Church Attendance: A report from the Gallup poll shows that those identifying themselves as Catholics (45%), Methodists (44%), Presbyterians (44%), Lutherans (43%) and Episcopalians (32%) all attend church less than 50% of the time. Church of Christ led the way with 68% attending every week, followed by Mormons, Pentecostals (65%), Southern Baptists (60%) and non-denominational protestants (54%).
(Leadership Network Advance May 2006)Professors Banning Laptops: While the laptop computer has become a common tool for the graduate and undergraduate students alike, a few professors have begun banning them from classrooms. For some, the ubiquity of wireless internet access means that those students furiously typing in the back row may be taking copious notes - or simply chatting with a friend online or updating their profile on myspace. A law professor at the University of Memphis says his ban is not due to competition from online poker, but the fear that his would be litigants are simply becoming stenographers instead, dutifully transcribing the class, but without any processing or thinking - or learning.
(AP May 3, 2006)Mainline Decline: The Episcopal church saw a drop of nearly 4% in its average Sunday attendance from 2003 to 2004. This came despite a nearly 10% increase in population in most parishes. The church noted that many other mainline denominations have faced a similar shift.
(Touchstone April 2006 p. 52)
The High Cost of a College Loan: Nearly 2/3 of college students now use loans to finance their education, up from 46% in 1990. The class of 2004 graduated with an average loan debt of $15,622 for the public school students and $22,581 for those who went to private schools. A 2006 graduate with a consolidated debt of $40,000, they will owe a payment of $243 a month until they are 52. As they begin eyeing their senior discounts, they will have paid over $47,000 in interest alone on that loan.
(CNNMoney.com May 2, 2006)More than Just Advice: Many student papers now have sex advice columns, yet a few schools, including Yale, Harvard, Boston College, and the University of Chicago have taken it a bit farther with student published erotic magazines with full pictorial spreads. Most receive student activities funding (though not necessarily approval from the administration) and utilize student writers and models. The contributors, as well as professors and experts in human sexuality, see the magazines as the outgrowth of a generation that has grown up in a sex saturated media culture. In addition, they point out that feminism has changed so that some now see pornography as expression and not exploitation. Many say the approach of women toward things sexually explicit has changed the most dramatically in the last 15 years. In fact half of the sex magazine founders and editors are women. (NY Times Education Life April 23, 2006 p. 30-31)
