LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 177

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7. UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
This model recognizes the responsibility, initiative, and
creative capacity of local boards of regents and
administrations to pursue the high expectations the Synod
rightfully has of its colleges and universities. It provides not
only for minimum expectations but for individualized,
measurable, and reproducible plans for continuous
improvement—the development of organic but intentional
processes for improvement of each campus, with
prescriptions and progress visible to the Synod. It provides a
framework for monitoring of and accountability for
confessional fidelity, directed and supervised by CUS and
carried out with peer input, that can be shared regularly with
the members of the Synod, to guide their support and
utilization of the institutions.
Proposed Action
Therefore be it
Resolved, That a formal program of Synod college and
university visitation be established by the adoption of the
following bylaws:
PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING
Lutheran Identity and Mission Outcomes Standards,
Ecclesiastical Visitation
3.6.6.4
The Concordia University System Board of
Directors shall, after input from its Institution Advisory
Council, define and adopt the Lutheran Identity and
Mission Outcomes Standards (“Standards”), a regularly
published policy document containing standards for
ecclesiastical visitation and affirmation of institutions and
of programs leading to candidacy for commissioned
ministry or to preparedness for seminary study.
(a) The Standards shall express the Synod’s
expectations for its college or university, including
fidelity of campus curriculum and culture intended to
propagate the faith, strong theology and campus
ministry programs having positive and intentional
interaction with the entire faculty and student
population and with all curricular programs, and
success in preparation of church workers for the Synod
and of Lutheran laypeople for distinctively faithful lives
of service to church and neighbor and in conveying to all
students a clear understanding of the essentials of the
faith, generally and in specific relation to their particular
vocations.
(b) The Standards shall be elaborated to support both
formative and summative functions. They shall
engender local development and provide for outside
monitoring of formative processes, engaging all
institutions fully in intentional and measurable
programs intended to advance their expression of
Lutheran identity and accomplishment of mission
outcomes. They shall also enable the drawing of
summative conclusions, concretely identifying
strengths and weaknesses in institutions and programs,
ultimately to provide clear rationale for decisions about
continuation or termination of affirmation.
(c) In addition to the standards with institution-wide
applicability, the Concordia University System shall
Resolutions

develop and maintain supplemental program standards
specific to each type of program intended to result in
candidacy for one of the Synod’s categories of
commissioned ministry or in preparedness for seminary
study. Such program standards shall specify, for
example, the instructional and practical curricular
requirements expected to be satisfactorily completed
prior to qualification for first call or for granting of credit
by a seminary for pre-seminary studies. The Concordia
University System shall develop pre-seminary curricular
standards after input from the seminaries of the Synod.
(d) The Standards shall be made publicly available on
the Synod’s website and as otherwise determined by
Concordia University System.
3.6.6.4.1 Synod colleges and universities shall undergo
Synod visitation with respect to the Lutheran Identity and
Mission Outcomes Standards, both comprehensively as
institutions and with regard to the specific requirements of
each implemented program intended to result in candidacy
for one of the Synod’s categories of commissioned ministry
or in preparedness for seminary study.
(a) Ordinarily each college or university shall receive a
formal institutional and program visitation at least once
in each Synod national convention cycle. These regular,
formal visitations shall attend to both formative and
summative elements, evaluating present performance
relative to the Standards but also fostering, monitoring,
and advancing initiatives in pursuit of the Standards. A
focused review of a specific alleged breach of the
Standards, however, may be initiated by Concordia
University System at any time.
(b) Concordia University System may, if a regular or
focused review finds that an institution or program is at
risk of not fulfilling the Standards, place the institution
or program under a notice of concern, which may, at
Concordia University System’s option, be made public.
Concordia University System may lift the notice at any
time it determines the risk has been satisfactorily
addressed.
(c) Concordia University System may, upon finding an
institution to be in breach of the Standards, either on the
basis of a regular visitation report or a focused review,
place the institution on probation for up to a two-year
period. If Concordia University System determines that
substantial progress has been made and that verifiable
plans and resources are in place to bring the institution
into compliance, then Concordia University System may
extend probation once for one year, but to no more than
three years total. Concordia University System may lift
the probation earlier if the institution is brought into
compliance. An institution not in compliance at the
conclusion of the probationary period is no longer
affirmed by the Synod, can no longer declare graduates
qualified for placement, and is no longer commended by
Concordia University System to the church.
(d) Concordia University System may, upon finding a
church work preparation program to be in breach of the
Standards, either on the basis of a regular visitation
report or of a focused review, place the program on
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 (68TH) LCMS CONVENTION | 177