Frequently Asked Questions

1. How did the Academy begin?
The Lutheran Academy of Scholars is a program of the colleges and universities of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American in partnership with the Division for Higher Education and Schools. In 1999 the staff of DHES launched the Lutheran Academy of Scholars program with significant foundation funding and directed several seminars and a conference. In 2005 the leadership and program responsibility shifted to Concordia College and its Dovre Center for Faith and Learning.

2. Who leads the Academy?
The executive director, George Connell, is responsible for program operations and financial management.

He is aided by an advisory board consisting of Jacqueline Bussie (religion, Capital University), Carol Gilbertson (English, Luther College), Robert Haak (editor, Intersections, Augustana-Rock Island), Pamela Jolicoeur (president, Concordia College), L. DeAne Lagerquist (religion, St. Olaf), David Ratke (religion, Lenoir-Rhyne College) and Ronald Thiemann (theology, Harvard University).

In addition to the sustaining support of the academy’s member institutions, it enjoys the continued involvement of the DHES staff.

3. How effective is the program? In the fall of 2002, the Provost’s Office of California Lutheran University conducted an online survey. Thirty of the 43 participants (70 percent) responded. These were evenly distributed among the first four cohorts.

Participants were enthusiastic about the quality of their experience and its effectiveness in meeting the Academy’s goals: promoting exploration of Lutheran approaches to faith and learning in higher education and fostering faculty scholarship. All respondents reported that they had or would recommend the program to a colleague. Suggestions for changes were primarily minor and directed to logistics.