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Exploring the Emotionally Intelligent Leadership of Interfaith Champions on Campus

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Title: Exploring the Emotionally Intelligent Leadership of Interfaith Champions on Campus
Language: English
Authors: Morin, Shauna M., Durako Fisher, Lori E., Singer, Kevin, Mayhew, Matthew J., Rockenbach, Alyssa N.
Source: New Directions for Student Services. Spr 2021 (173):81-93.
Availability: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 13
Publication Date: 2021
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education
Postsecondary Education
Descriptors: Emotional Intelligence, World Views, Higher Education, Intergroup Relations, Religion
DOI: 10.1002/ss.20379
ISSN: 0164-7970
Abstract: Worldview is often neglected as a dimension of holistic student learning and development in college, yet certain higher education practitioners are deeply committed to supporting students with diverse religious, spiritual, and secular identities. This article explores common characteristics among these "interfaith champions" and how their own worldview identities inform their commitment to advancing interfaith equity.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2021
Accession Number: EJ1303517
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0151651307;nds01mar.21;2021Jul31.04:33;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0151651307-1">Exploring the emotionally intelligent leadership of interfaith champions on campus </title> <p>Worldview is often neglected as a dimension of holistic student learning and development in college, yet certain higher education practitioners are deeply committed to supporting students with diverse religious, spiritual, and secular identities. This article explores common characteristics among these "interfaith champions" and how their own worldview identities inform their commitment to advancing interfaith equity.</p> <p>At their beginnings, US colleges were spaces dedicated to spiritual formation and moral education, but a notable shift toward a secular academe occurred near the end of the nineteenth century (Jacobsen & Jacobsen, 2012). In contemporary higher education, worldview[<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref1">1</reflink>] has been mostly ignored as a salient social identity until very recently. Renewed attention to college students' spiritual lives (see Astin, Astin, & Lindholm, 2011; Chickering, Dalton, & Stamm, 2006; Love & Talbot, 1999) has been accompanied by increased worldview diversity on many campuses across the United States (Eagan et al., 2014). In parallel, higher education scholars and practitioners have grappled with how to make collegiate environments more welcoming and supportive for students with different religious, spiritual, and secular identities.</p> <p>As members of the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS) research team, we count ourselves among those scholars and practitioners who are deeply committed to fostering greater equity for college students with diverse worldview identities. In this article, we do so by elevating the stories of several "interfaith champions," faculty and staff we interviewed as part of IDEALS who are exceptionally invested in advancing interfaith equity on their campuses. We fleshed out their stories to explore how their worldview identities motivated them to be an interfaith champion. In the process, we discovered several common characteristics binding these individuals together and highlighting a path forward for cultivating more champions dedicated to the flourishing of all students—whether their views are religious, spiritual, or secular, politically liberal or politically conservative, or somewhere in between.</p> <hd id="AN0151651307-2">SETTING THE STAGE</hd> <p>Our collective interest in worldview diversity and interfaith equity is informed by a growing body of research that reveals both opportunities and challenges when it comes to fostering college students' worldview identities. For example, spiritual development is known to be predictive of myriad desirable outcomes including psychological well‐being, academic achievement, intellectual self‐esteem, and college satisfaction (Astin et al., 2011). However, spiritual growth and related developmental gains can be conditional on worldview affiliation and vary by institution type (Bowman & Small, 2010, 2012; Mayhew, 2012). On many campuses, worldview is only addressed peripherally relative to other social identities like race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation (Patel & Meyer, 2009), limiting opportunities to foster spiritual development. In some cases, it is left out of the conversation entirely.</p> <p>Such findings resonate with us personally as well as professionally. All of us hold majority (i.e., Christian) worldviews and have benefitted—either directly or indirectly—from opportunities to cultivate our worldview identities. Several of us enjoyed the privilege of attending or working at institutions with religious affiliations that mirror our own. Therefore, we witnessed firsthand the potential for growth and development that existed when resources and spiritual support were readily available to us. At the same time, as higher education professionals we have been privy to consequences that arise when adequate resources and support are not available to meet students' religious, spiritual, or secular needs. Our awareness of these consequences has been acutely heightened through our collective work on IDEALS.</p> <p>The IDEALS was launched in 2015 as the cornerstone of a national study examining aspects of the college environment that shape students' worldview identity and pluralism growth (Mayhew, Rockenbach, Correia, Crandall, & Lo, 2016). Specifically, IDEALS was designed to shed light on the interfaith potential of this generation of college students; the conditions under which students' interfaith attitudes and behaviors change during college; and environmental features (e.g., support structures, engagement opportunities, climate perceptions) that influence interfaith learning and development. The case study data we collected from 18 diverse campuses was intended to augment and contextualize survey findings (Creswell & Poth, 2018) by further illuminating aspects of students' experiences with worldview diversity in college.