Official Handbook Source Text
Handbook page 170
Source: LCMS Handbook 2023, page 170.
This page reproduces text from the 2023 LCMS Handbook for study and navigation. Readers should verify procedural, legal, parliamentary, or governance questions against the official LCMS Handbook and appropriate LCMS authorities.
(a) The salary schedules of all institutional employees shall be fixed by the board of regents on recommendation of the president of the seminary.
(b) The board of regents, on recommendation of the president of the seminary, shall establish an effective faculty organizational structure.
(1) The president or his designee shall preside at regular and special meetings.
(2) The faculty shall elect a secretary and provide for the election of committees, consisting of faculty members or of faculty members and other persons, who shall study, evaluate, and report to the faculty on policy matters affecting the academic activity of the seminary, the activity and welfare of the members of the faculty, and the life and welfare of the students.
(c) Each faculty shall recommend policy to the board of regents through the president for the admission, transfer, dismissal, or withdrawal of students, set the standards of scholarship to be maintained by students, determine criteria for graduation or failure , act on recommendations in the matter of granting certificates, diplomas, and such academic or honorary degrees as may lawfully be conferred by the seminary.
(d) Each faculty shall develop and construct curricula implementing the recognized and established purposes of the seminary and designed to attain the objectives of preparation for professional church workers and other Christian leaders approved by the Synod.
(e) Each faculty shall pursue the improvement of teaching and learning and the evaluation of their effectiveness in every segment of the seminary and its curriculum.
(f) Each faculty shall recommend policy to the board of regents through the president regarding out -of-class life and activity of its students so that the co -curricular and off - campus activities of the students contribute to the attainment of the educational objectives of the seminary. The faculty shall recommend such policies as will be conducive to the cultivation of a Christian deportment on the part of all students, will stimulate the creation of a cultured and academically challenging atmosphere on and about the whole campus, and will make a spiritually wholesome community life possible.
(g) Each faculty shall recommend policy to the board of regents through the president regarding the maintenance of wholesome conditions of faculty service and welfare.
(h) The faculty of each seminary, because it prepares professional workers directly for service in the Synod, shall conform its placement policies to the provisions for the distribution of candidates and workers through the Board of Assignments of the Synod.
(1) An academic year of supervised internship (vicarage) is required of all seminary students before graduation.
(2) Every vicar shall be assigned by the Council of Presidents, acting as the Board of Assignments.
