African American Student Satisfaction With Their Spiritual Integration at Religious Institutions

The increasing diversity of college campuses has caused researchers to analyze the African American population and graduation rates in different educational settings, but not at religious institutions (Reason, 2009). Secular institutions such as predominantly white institutions (PWI’s), historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), and community colleges have received extensive attention in the body of literature in the work of Burks and Barrett (2009) and Morris, Smith, and Cejda (2003). Christian colleges have not received extensive research and the gap in this body of the literature implies the need for further research (Council for Christian Colleges & Universities [CCCU], 2011). Burks and Barrett (2009) asserted that Christian institutions face similar challenges that secular institutions face with low graduation rates of African Americans, but the approach to solving the problem applies different solutions because of the mission of religious-affiliated institutions. For example, religious institutions encourage church attendance and chapel attendance to aid students in socially integrating into the college campus (Burks & Barrett, 2009; Morris, Beck, & Smith, 2004)