</p> <p>To be sure, student‐driven findings from IDEALS were striking and confirmed the persistence of gaps in campus climate perceptions between minoritized and majoritized worldview groups (Rockenbach, Mayhew, Correia‐Harker, Dahl, & Morin, 2017). But equally striking were findings that emerged from our qualitative research vis‐à‐vis the influential role of certain faculty and staff who were going above and beyond their formal duties to advance interfaith equity on campus. Their instrumental roles in creating a welcoming environment for students of diverse religious, spiritual, and secular identities piqued our interest and we saw an opportunity to expand what we had learned from the IDEALS case studies by exploring these individuals' stories more deeply.</p> <hd id="AN0151651307-3">WHAT IS AN INTERFAITH CHAMPION?</hd> <p>After observing the presence and influence of these interfaith leaders at multiple case study institutions, we turned to the literature to determine whether any scholarly attention had previously been given to other individuals championing interfaith equity within higher education. We did so to identify defining features we could use to confirm our preliminary assertions that several of our IDEALS participants were indeed "interfaith champions" as well. In our search, we discovered a call to action from a higher education scholar asserting the role interfaith champions <emph>should</emph> play:</p> <p>For religious, secular, and spiritual pluralism to flourish at our institutions, it is absolutely essential for campuses to have key leaders actively serving as advocates who recognize that religious and secular pluralism falls under the model of multicultural competence. Campus vice presidents, deans of students, directors, and program coordinators alike must place a high value on having critical dialogue on religion, secularism, and spirituality as a necessary part of the intellectual, emotional, moral, and spiritual development of the campus community. (Stewart, Kocet, & Lobdell, 2011, p. 17).</p> <p>We also detected evidence of the roles interfaith champions <emph>are playing</emph> on many college campuses. Elon University in North Carolina, for example, boasts a robust calendar of interfaith events coordinated by students and staff at the university's endowed multi‐faith center ("Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life," n.d.). Community dialogues, dinners, and consortia that foster interfaith cooperation across West Michigan are a centerpiece of Grand Valley State University's Kaufman Institute programs ("Kaufman Interfaith Institute," n.d.). More broadly, chaplains and religious life staff who have long been striving to make their campuses more hospitable to Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, humanists, and individuals from other worldview traditions (Patel, Baxter, & Silverman, 2015) continue their efforts at institutions throughout the United States</p> <p>Finally, a series of articles featuring three collegiate interfaith leaders' first‐hand reflections on their work offered some insight into <emph>how</emph> interfaith champions operate on campus (Kazanjian, 2013; Kazanjian & Laurence, 2007; Lohr Sapp, 2013; McLennan, 2005, 2010). Upon reviewing these profiles, we identified several interfaith approaches common to all three authors: they all sought nuanced understandings of the campus environments in which they operated, accommodated the distinct requirements of different worldview groups either programmatically or via policy implementation, and established reciprocal and strategic partnerships with colleagues across their campuses to achieve desired interfaith outcomes.</p> <p>With these findings in mind, we returned to the IDEALS case study data to reacquaint ourselves with the individuals who had earlier surfaced as potential champions of interfaith equity. First, we mined transcripts to ascertain how many times, and in what ways, interfaith champions were referenced by students, faculty, and staff. We also carefully reviewed interview transcripts of the champions themselves for insights into how they conduct their work. Four individuals in four distinct institutional contexts reflected aspects of the interfaith champions we observed in the literature:</p> <p>Paul[<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref2">2</reflink>] serves as campus pastor at Great Lakes College, a private liberal arts institution located in a metropolitan area. He identifies as a Protestant Christian. Great Lakes is one of 28 colleges affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and enrolls fewer than 3,000 undergraduates. Carnegie classifies it as a baccalaureate college with an arts and sciences focus and it is ranked "highly competitive" according to the 2015 Barron's Selectivity Index. Great Lakes College is committed to interfaith cooperation and worldview diversity at an institutional level, evidenced by a variety of policies, co‐curricular programs, and curricular opportunities.</p> <p>Leah, also a Protestant, is the campus pastor at Lakeview College, another ELCA institution similar to Great Lakes College in terms of size and urbanicity. Lakeview College is considered a liberal arts institution according to Carnegie and Barron's lists it as "competitive" in its 2015 Selectivity Index. Alongside fostering academic growth, Lakeview emphasizes the importance of helping students develop a strong moral foundation as an institutional priority. A commitment to recognizing worldview as an aspect of diversity and inclusion was included in Lakeview College's most recent strategic plan.