# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S836
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

884 YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK

work in such areas. This problem is especially serious at colleges
and universities where churches are not granted permission to use
facilities on the campus. In such instances our students have no
meeting place if the facilities of the local church are inadequate, if
the local church is far removed from the campus, or if our Church
is not represented in the college community.

New Horizons

Dr. J. W. Behnken, the Vice-Presidents, and others who repre-
sented him at District conventions have contributed immeasurably
to the development of a lively interest in student work. The Fiscal
Conference sensed the importance of student work and in 1945
made available to our department the total sum appropriated by
Synod at the 1944 convention. This conference, moreover, lifted
student work from the “Synodical Sundries” column in the budget
for the purpose of accelerating the universal interest in student
work, The various District Presidents and Mission Boards, too,
have manifested a commendable awareness of the Church’s oppor-
tunities at the colleges and universities. Several districts of the
Lutheran Laymen’s League and of the Lutheran Women’s Mis-
sionary League have, during the past two years, given evidence of
their lively interest in student work. The constitution of the
Lutheran Collegiate Association, a new organization of Lutheran
men and women with a college education, includes as one of its
objectives “the development of a lively interest in student work.”
The members of the sixty-four chapters of Gamma Delta, our
undergraduate student organization, demonstrated their interest in
the promotion of student work by establishing as their initial
major project the erection of a modest student chapel as a memorial
to members of their organization who lost their lives in World
War II. -

Following the cessation of hostilities, our Commission promptly
made preliminary investigations concerning the possibility of ex-
tending synodical student work to the continent of Europe. Our
investigators indicated opportunities for service beyond the scope
of our Commission. The accumulated recommendations have been
brought to the attention of Synod’s President in the hope ‘that
provision may be made by another department of Synod to meet
the Church’s opportunities in European universities.

Statistics
The number of Synodical Conference students known to be
in non-Synodical Conference colleges and universities of the
United States and Canada during the current academic year is
14,016. This is an all-time high and exceeds by far the lean enroll-