# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S154
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

152 SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

Three major negative factors and four minor ones support the oy
clusion that Synod would be ill-advised if it were to attempt a go} E
tion along these lines:
1. Although the Church has a tremendous investment (;
12 million dollars) in its 14 existing colleges and seminayi.
the physical plants are almost all so extremely small that 4
meet these requirements, eight plants would have ty ,3
expanded to almost double their present capacity. 4
estimates convinced your Board that the capital inves
involved in such an operation is so large that it would aed
approximately 20 years of the resultant operational ca
savings to return the expense of the conversion. In additipn $
five of the existing campuses and plants would have to | be
abandoned as synodical educational operations if the 4
College were to have a central location. This would have the
effect of contracting all of Synod’s educational activity int
the Midwest area. The strategic value of our East Coad:
West Coast, Southwestern, and Canadian schools would
lost. (See Exhibit 1, page 153.)
2. A realistic appraisal of existing emotional factors certainly
i indicates an overwhelming sentiment for the preservation of
what our Synod has developed during the past century,}
When this traditional factor is coupled with the fact that this
co ' plan would necessarily involve transfer, relocation, and re:4
assignment of at least 75% of the present administrative and’
teaching personnel, the overwhelming practical difficulty’
as' well as the inadvisability of such a procedure will be:
apparent.
3. It is a fact that most unusual opportunities for service and
- for expansion of our Synod’s work are characteristic of the!
outlook for the immediate future. Certainly this is true
the area of foreign missions as these are represented in th
eight new fields which have been opened in the last de
alone. Serious thought must be given also to the Americang
population increases, which are as tremendous as they arg
unexpected. (150 million on November 1, 1949.) Thess
actual numerical expansions, coupled with the great populag

profound implications for our work in home missions and fm
_ the expansion of our parochial schools.

In this connection we note that this plan would norm

involve a shrinkage of our educational facilities in e

those areas where the greatest future national and sync
expansion is indicated and where, by the grace of God, we

already have flourishing educational units. 4