# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1973_S142
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

142 SEMINARY ISSUES

local Board of Control with the authority to determine
whether or not a particular professor is to be reappointed:

The Board of Control may decline to renew the appointment of
a faculty member without tenure at its discretion and without
formal statement of cause. If reappointment to the teaching
staff is not contemplated, the Board of Control shall so notify
the faculty member, through the president of the institution, at
least 6 months prior to the expiration of the current appoint-
ment;

and

WHEREAS, Synodical Handbook Bylaw 6.05 (“Duties” of
the BHE), paragraphs a through s, does not assign specific
duties with reference to the reappointment of college and
seminary professors (e.g. giving prior consent to a reap-
pointment) to the BHE, while synodical Handbook Bylaw
6.53 (“Appointments of Members of the Faculty”) specifies
the duties of a Board of Control with reference to reap-
pointments; and

WHEREAS, For many years synodical Handbook Bylaws
6.53 a, 6.53c, and 6.05 have been interpreted to mean that
new appointments to synodical faculties require BHE ap-
proval while reappointments require the approval only of the
local Boards of Control; and

WuereEas, The BHE has recently asserted and imple-
mented a new position, stating that college and seminary
professors cannot be reappointed by a college or seminary
board of control unless the BHE has given its prior consent
to such reappointment; therefore be it

Resolved, That Synod return to its former interpretation
and that synodical Handbook Bylaws 6.53 a, 6.53c, and 6.05
be declared to mean that new appointments to synodical
faculties require BHE approval while reappointments re-
quire the approval only of the local Boards of Control.

FACULTY

ConcorDIA TEACHERS COLLEGE
Seward, Nebr.

W. Th. Janzow, President
James Nelesen, Secretary

3-95A
To Express Confidence in BHE

Whereas, The Board for Higher Education has been criti-
cized for carrying out its duties as outlined in Section 6 of

the synodical Handbook; and

WuereaS, The Commission on Accrediting of the Ameri-
can Association of Theological Schools has cited as one of
its reasons for placing Concordia Seminary. Saint Louis. on
probation the various actions of the BHE in carrving out its
responsibilities: and

Wuereas, Almost all statés now have either a statewide
governing or coordinating board to accomplish for state
systems of higher education what the BHE of The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod has accomplished for the Synod
for over a quarter of a century: and

WHEREAS, Some of these boards have powers even more
extensive than those assigned to the BHE, such as the legal
powers to own and dispose of real and intangible property,
the power to set the rules and regulations of the insti-
tution for internal operations, the power to set policies for
the granting of degrees, and even the power of approving
the offering of individual courses (Frederick E. Balderston
“Statewide Planning and the Individual Institution’s Re-
sponse” in Statewide Planning for Post-Secondary Educa-
tion, p.105); therefore be it

Resolved, That the Synod reject the criticisms of its pol-
icy in assigning particular authority and responsibilities to
the Board for Higher Education, which the action of the
American Association of Theological Schools implies; and
be it further

Resolved, That the Synod go on record as expressing its
confidence in the BHE, and commend the board for its ac-
tions in carrying out the responsibilities assigned to it by
the Synod; and be it further

Resolved, That the Synod continue to support the con-

cepts outlined in Section 6 of the synodical Handbook in
providing coordination of its system of colleges and semi-

naries through the BHE. Grace LUTHERAN CHURCH

Muncie, Ind.

Willard Niederbrach, Pastor

Wilbur Piepenbrink, President

David Gray, Secretary
Identical:

3-95B

Immanuel Lutheran Church, Olivette, Mo., Walter J.
Hoffmann, Pastor; Kenneth Eckert, Secretary.

3-96A
To Revise Bylaws

Whereas, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, has been placed
on probation for 2 years, beginning June 2, 1972, by the
American Association of Theological Schools (AATS), the
national accrediting agency for theological seminaries, after
which time Concordia Seminary will lose its accreditation
unless the situation that prompted the action is corrected;
an

Wuereas, AATS's policy expressly asserts that no oppor-
tunity for an extension of the probationary time is possible
and requires a 5-year waiting period before a school may
again apply for accreditation; and

Whereas, The loss of accreditation will negate the Synod’s
adopted policy, going back as far as 1944, actively to seek ac-
creditation, a goal attained after many years and at a great
financial cost; and

Wnereas, Accreditation has proven to be an effective
means to achieve and maintain high academic and profes-
sional standards of theological education, consonant with the
church’s needs: and

Whereas, Accreditation makes it possible for the semi-
nary’s graduates to continue their studies in specialized areas
without academic penalty; enables its students, missionaries,
chaplains, teachers, pastors, and other church workers to re-
ceive financial grants from a wide variety of foundations and
other agencies for the purpose of studying at Concordia’s
School for Graduate Studies: and qualifies the seminary to
serve a broad spectrum of Christian men and women, espe-
cially those coming from foreign countries; and

Whereas, Graduation from an accredited seminary is a
prerequisite for some types of chaplaincies; and

WHEREAS, The loss of accreditation would affect not only
Concordia Seminary, St.Louis, but also its sister seminary
in Springfield, Ill, and eventually all our terminal schools
since the conditions that prompted the action of AATS can
occur under the present administrative structure, as out-
lined in the synodical Handbook, also at all other synodical
schools; and

Wuereas, The action of AATS was prompted not for any
theological or confessional reasons but because “adequate
authority of the Board of Control is not guaranteed by ec-
clesiastical structures of the LCMS for the seminary to carry
on its educational function as a graduate professional
school”; and

WuereEas, Concordia Seminary, St.Louis, must show
prior to June 1, 1974, clear evidence “(1) that the Board of
Control of the seminary has both in legal structure and in
practice the determination of policy and the responsibility
for the operation of the seminary; (2) that there is adequate
procedural protection of the academic freedom of faculty in
the eonfessional context of The Lutheran Church — Missouri
Synod; and (3) that the life and work of Concordia Semi-
nary is carried on under conditions that are conducive to
education for ministry”; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Bylaws of the Synod be structured in
such a inanner and so interpreted that the Synod alone pre-
scribe the broad policies of its schools and that the individual
boards of control and faculties have the authority to carry
out the educational functions of the school: and be it further