​CHICAGO (ELCA) – Lifting up this church’s commitment to the 500-year-old Lutheran intellectual tradition, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has created the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities, established in collaboration with the ELCA’s 26 colleges and universities to promote their shared mission and identity.

“We needed a better vehicle for our schools collectively to be the community that is ELCA higher education,” said the Rev. Mark Wilhelm, ELCA program director for colleges and universities. “The network provides a new structure to help maintain a dialogue among the schools about their  shared mission and identity.”

The network will be overseen by a board of directors composed of the presidents of the 26 institutions and an executive director. Most authority will be delegated to an executive committee made up of from four to eight presidents, along with the executive director. Wilhelm has been named the network’s first executive director.

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