c. 2006 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The Rev. Mark Schaefer knows how to throw a good party, and offering free food to hungry college freshmen is a sure-fire way to satisfy guests.

Making the rounds, Schaefer talks to the students and thanks them for attending the recent Friday-night event at American University, aptly named S’mores with S’Methodists.

“That’s one thing I’ve learned,” said Schaefer, the chaplain for the United Methodist Student Association. “You have to thank people for coming. We actually appreciate that they show up.”

Leaders of campus religious groups find that an early commitment is often a lasting one. That makes this time of year prime recruitment season for campus religious groups before freshmen get swept up in college life and other activities. Some campus leaders say if they don’t catch students early, they may never get their attention.

“People are creatures of habit,” Schaefer said later. “The relationships you make during the first few weeks at school are often the lasting ones.”

Senior Aaron Bregman, president of AU’s Jewish Student Association, understands the time crunch. “Freshman year,” he said, “basically you have a small window to get involved in things.”

The s’mores bonfire was just one of a slew of activities that the Methodist group hosted for the new freshman class. Orientation week included a Washington Nationals baseball game, an outing in the city and a movie night_ “front-loading the year with all sorts of things to do,” Schaefer said.

The chaplain hopes the activities will give the organization name recognition on campus and show students that the Methodists are a hospitable group.

“If they know that we’re welcoming, then they’ll hear what we have to say,” Schaefer said.

Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles are tracking college students and religion in a long-term, national study.

Alexander Astin, co-principal investigator for the study, said that while students stay interested in spirituality in college, their attendance at religious services drops dramatically once they enter freshman year.

He pointed to “social forces” in pre-college years _ family, schools, peers _ that keep students going to services. But once those pressures ease in college, many stop attending.

“The student is confronted with a lot of other stimulations and challenges and so forth which draw their energies and their interests,” Astin said.

Back in his office two weeks later, Schaefer examines the data. Attendance at the first service was 32 students. The next week drew a crowd of 44.

Not bad, but not the best.

“It wasn’t as high as last year,” Schaefer said.

Excel charts on his computer track church attendance over the past four academic years with multi-colored lines.

Pointing to the graph, he looks at the “precipitous drop” for fall 2003 after the first few services.

“That was a rough year,” Schaefer said.

Other religious groups at AU also have caught on that freshmen should be snagged early, and the orientation week before classes started was chock-full of free food and social gatherings for all faiths.

Melissa Carvalno, an incoming freshman, said her primary reason for attending “Chi Alpha in a Cone” on a recent Sunday night was, “They said `ice cream social.”’

Carvalno went to a Baptist high school and has not yet decided whether she will join Chi Alpha, an evangelical Christian group that has branches at college campuses nationwide.

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Freshman Charissa Pratt had filled out an information card earlier this summer expressing her interest in joining a Christian group.

Chi Alpha leaders later sent her an e-mail inviting her to the ice cream social, and Pratt brought several students from her dorm floor, including Carvalno.

Pratt liked the ice cream, but wasn’t so keen about a game that involved chasing other students around the quad. “I don’t know about Capture the Flag,” she said. “I’m not a good runner.”

“I want to do it,” Carvalno said, cutting in. “I think it will be cool.’

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Junior Faye Karabelski, a student leader at Chi Alpha, said the original supply of three gallons of ice cream proved insufficient within 20 minutes, and one of the organizers had to leave for more supplies.

When she was a freshman two years ago, Karabelski stumbled on a Capture the Flag game hosted by Chi Alpha during the welcome week before classes started.

“I wasn’t really planning on joining a Christian group,” she said. “It kind of found me.”

Karabelski said another Chi Alpha outreach effort is the annual tradition of helping arriving freshmen lug suitcases into their new dorm rooms. They wear T-shirts reading “Chi Alpha” on the front and “Moves You” on the back.

Rabbi Kenneth Cohen, the director of Hillel at AU, said most of the Jewish student events involve food.

“Feed them,” he said, “and they will come.”

KRE/RB END GLASS

Editors: To obtain photos from student events at American University, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.