Developing an Assessment of College Students' Spiritual Experiences: The Collegiate Religious and Spiritual Climate Survey

Last November's Journal of College and Character's "Spirituality on Campus" essay featured reflections on the growing imperative to assess religious and spiritual dimensions of campus climate, including related initiatives and programs designed to engage students' spirituality. The essay reviewed campus climate literature, discussed emerging "best practices" for spirituallyinfused programming, and offered a series of suggestions related to the assessment of each (Bryant, 2008). Building on the ideas generated in the essay, during the past year we initiated a project designed to examine campus climates and religious and spiritual programming in colleges and universities and each program's relationship to college student outcomes. This essay describes our journey toward developing a new assessment tool: The Collegiate Religious and Spiritual Climate Survey.