Happy 2025!

My first higher education meeting each year is a gathering of the NECU (Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities) presidents. This group is the 26 colleges and universities (25 U.S. and 1 Canadian) currently affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

There is great variety among the NECU member schools. Some are overtly Lutheran; some are just historically Lutheran; for most, the enrollment of Lutheran students is between 5% and 10%; and at least one has three times as many Jewish students as Lutheran. The smallest is just over 700 students, and the largest is just over 3,000. They are all residential liberal-arts colleges.

What we share is an ethos that stems from our respective founding. Each of our institutions has a historical commitment to access, an educational tradition tied to vocation (the calling type), and a foundational emphasis on service.

Our institutions embrace a set of forward-looking values that have grown out of historic educational and theological precepts. This seeming dichotomy is summarized in the document, Rooted and Open: The Calling of the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities. It highlights our common commitments to free inquiry, service to our neighbors, and radical hospitality, “So That All May Flourish,” which is also the title of an excellent recent anthology of the “Aims of Lutheran Higher Education.”

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Belonging efforts on our campuses are integral components of our missions and our Lutheran roots. Much of our time together later this week will be focused on articulating our shared commitment to these principles and working to clarify how they are embedded in our work to prepare the next generation of leaders, and how we strengthen these efforts to sustain the campus communities all our students deserve.

This puts us at odds with the ascendant divisive efforts to dismantle DEI programs across the nation.

In this season of resolutions, I am looking forward to being with my NECU president colleagues as we resolve to embrace our shared heritage, celebrate every student, and lead open and inclusive campuses, so “So That All May Flourish” indeed.