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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to Study

Campus religious organizations also kown as campus fellowships have made their mark on universities and on the students that join them. To be sure, the relationship between religion and higher education is often precarious. While universities were at one time an extension of the general Protestant ethos that permeated American society in to Nigeria in thecolonial era, the influx of modernism into the academy weakened religious influences on higher education as a whole (Marsden, 1994). Campus ministry emerged in response to the declining Protestant influence within universities as a way to nurture students effectively in their faith and provide a secure, affirming community for them (Winnings, 1999).

On the contemporary scene, spiritual matters have piqued the interest of some scholars and students, especially with the rise of postmodernism (Love, 2000), but secular higher education—and the research university in particular—has remained ambivalent toward religion overall (Smith, 2001). Yet, even public institutions are not bereft of all spiritual influence, as the inclinations of many students toward faith and spirituality have become increasingly evident on campuses of all types (Astin, Astin, Lindholm, Bryant, Szelényi, & Calderone, 2005). Groups that devote considerable effort to recruitment and evangelism have become particularly noticeable on campuses, and their memberships have swelled in number (Bryant, 2005; Carroll, 2002; Cherry, DeBerg, & Porterfield, 2001; Swidey, 2003). Observations such as these lead to critical questions about the values that define these groups and how such groups impact students in terms of key college outcomes.

Studies by Jeynes (2002, 2003a) and Regnerus (2000) found that religiously committed urban children performed better on academic measures than their less religious counterparts, even when controlling for socio-economic status, race, and gender. These results, from various studies, were based upon analytic approaches, meta-analyses, nationwide datasets, and qualitative techniques. Specifically, religious students of color outperformed their less religious counterparts.

Regnerus (2000) proposed and tested a multilevel model of involvement in church activities and schooling success among metropolitan abuja public high school. He hypothesized that:

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