</p> <p>Nicole is the director of religious and spiritual life at Upstate College, a private, nonsectarian institution with nondenominational Christian roots. She, too, identifies as a Protestant Christian. Upstate College is in a small city, enrolling just over 2,000 students. It is designated as an arts and sciences baccalaureate institution and it is ranked "most competitive" in terms of selectivity. Myriad campus initiatives over the past several decades, including the addition of an interdisciplinary religious studies major and the creation of an interfaith chaplain staff role, speak to Upstate's ongoing commitment to interfaith engagement and worldview diversity.</p> <p>Gus is a religious studies faculty member at Mountain University who identifies with multiple worldviews, including Judaism. His Catholic institution serves fewer than 2,000 undergraduates. Mountain University is in an urban setting and is considered a doctoral/professional institution according to Carnegie's classification system. Barron's 2015 Selectivity Index ranks Mountain University as "competitive." Messaging from university leaders suggest that interfaith cooperation is institutionally valued, and interfaith efforts seemed to be primarily housed within the curricular domain at Mountain University.</p> <p>Each of these champions demonstrated high regard for the role of interfaith dialogue in fueling "the intellectual, emotional, moral, and spiritual development of the campus community" (Stewart et al., 2011, p. 17). Three held chaplaincy or spiritual life roles and the fourth taught religious studies courses; all of them leveraged their positions to "make their campuses more hospitable" to students with different religious, spiritual, and secular beliefs (Patel et al., 2015). Finally, our champions' approaches to interfaith work closely mirrored those of Kazanjian (2013), Lohr Sapp (2013), and McLennan (2005, 2010).</p> <hd id="AN0151651307-4">HOW WORLDVIEW IDENTITY CAN INSPIRE INTERFAITH WORK</hd> <p>Existing literature was useful in helping us justify our selection of interfaith leaders from among our IDEALS participants. Yet, we also desired to move beyond what is already known to ascertain how interfaith champions are shaped and motivated by their worldview identities. In this way, we intended to uncover new pathways for cultivating additional champions dedicated to the flourishing of religiously diverse students. During our analysis, we made an unanticipated discovery: emotionally intelligent leadership offered an apt framework for understanding how worldview identity inspired our champions' interfaith work.</p> <hd id="AN0151651307-5">Emotionally Intelligent Leadership</hd> <p>Emotionally intelligent leadership (EIL) is an outgrowth of a large body of research on EI, or "emotional intelligence." EI is defined as "a subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions to use the information to guide one's thinking and actions" (Salovey & Mayer, 1990, p. 189). Various theories of EI contain distinct constructs, but self‐awareness and self‐regulation of emotions are central features of multiple theories (see Bar‐On, 1997; Goleman, 1998; Salovey & Mayer, 1990; Weisinger, 1998). Recently, scholars have applied EI theories to the work of religious leaders.</p> <p>Germane to our inquiry into interfaith champions, West, Oswald, and Guzmán (2018) found that EI in religious leaders was important for developing skills like resiliency that are necessary for navigating the emotional dynamics that exist in religious spaces. EI also surfaced as crucial for the cultivation of trusting relationships and connections between individuals (West et al., 2018). Those who work in interfaith spaces create and facilitate exchanges between people of different worldview identities (Patel, 2016); they share similar experiences to those of religious leaders and thus EI could be instrumental in shaping their work as well.</p> <p>EIL considers EI through a leadership lens (drawing on theories of transformational, charismatic, or relational leadership) and comprises three areas of consciousness: self, others, and context (Shankman & Allen, 2008) (see Table 1). Though it was initially developed with college students in mind, EIL serves as a useful tool for anyone aiming to increase their leadership capacities. We were encouraged by its underlying premise that leadership is learned and growth can be achieved within specific focus areas, which aligns well with our efforts to identify pathways for advancing interfaith leadership in higher education.</p> <p>1 TABLEAreas of consciousness in emotionally intelligent leadership</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><tbody><tr><td>Consciousness of Self Focuses on self‐awareness of abilities and emotions</td><td>Expanding on the concept of self‐awareness included in many leadership theories (e.g., authenticity), consciousness of self includes capacities like emotional self‐perception, achievement, honest self‐understanding, optimism, healthy self‐esteem, authenticity, flexibility, and initiative. Individuals with a consciousness of self embody integrity that comes from alignment of actions and words. In turn, this integrity helps engender trust between the leader and those with whom they work.</td></tr><tr><td>Consciousness of OthersFocuses on awareness of the relationships a leader has with others and the roles they play within those relationships</td><td>Those who possess a consciousness of others take time to understand how those around them think, work, and communicate, and are attuned to their goals, motivations, and interests. Essential to leading with a consciousness of others is the ability to understand the differences between individuals and to leverage that knowledge. Capacities related to this dimension of EIL include empathy, citizenship, inspiration, influence, conflict management, teamwork, coaching skills, and agency to make change.