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CU-BOULDER CAMPUS CLIMATE SURVEY: FALL 2001

Religious Preference

Students were asked to indicate their religious preference. The number of students in most religious groups (e.g., Buddism, Hindu) were too low to allow for separate analyses by group; thus, we aggregated the subgroups into two categories, one comprised of those who indicated that they have a religious preference (RP group, N=302) and one for those who do not (NP group, N=339). Among those who indicated a religious preference, the breakdown by religious affiliations is:

We acknowledge that we are combining religious groups that could have quite different experiences on the Boulder campus. The reader should keep this in mind when interpreting results.

Highlights

With a few minor exceptions, the overall climate-related experiences of the two groups did not differ. Responses to nearly all the items were quite positive.

A few differences did emerge. As compared to students without a religious preference, those indicating a preference:

• see the classroom as less homophobic
• report more contact with other religious people
• are more comfortable living in the dorms and residence hall
• are significantly more likely to challenge derogatory remarks about religion

It is important to note that these analyses are not based on the extent to which a student's religious affiliation is important or central to his or her identity. In fact, only 12% of the students with a religious preference indicated that their religion was their most important group identity in how they are treated on campus. More than a quarter (28%) of the students with a religious preference said their race/ethnicity was central and 13% said their major was most important.

Graph of scale scores by religious preference

Campus Climate Survey 2001 Table of Contents

l:\ir\survey\climate\climate01\report\summarydraft-byreligion.doc last updated 6/13/02

Last revision 07/18/02