Chapman University had a perfectly good chapel, but officials wanted a new one. What they came up with shares more with a Frank Lloyd Wright house than with a typical church. Though Chapman is affiliated with the Disciples of Christ, a mainline Protestant denomination, college leaders wanted a place of worship free of the trappings of…

This article describes how Whitworth University has made personal essays about applicants' faith a key part of its hiring process. Faculty members are required by the university to explain in written personal statement what they believe and how it affects their academic work. Whitworth officials think this process provides them with a better…

In this article, the author describes the Creation Museum, founded by Ken A. Ham and designed as a rebuttal to the evolutionary view taken by other natural history museums. He discusses the socially conservative roots of the museum's exhibits, and presents Ham's answers to questions about the museum. The message of the museum is that the Bible is…

Officials of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research say there was good news and bad in their new study of the religious beliefs and attitudes of college faculty members. The good: Higher education is religiously diverse and generally tolerant. The bad: What the San Francisco-based institute's president, Gary A. Tobin, calls the…

In 1993, Michael Weiskopf wrote an article for "The Washington Post" in which he described evangelicals in the United States as "poor, uneducated, and easy to command." Although the comment provoked outrage from evangelicals, Weiskopf's assertion was not without merit. At the time, only 15% of evangelicals held college or graduate degrees. Even…

Many religious-studies professors consider personal references to one's own faith to be out of place in an academic context. However, the author contends that students nowadays need to know what a professor thinks, including what he believes about some matter of faith, if the comments compare his position with other possibilities and invite…

Geneva College, a Christian institution in Pennsylvania, will be allowed to post job advertisements on a state-sponsored Web site even though the college requires employees to be Christians, according to the terms of a settlement reached in federal court. The college had sued the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry and the U.S.…

Jeffrey M. Schwartz, a research professor of psychiatry at the University of California at Los Angeles, presented a paper titled "Intelligence Is an Irreducible Aspect of Nature" at a secret conference on intelligent-design, held at Biola University, which describes itself as "a global center for Christian thought." Dr. Schwartz argued that his…

The Andover Newton Theological School and Hebrew College, which share a hilltop campus in Boston, Massachusetts, are experimenting in academic-religious cooperation that seeks to go beyond programs that simply promote dialogue among disparate groups. The collaboration is the inspiration of Reverend Nick Carter, president of the Christian school,…

In 1991 three Christian students sued the University of Virginia after they were denied funds for their evangelical newspaper. The students said the case was about free speech; the university argued it was about separation of church and state. The U.S. Supreme Court found in favor of the students, a landmark ruling that guaranteed equal treatment…

Describes how, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, incoming freshmen read and discussed a book about the Koran, despite attempts by a Christian group to halt the seminars. (EV)

Describes how Eastern University in Pennsylvania aims to recreate its Christian environment in its distance courses. (EV)

Robert B. Sloan, Jr., president of Baylor University (Texas), has encountered controversy over issues of faith, governance, and his style of leadership. Mr. Sloan wants to heighten both the university's Christian identity and its academic stature. (MSE)

Enrollments at evangelical and other Christian colleges have surged in the last decade, outpacing that of secular institutions. The students, many from home schooling or church-operated schools, want to avoid lifestyles found at many secular colleges and universities. Some critics, however, fear lack of diversity in both enrollments and opinions…