By Donald H. Harrison

College campuses are where people make a variety of choices about their future: career, lifestyle, and often choice of mate. After surveying 20 college campuses, researchers at Brandeis University's Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies have concluded that the Jewish community needs to do more to make living a Jewish life an attractive option for students to choose.

Program experimentation, intensified Jewish and Israel studies, professional development programs for the staffs of Hillel and Chabad houses, and efforts to promote Jewish student leadership all were recommended in a report co-authored by Leonard Saxe and Amy L. Sales, respectively the center's director and associate director.  The Avi Chai Foundation sponsored and distributed the 37-page report.

"Grants might be offered to encourage Hillel, Chabad, or other established groups to scan current offerings on campus...and to propose where they would apply additional time," the researchers said. "In this way, support can be given where it is most needed, on a campus-by-campus basis. A grants program would not only strengthen current infrastructure but also, perhaps, lead to greater experimentation in programming and outreach on campus."

The report did not disclose the names of the 20 campuses visited by the research tam, but said these campuses in the aggregate had "few Jewish studies professors or courses.

"Thee are many opportunities to bring higher quality Jewish academics and more opportunities for the scholarly study of Judaism to these schools," the researchers added. "As well, initiatives might be undertaken to encourage more enrollment in Jewish studies courses.  These might include scholarships for students interested in majoring in Jewish studies or prizes and awards for student papers and research projects.

"The more excitement that can be focused on Jewish studies, the more likely it will be that students from a wide range of backgrounds will participate."  The report specifically called for increasing the number and improving the quality of courses on the Middle East, along with "faculty training programs, the development of teaching standards, curricular materials and increased exchange among those interested in the field."

Saxe and Sales said there needs to be more resources put into training Chabad and Hillel personnel.  "Jewish campus workers should receive training similar to that received by their secular counterparts in student activities and campus administration," they said.  "This training would teach them how to track changes in student demographics and how to assess needs for new activities. By partaking of such training, Jewish professionals could both benefit from and contribute to the conversations that are taking place among campus professionals more broadly."

The researchers urged "cooperation between Hillel with its informal Jewish educational approach, and Jewish studies programs, with their formal academic approach" in an effort "to raise the level of Jewish literacy among students and potentially affect both the hearts and minds of these students."

"Needed is open discussion of the boundaries between Hillel and Jewish studies and possibilities for strengthening connections," the rersearchers said.

Noting that a high percentage of faculty at American colleges and universities are Jewish, the report suggested efforts be made to increase their identification with the Jewish community in general, and Jewish students in particular.

"Most faculty see themselves in terms of their academic disciplines," said the report. "They tend not to establish special relationships with their Jewish students nor to consider themselves as Jewish role models although clearly, they are role models."

The researchers recommended that grant programs be created to encourage faculty members to explore the linkages between Judaism and their own academic fields.  Further, they urged grants for research programs in Israel, as well as subsidized faculty trips to Israel and regional workshops on Israel.

To involve students more deeply in Jewish life, the report recommended "stipends for Jewish studies; summer and vacation internships that offer a chance for hands-on experience in the Jewish community; paid internship at Hillel, Chabad and other organizations, and mentoring and conections to successful professionals and lay leaders in the community."

Noting that their surveys indicated that Jewish student leaders are more likely to come from Conservative and Orthodox backgrounds, the researchers suggested that the Reform movement "make a special effort to prepare its students and to engage them as Jews during their college years."

Saxe told jewishsightseeing.com that the specific campuses surveyed were not disclosed for two reasons. "First, our focus was on developing general lessons, not specific to the campuses we studied.  Second, in order to gather the best possible data (including interviews with the senior administrators) we needed to grant institutional anonymity.  What we did is standard social science practice."

Over 2,000 Jewish students filled out questionnaires and interviews were conducted with 700 faculty, staff and student leaders at the universities, all of which had Jewish populations representing at least 10 percent of the student body.