# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1953_S973
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

action of Synod on the senior college question. Point 3 or by the
tak,
and adopted

Resolved, To accept the recommendation of § y
Higher Education: “That a final decision in this matter be ae for
until the outcomes of the major educational adjustmen ie

Faculty Ranking, Equality, Tenure, Balance,
and Procurement
(Memorial 136)

_— I. Faculty Ranking
That the present system of ranking be abolished,

Faculty ranking is not a Prerequisite to accreditation of
a school. Approximately 30 per cent of accredited teachers’ col-
leges in the United States do not use the procedure of ranking.
(Bosley, Howard Elmer, Ed. D., “The Administration of Faculty
Personnel in State Teachers Colleges,” p. 21.)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES — 161

ployment on an uncalled basis with an uncertain tenure,
«aks it difficult, and in many cases impossible, to gain the services
aainen best qualified for a position.

.. Faculty ranking will, we feel, ultimately become a factor that

7 will-tend to secularize our educational system on the higher level.

It introduces factors that shift the stimulus for growth in learning
and growth in teaching ability to an outside source that is unde-
irable because it is man-motivated. It introduces the possible
factor of barter and bargaining for salary and rank, Ultimately
we may have to compete with secular schools for the services of
competent instructors once our schools have become geared to the .

secular mode of procedure.

IL Faculty Equality

That all called members of the faculty shall have equal status.

In order to avoid categorizing, stratifying, and thus introduc-
ing a tendency toward disintegrating a group of colleagues in which
the spirit of equality and brotherliness should remain a unifying
factor, we suggest an equal status for all called members of
a faculty.

This proved system of synodical procedure will eliminate the
inequities inherent in the present plan. A positive tangible factor
in the differentiation between ranks on each present level is
a monetary differentiation. A negative factor is the inequity the
ranking procedure promotes by the arbitrary number of promotions
allowed to a given school.

A difference in remuneration, if and when this may become
desirable, ought to be based only on concrete, definite criteria,
criteria not susceptible to subjective, nor permitting biased, inter-
pretation.

IM. Faculty Tenure

That Synod return to its former practice of employing uncalled
men in case of an emergency only. ;

Under the present system of faculty ranking on the uncalled”
level there is reason for complaint of the indefiniteness of the status
of the uncalled men.

If necessary or desirable, an uncalled member of the staff may
be re-employed for a second two-year term. After two consecutive
two-year periods the position of the uncalled individual should be -
considered as requiring a permanent chair. This period of time
will provide the Board of Control and the Board of Electors of
a school ample opportunity to observe the preparation and aptitude
for teaching.

The re-engagement of men on an unealled basis over a period -
of time, even up to eight years, without promotion to a called rank