News from or Global Missions

by Ethel Gerbig

California Lutheran University

 Midsummer greetings to you in the name of Christ from California Lutheran University. The ELCA National Youth Gathering, in New Orleans, has come and gone. CLU sent a team of nine people consisting of four students and representatives from the offices of Admissions, Campus Ministry and Church Relations. What an opportunity for CAL Lutheran to join our sister universities and be able to meet with over 35,000 youth and share with them the benefits of Lutheran Higher Education.

 CLU is striving to increase the enrollment of Lutheran students. The university will welcome its second largest freshman c lass ever this fall, but with fewer Lutheran students attending. CLU is averaging about 2,000 traditional undergraduates and about 1,500 adult students, mostly at graduate level, at its main campus in Thousand Oaks and branches in Oxnard and Woodland Hills.

 We continue to grow. In spite of the economy we are able to press ahead with several projects funded by donations. This September Trinity Hall a state of the art residence hall will add 222 beds to our campus. We are in the beginning stage of building the Swenson Center for Academic Excellence. This project will house nine classrooms, 43 offices, two computer laboratory studies, a psychology lab, a conference room and a faculty/staff lounge. The center will be CLU’s first LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building.

 We are grateful for the support your congregation has given to this ministry of “educating leaders for a global society who are strong in character and judgment, confident in their identity and vocation, and committed to service and justice .” 

 In Christ,

 Rev. Arne Bergland

 Director of Church Relations