# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S1037
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 839

3. Salaries paid to professors should make possible the con-
tinued professional training which the educational welfare of the
, Church requires.

4 The present salary scales do not meet these standards; how-
f.ever, the Board feels incapable of successfully presenting the
indicated needs and securing the necessary increase in the salary
E budget without the encouragement and the instruction which Synod
&: alone can give to the Fiscal Conference.

: We urgently request such recommendations and instructions,
,. because we are deeply concerned over the negative effects which
& the present inadequate salaries are exerting on our educational
E work:

’ 1. A large number of our professors are finding it necessary
=. .to supplement their incomes in order to properly provide for the
. welfare of their families and for the education of their children.

; 2. The present salaries are inadequate to provide for the
: purchase of an adequate personal library, professional magazines,
- and personal contact with professional conferences which contribute
; toward advances in the particular fields of study.

3. Present salaries are so far below the better salaries paid
€ to ministers in the areas adjacent to our educational institutions
: and, in many cases, below even the median salaries paid in those
"areas, that The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod is forced, fre-
‘quently, to offer men a substantial decrease in salary when it calls
them to teaching or administration at one of her colleges and semi-
naries. Individual congregations can and do place a higher pre-
., mium on services of some of these men than the entire group of
- over 4,500 synodical congregations is able to do.

4, Present salaries are inadequate in so far as they permit no
F savings to meet constantly recurring financial crises (the Board
has authorized payment of more than $5,000 in the past six months
fF alone to meet extreme surgery and illness costs) and to permit
4 some saving to meet the problems posed by the compulsory retire-
> ment provisions of the Synod.

i None of these conditions are in the interest of the educational
F. work of our Church. Professors who must seek additional methods
E and means of income are inevitably diverting their interests and
4 loyalties and are expending energy and strength which ought to be
‘ devoted to the preparation and to teaching if the vital training
of the Church’s future ministers and teachers is to be properly
done. In addition, it is not difficult to understand that staff spirit,
enthusiasm, and high morale are sometimes difficult to maintain
under these circumstances.