PROPOSAL

For Updating the

STANDING COMMITTEE FOR ADDRESSING RACISM

Luther Seminary seeks to educate persons for leadership in Christian communities in God’s world. The diversity of peoples in Christian congregations challenges Luther Seminary to educate leaders in ways that prepare them for effectively leading congregations who are growing in racial and ethnic complexity. Furthermore, increasing racial and ethnic diversity in the neighborhoods of congregations requires leaders who will help congregations open themselves to the transformations worked by such diversity and to speak the gospel effectively amidst it. Thus, the primary motive for Luther Seminary to reflect self-critically on the problem of racism in its own institutional setting derives from its mission to educate leaders for Christian communities, called and sent by the Holy Spirit, to witness to salvation through Jesus Christ, and to serve in God’s world. Such a mission requires that pastoral leaders and pastoral communities seek to remove impediments to the just order of human relations both in society and within the church and to remove obstructions to the proclamation of the gospel. The process of institutional self-reflection concerning racism should therefore be understood as itself an indispensable element in the education of leaders for the church. To guide this process, we propose updating the Luther Seminary Standing Committee for Addressing Racism as noted below.

The Standing Committee is charged with the responsibility of leading Luther Seminary in addressing the following strategic outcomes:

Strategic Issues

  1. Meaning: Articulate what Lutheran theolog(ies) have to say about racism.
  2. Mission: Make manifest the ways in which theological critiques of racism get to the heart of the mission of Luther Seminary, and provide appropriate pedagogical resources to live into that mission.
  3. Power: Provide explicit systemic analyses that describe the challenges of racism in the Luther Seminary context, and offer constructive proposals for addressing those challenges to the central leadership at Luther (the ELC, the Cabinet, and so on).
  4. Structure: Review and evaluate decision-making processes at Luther Seminary in light of these systemic analyses of racism, and offer constructive strategies for change.
  5. Resources: Provide resources for reviewing policies and procedures of Luther Seminary to determine if they are moving us toward the “beloved community” into which we are drawn by Jesus Christ, a fully inclusive community that is true to, and effective for, our mission.
  6. Existence: Participate in assessment of Luther Seminary’s educational processes and curricula, focusing on their engagement with systemic analyses of racism, and offering constructive proposals to support faculty and other educational leaders in engaging any weaknesses or lacunae that are identified.

Membership

  1. Two faculty members nominated by the Faculty Concerns Committee and elected by the Faculty who would serve for at least two years.
  2. Two staff members elected/selected by the Staff Concerns Committee who would serve for at least two years.
  3. Two student members selected by Student Government who would serve for at least one year.
  4. Two members of the Board of Directors selected/elected by the board as advisory members who would serve for at least two years.
  5. One member of the Cabinet (the President or the President’s appointee).
  6. Additional members of the committee ex officio are the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Vice President for Student Affairs, the Campus Pastor, and the Director of Cross-Cultural Education.
  7. The standing committee may invite other members from the faculty/staff/students in order to move toward a balance of gender and persons of color on the committee.

Selection of members may be done on staggered years in order to maintain continuity. Guidelines that limit faculty service on committees stated in the Faculty Handbook may be suspended in order to enlist the needed membership. All members will participate in a dismantling racism workshop at the beginning of their service so as to be aware of the central pedagogical processes in place at Luther for student consciousness-raising, and so as to have a common vocabulary for working together.

Accountability and Reporting

  1. This standing committee will report to the Cabinet.
  2. When research, counsel, and recommendations of this standing committee affect other committees, groups, or boards of the seminary, this standing committee will have the responsibility to consult directly with them.

Participation in Planning

A person of color from the Standing Committee for Addressing Racism will serve as an ex-officio member of the Cabinet in order to:

  • Facilitate communication.
  • Insure that the concerns of persons of color have presence and expression in strategic planning arenas.
  • Encourage planning that moves the seminary toward dealing with the strategic issues listed above.

Implementation and Action

  1. The standing committee shall elect a Chair who serves for two years, using such processes as the committee finds useful.
  2. The Chair shall ensure that the standing committee meets at least once a year.
  3. The Chair shall further ensure that appropriate task groups are organized as necessary to carry out specific goals of the committee (examples include the process of awarding the Race, Church and Change award, supporting students of color, implementing specific tasks, etc.). The task groups will report to the standing committee.
  4. The committee shall issue a public report for the seminary community in the late spring of each year that details its actions during that academic year and identifies goals for the coming year.