Master of Arts in Higher Education (MAHE) Theses
Date of Award
2014
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
First Advisor
Todd Ream
Abstract
Since the beginning, American colleges and universities featured mandatory chapel exercises. Secularization reduced the influence and occurrence of these exercises. Despite this, member institutions within the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities retained the mandatory nature as a necessary bulwark against secularization. However, one such institution in the Midwest witnessed high student chapel attendance rates while holding a non-mandatory policy. Utilizing focus groups from each floor of every first-year student living area, five distinctive themes emerged to provide context for this phenomena: desire for spiritual growth, desire for community solidarity, perception of chapel speaker quality, desire for choice or self-actualization, and competing personal needs. Recommendations for practice centered on how housing administrators structure the sense of belonging and connection among residential students in order to influence chapel attendance.
Recommended Citation
Morrison, Aaron, "Motivational Factors that Influence Non-Mandatory Chapel Attendance at a Small, Faith-Based Institution in the Midwest" (2014). Master of Arts in Higher Education (MAHE) Theses. 62.
https://pillars.taylor.edu/mahe/62