</td></tr><tr><td>Consciousness of ContextDescribes an awareness of the settings and situations in which they operate</td><td>One's setting includes the structures and hierarchy of their organization as well as policies and practices. Situational awareness involves understanding the unique time and place in which one is operating, which can be shaped by organizational politics, local and national trends, or tensions and stressors shaping dynamics within the organization. Capacities central to situational awareness include the ability to think strategically about the environment and to accurately interpret given situations (also known as group savvy) (Shankman & Allen, 2008).</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <hd id="AN0151651307-6">ACHIEVEMENT REALIZED THROUGH SELF‐REFLECTION</hd> <p>The accounts of our interfaith champions, considered alongside accounts given by their colleagues, substantiated that well‐developed emotional capacities serve interfaith champions well as they strive to effect change in higher education. With respect to our champions' consciousness of self, the capacities Shankman and Allen (2008) describe as <emph>achievement</emph> and <emph>honest self‐understanding</emph> emerged as particularly salient. The notion of achievement refers to a person's intrinsic motivation to improve, while honest self‐understanding describes an individual's awareness of their strengths and limitations gained through self‐reflection and seeking feedback from others. In the context of this study, self‐reflection among our champions—with respect to their own worldview journeys as well as the strengths and limitations of their leadership roles—was the most observable dimension of honest self‐understanding.</p> <p>Among the interfaith champions in IDEALS, we observed a motivation to achieve interfaith cooperation that was often rooted in their own experiences of worldview development. Gus, for example, pointed to his own journey of identity development as the impetus for supporting students on their religious or spiritual journeys during the college years:</p> <p>I have experienced the power and the freedom of being able to do that [explore what I believe] and I really experienced it. It started for me in college, right? I met people from a religion in Australia ... and there's a long story in there of my own willingness to just go and show up ... Then I was baptized in a Baptist church and spent a summer in my hometown going to a different church every weekend ... so that kind of exploration has been part of my story ... I see the work that I do as facilitating an honest and free exploration of one's real life, right, coming into one's wholeness or one's identity.</p> <p>In Nicole's words, how she "experience[d] difference myself" shaped her commitment to inclusion for people of diverse identities in different worldview settings. As one of only two women in a community of 170 clergy when she was first ordained, she "experienced a lot of the 'You're a woman. You shouldn't be ordained,' behavioral expectations." Now she strives to ensure that her students are not made to feel marginalized because of who they are or what they believe.</p> <p>All four of the champions central to this study demonstrated an astute awareness of the strengths and limitations inherent in their respective leadership roles, which informed how they went about supporting students' learning and development. Interestingly, though all of them were vocal leaders when advocating for change at the program or policy level, they preferred to play a more supportive role when leading students. Leah, a Lutheran campus pastor, viewed her responsibility to students as providing the tools and space necessary for critical thought:</p> <p>I think my job here as director of the [spiritual life center] is to help our students find a language of faith and spirituality that works for them right now, and hopefully tools to be discerning about how that's going to change over their lifetime ... Part of my job here is not to make you a Lutheran and not to make you think like me, but it's to give you space to figure out what it is that you think.</p> <p>Gus echoed Leah's sentiment when asserting that, given his purview, he was best positioned to "ask more questions than give answers, right? ... To say, 'So, tell me what you think. Why do you think that? Where does that come from? What evidence do you have for that?'" For Paul, also a campus pastor, the modus operandi of interfaith work involved modeling "bridge building rather than wall building" for his students. Strikingly, Nicole's strengths as a leader were captured not only in her own interview responses, where she characterized herself as "more of a resource person than a 'Come, follow me' person," but also in the comments of a colleague:</p> <p>I think it's important to provide, regardless of your own individual beliefs, I think it's important to stay open to what other students actually need and meet them where they're at and then take them to where they want to go, not where you want them to go. Nicole does that really, really well.</p> <hd id="AN0151651307-7">Initiative Grounded in Authenticity</hd> <p>As we delved deeper into the ways self‐awareness characterized our interfaith champions, two other capacities surfaced: initiative and authenticity. Initiative in the emotionally intelligent leadership (EIL) framework involves wanting and seeking opportunities (Shankman & Allen, 2008). When asked to describe their core responsibilities on campus, all four champions shared extensive examples of programs, tasks, and priorities central to their roles. What emerged across their responses was a commitment to—and evidence of—going above and beyond formal expectations in the name of advancing interfaith equity and supporting worldview identity development. Paul took his message of interfaith to all corners of his institution to shift the underlying culture toward greater appreciation of religious diversity:</p> <p>In order to have a culture of something, in my view, it really has to be articulated and expressed in a variety of different ways throughout the institution ... If [students] go to class and the professors are assigning stuff to read and talk about, [something] that talks about interfaith diversity or whatever, and then they go to chapel and doggone it, I mean the clergy are speaking about it in chapel, and then they go to their dorms and the programming ... has to do with interfaith responsibility, and then they go and sign up for extracurricular activities and there's this group called Interfaith Understanding Group, as a student group, I mean all of that really comes together.