Higher education in the United States is being challenged and transformed. Institutions are being pressured at all levels, struggling with tuition increases, political polarization, repercussions from the COVID-19 pandemic, demographic shifts in their student bodies and cultural distrust in the value of a college degree. Liberal arts colleges are under particular pressure to sustain healthy enrollment while holding true to their distinctive missions of student learning, holistic development and the common good.
Amid these pressures, member institutions of the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities (NECU) are places of hope, learning and life-change. They are laboratories for vocational formation, equipping students to answer the question “Who am I?” with the response “I am a catalyst for the common good” and affirming that students are called to serve others with skill, justice and love of neighbor.
Lutheran higher education in the United States is a robust and growing educational option for high school graduates, one with a unique vision. Lutheran colleges and universities are known for their intellectual rigor, vocational discernment and faith learning, integrated in such a way that students thrive as individuals even as they seek the common good.
At the center of these commitments lie four convictions shared by NECU institutions:
- Faithful curiosity. Students and faculty feel free to ask the hardest questions about life, meaning and truth without fear or shame, trusting that God’s world is big enough for our inquiries and doubts.
- Vocation as calling. Students find purpose and vocation beyond their own self-interest—a calling to serve the neighbor and bring God’s kingdom to earth.
- Grace-filled community. Every person is known and loved because they are made in the image of God, and all enjoy dignity, respect and a sense of belonging.
- Engagement with the world. The school acknowledges the world’s social and moral problems, then bravely and compassionately uses education and resources to address these issues with understanding and skill.
These four commitments are not abstract ideas. They are embodied every day through curricular teaching, service learning, campus ministry, undergraduate research and countless other interactions that guide the formation of students as people and workers.
The NECU is growing not only in size but also in depth of relationship and collaborative capacity. This year, Waldorf University in Forest City, Iowa, became a permanent member of the network and Valparaiso (Ind.) University became an associate member. Associate members are nonprofit, accredited, degree-granting institutions whose mission aligns with NECU values, and they bring needed diversity, experience and resources to the network. Each of these schools is committed to deepening its work within the NECU.
In recent years, the NECU staff have grown their presence, their voice and the collaborative connections between NECU institutions while at the same time advancing the network’s vision of Lutheran higher education for the 21st century. The NECU board and executive leadership are focused on preserving unity around mission while allowing for nuance in each school’s approach and context.
A foundation for inclusion and collaboration
In 2025, the NECU published “So That All May Belong,” a landmark document affirming the network’s historical and theological commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). The resource uses Lutheran theological language and principles to invite each NECU institution to hold up a mirror in which students can see themselves, know that they belong and flourish on campus.
“So That All May Belong” builds upon the NECU’s decades of influence in shaping campuses that are simultaneously rooted in their own traditions and open to engaging the realities and gifts of a contemporary, pluralistic society. The document offers language, resources and ideas to bolster each campus in its particular context for a theology of and practice of welcome.
The NECU continues to be shaped by and live into the vision outlined in “Rooted and Open,” the network’s core document and credo. “Rooted and Open” calls Lutheran colleges and universities to ground themselves in the Christian intellectual tradition while at the same time opening themselves to engagement.
In practice this means:
- Cross-institutional collaborations and partnerships on academic programs, faculty development and shared resources.
- Joint student leadership opportunities, such as the annual NECU Student Leadership Summit, which unites young leaders from across the network to explore inclusion, leadership and Lutheran values in action.
- Collaborative grant and advocacy work on issues of common interest, such as student mental health, first-generation student success and interfaith engagement.
Collaboration within the network has proved to be one of its most valuable assets, making NECU a living laboratory for how mission-driven schools can not only survive but flourish through one another.
Collaboration within the network has proved to be one of its most valuable assets.
NECU institutions are unique in region, size, history and culture, but their faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, donors and church members share a calling to:
- Educate students for lives of meaningful work, leadership and service.
- Bring faith and learning together to prepare graduates for complex moral and ethical decisions.
- Prepare young people to be global citizens in a world where they can make a difference through their Lutheran values and their Lutheran conviction that, through us, God is at work in the world.
Challenges and opportunities
NECU schools face significant challenges that are common to all liberal arts colleges:
- A decline in high school graduation rates in certain regions of the country.
- Pressure to keep tuition affordable while remaining financially viable.
- Cultural distrust in the value of a college degree in our current age of technology, market forces and political polarization.
- Aligning the traditional liberal arts education model with the current and future demands placed on the workforce, without losing the value of a broad educational foundation.
Creative leadership, collaboration and support across the ELCA will be critical for NECU schools in these areas.
Creative leadership, collaboration and support across the ELCA will be critical for NECU schools.
ELCA members and members of the wider Lutheran tradition are uniquely positioned to support and sustain NECU schools through:
- Encouraging enrollment. Sharing the stories and values of NECU schools with high school students, their families and local congregations.
- Funding. Making monetary gifts and offering support to scholarship funds, faculty development and campus ministries.
- Mentorship. Offering time and energy as alums, parents and professionals to support vocational discernment for students.
- Advocacy. At all levels, working to support public policies that make college education more affordable and accessible.
The 2025-2026 academic year is a generational moment of leadership transition. One-third of NECU presidents are in the first few years of their service. New presidents and academic leaders bring fresh eyes, new energy and opportunities for innovation and strategic growth while drawing from a network that has walked many challenging roads in the last two decades. Together, NECU presidents are uniquely positioned to navigate their campuses and contexts through these times of complexity and change while remaining rooted in mission.
Lutheran institutions are a powerful gift to the U.S. landscape of higher education and to young people and their futures. Graduates of Lutheran higher education become thoughtful, skilled, resilient, global citizens, prepared to live and lead for the common good. NECU schools are cornerstones of this education; at a time when all higher education in the U.S. faces headwinds, the shared mission and collaborative spirit of the NECU provide reasons for hope.
We invite you to read about each NECU school, visit its campus, connect with its leadership and prayerfully consider ways you might invest in its students and future. Your engagement strengthens the bridge between the church and higher education, ensuring that this bridge can carry future generations into the power and life of Lutheran colleges and universities.
