Title: ELCA Education Board Re-Elects Director ELCA NEWS SERVICE March 21, 1996 EDUCATION BOARD RE-ELECTS DIRECTOR (51 lines) 96-06-019-RK BLAIR/FREMONT, Neb. (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Division for Higher Education and Schools board unanimously re-elected the Rev. W. Robert Sorensen as DHES executive director to a new four-year term. Sorensen has served that post since the beginning of the ELCA in 1988. In a meeting March 14-17 that was more of a planning session than a legislative one, board members also met with faculty, staff and students on the campuses where the meetings were held - - Dana College, Blair, Neb., and Midland Lutheran College, Fremont, Neb. -- two of the ELCA's 28 colleges and universities. Included in reports presented in the meetings were a number of trends that affect the board in its work with Lutheran schools, colleges, universities and campus ministries: * In the past eight months some 200 ELCA congregations have expressed an interest in opening schools, including early childhood programs, elementary education programs and high schools. DHES is working with other units of the church to encourage this effective tool for congregation building. The board noted a need for providing assistance in developing religious curricula for these programs. Some 2,200 congregations in the ELCA now have school programs. * There are now a quarter of a million students in schools and early childhood centers affiliated with ELCA congregations. In the elementary and high schools, a third of the students are Lutheran, a third are members of other Christian denominations and a third are unchurched. DHES is developing directories of Lutheran schools, teacher openings and, together with the Lutheran colleges and universities, teachers available. * The students in ELA schools include thirty-five percent who are students of color. * This is the first year no inner-city schools were closed. One ELCA college, Upsala College, East Orange, N.J., was shuttered, and its assets are being liquidated in bankruptcy proceedings. * The two ELCA junior colleges, Waldorf College, Forest City, Iowa, and Suomi College, Hancock, Mich., have become B.A.- granting institutions this year. In other actions: * The board discussed plans for a churchwide conference on "teaching and learning as a calling from God," which is tentatively slated for the summer of 1998. * Among future projects the board explored finding a program to supersede the recently completed project of educating 100 Namibian students in ELCA colleges and universities. Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia were mentioned as areas where Lutheran churches might welcome educational assistance. For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service, (312) 380-2058; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955; Lia Christiansen, Asst. Dir., (312) 380-2956