An in-depth look at what's happening inside the colleges and universities that are growing most dramatically among today's higher education institutions.

The Christian College Phenomenon explores the explosive growth over the last twenty years of institutions affiliated with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). While public institutions of higher learning in the United States experienced a 3% growth in enrollment from 1990-1996, CCCU institutions witnessed a 36.9% growth during that same period. And in 2006, enrollment over the previous year at public universities grew by 13% and at other private colleges by 28%, but enrollment at CCCU institutions rose by 70.6%.

Editors Thomas Chesnes and Samuel Joeckel have taken an empirical approach, surveying over 1900 professors at ninety-five CCCU colleges and universities and 2300 students at twenty different schools. The editors compiled responses to quantitative and open-ended questions on topics from pedagogy and politics to faith learning integration; they then made that data available to nearly thirty scholars who have turned their considered responses into chapters that are now organized into seven book sections, covering topics in gender, evolution, faith, learning, scholarship, and race/ethnicity:

Samuel Joeckel is associate professor of English and honors professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He has written on a wide range of subjects: eighteenth-century British literature, C.S. Lewis, humor theory, Christian higher education, and disability studies. His articles appear in Christianity and Literature, Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, Christian Scholar's Review, SEVEN: An Anglo-American Literary Review, Christian Higher Education, The Kentucky Review, Mythlore, and Sehnsucht: The C.S. Lewis Journal.

Thomas Chesnes specializes in estuarine and field biology. He has worked in estuaries and salt marshes throughout the southeastern United States, studying vertebrate, invertebrate and plant species. He has researched, presented, and published work in a variety of areas including seagrass and invertebrate ecology, fisheries management, the invasive Burmese python in the Everglades, institutional sustainability, higher education, and the interface between science and religion. He has collaborated and coauthored works with undergraduate students in research, resulting in a number of peer reviewed publications and professional presentations. He has recently published articles appearing in The International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Florida Scientist, Christian Scholar's Review, Christian Higher Education, Florida Sportsman, Biodiversity and North American Journal of Fisheries Management.

ISBN: 9780891122845

Pages: 400

Dimensions (inches): 9 x 6

Weight (pounds): 1.45