25AR30-35

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AR 30:35 - Why campus religious pluralism is "a civic necessity"

In this issue:

RELIGIOUS PLURALISM - "findings may challenge assumptions about where meaningful education about diversity occurs"

SCIENTIFIC ETHICS - evaluation of "20,000 papers in 40 journals" found that about 2% had "features suggestive of deliberate manipulation"

Apologia Report 30:35 (1,724)
October 3, 2025

RELIGIOUS PLURALISM

"The Paradox of Pluralism: How college shapes [American] students' views of other religions," by Ilana Horwitz and Jenny Small (Conversation, Aug 14 '25) -- "We examined data from more than 3,100 students at 112 colleges, using the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey. <www.tinyurl.com/36ev7tcp> Our study tracked students for four years, measuring two things: their attitudes about appreciating different faiths, and their actual participation in interfaith activities."

   The introduction begins: "Students at elite universities tend to talk a good game when it comes to religious pluralism. Many of them show up on day one already saying all the right things about respecting different faiths. 

   "But here's the paradox: They don't grow from there, according to our research published in The Journal of Higher Education. <www.tinyurl.com/2ucwwcha> ...

   Horwitz (Jewish Studies and Sociology, Tulane University) and Small (Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education, Brandeis University) explain: "Our study revealed three findings.

   "First, freshmen at highly selective schools - institutions that typically admit fewer than 1 in 5 applicants - often start with stronger support for religious pluralism. Compared with freshmen at less selective schools, they are more likely to agree with questions like 'I respect people who have religious or nonreligious perspectives that differ from my own,' though the difference was modest.

   "Second, fourth-year students at less selective schools showed more pluralistic attitudes than at the start of college. In contrast, students at elite institutions maintained their high initial attitudes without any measurable change.

   "Third, students at all types of institutions participated in more interfaith activities by the end of college, on average, with less selective schools showing slightly larger gains. That might mean attending services of different faiths, taking courses about other religions or joining dialogue groups.

   "The bottom line: At less selective colleges, students tended to develop stronger attitudes about religious pluralism, and they also increased their interfaith activities. At elite colleges, students increased their activities, but their attitudes more often remained flat. ...

   "The findings may challenge assumptions about where meaningful education about diversity occurs. On average, less selective institutions, which educate most college students, begin with students less inclined toward pluralism. Yet in general, we found that these schools successfully foster growth in both attitudes and behavior - particularly when interfaith programs are integrated into everyday campus life and curriculum. ...

   "If institutions are struggling to cultivate the skills students need to have conversations and collaborate with people from diverse religious backgrounds, the cultural divides that already fracture our democracy are at risk of deepening.

   "We believe colleges must go beyond performative pluralism to foster the habits of curiosity, humility and collaboration. Pluralism isn't just a campus value. It's a civic necessity." <www.tinyurl.com/2u5b27t9>

   The late Dallas Willard a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California (1965 - 2012), would have appreciated this, as it lines up well with his unfinished (until 2018) magnum opus. For more on this, see the following remark from my (RP) lengthy overview of his 1998 book The The Divine Conspiracy, <www.tinyurl.com/4p92nk84> which makes for a nice segue to the following topic.

 ---

SCIENTIFIC ETHIICS

"Fraud Hunters: Sniffing Out Bogus Science" by Vince Bielski (Real Clear Investigations, Aug 13 '25)  -- begins with reference to molecular biologist Mike Rossner, <www.tinyurl.com/2wyv47hw> "a consultant specializing in identifying manipulated and duplicated images in journal papers - a telltale sign of deceit - [who] has been dismayed by his findings at U.S. research centers. Scientists often have deleted the data underlying the images, making misconduct harder to prove and casting doubt on the validity of the research. ...

   "In recent years, research misconduct has tainted the country's most venerable universities, including Harvard and Johns Hopkins. To date, more than 20 Nobel Prize winners have had papers retracted by the journals that published them, a move often associated with misconduct, according to Retraction Watch. <retractionwatch.com> The watchdog group says that retractions worldwide increased fivefold in the last decade.

