# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S839
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

ESF BaP CE i Et RE RE ORE ER SE eee a nen nse eee ee en oe ene sense ease aae eas ee a scm ee cain aac n ase saan a ana neeac eee e ceca ee ee C!S EASES

140 SEMINARIES AND’ COLLEGES

hand, it does not appear to be in the interest of our Church to
establish more seminaries than we now have. We believe that
the plan recommended in this report will meet the needs of the
Church without creating the undesirable characteristics of ex-
tremely large-scale training methods and without the cost of
operating additional seminaries.

Finally, it was felt that eventually the principle of planning
our enrollments quite carefully must be accepted as a basic factor
in the successful application of a reorganization proposal. Unless
devices can be found to achieve such a delegation of authority,
the possibility of proper co-ordination and of achieving desirable
outcomes where so many:schools are involved will be seriously
and adversely affected. At the same time it was felt that no
mechanical and rigid quota arrangements could be proposed, but
Synod, inevitably, must use its Board to exercise its right to
determine the’ amount, the kind, and the quality of service which
is to be rendered by each of its institutions and its educational
system. ;

The alternatives to an acceptance of planned enrollments
would certainly be that no orderly progress toward achieving
the desired production of professional candidates should be
expected. Such control should apply to quantity as well as quality
of production of professional workers for the Church.

The principle of planned enrollments also involves, auto-
matically, the abandonment of the thought that all of the institu-
tions must necessarily have identical programs. If there is to be
created an opportunity to examine and evaluate various procedures
at the educational institutions, then inevitably we must adopt
a principle which will permit variations in the programs of the
individual institutions.

The Aims of Reorganization

As far as the adjustments which are proposed for existing
synodical institutions are concerned, it should be borne in mind
that the purpose is to eventually create a system of higher educa-
tion which will reflect better stewardship of Synod’s expenditures
for education by creating an opportunity for scientific observation
of the effects which a four-year junior college and a two-year
junior college would have upon the training and upon the recruit-.
ment problems involved in our work.

The adjustments also involve using‘ the preparatory institutions
for teacher training and thus pre-empting much of the space which
is now devoted to general education. A rapidly increasing need
for synodically trained women teachers is in evidence. According