</p> <p>A faculty member at Mountain University, when remarking on the myriad hats Gus wears on campus, illustrated not only Gus's exemplary initiative but the impact of his ambition and enthusiasm on the broader university community:</p> <p>He's a real driving force, especially how important he thinks [interfaith] is and how willing he is to bring people on board and get people interested. I can't imagine the amount of time he spends on these kinds of projects in addition to his ... I hate to say his real job, but you know, all the courses that you have to take and committees you have to be on. Those kinds of things that ... He's just really been a champion, I think, for the effort. Having that on campus makes it very easy to participate, at least in my opinion. And very gratifying.</p> <p>When taking stock of the champions' emotional intelligence holistically, connections were evident between their personal motivations to advocate for greater pluralism and appreciation for religious diversity (i.e., achievement) and the initiative they displayed. Nicole relayed some turning points in her own life that prompted her to seek opportunities for personal and professional growth. "When I began to realize I knew precious little about anything other than Judaism and Christianity, I went back and got my doctorate," she recalled. The program of study she pursued "engaged me both in terms of my heart and my head," and challenged her to wrestle with questions about how to apply the degree in her everyday work.</p> <p>The transparent link between Nicole's and others' lived experiences and their initiative as interfaith leaders highlights an authenticity that endeared them to those with whom they interacted on their campuses. An administrator who worked with Leah shared how Leah's authenticity was received by members of their college community:</p> <p>Obviously, Pastor Leah is pretty well‐known. I call her one of our [campus] rock stars, because everybody knows her and you can't walk away from an interaction with her and not feel good about yourself and the time you had with her. She just has a gift, and I think there's faculty that talk about it.</p> <p>Establishing themselves as leaders who were not only authentic in their desire to make their campuses more inclusive, but who also were respectful of and attuned to the distinctive dimensions of their environments, was seemingly critical for the success of the interfaith champions in this study. The authenticity they conveyed yielded myriad relationships that were instrumental in furthering their interfaith aims. As Leah mused about her own approach to being a campus pastor, she articulated an approach to authentic interfaith work that seemed to serve all the champions well: "[You] really love what you love and love it dearly, but do it with some humility, because Lord knows, none of us know if we're really right."</p> <hd id="AN0151651307-8">ACKNOWLEDGING CONTEXTS AND ATTENDING TO OTHERS</hd> <p>Applying an emotionally intelligent leadership (EIL) lens to our exploration of interfaith champions enabled us to see how consciousness of others and awareness of context—along with consciousness of self—integrally defined the champions' work. Their acuity in these domains was evident in the ways they navigated distinct collegiate settings and tailored interfaith efforts to align with the mission and priorities of their institutions. Leah illustrated a firm understanding of Lakeview College's religious values and how they undergird a commitment to pluralism:</p> <p>I think the ELCA has been out there doing inter‐denomination and interfaith conversations for decades, and it's probably something most people don't even realize about our church body and what we do and what we're about. I think our rootedness in our Lutheran tradition does provide us with ... the language and a theological understanding about why we do [the interfaith work] we do.</p> <p>To support the worldview development of students in his religious studies courses, Gus prioritized experiential learning and self‐reflection. He was able to rationalize this approach by tying it to the Jesuit Catholic mission of Mountain University:</p> <p>That's another important part of the Jesuit tradition, that Ignatius [the founder of the Jesuits] was very clear that God speaks to us through our desires ... and not necessarily from outside and not necessarily through our brains, right, but through that experience and that kind of emotional level. I think there are certainly ways in which I sacrifice the theoretical or methodological [in] classes that I do, [but] ... the encounter [across worldview difference] is what they're going to remember five years from now, right? That's what's going to transform them.</p> <p>Paul exhibited an awareness of a unique time and place (Shankman & Allen, 2008) for religious institutions of higher education given "the largest growing, or the fastest growing segment [of students] ... is those who ... would say, 'None. I have no religious background at all.'" An appreciation for the changing religious and secular identities of students was reflected in a broad‐based educational program Paul implemented at Great Lakes College to educate and break down stereotypes about diverse worldviews.