianity, from actively investigating, antagonistic, believing, etc. The survey asked students to assess their attitude towards Christianity both before coming to the University of Texas and since coming to the University of Texas. Notably, the number of people calling themselves “believing” since coming to UT is lower than the number of students who believed before coming to UT. The number of students claiming to be “curious” or “antagonistic” since coming to UT also increased from the number of students in these categories before coming to UT. Figure 11: Students Approach to Christianity What Was/Is your Attitute Towards Christianity? Actively Investigating After UT 50 11 57 167 51 48 Antagonistic Apathetic Believing Curious Before UT 32 14 0% 62 20% 181 40% 60% 48 80% 47 Skeptical 100% While we have touched on it, we haven not formally discussed the changing in practice levels over the course of college attendance. Tables 8 and 9 depicts the change in student’s prayer and attendance practices from before coming to UT and since coming to UT. Table 8: How often do/did you pray? Pray Before Pray Now Seldom Monthly Weekly Daily Seldom Monthly Weekly Daily Christian 19 15 42 74 50 5 34 61 Catholic 10 7 31 25 27 8 16 22 None 74 3 4 0 82 3 0 0 All groups saw an increase in students reporting praying seldomly and decreases in students praying with greater frequency. This indicates that students tend to lose prayer intensity over the course of college. The one notable category which remained relatively stable was Catholic students reporting praying daily. Table 9: How often do/did you attend church? Attend Before Attend Now A few Once or Weekly Daily A few Once or Weekly Daily times a Twice a times a Twice a or More (Not year month year OR month Available) Almost never Christian 113 5 8 24 21 29 98 -­‐ Catholic 57 2 5 9 32 16 28 -­‐ None 89 0 0 0 68 3 5 -­‐ While the data on church attendance is harder to read due to the different categories available for before and after classification, it actually appears that among students who currently consider themselves Protestant or Catholic Christian, Church attendance actually increases during their time at UT. Of the 85 Protestant students who described themselves as practicing more than they did before starting at UT, 13 attributed their increased practice to developing a deeper understanding through study, 44 attributed a strong community or close friend, 20 students credited a spiritual experience, and 8 students reported finding greater comfort in their religion’s teachings. (Note, students could answer more than one of these options.) Of 23 Catholics that answered this question, 4 reported developing a deeper understanding, 4 found a strong community, 3 found greater comfort in Church teachings, and 8 had a spiritual experience. University of Texas Student Worldviews The survey also asked students about their beliefs and worldviews. We analyzed this information for the general sample, but also for each of the three largest religious groups on campus. The survey’s worldview questions include questions about the nature of humanity, the meaning of life, the nature of God, and a question about the identity of Jesus. We begin our analysis with the nature of humanity. The majority of students reported thinking that the nature of humanity was either “more good than bad” or “broken.” When we broke this down by religion, we notice that Catholic students are much more likely to say that humanity is more good than bad, with more than 50% of Catholics answering in this way. Protestant Christian, on the other hand, were much more likely to say that the nature of humanity was “broken,” with nearly 60% of Protestants answering in this way. Only 20% of Protestant students answered that humanity was “more good than bad.” The most common answer among students who reported having no religion was that the nature of humanity is “neutral,” with over 40% answering this way. 33% of students reporting no religion said that the nature of humanity was “more good than bad.” Figure 12: Human Nature What is the Nature of Humanity? 128 All Students 119 87 45 More Good than Bad Christian 31 86 14 31 Broken Neutral More Bad than Good 38 Catholic None 0% 30 20% 12 9 40% 14 37 60% 13 80% Figure 13: Broken Human Nature is Broken None, 9, 8% Other, 12, 10% Catholic, 12, 10% Christian, 86, 72% 8 100% Figures 12 and 13 show the breakdown of religious groups answering that human nature is “broken” and “more good than bad” respectively. Protestants make up 72% of those answering the human nature is broken. Catholics made up 30% of those answering that human nature is “more good than bad,” while Christians, None, and Other each made up about 23-­‐24% of those answering this way. Figure 14 shows student responses to the question, “What is your primary source of truth?” This shows the breakdown among all students and within each group: Christian, Catholic, and None. Figure 14: More Good than Bad Among all students, the most common answers were that self-­‐discovery and reason are their primary sources of truth. Among Protestant Christians, the most popular response was sacred writings, presumably in keeping with Protestant emphasis on the Bible. Catholics did not overwhelmingly report having any one source of truth. Rather, nearly equal numbers reported self-­‐
discovery, sacred writings, and tradition. This may be partially due to Catholicism’s teaching of two main sources of truth: Scripture and Tradition. Students reporting having no religion were most likely to answer that either self-­‐discovery or reason was their primary source of truth. They were also among the most likely to say that truth is relative. Human Nature is More Good than Bad Other, 29, 23% Christian, 31, 24% None, 30, 23% Catholic, 38, 30% Figure 15: Main Source of Truth What is Your Source of Truth? All Students 39 92 81 65 38 32 Truth is relative Self-­‐discovery Christian 6 26 21 47 28 9 Reason Sacred Writings Catholic 5 None 0% 18 17 12 15 22 20% 40% 6 30 60% 80% Spiritual encounters 15 Tradition 0 1 1 100% Most students believe that the meaning of life is either to “live for God” or “love and peace.” Protestant Christians were much more likely believe that the meaning of life is to “live for God” while Catholics split their answers between “living for God,” “living for others,” and “love and peace.” Students reporting no religion did not consistently report one meaning of life. Their answers varied between “live for others,” “live for self,” “love and peace, “ “there is none,” and “to overcome.” None of these students, however, reported that the meaning of life is to live for God. Figure 16: What is the Meaning of Life? What is the Meaning of Life? 123 All Students 64 27 100 31 20 Descendants Live for God Live for Others Christians 96 12 1 29 3 4 Live for Self Love and Peace 19 Catholics 18 1 22 1 6 The afterlife There is none To overcome None 0% 0 19 18 20% 40% 24 60% 18 80% 4 100% Who is Jesus? The majority of students said that Jesus was “Creator and Savior” with “A great spiritual leader being the next largest category. Catholics and Christians were more likely to say “Creator and Savior.” Students who reported no religion were most likely to say “A great spiritual leader.” Figure 17: Jesus Who is Jesus? Other, 7 A great spiritual leader, 118 Creator and Savior, 182 A spiritual being, 41 A liar, lunatic, or legend, 11 A revolutionar
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