Secularization and National Universities: The Effect of Religious Identity on Academic Reputation

That most private national American universities began with a firmly rooted religious identity is well known. Today, these pace-setting universities boast sterling academic reputations, but they retain only vestiges of their religious identities. This shift in ideological allegiances at schools such as Harvard University suggests to some that today's religious colleges or universities are on the horns of a dilemma—maintain a distinctive religious identity or move toward a strong academic reputation. The purpose of this study, then, is to empirically assess the dilemma that national universities cannot attain a reputation for academicexcellence if they maintain their religious identity.