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
