# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S914
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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216 _ SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

100% increase ‘in a single decade. This was followed by the great, 3
depression, but the colleges and universities continued to grow,
with the result that there was a college population of 1,494,000 3
1940, Today the full impact of the war plans which were laid to’
take care of the youth who had gone to war instead of going'4
to school is being felt; we now have a total of 2,400,000 in the col-"%
leges and universities of our land. a

Thus the college population increased almost 1,000% between
1900 and 1948, while the census showed an increase of only abo
100%. In other words, whereas the percentage of American youth
aged 18 to 21 enrolled in college in 1900 was 4.01, it was near-
ing 20% by 1948. According to the most conservative estimates,’
3,000,000 of our youth will be attending colleges and universities
by 1960. .

The full meaning of these figures for our Church and for our
work in training ministers for our congregations is difficult to de-

rate at which our Synod is concentrating its missionary efforts on:
the general American public will automatically involve the en:
rollment of steadily increasing numbers of college-trained mén;
and women in the membership lists of our congregations. Effec.
tive leadership in these congregations will require a high degree
of college training.

The evidence contained in the files of the Rev. R. W. Hahn,
Executive Secretary of the Student Service Commission of our’
Church, makes it entirely clear that the educati@nal progress of’
our. present membership ‘parallels that of the general American’
public. Note the following comparative figures for the last five
years alone and see clearly that the number of our own Lutheran
students in public universities has increased almost 200% in the
last five years: .

194445 6,029 194748 15,138
1948—49 16,065

It is only natural to conclude that the longer our Church ' ¥
works in the American scene, the more necessary it becomes for °
us to approach the national educational patterns which influence.
the American public so that our workers will be well equipped to’
understand the environment in which they do their work.and that ;
they will be qualified to lead the majority of the parishioners who *
are in their charge. This requires that we make progress toward
shifting our professional education from the high school to the
college level and that we provide for full offerings on the college
level. It is not possible to establish a full senior college immedi-
ately, but it is possible and necessary to conclude the necessary ~