LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 174

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7. UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
numbers of delegates appointed by the Board of Directors
of the Synod, the Council of Presidents, and the boards of
regents shall be established by the Articles of Incorporation
and Bylaws of Concordia University System.
3.6.6.1
The Concordia University System Board of
Directors shall:
(a) define, after input from the Institution Advisory
Council, and adopt the Lutheran Identity and Mission
Outcomes Standards (“Standards,” Bylaw 3.6.6.4),
which shall be the basis of Synod visitation of Synod
colleges and universities, including each of their church
worker preparation programs; and maintain policies
governing, and supervise the performance of, such
Synod visitation (Bylaws 3.6.6.4 and following), which
shall focus on support and accountability for
maintaining and strengthening Lutheran identity.
Consistent with the Standards, the Concordia University
System shall ensure that each institution receives:
(1) regular ecclesiastical and fraternal counsel and
encouragement through annual, informal visitation
that involves free exchange among peers;
(2) in-depth ecclesiastical formal visitation and
reporting (including affirmation, commendations,
cautions, and recommendations for improvement;
Bylaw 3.6.6.4) at least once every three years;
(b) review and approve new implementations of and
discontinuance, whether actual or constructive, of
programs of study leading to professional church work
in the interest of the institution(s) and the Synod;
(c) facilitate, together with respective boards of regents,
the processes of president selection (Bylaw 3.10.6.8.2)
and prior approval for appointments to theology
faculties of Synod colleges and universities (Bylaw
3.10.6.9.2); [bylaws as renumbered pursuant to amendments
that follow]
(d) create and maintain a Model Operating Procedures
Manual for Faculty and Administration Complaints and
Appeal of Termination: Colleges and Universities, subject to
approval by the Commission on Constitutional Matters,
regarding the handling of faculty and staff complaints
and dispute resolution by college/university boards of
regents, to include notification of any relevant
ecclesiastical supervisor, and monitor compliance with
such;
(e) monitor, inquire into, and report to the President of
the Synod regarding the ongoing faithfulness of Synod’s
colleges and universities to the doctrine, practice, and
objectives of the Constitution of the Synod (Const. Art. II
and III);
(f) monitor—after input from the Office of National
Mission; the Department of Rosters, Statistics, and
Research Services; the Council of Presidents; and the
Synod’s seminaries—and report to the Synod on the
enrollment, graduation, placement, and retention rates
in programs leading to candidacy for commissioned
ministry or to seminary enrollment and advise the
schools on the Synod’s worker needs and opportunities
for coordination;
174 | PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 (68TH) LCMS CONVENTION

(g) receive, revise, and recommend to conventions of
the Synod for approval any proposals for creating,
essentially revising, or renaming programs of study and
certification for commissioned ministry;
(h) in addition to providing its own report, review and
respond in each Synod convention Workbook to a
detailed triennial strategic report prepared by the
Institution Advisory Council, summarizing the state of
and outlook for church worker preparation and
confessional Lutheran lay education, campus, and ethos;
Assistive and coordinative roles:
(i) assist the Synod and its colleges and universities in
articulating and advancing the schools’ unified public
confession and application of the church’s doctrine and
practice, and, in coordination with the Board of
Directors of the Synod, assist in advancing the common
defense of their rights to the free exercise of our
confession under the Constitution of the United States
and other applicable laws;
(j) develop and administer, on behalf of the Synod and
subject to policies of the Board of Directors of the Synod,
financial resources designated to assist the schools in
their pursuit of the Standards, in strengthening of
churchly identity, and in their achievement of mission
outcomes;
(k) regularly convene the college and university
presidents and, as needed, other leadership to facilitate
the schools’ coordination, cooperation, and
consolidation of operations, in part or in whole,
wherever prudent and practically feasible, while not
itself assuming any operational or financial
responsibility for such efforts;
(l) after input from the President and Secretary of the
Synod, the Institution Advisory Council, and the boards
of regents of Synod colleges and universities, serve as a
resource for the recruitment of highly and variously
qualified potential regents, offering in nomination (e.g.,
as in Bylaw 3.12.3.4 [c]) and suggesting for appointment
those suitably qualified;
(m) serve as a resource for regents’ development of and
mandatory training in governance skills, especially as
they relate to the carrying out of the mission of the
Synod’s colleges and universities within the mission of
the church, and foster regents’ growth in aspects of
governance related to the expectations of the Standards;
(n) serve as a resource for the development of lists of
potential teaching and administrative personnel;
(o) together with districts, congregations, local boards
of regents, and national efforts, promote student
recruitment for both professional church work and lay
higher education; and
(p) participate with the Board of Directors, Council of
Presidents, and respective board(s) of regents, in
determinations to consolidate, relocate, separate, or
divest a college or university (Bylaw 3.10.6.5).
3.6.6.32 The Board of Directors of the Concordia University
System shall be composed of nineten voting members and
fivesix nonvoting members (no more than two members
Resolutions