Martin Luther College in New Ulm is looking to reinstate its licensure status.

In late June, the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board voted to discontinue eligibility for MLC.

The college is still accredited, and the decision only impacts freshman and new transfer students training in teacher education programs.

MLC lost its eligibility because it failed to provide enough documented evidence and consistent assessments needed to prove specific teacher education programs continued to meet state-mandated academic standards.

President Rich Gurgel said the school has already taken steps such as hiring new admin and consultants to make sure the college is able to maintain licensure eligibility in the future.

“Those steps give us the confidence that we’re on the right track to restoring this,” Gurgel told MPR News. “We’re going to stay focused on this and get this task done.”

Though a small college, MLC had 658 full-time undergraduates during the last school year, of which 70 percent are teacher education students. MLC is owned by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) and produces teachers for the fourth largest private school system in the country.

MLC is expecting between 130 to 140 incoming students for the next school year. Gurgel said he personally reached out to each student to inform them about the PELSB decision.

“I’ve been in contact with each one of them,” Gurgel said. “Some fascinating back-and-forth conversations, but we’re trying to make sure they know we’re thinking about them, and we’re doing all we can to get this taken care of with them in mind.”

MLC graduates can continue to graduate as Lutheran teachers and be prepared to serve in WELS schools. They can also graduate as ministry-certified and are eligible for a call into the teaching ministry. The decision doesn’t impact staff ministry or pre-seminary students.

PELSB rules usually require a three-year waiting period for institutions to reapply for licensure. However, MLC can request a variance to apply earlier.

Gurgel said the goal is to make sure the college is able to restore its licensure before students graduate in the next four years. He added if licensure hasn’t been restored by the time affected students graduate, MLC is committed to providing assistance in covering the costs of obtaining a license after graduation.

“We will partner with them. We will find ways that it can be done wherever they're going to be serving, if you're in Minnesota or elsewhere around the country,” he said. “We will partner with them so that that process moves forward for them. Our anticipation is that well before they graduate, we will have worked hard to restore license eligibility.”

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Martin Luther College seeks to reinstate teacher licensure eligibility