</p> <p>Nicole, who served in religious and spiritual life at a private nonsectarian institution, operated in a context notably different from Leah, Gus, and Paul's religiously affiliated institutions. Attuned to negative perceptions of religion among some faculty at Upstate College, Nicole positioned interfaith to align with broader diversity and inclusion priorities. Further, she leveraged the goals, motivations, and interests of colleagues (Shankman & Allen, 2008) in student affairs to integrate religion and spirituality into programs of importance to them. According to Emily, one such colleague in the health and wellness center:</p> <p>When we developed our wellness center here and brought everybody under the same roof ... we really did want to exude that idea of holistic wellness, mind, body, and spirit, but ... we recognized that what we were doing from the mental health side and the physical health side was not always touching that spirit connection. So, we've really been very intentional with the last two years to do a lot of collaboration with Nicole and her office.</p> <p>Nicole also secured a seat at the table alongside the college's senior administrator for diversity and inclusion when campus‐wide policy and strategic planning conversations were taking place; this facilitated her involvement in developing diversity aims for the strategic plan that encompassed religion and spirituality.</p> <p>Consciousness of others was manifest in the relationships Leah, Gus, Paul, and Nicole formed with fellow professionals at their institutions. Their empathic regard for the struggles of students holding minoritized worldview identities was also a significant marker of emotionally intelligent leadership. Gus recognized a lack of support for Jewish and Muslim students at his university and acted accordingly:</p> <p>I unofficially organize and support the Jewish community across campus, organizing events and leading much of that and trying to support students. I focus a lot of attention on connecting the campus with the local Muslim communities and trying to support Muslim students when possible ... There aren't student organizations for any of these groups or an interfaith student organization, but I have tried without imposing something to support students who are either interested in doing interfaith things on campus and supporting religious minorities, particularly Jews and Muslims.</p> <p>Efforts like these were frequently recognized and applauded by other individuals on the campuses with whom we spoke. At Great Lakes College, one faculty member shared, "One of the things that Paul does is he brings, say, five students from different religious and ethnic identities to the podium [at baccalaureate], and they speak scripture, sometimes in their own languages, as a gesture that this is not an exclusively Lutheran place." Similarly, a co‐worker of Nicole's shared a time during new student orientation when no arrangements had been made to accommodate Muslim students during Ramadan. "Nicole organized a dinner for all the students who were on campus already ... [and] coordinated ordering the food, getting it here on campus, finding a good location for them to have it in, that type of thing."</p> <hd id="AN0151651307-9">CULTIVATING EMOTIONALLY INTELLIGENT INTERFAITH CHAMPIONS</hd> <p>At the outset of this article, we shared our interest in learning more about the interfaith champions who featured prominently in our IDEALS case study findings—in large part because these individuals are co‐collaborators in our ongoing efforts to foster greater equity for college students with diverse worldview identities. Dedicating time to explore their stories more deeply bore significant fruit and enabled us to contribute to a scant body of literature by illuminating the characteristics and motivations these champions share. Perhaps our most exciting achievement in conducting this work involved the discovery of emotionally intelligent leadership (EIL) as a tool we can leverage to advance interfaith equity in higher education.</p> <p>Going forward, it may be possible to identify potential interfaith leaders in our midst by seeking out leaders who embody strengths like authenticity, achievement, and initiative; act as agents of change; and astutely observe and operate within their campus communities (Shankman & Allen, 2008). For these individuals, opportunities to reflect on their own worldview development might invigorate existing capacities of self‐understanding and motivate them in other ways to engage with interfaith more deeply. Such opportunities could come in the form of "critical dialogue on religion, secularism, and spirituality" that Stewart et al. (2011), p. 17) recommend.</p> <p>It is also important for our work that capacities for EIL can be learned (Shankman & Allen, 2008). With proper guidance, necessary skills for effective interfaith leadership can be fostered within individuals who are already inclined to value worldview diversity on campus. Since existing interfaith champions are adept at building relationships with diverse and even unlikely collaborators, they might consider reaching out to potential champions and nurturing growth of their EIL capacities. In practice, this could involve enhancing others' consciousness of context by discussing gaps in support for students of diverse worldview identities; increasing awareness of incidents or issues (e.g., Islamophobic or anti‐Semitic events) that affect the campus climate; pointing out barriers or facilitators to interfaith equity unique to an institution's mission or identity; or educating on topics related to religion and worldview being discussed within higher education or in the public square (Shankman & Allen, 2008).</p> <p>While an EIL lens reveals promising new directions for interfaith practice, there is more that needs to be done to deepen our understanding of interfaith champions. First and foremost, we are acutely aware that our learnings from IDEALS are limited by an overrepresentation of Christian worldviews among our interfaith champions. This raises questions about the criteria we use to designate someone as a champion: are advocates for interfaith equity with minoritized worldview identities lesser known by the campus community? Do Christians garner greater institutional attention and support when they engage in interfaith work? Does the historic legacy of religious life and campus ministry offices as Christian spaces create barriers for non‐Christian (or nonreligious) individuals seeking influential chaplaincy roles?