and get calls.
It worked for me."
Someone sent some information about the WELS "College of Ministry" - aka Martin Lutheran College - and I verified what I could. I know the author's name, address, church, job. I also did some fact checking. Many items are anecdotal, so I am not going to reproduce them. Below are some statements from "Marvin," as I have designated him. The words are mine, based on various reports.
Hazing is still going on today at MLC. Juvenile initiation rites are not bad, if they are harmless. According to someone who knows, a student can evade the unpleasantness now. Northwestern College and The Sausage Factory used to glory in their sado-machostic behavior, especially with GA. There is still a secret GA initiation rite, apparently being kept alive until the Temple is rebuilt. WELS lies about GA, as always.
The big story is alcohol abuse and underage drinking. MLC is really their College of Drinking, and COS is a major factor in organizing alcohol abuse.
COS is the student organization for arranging off-campus alcohol parties. That is its only purpose. They wear t-shirts to promote their events. They have gotten into trouble for stealing corporate trademarks on their shirts. They recently had to pony up several hundred dollars to settle with Heinecken beer. Imagine future WELS ministers stealing legally protected, original content! It is getting hard to imagine WELS doing anything original.
The COS events are not worried about such legal questions as serving alcohol to minors. No IDs are checked. Pig Roasts are additional off-campus events, with the same attitude toward alcohol, with food added. There are many community complaints about MLC student behavior, as the statistics below verify.
Apologists are saying, "College drinking, so what's news?"
There is a required report made available on every campus, as a government requirement.
"Dear Students,
The US Dept. of Education mandates that colleges and universities collect, record and publish statistics on campus related crime and fire incidents. Each year colleges are required to publish an "Annual Security Report" that includes the aforementioned crime/fire statistics along with information concerning the use of illegal drugs and alcohol, sexual assault and violence prevention, security measures on campus, and resources available to students both on campus and in the community. Attached to this email you will find the 2009 Annual Security Report for Martin Luther College. The Annual Security Report can also be accessed via the MLC website. If, after reading, you have any questions or comments about the information presented in the report, please ask me and I will be happy to answer or explain.
Prof. Jeffrey Schone
Vice President for Student Life"
Here are some interesting details from 2009, the last year reported:
Disciplinary Actions – On Campus Student Housing Facilities - 22
Disciplinary Actions – On Campus - Liquor Law Violations - 25
Arrests – Public Property - 7 (down from 16 and 11 previous years)
Disciplinary Actions – Non Campus - Liquor Law Violations - 7
Here's the good news
Arrests – On Campus Student Housing Facilities - none for 2009, 17 for liquor law violations in 2007.
How bad is the abuse at MLC? I told one alumnus that the son of a Church and Change leader was kicked out for alcohol abuse. His shocked response was, "Is that possible?" He was not reflecting upon the sobriety of the campus but the anything-goes attitude, especially when involving the politically connected.
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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "MLC - WELS College of Drinking - COS":
CoS (Corporation of Seniors) at Northwestern College (closed in 1995) was similar to initiation at Watertown in that the administration tried to distance itself from it for legal purposes, but yet the dean was in charge. It was called CoS because each senior would put in $20+ toward beer money and hall rental, and was supposed to get their money back with profits, if any.
How much was the dean in charge? a court might want to ask. Here's an example: a few years before NWC closed, Dean Lindemann ruled that seniors who didn't help put on the CoS wouldn't get their money back and none of the profits, even if they were never asked to help put on the event by being a bouncer or bartender or cleanup person, and that was never stipulated in the "understood" contract. It was just another anti-pietist measure at NWC. Don't drink and dance in public, huh? Don't attend drinking events, huh? Not only won't you get your money back, but you better watch your step because your student career won't extend all the way until Call Day.
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GJ - Good luck arguing "I know nozzink" in court, like Sgt. Schultz in Hogan's Heroes. Even church leaders have supervisory responsibilities. If people can sue a bartender for serving an intoxicated adult, under the dram law, victims can sue the college for worse infractions.
Winking at underage drinking is a good example of the Antinomianism promoted by Forgiveness Without Faith, UOJ.
