Digital Commons @ George Fox University Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations 1-1-2018 Fostering Equanimity through Spiritual Disciplines to Increase Undergraduate Retention at Greenville University Patrick Monroe Miller [email protected] This research is a product of the Doctor of Ministry (DMin) program at George Fox University. Find out more about the program. Recommended Citation Miller, Patrick Monroe, "Fostering Equanimity through Spiritual Disciplines to Increase Undergraduate Retention at Greenville University" (2018). Doctor of Ministry. 262. http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/dmin/262 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctor of Ministry by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GEORGE FOX UNIVERSITY FOSTERING EQUANIMITY THROUGH SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES TO INCREASE UNDERGRADUATE RETENTION AT GREENVILLE UNIVERSITY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF PORTLAND SEMINARY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY PATRICK MONROE MILLER PORTLAND, OREGON MARCH 2018 Portland Seminary George Fox University Portland, Oregon CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL ________________________________ DMin Dissertation ________________________________ This is to certify that the DMin Dissertation of Patrick Miller has been approved by the Dissertation Committee on February 16, 2018 for the degree of Doctor of Ministry in Leadership and Spiritual Formation. Dissertation Committee: Primary Advisor: Guy Chmieleski, DMin Secondary Advisor: Anderson Campbell, DMin Expert Advisor: Anderson Campbell, DMin Copyright © 2018 by Patrick Monroe Miller All rights reserved worldwide. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ ii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... IV ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... VI SECTION 1: THE PROBLEM ...................................................................................... 1 SECTION 2: OTHER PROPOSED SOLUTIONS ..................................................... 24 SECTION 3: THE THESIS .......................................................................................... 61 SECTION 4: THE ARTIFACT .................................................................................... 84 SECTION 5: THE ARTIFACT SPECIFICATIONS ................................................. 97 SECTION 6: POSTSCRIPT ....................................................................................... 105 APPENDIX 1: CATALOG DESCRIPTION ............................................................ 108 APPENDIX 2: RATIONALE ..................................................................................... 109 APPENDIX 3: APPROVAL FORM .......................................................................... 119 APPENDIX 4: COURSE SYLLABUS ....................................................................... 127 APPENDIX 5: SPIRITUAL FORMATION WORKBOOK .................................... 144 APPENDIX 6: REVIEW OF SIMILAR COURSES ................................................ 179 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 194 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To Guy Chmieleski and Anderson Campbell for their input, feedback and guidance on this project. To the librarians at Greenville University and the Illinois interlibrary loan system. To the 2011 M.Div. Cohort at George Fox Evangelical Seminary. To the LSF Doctor of Ministry “Cohort O” for your collegiality, care, wisdom, and grace. To Donna Wallace for showing me the path toward completing this dissertation. To Brian Hartley, Edwin Estevez, and Norm Hall for the ways you supported me as my supervisor during this educational journey. To Marcos Gilmore, Ross Baker, Erika Spring, Kelli Pryor, Naomi Brown, and the rest of the Community Life team at Greenville University for the many, many times you accommodated my time away from the office. To Dustin Fenton, whose questions about transformation ripple under the surface of this project. To Michael Ritter, Paul Sunderland, Jeff Wilson, and other colleagues at Greenville University who encouraged me with their dissertation completion stories and wisdom. To Christine Mutch, who told me about the Doctor of Ministry degree in Leadership & Spiritual Formation that she was pursuing at George Fox. iv To my in-laws, Dwayne and Rhonda Hurst, whose encouragement, informed by their own long and winding educational journeys, has been steadfast and deeply motivating. To my parents, Roger and Cathy Miller, who modeled and fostered curiosity and learning from my earliest memories. To Ellyn, Carah, and Jay, who for most of their remembered lives have known their dad as a graduate student. Your words of encouragement, suggestions of titles and content, and grace when study has taken me away from birthday breakfasts, sporting events, and concerts have not gone unnoticed. To my amazing wife, Laura. Through seven and a half years, four addresses, two job changes, and ten trips to Oregon you have encouraged me, inspired me, and shown me love in so many ways. This degree was only possible because of you. I love you. To God for equanimity, grace, and peace. v ABSTRACT This dissertation responds to the problem of unstable freshman-to-sophomore retention rates at Greenville University between 2005 and 2015. Greenville University retention rates have oscillated between a high of 75.5% in 2009 and a low of 62.5% in 2011. This differs from the performance of the other members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities over the same time period. For CCCU schools, retention has remained between 72.7% and 74%. While both CCCU schools and Greenville University invested significant time and resources into retention programs, Greenville’s efforts did not produce stable retention rates. Section one details the fluctuating retention rates at Greenville University and its programmatic attempts to respond to this problem. Section two reviews the contemporary ways American colleges and universities seek to foster student retention. Section three articulates a solution to this problem built on both Astin, Astin, and Lindholm’s concept of equanimity and Smith and Pearce’s study of emerging adult spirituality. The proposed solution is a three-credit general education course targeting students in their critical second semester of college. This course will foster equanimity in these students through engagement of spiritual disciplines. Sections four and five describe the course and how it incorporates both contemporary data about emerging adults and best practices for ministering to them. Section six identifies potential topics for future study concerning equanimity and emerging adulthood. vi SECTION 1: THE PROBLEM Over the past decade, Greenville University has struggled to stabilize freshman- to-sophomore cohort retention rates to a stated goal of 75%.1 Greenville’s retention rate has fluctuated between 62.5% and 75.5%.2 The Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) is a group of institutions similar to Greenville that is useful for comparison. The CCCU has reported a relatively stable average retention rate for its membership, averaging near 73% between 2006 and 2015.3 Greenville’s retention goal is intended to stabilize annual income, decrease strain on recruitment efforts, and, over time, build the size of the traditional student body. Figure 1. Fall to Fall Cohort Retention 80.0% 60.0% 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 GC CCCU 1 Marcos Gilmore, interview by author, Greenville, IL, April 20, 2017. 2 Greenville College Office of Student Development, “Board of Trustees Report,” December 2015, Greenville University Archives, Greenville University Library, Greenville, IL. 3 Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, “Retention and Graduation Rates Survey,” 2014, accessed March 26, 2016, http://beta.cccu.org/professional_development/research_and_assessment/retention_and_graduation_rates_s urvey. 1 2 Extreme changes year to year in the retention rate create significant budget problems for small universities like Greenville. Years of lower net enrollment result in cuts to personnel and budgets. In years of increased net enrollment, uncertainty based on past oscillations stymies appropriate investment in personnel and programs. These issues are compounded in years where a well-retained class graduates the same year a freshman class is retained at a low rate. The resulting dip in total student enrollment can be felt for years. Examples include the 2006, 2009, and 2012 freshman cohorts. As seen in Figure 1, each of these classes returned in the falls of 2007, 2010, and 2013, respectively, with retention rates above or near 75%. However, the positive budget impact of these three well-retained classes was undercut by the low retention rates of the classes that entered the following two years. The impact of