Concordia Seminary, St. Louis – Board of Regents – May and July Minutes

I asked for the minutes from the secretary of the Board of Regents and here they are.

May 2018 Board of Regents Meeting Minutes

July 2018 Board of Regents Phone Meeting Minutes

Go ahead and take a read – make a comment as to anything you see that is notable.

Here are my notables which may or may not be actually significant:

May 2018 Notables:

Provost search – The minutes reflect that the Regents had very little time to prepare to call a Provost.  This is not to say Dr. Rutt is not a good candidate, but just it doesn’t seem that the Regents were involved much before the meeting to actually bring him on.

Reconciliation between Faculty and Regents – Besides the costs ($6,900 plus $175/hr) this seems strange to be needed in this situation.  If you are able, track the back and forth that lasted throughout the meeting on this topic.

LWML at CSL – The LWML was offered space at the Seminary.  I think this is a wise use of space to start consolidating resources from all of our organizations feeling the demographic and financial decline of the Synod.

CSL-Wyoming/South Wisconsin Relations (Concordia Journal, Evolution, etc.) – The required actions of the Regents from their March meeting were not done by Pres. Meyer.  There was much discussion it appears from the minutes.

Salaries – The President of CSL has a $216,500 per year cash salary.  This is a larger issue across synod (including the office of the President) and I wonder how much the Concordia University Presidents make in their offices.  At a time when church workers are struggling to make ends meet and congregations struggle to keep up with guidelines (which are meant to be minimums), $200K+ salaries can certainly be offensive (Remember when Confessionals went after Pres. Kieschnick’s salary?).

July 2018 Notables:

New Library Dedication Speaker Controversy – It appears like the original speaker for the dedication of the new library at CSL was Dr. Kevin Vanhoozer, a professor of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School of Deerfield, IL.  The Board of Regents directed the Seminary President to disinvite him in favor of an LCMS speaker (preference for Pres. Harrison or a member of the Praesidium).  Here is the program from the dedication in which Dr. Rosin, a former faculty member of CSL was the speaker.

Dr. Vanhoozer’s information can be found here.  He is not a Lutheran.  Here are his selected works from that biography page:

Biblical Narrative in the Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur (Cambridge University Press, 1990

Is There a Meaning in this Text? The Bible, the Reader, and the Morality of Literary Knowledge(Zondervan, 1998; Christianity Today Book Award, 1999)

First Theology: God, Scripture, and Hermeneutics (InterVarsity Press, 2002)

The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology (Westminster John Knox, 2005; Christianity Today Best Theology Book of the Year, 2006)

Remythologizing Theology: Divine Action, Passion and Authorship (Cambridge University Press, 2010)

CSL-Wyoming/South Wisconsin Relations (Concordia Journal, Evolution, etc.) – The meeting did not discuss the matter even though it was on the agenda.  They ran out of time for their meeting. Synod Vice President Daniel Preus encouraged the regents to make it the top item on the August 2018 Regents meeting agenda.

I don’t know anymore because no other information has come my way on the topic since even August (as a pastor in the Wyoming District I would have received a note or something if the Regent resolutions of March 2018 were followed).  We will have to wait until the official minutes are released from that meeting I guess.

 

 

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