# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1981_S239
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

HIGHER EDUCATION 239

both elementary and secondary, is before the Michigan State
Board of Education. We hope and pray that the state board will
approve our excellent program proposal. Perhaps by the time
of the synodical convention, or shortly thereafter, we shall
have their decision. Reports from the area which Ann Arbor
primarily serves indicate strong support for this kind of quality
program at Concordia, Ann Arbor.

Our parish assistant program is making exciting progress.
Over 30 students, men and women, are in the program
presently. Many inquiries keep coming from prospective
students of all ages, in addition to those normally about to
enter college. It is the request of Concordia College, Ann Arbor,
as well as that of the Michigan District, that the parish
assistant program be given “church worker” status at the 1981
synodical convention. The quality of the program merits such
synodical stature.

We recently established a Career Counseling Center staffed
by a professional career counselor. This service is being used
extensively and profitably by many students. Those who are
undecided as to their vocational future find helpful guidance
through the efforts of the career center.

Just recently, the faculty and the Board of Control have
granted Concordia, Ann Arbor, the opportunity to add an
experimental minor in business administration. This business
program is to be carefully monitored and evaluated at the end
of two years. At that time a decision will be made as to its
continuance and/or expansion to a major and appropriate
approval sought.

In analyzing the future of Concordia, Ann Arbor, profes-
sional help was secured by employing Samborn, Steketee, Otis
and Evans of Toledo, Ohio, as architects/consultants. Sub-
stantial progress has already been made. Mr. Lackney, an
officer in this well-known firm, is a fine Christian who
understands Concordia’s purpose in the church and makes his
studies and surveys accordingly. His work is aided by seven
program planning committees on which faculty members
volunteered to serve. They have been working on new ways in
which Concordia, Ann Arbor, might serve the church and its
constituency more efficiently and completely. From these
studies have come continuing-education programs off-campus
and an Elderhostel program. Other possibilities are pending.
This is an exciting period for Concordia, Ann Arbor.

Inflation continues to be a real problem; the cost of
maintenance, repairs, and other basics rises while the synod-
ical subsidy remains static or decreases. Nevertheless, Con-
cordia Ann Arbor, is working toward expansion as it serves the
church.

New members of our Board of Control, elected to replace
Rev. John C. Streit and Ernest C. Laetz, who reached the
maximum years of service as per the synodical Handbook, are
Richard Korthals and Rev. James Nickel. Further, the resigna-
tion of Edwin A. Benz, who served faithfully for many years,
brought about the appointment of Charles E. Bosma to fill that
unexpired term.

During the past biennium, because some faculty and staff
accepted positions elsewhere, and because of internal growth,
the following additions were made: Kurt Amolsch, Robert
DeWerff, E. David Dolak, Kathleen Foster, Herbert Geisler,
Paul Germeroth, Clark Gross, E. Edward Hackmann, Brian
Heinemann, Roy Kronsbein, John Major, Lloyd Probasco,
Paul Raabe, Gilbert Sernett, and Timothy Winter. Dr. Paul G.
Meyer, Dr. Wilbert H. Rusch, and Prof. Theodore P. Klammer
have retired and were given professor emeritus status.

Concordia, Ann Arbor, long has been noted as a very
spirtually oriented campus. Through our Spiritual Life Com-
mittee and its adviser, the spiritual emphasis on our campus
remains strong, and this is reflected in the attitude of students
and faculty alike. We feel that our motto, ‘Christ, first in
everything,” should be a reality on campus. This is our goal in
all campus activities and is noted in our excellent daily chapel
attendance.

Concordia College, Ann Arbor, continues in its efforts to
serve and meet the needs of The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod. Therefore we bespeak the prayers of the members of
Synod.

Board of Control
M.S. Pohl, Executive Officer

6-06
Concordia College Bronxville, N.Y.

Year of Jubilee

This is a year of jubilee for Concordia College, celebrating
100 years of blessings as a school and 70 years at its present
location in Bronxville. Concordia treasures its friends of the
past: founders who responded to the Synod’s need for church
workers on the eastern seaboard; alumni who have given
distinguished service and leadership to church and country;
friends and sponsors who have responded throughout the
years in so many ways to the school’s challenges and oppor-
tunities. Concordia thanks God for these blessings.

The mission of Concordia has not changed. Pastors and
teachers, deaconesses and social workers, directors of Chris-
tian education, youth work and evangelism, lay leaders in local
parishes are needed as urgently in 1981 as in 1881 when the
sainted Pastor John Sieker founded Concordia with a class of
12 boys committed to studying for the ministry. Since 1921
Concordia has welcomed general education students also; they
not only provide the needed additional financial support, but
these students represent both a great resource and a great
opportunity. They add a vitality and diversity to the student
population that is important to the development of a meaning-
ful, life-related education process, and they promise new
impetus and inspiration for creating a strong sense of mission
and vocation in contemporary Christian congregations. To
fulfill its mission today, Concordia seeks to enlist an ever-
widening circle of friends and associates.

“Reach for Tomorrow.” Concordia’s action plan of the
future is expressed in this slogan, coined by its students during
its 100th year. Rooted in present realities, but not arrested
there, Concordia is still eager to explore new avenues and
approaches in its continuing quest for academic excellence for
its students and in its dedicated service to the church. While
reflecting Concordia’s current situation, this report reaches for
tomorrow where we see enrollment building toward 500 to 600
students, a consistently larger proportion of them enrolled in
church vocation courses; an increasing measure of financial
support from eastern seaboard Districts and congregations,
and from the Synod, which accepted Concordia as a gift from
east coast Lutherans in 1899; and finally, a growing awareness
by the church and by the surrounding community that Con-
cordia “lives” to serve.

Three Studies

Three major studies have engaged the attention of the
administration and the faculty over the past two years. The
implementation of recommendations from all three will chart
Concordia’s movement into the future—a movement from
vision to reality.

The management firm of Anderson/Roethle, Inc., was
engaged to assist with an in-depth review of the college’s
strategy in three areas: recruitment, development, and finan-
cial management. This intensive study resulted in a manual
for action for the next five years. The eight-pronged statement
of function for carrying out the mission and purpose of the
college in serving the church received the wholehearted
endorsement of the faculty. Recommendations for initiating,
cultivating, and maintaining closer ties with those Districts
and congregations of the Synod which traditionally have
looked to Concordia for service resulted in the establishment of
the ‘“‘Concordia Ambassadors Plan.” The study also led to
significant changes both in personnel and methodology for the
fiscal management of the school.

Secondly, the reorganization of the faculty involved most of
its membership in the fall semester of the 1979—80 school year
and led to the present arrangement of five faculty divisions as
follows (chairpersons in parentheses):

Division of Behavior & Applied Science (Kenneth Doka)

Division of Education (Violet Wade)

Division of History & Religion (Alan Steinberg)

Division of Literature & Music (James Brauer)

Division of Science & Mathematics (Clifford Peterson)

Thirdly, a review of the interim program, an integral part of
Concordia’s academic history since 1972, was the topic of a