Secular student organization on the rise at U.S. college campuses

At least 10 new chapters of the Secular Student Alliance (SSA) have begun at religiously affiliated U.S. universities, mirroring a national increase in the number of religious nones.

SSA chapters at Baylor University, California Lutheran University, Southern Methodist University, Temple University, Notre Dame and Wesleyan University are among the 312 student organizations cited on the SSA website though not all chapters are recognized as official student organizations by their universities.

The SSA chapter at Baylor has been around for 12 years and is the longest-running SSA chapter at a religious institution, but it has never been officially recognized by the university. Nearly 4 in 10 young adults ages 18 to 29 are religiously unaffiliated — or nones — and are four times more likely as young adults a generation ago to identify this way, according to a study by the Public Religion Research Institute. (RNS)