</p> <p>Second, we must interrogate whether and how interfaith champions operate in public higher education settings. Although IDEALS case studies were conducted at public as well as private institutions, no one we interviewed at public universities met our criteria for champions. Is it possible that, in the absence of chaplains or religious life offices that often exist at private colleges, interfaith champions on public campuses are more dispersed and thus challenging to locate? It also may be that interfaith champions operate differently in these settings and thus our existing criteria for identifying them are insufficient.</p> <p>For higher education professionals invested in interfaith equity, future directions must include paying more attention to who is absent from interfaith leadership roles. Creating a truly inclusive climate for students with different worldview identities requires an environment that is also inclusive of champions with a diversity of worldviews. Proactively inviting faculty and staff with myriad religious, spiritual, and secular beliefs into spaces designed for interfaith interactions constitutes one avenue for engaging potential champions while simultaneously expanding the consciousness of self and others that Shankman and Allen (2008) describe.</p> <p>Those of us in public universities should also be thinking creatively about where to find individuals who are inclined to advance interfaith equity on campus. Offering forums where students have the chance to express their worldview‐related needs—and inviting staff from functional areas that could respond to these needs—could afford potential champions an opportunity to collaborate with students to solve pressing problems. At the same time, it may heighten their awareness of context (Shankman & Allen, 2008) by revealing barriers to interfaith equity unique to their institutional context.</p> <p>We are heartened by strides being taken to address worldview diversity across today's higher education landscape. This work is both timely and relevant in an environment where students, faculty, and staff alike possess a complex combination of intersecting and evolving identities, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and worldview. Efforts to elevate worldview as a vital aspect of holistic student development alongside other social identities are critical to ensure all religious, spiritual, and secular identities are fully supported on campus. We hope the interfaith champions profiled in this article inspire practitioners to explore their own EIL capacities and consider leveraging them to advance interfaith equity at their institutions. Meanwhile, uncovering effective strategies for identifying, recruiting, and fostering myriad types of interfaith champions will continue to drive our work as scholars.</p> <hd id="AN0151651307-10">ACKNOWLEDGMENTS</hd> <p>The Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS) research is made possible by funders including The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, and the Julian Grace Foundation.</p> <ref id="AN0151651307-11"> <title> Footnotes </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref1" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> <emph>Worldview</emph> is defined as a guiding outlook on life that is informed by a combination of one's religious beliefs, spiritual philosophy, and/or secular perspective (Rockenbach, Mayhew, Kinarsky, & Interfaith Youth Core, [22]).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref2" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Participants and their institutions were assigned pseudonyms to protect confidentiality.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <ref id="AN0151651307-12"> <title> REFERENCES </title> <blist> <bibtext> Astin, A. W., Astin, H. S., & Lindholm, J. A. (2011). Cultivating the spirit: How college can enhance students' inner lives. Jossey‐Bass.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Bar‐On, R. (1997). The Bar‐On emotional quotient inventory (EQ‐i): A test of emotional intelligence. Multi‐Health Systems.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> Bowman, N. A., & Small, J. L. (2010). Do college students who identify with a privileged religion experience greater spiritual development? Exploring individual and institutional dynamics. Research in Higher Education, 51 (7), 595 – 614.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> Bowman, N. A., & Small, J. L. (2012). Exploring a hidden form of minority status: College students' religious affiliation and well‐being. Journal of College Student Development, 53 (4), 491 – 509.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Chickering, A. W., Dalton, J. C., & Stamm, L. (2006). Encouraging authenticity and spirituality in higher education. Jossey‐Bass.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib6" type="bt">6</bibl> <bibtext> Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches. Sage.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib7" type="bt">7</bibl> <bibtext> Eagan, K., Stolzenberg, E. B., Ramirez, J. J., Aragon, M. C., Suchard, M. R., & Hurtado, S. (2014). The American freshman: National norms fall 2014. Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib8" type="bt">8</bibl> <bibtext> Goleman, D. (1998). Working with emotional intelligence. Bantam Books.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib9" type="bt">9</bibl> <bibtext> Jacobsen, D., & Jacobsen, R. H. (2012). No longer invisible: Religion in university education. Oxford University Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Kaufman Interfaith Institute. (n.d.). https://<ulink href="http://www.gvsu.edu/interfaith/">www.gvsu.edu/interfaith/</ulink></bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Kazanjian, V. (2013). Spiritual practices on college and university campuses: Understanding the concepts‐broadening the context. Journal of College and Character, 14 (2), 97 – 104.