Residential Chaplains: A Promising Resource for Faith and Character Formation

Abstract

Abstract Although higher education scholars have examined chaplaincy in college and university settings, we are not aware of any studies that have sought to examine chaplains who live and serve in residence halls. As such, we conducted a collective case study of three Protestant institutions with residential chaplain roles—Taylor University, Pepperdine University, and Baylor University. We present an overview of each institutional model employed for residential chaplains and provide comparative analysis. All of the models we analyzed utilized students as residential chaplains, provided joint residence life and spiritual life training, navigated tensions with other roles in the institution, and took advantage of institution-specific resources and contexts. However, these roles had slightly different foci, used students of different academic levels, and were compensated in different ways. In light of our findings, we believe institutions without residential chaplains should see potential options for incorporating such a role into their campus structure, and those who already have residential chaplains should continue thinking about the structure, strengths, and benefits of their current models.