# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S821
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

122 SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

while effort. The laymen of both Districts continue to offer two
scholarships on a competitive basis to.new students enrolling in
the ministerial department. Individual members offer prizes
which are awarded annually for notable academic achievement.
Walther League societies are gathering funds for the purchase
of new pianos. And several times our school has been remembered
by our Christians in their last will. Throughout our Districts there
is a lively interest in the welfare of our Concordia, and our Chris-
tians appreciate the fact that Edmonton has supplied almost
50 per cent of the pastors in Western Canada. Some of our
graduates are called from the seminary directly to American
parishes, and others who have served in Canada for some years
accept calls to the States; their number amounts to 29 per cent
out of a total of 70. It arouses genuine joy to know that today
the graduates of our school are serving no fewer than 19,000 souls
in Canadian and American parishes. For this undeserved blessing
we give praise to our heavenly Father; and we speak on behalf
of all our. Christians when we extend deep-felt gratitude to the
members of our Synod for the support they have given us through-
out the past 29 years and when we add a special word of thanks
to Synod’s Board for Higher Education and the Board of Directors
for the wholehearted interest they have shown at all times in
the development of our strategically important Canadian Concordia.’

Expansion Program at Edmonton

Our greatest need at the present time is an expanded plant.:
Permit us to call your attention to the following:

1. Our classrooms are too small to accommodate a number of
the larger classes. As a result we must divide them. This doubles
their classroom periods and increases the teaching load of our
instructors.

2. Only six classrooms are available for seven teachers. If all
seven are to teach at the same time, one class must be taken into
the chapel, where facilities for instruction are poor.

3. Our science classroom is too small to accommodate the
classes; and we feel the lack of storage space for scientific equip-
ment keenly. The lack of space in our science department has
been criticized by the high school inspectors.

4, Another room considered inadequate by the high school
inspectors is our library. We are using a room which measures
18 x 27, and this — to quote the inspector’s report — “cannot accom-
modate the full number of students whose study periods might be
spent there with profit.” Furthermore, all the books owned by
a school ought to be placed in the library, where they may readily