# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S203
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 201

MEMORIALS CONCERNING SECTION II, THE SENIOR COLLEGE

Regarding the Four-Year College
(Memorial 140)

Wuereas, Under God, the bounteous blessings showered upon
Synod during the past one hundred years were in no small measure
due to the educational system which the fathers inaugurated from
the very beginning; and

Wuereas, Synod, during the course of the century has always
stood ready, when it found itself able, to authorize the necessary
adjustments which its own growth and development and the change
and progress of its environment demanded; and

Wuereas, Educational horizons have broadened and our future
clergy ought to be kept abreast of the times; therefore be it

Resolved, That we, the faculty of Concordia College, Mil-
waukee, urge Synod to effect any material change in our educa-
tional setup only after the following considerations have been
thoroughly aired everywhere:

1. It is in line with Synod’s development, its growth, its stand-
ing among a democratic and intellectually growing people, its
strength and initiative and ability to do things, that it be on the
alert as regarding the future by giving thought to the raising of its
educational system to a higher level.

2. World-reconstruction days are not the most favorable times

' for permanent changes. A mere glance at what others are doing

or trying to do should not be decisive. The change from a junior
to a senior college system for our pre-theological training is a
major change and may involve more than many surmise. A change
of system should be a sure step forward, particularly since, in the
opinion of many, there is still room for argument in favor of the
system that Synod has hitherto followed.

3. a. Not all or anyone of our junior colleges can be changed
into senior colleges merely by the addition of two classes and
changes in the faculty and the curriculum.

b. Many hold that eight years of attendance at.one and the
same school is too long for any student above the grades,

c. The cost of raising all our junior colleges to the senior
college level and to a standard that will merit accreditation would
be prohibitive.

d. To single out one or two existing institutions for that pur-
pose would eventually reduce the others to high schools — dying
high schools — unless they forfeit their present character and enter
upon general education.

4. General education at a school at which our pre-theological
students are trained is not conducive to the acquisition of the

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