Scholars: Rating schools on friendliness to faith benefits students, parents, administrators

College-bound students and their parents will soon have a way of determining how “faith-friendly” a given school is, two academic researchers say.

The “INSPIRES Index” (or Interfaith, Spiritual, Religious, and Secular Campus Climate Index) has initially surveyed 185 colleges and universities and will tally how accommodating of religious observance a given school is.

“We’re talking about religious, spiritual and secular identities,” said Matthew Mayhew, a professor of higher education at Ohio State University said in an interview about the free service. He added, “Is it a welcoming campus climate for Jewish students? Is it welcoming for Muslim students? Is it welcoming for evangelical students? Is it welcoming for students who identify as atheists, as Buddhists, as Roman Catholic?”

Because the reporting is voluntary, project leaders Mr. Mayhew and Alyssa Rockenbach of North Carolina State University in Raleigh said, the reporting schools will have the option of reviewing the results and not having them posted.

“They are our partners in this work,” Mr. Mayhew said. “So, the decision to share data and results depends on their needs and wants as participants,” he added.

If a school decides to go public with the results, “then that will be something that caregivers and students can see as a piece of the puzzle for when they’re making decisions about where to go,” he added.

The project’s website also suggests schools might want to wait until they improve in areas deemed deficient before announcing results.

Mr. Mayhew said the project grew out of research that he, Ms. Rockenbach and the Interfaith Youth Core had done “nine or 10 years ago,” which tallied data “on the campus conditions and educational practices” of schools related to faith.

The INSPIRES Index, he said, is an effort to take the research beyond “obscure journals and into the hands of the people who need it the most.”

If a school gets, for example, “three out of five stars” for welcoming Muslim students and five out of five for accommodating evangelical Christians, then administrators can see what needs improvement.

“We know that students grow and thrive in environments that are welcoming,” Ms. Rockenbach said via email. “INSPIRES data offers families insight on campus climate, which plays a fundamental role in students’ adjustment to college, identity development, and academic success.”

J. Cody Nielsen, who directs the Center for Spirituality and Social Justice at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, said such an index “is long past due.”

He added, “I don’t think that higher education at large is taking this topic of religious and spiritual equity seriously. I also think that our society really struggles to see the importance of this identity piece.”