# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S200
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

198 SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

and administrative difficulties involved in carrying out this plan,
but there is nothing to indicate that these are insurmountable.
There is sound reason to believe that the ideals outlined in the
Objectives of Ministerial Training may be achieved through opera-
tion of this plan if there is clear understanding and a definite will
on the part of students, faculty, and administration to work co-
operatively toward achievement of these objectives.

Several of the negative factors which apply to plans already
considered would be characteristic of this plan also. As has been
mentioned, the cost would be greater than that involved in the
adaptation of an existing plant. Synod should also consider that
to staff the College, considerable inroads on the current supply of
faculty personnel at existing schools would probably become neces-
sary. In addition, accreditation would have to await the accumula-
tion of records and experiences sufficient for reliable evaluation.

More significant objectives are related to the basic philosophy
of this plan. There is merit in the view that any expansion of the
St.Louis Seminary should involve extension of the School of
Missions and should, above all, concentrate on efforts to raise the
graduate School of ‘Theology to a status which will command the
recognition and respect of theologians throughout the world and
which may thus exert a most wholesome and extensive effect upon
religious scholarship. To those who feel keenly that such growth
in professional stature is the Seminary’s most urgent need, there
appears to be danger that development of a Senior College on
that campus may tend toward diminishing quality in academic
standards.

The most attractive feature of the proposal is the possibility
of ready achievement of the Objectives of Ministerial Training out-
lined earlier in this Report. Even the proximity of the physical
plants and the high degree of program correlation indicated by the
type of joint administration involved can be made to yield significant
contributions toward these ends.

The location of this adequate, beautiful, and readily accessible
campus is both geographically and historically attractive and would
immediately give the School a strong supporting constituency.
If Synod should decide at some future date to convert the institu-
tion into a four-year University or if it should be found desirable
to incorporate additional facilities for teacher training in this
institution, it appears that the requisite space would be available.
In addition, already established contacts with Washington Uni-
versity offer further possibilities for specialty training.

This plan avoids the hazards of outright academic experi-
mentation, since its administrational soundness has been demon-