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Kazanjian, V., & Laurence, P. (2007). The journey toward multi‐faith community on campus: The religious and spiritual life program at Wellesley College. Journal of College and Character, 9 (2).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Lohr Sapp, C. (2013). A great and towering compromise: Religious practice and space at Duke University. Journal of College and Character, 14 (2), 117 – 124.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Love, P., & Talbot, D. (1999). Defining spiritual development: A missing consideration for student affairs. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 37 (1), 361 – 375.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Mayhew, M. J. (2012). A multi‐level examination of college and its influence on ecumenical worldview development. Research in Higher Education, 53 (3), 282 – 310.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Mayhew, M. J., Rockenbach, A. N., Correia, B. P., Crandall, R. E., & Lo, M. A., & Associates.(2016) Emerging interfaith trends: What college students are saying about religion in 2016. Interfaith Youth Core.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> McLennan, S. (2005). Doorways to spirituality for students: A chaplain's view. Journal of College and Character, 6 (8)</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> McLennan, S. (2010). Interfaith interaction on campus. Journal of College and Character, 11 (2)</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Patel, E. (2016). Interfaith leadership: A primer. Beacon Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Patel, E., Baxter, K. B., & Silverman, N. (2015). Leadership practices for interfaith excellence in higher education. Liberal Education, 101, n1 – 2.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Patel, E., & Meyer, C. (2009). Engaging religious diversity on campus: The role of interfaith leadership. Journal of College and Character, 10 (7)</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Rockenbach, A. N., Mayhew, M. J., & Kinarsky, A. & Interfaith Youth Core (2014). Engaging worldview: A snapshot of religious and spiritual climate. Part I: Dimensions of climate and student engagement. Interfaith Youth Core.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Rockenbach, A. N., Mayhew, M. J., Correia‐Harker, B. P., Dahl, L., & Morin, S., & Associates.(2017) Navigating pluralism: How students approach religious difference and interfaith engagement in their first year of college. Interfaith Youth Core.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 9 (3), 185 – 211.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Shankman, M. L., & Allen, J. A. (2008). Emotionally intelligent leadership: A guide for college students. Jossey‐Bass.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Stewart, D. L., Kocet, M. M., & Lobdell, S. (2011). The multifaith campus: Transforming colleges and universities for spiritual engagement. About Campus, 16 (1), 10 – 18.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life. (n.d.). https://<ulink href="http://www.elon.edu/u/truitt‐center/">www.elon.edu/u/truitt‐center/</ulink></bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Weisinger, H. (1998). Emotional intelligence at work. Jossey‐Bass.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> West, J. L., Oswald, R. M., & Guzmán, N. (2018). Emotional intelligence for religious leaders. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Shauna M. Morin; Lori E. Durako Fisher; Kevin Singer; Matthew J. Mayhew and Alyssa N. Rockenbach</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author; Author; Author; Author</p> <p></p> <p>Shauna M. Morin is a strategic initiatives consultant for Interfaith Youth Core, a nonprofit that works to engage religious diversity productively for the common good. She holds a PhD in Higher Education from North Carolina State University and her research interests include spirituality, meaning‐making, and interfaith competencies among college students and young adults.</p> <p>Lori E. Durako Fisher is a doctoral student in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development (Higher Education) at North Carolina State University where she works as a research associate with the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS). Her research centers around student activism in collegiate environments and experiences of university staff and faculty supporting college students, emphasizing humanizing and critical frameworks within her research.</p> <p>Kevin Singer is a PhD student in higher education at North Carolina State University. He also holds degrees from North Carolina State University (B.A. communications, 2009) and Wheaton College (M.A. theological studies, 2016). Kevin also teaches world religions at two community colleges and co‐directs Neighborly Faith, an organization building bridges between evangelical Christians and people of other faiths.</p> <p>Matthew J. Mayhew is the William Ray and Marie Adamson Flesher professor of educational administration with a focus on higher education and student affairs at The Ohio State University. His research focuses on how collegiate conditions, educational practices, and student experiences influence learning and democratic outcomes.</p> <p>Alyssa N. Rockenbach is Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development at North Carolina State University. Her research centers college students' religious, secular, and spiritual identities; gender and LGBTQ+ equity on campus; and issues of opportunity and justice in higher education and society.</p> </aug>
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  Data: Worldview is often neglected as a dimension of holistic student learning and development in college, yet certain higher education practitioners are deeply committed to supporting students with diverse religious, spiritual, and secular identities. This article explores common characteristics among these "interfaith champions" and how their own worldview identities inform their commitment to advancing interfaith equity.
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