# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S888
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 191

consideration was the fact, that it is proving extremely difficult
for our Synod to supply adequate staff and library for two sem-
inaries. It was felt that the creation of a third seminary, plus a
senior college, would create an impossible supply-and-demand
situation if Synod undertook, as it must, to supply all staff mem-
bers from its own ranks. .

As a final alternative, the Board thoroughly explored the pos-
sibility of having both types of courses on the Springfield campus.

One of the major objections to such a procedure is the fact
that there would be much unnecessary duplication of facilities,
cost, and effort. Another major deterrent is the problem of setting
up regulations which would control the enrollments. It is quite
evident that students would have to be arbitrarily directed to the
one seminary or to the other. Such a situation would create severe
dissatisfaction among students and additional problems for ad-
ministrators involved. It was felt also that one of the inevitable
outcomes of such an arrangement would be that one or the other
type of course would eventually predominate at the Springfield
institution and would create either a serious lack of enthusiasm
on the part of students and faculty in the one department or elsé
a disastrous rivalry between the divisions of the seminary. Finally,
the difficulties of administration were considered to be so formi-
dable as to make this proposal undesirable.

Accordingly the Board proposes to reach the desired quota of
approximately 200 seminary graduates annually by 1965 through
the following plan:

1. St. Louis, Mo.

The Board for Higher Education recommends ‘that this sem-
inary be equipped to accommodate 500 to 525 professional students
(in a three-year undergraduate program) by concentrating all the
regular professional training in existing facilities on the main
campus. If off-campus housing is found unacceptable, such a pro-
gram will require the addition of at least one dormitory to the
existing complex of buildings since the seminary estimates that
present campus facilities can house only a maximum of 425
students.

The large required enrollment in the regular program makes
it necessary to recommend a partial separation of the Missions
Department and the Graduate School from the present physical
plant. Every effort should be made to keep the wholesome influ-
ence which results from undergradudate contacts with these divi-
sions of the school. The joint use of facilities for library, dining
halls, physical education, and central administration will contribute,
it is hoped, toward this objective.