Caryn McTighe Musil is a senior vice president for diversity, equity and global issues with the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Peter Laurence is executive director of the Education as Transformation program at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. The program works with educational institutions that are considering the impact of religious diversity and the role of spirituality in education.

Sharon M.K. Kugler is university chaplain at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where students come from dozens of faith groups. She focuses on cultivating a chaplaincy for students, faculty and staff which defines itself by serving the needs of the diverse religious and spiritual traditions on campus.

The Rev. Paul Sorrentino is coordinator for religious life at Amherst College in Amherst, Mass. His doctoral work at Princeton Theological Seminary focused on religious pluralism in the academy and included a survey of Amherst students regarding their views on religious pluralism. While he advises the Christian Fellowship at Amherst, Sorrentino writes that “we respond best to religious plurality […]

On April 11, 2006, Harvard University’s Institute of Politics released a poll showing that seven of 10 college students in the U.S. say religion is somewhat important or very important in their lives. Morality played a strong role in their political views, and they see issues ranging from abortion to disaster relief as having moral implications.

A 2007 survey covering spirituality in U.S. university students tracks the students’ religious beliefs, the change in religious interests over time and how home influences may effect university religious activism.

A survey regarding spiritual interest by students attending universities has increased over the last decade, according to the Interfaith Youth Core administration in 2012.

Read a Jan. 31, 2012 article about universities’ responsibility with addressing religion, and how that relationship would be implemented in curriculums or programs.

Read a March 19, 2012 article about the struggle atheist or secular students have with voicing their opinions at religious universities.