# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S1111
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 4138

ergency Planning Council. Our Commission also urged Lu-
eran students to contribute toward the Displaced Persons pro-
am. sponsored by the colleges and universities in which they
ere enrolled and encouraged affluent Gamma Delta and Beta
igma Psi groups to adopt Lutheran displaced persons on their
espective campuses.

After the cessation of hostilities in World War II, university
Fand college authorities concerned themselves individually and col-
FS lectively with the recognized problem of secularism in American
Ptife. Freely they recognized religion as a sine qua non, and freely
; they acknowledged the urgent necessity of suffusing the campuses
with the dynamic of that hitherto ignored force. In the fall of 1949
.our Commission was invited to a historic Conference on Religion
Fin. Higher Education at the University of Minnesota to assist as-
embled representatives of State universities and colleges from
coast to coast not only in their effort to conquer the problem of
ecularism, but also to contribute toward the solution of another
and resultant problem, namely, the separation of Church and State.
f our Commission is to speak with synodical authority on the
eparation of Church and State, Synod, obviously, must authorize
a study of this problem, enabling our Commission to declare at
future conferences of this nature the official position of the Church
‘which we represent.

The annual student census, which had become a matter of
diminishing concern when fairly accurate results were obtained
: through the optional religious preference cards almost universally
included in the college or university registration forms, again looms
sas a major problem. In deference to minority groups which had -
=. been harassed by discriminatory practices, not a few universities
& have discontinued the religious census at the time of registration.
: This factor imposes the necessity of total and prompt participa-
a tion by every congregation in the annual student census con-
; ducted by the Student Service Commission. It also imposes the
.. necessity of an enlarged staff in the office of the Commission to
; conduct the required and thorough census.

§ With the gradual withdrawal of war veterans from the cam-
. puses, college enrollments are expected to show a moderate de-
cline during the coming years. That decline will also be reflected
Fin the enrollment of students committed to our care, although we
: confidently hope that our young people will, in the future, mani-
: fest a greater interest in higher education than was the case be-
§- fore the war. However, by 1960 the number of college graduates
R is expected to exceed by 50,000 the record high established in 1950,
¢:when diplomas were ‘awarded to 450,000 college students. Wisdom,
therefore, dictates a policy: of. expansion of our student service