According to the Princeton Review of best colleges, one of the criteria for a “diverse” university is ignoring God.
Huh?
Delving into the individual pages, one finds the question restated as “Are students very religious?” Which makes sense, maybe, if you equate being “religious” with “the school is full of a single, vocal, socially-enforced common religious/denominational point of view.” Maybe.
Certainly one can consider the distinction between the top five two categories given:
- “Students Ignore God on a Regular Basis” – Reed College, Lewis & Clark College, Marlboro College, Eugene Lang College, Hampshire College
- “Students Pray on a Regular Basis” – Brigham Young University, Wheaton College, Grove City College, University of Dallas, Samford University
But does a homogeneous non-religious student body represent a more “diverse” school than a (presumably) uniformly religious one? I’m not sure I’d agree there. (Would a student seeking an active spiritual life, for example, find the “Regularly Ignoring God” students of Lewis & Clark more diverse or tolerant, for example?)
And … um … “monochromatic” as the antonym for “diverse”?
Identifying colleges as being more religiously-oriented vs. less religiously-oriented is, probably, of value. But I’d tend to consider a college that had both strong religious organizations and activities and non-religious/secular ones (even anti-religious ones) as the more diverse campus. Just as, for example, a campus that had a large and active gay community would be more diverse than a gay-only or straight-only college.
Weird.
I Googled some of the nonreligious colleges mentioned — none of which I’d ever heard of before.
Under Student Activities Reed mentions a Jewish student group. Hampshire mentions a Christian Fellowship, Jewish Student Union, Meditation Group, Pagan Discussion Group and Quakers. So I’m not sure all (or any) of these schools are necessarily anti-religious. They do look mildly to extremely flakey.
The others are pretty strictly for members of one sect. More logically, single-sect student bodies should come under “homogenous student population”.
(All or most) Students Ignore God on a Regular Basis and (All or most) students Pray on a Regular Basis both sound un-diverse to me. The latter is potentially more diverse as it could possibly apply to Christians, Hindus, Pagans, etc. Well, technically ‘ignoring God’ applies equally to hardened atheists and people who give lip service to a religion but violate its precepts right and left. So they’re equally useless.
So, yeah. Weird. And lame.
I Googled some of the nonreligious colleges mentioned — none of which I’d ever heard of before.
I was accepted to Lewis & Clark (Lake Oswego, OR). Gorgeous campus.
More logically, single-sect student bodies should come under “homogenous student population”.
That category is further explained as “diverse social and ethnic types,” which could conceivably encompass any number of the other categories.
Bottom, I could see (and would welcome) a category for “robustly diverse spirituality” (which should include agnostics/atheists, as well as various faiths) vs “single-sect or secular” student body definitions. As it stands, it’s just as you characterize it.