Baldwin ? Emilee Merry came to Baker University as a member of the United Methodist Church, which has an affiliation with the university. She’ll leave in May as a Methodist.

But she knows there are plenty of students at Baker who don’t share her views, and she’s fine with that.

“You’re encouraged to question,” says Merry, who is from Burlington. “Not everyone leaves a Methodist. Some people come in Methodist and leave with another religion, or no religion.”

With polls showing a renewed interest in faith among teens and younger adults, some colleges and universities with religious affiliations have seen booms in enrollment in the past decade, according to the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

But what it means to be a higher education institution with ties to a religion differs greatly among colleges and universities.

The CCCU requires fairly strict requirements for membership, such as hiring only full-time faculty who are Christians and having a mission statement that is “Christ-centered.” Some “Bible colleges” require attendance at worship and other church-related functions.

But most area colleges and universities take a less stringent approach, providing an environment that both encourages faith and allows for exploration.

Baker attempts to put itself in that category. The university requires students to take one faith-based course, with options including Religions of the World, The Torah, Ethics and The New Testament. It also offers an ecumenical chapel service at 11 a.m. Thursdays, when no classes are scheduled, that draws 100 to 150 students weekly. Enrollment at Baker’s Baldwin campus is about 900.

“It’s completely voluntary,” says Ira DeSpain, campus minister. “Church affiliation doesn’t mean everyone’s religious or everybody’s Methodist. It doesn’t mean prayer is mandatory in classes.”

But it does mean that, unlike at public or private secular universities, prayer is allowed before trustee meetings and other university events.

“The religious aspect is one of the major reasons why people choose Baker,” says E.J. Adams, a senior from Kansas City, Mo. “A state school might not have that kind of support. : I think we talk about it a little more. You discuss religion around campus. No one will be offended if you ask a question.”

Open approach

For both Baker and Ottawa University, their church connection means a small percentage of their budgets are provided from their affiliate churches.

But Maurice Bryan, provost at the American Baptist-affiliated Ottawa University in Ottawa, says the university is not run by the church, even though some members of its board of trustees come from regional churches.

“We want to engage people in the role of Christianity, both in the U.S. context and global context,” Bryan says. “We’re not pushing people to become Christians.”

Ottawa offers weekly chapel services and requires two courses in religion: The Gospels and Christian Thought. Bryan says that administrators do everything they can to make the campus open to religious discussions.

“One of the things I like about a school like Ottawa is the lack of embarrassment we have to talk about some of these issues,” he says. “We offer an ability for them to explore some of these things themselves.”

‘Not alone’

Benedictine College in Atchison, affiliated with the Catholic Church, has documented its spiritual growth in recent years.

In addition to a boom in enrollment – from 700 to 1,200 since 1997 – daily Mass attendance has grown from around 15 to 250 during that time, and weekly Bible study started since then now draws between 300 and 350, says Stephen Minnis, the college’s president.

Students are required to take three classes in theology, including Introduction to the Catholic Faith.

“We don’t hide the fact we’re a Catholic college, and we’re a faith-based college,” says Minnis, who adds that professors sometimes pray before classes. “Since we’re a Catholic school, we have the ability to do things public schools don’t have the ability to do.”

That, he says, helps with recruiting students of faith. He estimates about 70 percent of Benedictine’s student body is Catholic, while the majority of the rest is Christian.

“Young people around the country are stronger in their faith, and more open” than in the past, he says.

For Merry, the Baker University senior, that openness – and attending a college that encourages it – has meant four years of faithful support from her classmates.

“You know you’re not alone on your walk,” she says. “There are people in the same situation as you.”