# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S565
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

564 ‘ Report of Board for Higher Education

study of the published reports of educational agencies, which .
list our institutions, will readily reveal. Such totally erroneous state
ments are reported, for instance, as the following: “total educatio
expenditures $74,000.” This sum included the entire cost of me:
services and dormitory operation. The true educational expenditure
. for the institution for the year in question did not exceed $45,000; ‘0
“receipts for meal services $34,000, disbursements for meal service;

was $24,000, surplus $10,000.” No such surplus in the meal services#
. was ever shown, i

Nor does the present system of financial accounting furnish aris
entirely adequate instrument of control. The expenditures are/no
properly distributed on the disbursement sheets so as to segregatey
the auxiliary educational enterprises, such as dining hall and dorm
tory. The accounting methods do not lend themselves to budge
control nor to easy preparation of operating statements either for the
year or for briefer periods. In fact some institutions report tha’
they prepare only a balance sheet but no operating statement no
combined operating statement and. summary budget report. I
difficult to understand how the present methods can serve the 16
administration effectively as iristruments for the early discovery
undesirable trends and their subsequent check. ‘

A further weakness is the failure to provide a division for capital
assets. Such major expenditures as.several thousand dollars worth
of micrescopes are treated as current operating expense.
such ‘itefris, and they exist at every one of the institutions, should: be:

- transferred from the expenditure sheets to a separate division of
capital assets. In consequence of the failure to maintain this division;
no really reliable information on the net worth of. Synod’s institutic
is available. Some institutions annually receive substantial gifts f
supporting organizations. These also should be capitalized. _ While
these gifts are often prompted by the needs of general. education, ¢
also serve the pretheological student and thus tend to offset t
contributions made by Synod to the cause of general education.
clear understanding of these factors is essential if the costs of gener.
education are to be equitably allocated. :

In connection with the cost analysis at Bronxville, a new system ¢
accounting was developed by Mr. Henry Siebern. The methoc
employed are wholly of the cost accounting type and are identicai
the standard methods adopted by colleges and universities as descri'
in Financial Reports for Colleges and Universities. The requiremen
of the Synodical Office of Audit and Account have been completely;
safeguarded, so that one section of the disbursément sheets is allocated:
for distribution of the expenditures in which Synod is interested.
section on receipts also safeguards - Synod’s interests. : Basica
this system provides for a division of the accounts under five groups

a. Current funds; -

. b. Plant funds;