Unique Student Issues
WHAT ISSUES ARE UNIQUE TO COLLEGE STUDENTS?
In a website article by the Catholic Foundation regarding campus ministries in
secular Colleges and Universities, they made these arguments of great concern
with reference to the atmosphere young adults face:
�Christians are continuously challenged, berated and even ridiculed because they claim a faith in Jesus Christ. The result will be a loss of faith, a turn from the truth, and perhaps loss of morals and absolutes. In classrooms students learn to question traditional assumptions and to tolerate diverse opinions on important questions that cause some to doubt their religious beliefs. Most students eventually encounter the modern critics of religion who charge that belief is either infantile or dehumanizing. In some classes, the scientific method that has advanced human learning so effectively is presented as a total world view, which supplants religion and renders obsolete other approaches to truth. Some even teach that maturation involves rejection of religious beliefs. These are ways that the academic world challenges the traditional belief systems of many students. Public education is not committed to passing on the religious heritage.�
Campus for Christ of Canada, (www.campusforchrist.org) offers additional
thoughts as well:
�But the university campus is a confusing pool of worldviews that leaves many
students actively searching for some absolute truth. A generation raised where
situational ethics and relative morality have softened the spiritual foundation
that was secure for past generations, students are eagerly seeking genuine
spiritual Truth. In an environment that is tearing away at their moral and
spiritual stability, students often feel trapped by the pressures of academic
life and the deep need to be accepted by their peers. All of this can add up to
a university career filled with anxiety, superficial relationships and fear of
the future.
- Decisions about lifestyles: to drink, to have sex, to abstain, to binge-purge,
indulge, experiment, cheat, serve others.
- Decisions about career: selecting majors, changing majors, changing majors
again, graduate school, internships, employers, location.
- Decisions about God: to believe, doubt, investigate, ridicule.
- Decisions about relationships: boyfriends, girlfriends, same sex, different
sex, parents, marriage, living together, pregnancy, and abortion.
Most students have to navigate these decisions without any spiritual direction or encouragement. The campus ministry targets university students, because it is the decision making time of life: the small window of time where individuals are open to changing their ideas, beliefs and perceptions of the world.�
