Campus CrossWalk Magazine: 2005 Winter Issue -- Trends: New You Can Use

College students supported John Kerry over President Bush in the November election by 14 percentage points, and 77 percent of these students voted--according to a post-election poll by Michael Hanmer, Georgetown University professor of government, and Richard Niemi, University of Rochester political science professor (Chronicle of Higher Education 12/10/04).
Macy’s Department Store decided to phase out all mention of Christmas in its ads and store displays. Macy’s admits its preference for politically correct phrases such as “season’s greetings” and “happy holidays’ that do not offend any of the “diverse cultures in American society.” (frc.org 12/08/04).
“93 percent of Americans say they believe Jesus Christ actually lived and 82 percent believe Jesus Christ was God or the Son of God,” a recent Newsweek Magazine poll reveals. In addition, the poll further shows that 79 percent of Americans also believe “that, as the Bible says, Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, without a human father.” (msnbc.msn.com ).
“Gulf Coast Get-A-Way” anticipates hosting 1800 students for their annual event in Panama City, Florida, January 28-30, according to Wes Gunn--event director. Many eastern Churches of Christ campus ministries participate in this annual event.
Alcohol is involved in “1400 college student deaths a year,” Harvard University researcher Henry Wechsler reports, including alcohol-related falls and car crashes. (pepperdine.edu/pr/ 10/12/04).
More college students reported increases in diagnoses of depression by 4.6 percentage points over the last four years, according to a survey by the American College Health Association. “In the spring of 2004, 14.9 percent of students reported having received such a diagnosis, compared with 10.3 percent of student s in the spring of 2000.” The study also showed 10 percent of all students surveyed in 2004 said, “they had seriously considered suicide at least once during that year.” (Chronicle of Higher Education, 12/10/04). Note: responses from this study included 47,000 students at 74 colleges.
George Will, in a recent syndicated column concerning American college professors leaning left, wrote: “Only one ideology is tolerated among today’s faculty, so much for diversity.” Will cites that one study of 1000 professors finds “that Democrats outnumber Republicans at least seven to one.” Another survey of voter registration records, including professors in engineering and hard sciences, found “nine Democrats for every Republican at Berkeley and Stanford.” Another study that broke professors down as liberals or conservatives reveals:
- Cornell: 166 liberals, 17 conservatives;
- Stanford: 151 liberals, 5 conservatives;
- Colorado: 116 liberals, 5 conservatives;
- UCLA: 141 liberals, 9 conservatives.
Will quotes an essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education that notes “the first protocol of academic society is the common assumption that at professional gatherings, all the strangers in the room are liberals.” He concludes his column saying that colleges cultivate diversity--in race, skin color, ethnicity, sexual preferences--in everything but thought.” (Orange County Register 11/26/04).
The Let’s Start Talking Ministry will now have active projects year-around for the first time since 9/11/01. 404 LST workers have completed 91 projects in 2004 in 26 different countries. “This number is significant because it means LST has regained momentum lost after September 11.” (“2004 Ministry Report” Let’s Start Talking Ministry, 12/04).
The City University of New York’s Brooklyn College’s administration reversed a decision in November that had disbanded the student government “to prevent it from including an academic bill of rights.” The resolution that the university originally opposed stated “that faculty members should not be hired, fired, or denied promotion or tenure because of their political, religious, or social beliefs; urging that students be included on tenure committees; and specifying that grades should not be based on students’ political beliefs.” The reversal occurred with help from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). (thefire.org 11/27/04).
“The Real Issue” website contains articles of interest to Christians striving to serve Christ in difficult times on college campuses. One recent feature includes “On Being a Christian Academic” by William Lane Craig of Talbot School of Theology. He discusses noted philosopher Alvin Plantinga and the contemporary Western intellectual world, which he says “is a battleground or arena in which rages a battle for men’s souls.” Another profile features Katherine Clay Bassard, professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, who discusses “being fully Christian in the English Department, in the Chemistry Department, in the academy?” (realissue.org 11/27/04).
Texas State Board of Education has recently voted to require its textbooks to “define marriage as lifelong union between a man and a woman.” (frc.org 11/09/04).
Today’s college seniors know no more than high school graduates in 1955, according to a Zogby survey commissioned by the National Association of Scholars. The study compared general cultural knowledge of today’s college seniors to a 1955 Gallup study of high school graduates covering literature, music, science, geography and history. The results: “Contemporary college seniors scored on average little or no higher than the high-school graduates of a half-century ago on a battery of 15 questions assessing general cultural knowledge.” (Orange County Register 12/15/04).
Great news from Campus CrossWalk webminister Brian Cobb who anticipated "100,000 page views" on the CCW website in our first nine months of operation! (12/21/04).

Rick Rowland, D.Min. is a professor in the Communication Division at Pepperdine University and assistant swim coach at California Baptist University. He is the external campus ministry/young adult leader for the Murrieta Church of Christ serving students at Mt. San Jacinto College in California.