   "That a profession with noble intentions finds itself beset by a surprisingly high incidence of not just honest errors but fraud - estimated at about 1% to 2% of all research papers....

   "When fraud is suspected, the misconduct investigations that follow are shrouded in secrecy - even though much research is federally funded. Universities typically reveal nothing at all, even though federal rules clearly allow them to disclose details of cases when misconduct is found, out of fear of defamation suits from scientists and internal employment policies. 

   "What's more, institutions as well as the federal funding agencies that oversee the investigations, mainly the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Research Integrity, <www.ori.hhs.gov> don't disclose anonymous data on the total number of allegations, investigations, and findings of misconduct each year. This lack of transparency makes it almost impossible to determine if the problem is getting better or worse. It's a big black box. ...

   "Still, two research integrity officers (RIOs) who handle these probes told RealClearInvestigations that misconduct findings at some institutions are on the rise, stemming from an increase in the volume of substandard papers and greater scrutiny of them. 

   "'We have had more findings of misconduct at Northwestern in recent years than we did 10 years ago and generally it's been on the rise,' Lauran Qualkenbush, research integrity officer at the top ranked university, told RCI. ...

   "Since a misconduct finding can lead to dismissal or a years-long ban on federal funding, it's not surprising that more scientists are filing defamation suits to 'silence the critics' and derail investigations, according to a Cambridge University Press article. <www.tinyurl.com/4hhmve5t> ...

   "These investigations are unfolding in a conflicted atmosphere. Misconduct is often first suspected by researchers in the same lab where they work. Everyone in the lab, from the faculty members who run it to the younger post-docs and grad students, knows each other. They celebrate breakthroughs and birthdays together. So researchers are very reluctant to report evidence of fraud because of a fear of career-harming retaliation from their colleagues." Examples follow.

   "One Northwestern graduate student waited a year to report allegations - until immediately after the person was awarded a Ph.D. and could move on to a new opportunity without fear of reprisal. ...

   "Last year, Glimcher and other Dana-Farber researchers had their names on an embarrassing wave of 31 corrected and six retracted papers. ...

   "Although the media reported that a committee of trustees would make a final determination on Glimcher, a spokesperson told RCI that she couldn't even confirm if Dana-Farber conducted an investigation or any other details, citing federal confidentiality rules. But experts say those rules don't apply once the investigation and findings are complete. 

   "'It would have been better for Dana-Farber to bring in an outside panel of experts to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest,' said Professor Rasmussen. 'It would also be in the public interest and probably in Dana-Farber's interest to be transparent in such a high-profile case to restore trust.' ...

   "Retraction Watch, co-founded by medical doctor and science editor Ivan Oransky, is a key player in the sleuthing world, providing groundbreaking reports on retractions and misconduct cases. ... [R]esearchers have found that about two-thirds of retractions are due to wrongdoing rather than human error. ...

   "Ivan Oransky, who co-founded Retraction Watch, says sleuths can't identify many of the papers that deserve to be pulled. ...

   "The number of retractions is climbing fast. Retraction Watch counted 139 total retractions globally in 2005, soaring to 1,542 a decade later. That number spiked more than eightfold to 13,107 by 2023 - due to a flood of retractions by Hindawi journals. ...

   "In all, Oransky says, about 1 in 500 or 0.2% of papers are retracted. ... He estimates that the percentage should be about 1 in 50, or 2%. ...

   "Scientist and sleuth Elizabeth Bik <www.tinyurl.com/6xfswdry> reviewed a sample of more than 20,000 papers in 40 journals, finding that about 2% had 'features suggestive of deliberate manipulation.' ...

   "'We can tweak regulations and make investigators more rigorous, but this is fundamentally an ethical issue,' said Mark Barnes, a lawyer and prominent expert on misconduct investigations. "Institutions need to be proactive and deal with this issue on the front end by training young researchers in ethics to curb misconduct before it happens." <www.tinyurl.com/3cv5ywvj> 

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