DI GENG/VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY
Students from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and Valparaiso [Ind.] University gather in a common area at LSTC. The two schools announced a part- nership to offer three graduate programs at LSTC’s campus.
LSTC welcomes Valparaiso campus
Follows the trend of ELCA seminary and college partnerships
By Elizabeth Hunter I
n the latest partnership between Lutheran institutions of higher education, the Lutheran School
of Theology at Chicago began hous- ing a satellite campus of Valparaiso [Ind.] University: Valparaiso Uni- versity of Chicago. Beginning this August, Val- paraiso will offer three graduate pro- grams and an immigration law clinic on LSTC’s campus. Plans are under way for sharing faculty as well. Valparaiso is an independent
Lutheran institution with ties to the ELCA and the Lutheran Church– Missouri Synod. At presstime, Philip L. Hou- gen, LSTC interim president, said the programs—Master of Health Administration, Master of Ministry Administration and Master of Busi- ness Administration (Web-streamed from Valparaiso’s main campus)— “will enhance [the university’s] reputation and ours.”
Hunter is a section editor of The Lutheran. 30 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
The ministry administration program will be the first of its kind in the Chicago area, Hougen said, and “of particular value for lead- ers in the church and faith-based organizations.” He added, “We welcome this part- nership because we have so much in common in terms of our mission. Valparaiso has the largest number of graduates coming to LSTC of any college or university, so we have that connection as well. And at a time when many leaders of the church will need to be bi-vocational, dual degrees from LSTC and Valparaiso University could prepare them to serve as part-time administrators of health-care facilities and other orga- nizations. Valparaiso and LSTC ben- efit from each other’s strengths.” Valparaiso President Mark A.
Heckler, said, “I hope over time we continue to grow and deepen our relationships, not only as we begin to deliver Valparaiso degrees on [the LSTC] campus, but in finding ways
to collaborate academically to lever- age both faculties. Collaboration is the future.” David Rowland, Valparaiso’s dean of graduate and continuing education, added, “For the future of higher education, there have to be more synergistic efforts than in the past. ” Valparaiso’s relationship with LSTC dates back eight or nine years, he said.
The ministry administration program will provide nonprofit man- agement training for congregational leaders who deal with “managing people, managing finances, getting the right message out,” Rowland said. “The health administration pro- gram will address issues of health and ethics from the perspective of the Lutheran tradition.” Another partner, ELCA-affiliated Advocate Health Care, is consider- ing providing instructors for some of those health administration courses, said Kathie Bender Schwich, Advo- cate’s senior vice president for mis- sion and spiritual care.
This is not the first seminary-col- lege partnership in the ELCA, nor will it be the last. In July, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, S.C., became part of the school of theology at Lenoir-Rhyne University, Hickory, N.C. Seminary dean Ginger Barfield said that not only has the seminary broadened access to its programs “but we are also actively finding ways to integrate theology into other areas of study ... family counseling, K-12 teaching, business and even nursing.” Two thousand miles away, talk of
another possible merger continues between Pacific Lutheran Theologi- cal Seminary, Berkeley, Calif., and California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks. Both schools’ gov- erning boards agreed to keep the conversation going until their fall
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