Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 18, 2001, Page 68
Cults on Campus:
Perceptions of Chief Counseling Officers
Russell K. Elleven
Jennifer Van Veldhuizen
Elizabeth Taylor
Texas Christian University
Abstract
This article examines the perceptions of 81 chief counseling officers at
colleges and universities across the United States with regard to cult activity.
Chief Counseling Officers are in a unique position on college campuses to
assist students and confront cult issues. The results of the survey indicate
faculty, staff, and students require more education regarding cult issues on
college campuses.
The question of college student involvement in cults on campus continues to be a subject
that merits examination. Colleges and university students appear to be more vulnerable to
the pressures of high demand or cultic groups. Being away from home for the first time, the
need to belong to a group, and other factors contribute to this vulnerability (Blimling,
1995). College students can also be confused when cultic groups, at least initially, resemble
mainline churches (LeBar, 1989 Enroth, 1992) and find the organized manipulation
(Hassan, 1990) difficult to recognize.
In 1998 the Maryland General Assembly created a task force to examine the issues of cults
on their state run campuses. The "Task Force to Study the Effects of Cult Activities on Public
Senior Higher Education Institutions" created a great deal of interest and controversy
regarding the issue of cults on college and university campuses. The task force found that,
even given the definitional ambiguity of the term ―cult‖ and the relatively small number of
groups affecting campuses, cults nonetheless appear to have the potential to cause a great
deal of harm to college students (Maryland Task Force, 1998).
This finding is no surprise to those who have been involved in research on cultic groups in
general (Langone, 1993 Singer, 1995) and specifically concerning college campuses
(Rudin, 1996). It also appears that caseloads for those directly involved in offering services
to college students involved with cultic groups has not diminished (Mansfield, 2001).
However, the Maryland Task Force (1998) assertion that defining cults is an extremely
difficult charge is deserving of reflection. This task is difficult for the researcher and
layperson alike. There is a wide spectrum of cult definitions that run the gamut of extremely
conservative (Larson, 1989) to fairly liberal (Tabor and Gallagher, 1995 Jenkins, 2000).
There does not, however, appear to be a great deal of middle ground in the act of defining
cultic groups, and two ―camps‖ have formed, each at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Langone (2000) has recently called for a greater dialogue between the two camps. In fact,
Langone calls for the two camps to acknowledge possible similarities in the two camps and
the difficulties in empirical realities with regard to cultic studies research. The two camps
are commonly labeled ―pro-cultists,‖ which may be seen as having a more liberal definition
of cults, and ―anti-cultists,‖ who may be seen as having a more conservative definition of
cults.
This study attempts to do two things. First, the study attempts to discern to which ―camp‖
Chief Counseling Officers (CCOs) on college campuses belong when defining cults.
Counselors often have a tremendous opportunity to work with people involved in cultic

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 18, 2001, Page 69
groups and can offer those in recovery from cults a great deal of assistance (Langone,
1993). CCOs on college and university campuses have a distinct advantage of examining
this issue from a vantage point relevant to the purposes of this study.
Second, this study attempts to build on other research conducted to examine the issue of
cults on college and university campuses. Education and information dissemination for other
campus administrative populations has already been shown to be important (Elleven, Kern,
&Moore, 1998).
Method
Participants
Chief Counseling Officers (CCOs), who serve college and university students in need of
therapy, were chosen for this study. CCOs are in a unique position to assist people who
are, or have been, involved in cultic groups (Langone, 1993). The Association for
University and College Counseling Center Directors was contacted and mailing labels
purchased in order to mail out the cult questionnaire.
Instrument
The instrument was only slightly modified from a study published by Cultic Studies Journal
in 1998 (Elleven, Kern, &Moore). The instrument was designed to engage the CCO in
reference to knowledge he or she has with regard to cults on campus. Questions examined
both student and staff issues in addition to demographic data. There were nine demographic
items seven forced answer questions nine questions based on a semantic scale range of
―impossible – unlikely – unknown – likely – probable‖ one item requesting the respondent
to list cults on their campus and one item asking for the respondent‘s address if he or she
desired a copy of the results of the survey.
Procedure
The questionnaire was mailed out to all 572 CCOs in the United States. The questionnaire
was accompanied with a cover letter and asked that participants return the completed
instrument in two weeks. Completed questionnaires were inputted and analyzed using the
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Frequency counts and percentage
distributions were used to analyze the data.
Results
Surveys were returned by 81 CCOs which is a 14% return rate. The authors identified two
possibilities for the low return rate. First, there was no outside funding for this research. The
authors incurred all expenses, such as printing and postage. Because of this, follow-up
procedures normally incorporated in survey research were not utilized. Second, and possibly
more important, because the research had no institutional backing the authors could not
ethically use letterhead or envelopes with university affiliation. Surveys were sent after the
September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City and Washington,
D.C. but before citizens were warned not to open envelopes with no return address because
of possible anthrax contamination.
Of the 81 surveys returned, 94% agreed with the “anti-cult” definition. A vast majority
of respondents (78%) believed that college and university administrators across the
nation should be concerned about cults on campus. Only 25%, however, believed
administrators on their own campus were concerned about cults.
Demographic Information
Information about the CCOs institutions, educational level, and employment information is
described in Table I. The study also attempted to gather information specific to active