# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1953_S957
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

IE ERE NEES OE

132 SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

In the meantime an unsolicited offer was made by the Ing;
Technical College of Fort Wayne to purchase our Concordia Col.
lege at Fort Wayne. This development opened New possibilities
which were diligently explored by the Board of Control of o
Fort Wayne Concordia College, by Synod’s Board for Higher Eau.
cation, and by Synod’s Board of Directors. The advantages and
disadvantages of selling our present Concordia’ and adding th
purchase price ($1,000,000) and the amount set aside for the con.
struction of a Library and Administration Building on the Present
campus ($335,000) to the $3,000,000 allocated to the new Senior
College from the “Conquest for Christ” funds, and then construct.
ing a new Senior College in the Fort Wayne area were carefully
evaluated. Among the advantages listed were:

A. We avoid establishing another campus that must be main-
tained (annual average cost of maintenance of campus of this size
is $175,000);

; B. We realize sufficient funds to construct the Senior College
as originally planned without the expenditure of another million
dollars from synodical funds;

C. We divest ourselves of a campus (which, however, we may
occupy until July 1, 1956) that contains some buildings that must
be razed, other buildings that must be reconstructed, in addition
to the new buildings that must be erected. Requests totaling almost
one million dollars for new buildings at our Fort Wayne Concordia
have been received;

D. The Senior College would be located in an area where our
Lutheran Church is well represented in a compact area and where
there are excellent opportunities for ‘the students enrolled at the
Senior College to observe and participate in church activities.

Among the disadvantages listed were:

A. The Chicago and Milwaukee areas offer better opportunities
to follow off-campus scholarly pursuits (libraries), make available
more cultural facilities (art museums, orchestras, etc.), afford
better facilities for faculty graduate studies;

B. The “Fort Wayne Experiment” would have to be trans-
ferred elsewhere, and such a transferring would interfere, at least
to a degree, with a fair evaluation of this educational experiment;

‘C. The Teacher-Training Program which has been introduced
in Fort Wayne and which is to be expanded would have to be
transferred elsewhere; -

D. Transportation to Chicago would be somewhat easier for
many of the students than transportation to Fort Wayne.

After a thorough consideration of the entire matter by Com-

god leapressed by several Fort Wayne congregations, it was agreed

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 133

1 (which consists of.the Praesidium, the District Presidents,
7 en Board of Directors, and representative pastors, teachers,
en), and after considering also the misgivings that had

that the advantages of selling our present Fort Wayne Concordia

- and locating our Senior College on a new site in the suburban area
an

of Fort Wayne outweigh the disadvantages, and it was therefore
decided to recommend to the Convention to sell the present Fort ;
Wayne campus and locate a two-year Senior College on a new site
to be P within the Fort Wayne suburban area.

In arriving at its conclusion, Committee 1 emphasizes that

- neither the basic decisions of the Milwaukee Convention nor the

recommendation of the Board for Higher Education regarding the
Senior College are being reversed under the proposal that will
now be submitted to the Convention. Changed circumstances,
which offer a solution for the Senior College situation that is con-
sidered providential by many, supersede the decision of the Com-
mittee of 99 regarding the location of the new Senior College.
Agreement with the proposal to be submitted constitutes, as we
construe it, an acceptance of this change in the decision of the
Committee of 99. ,

We are also mindful that the acceptance of our resolution,
which locates the Senior College on a new site in the suburban
area of Fort Wayne, does not preclude the possibility that another
senior college —or even several senior colleges— may be. estab-
lished in various parts of the country in the future if, under the.
blessings of God and because of the missionary aggressiveness of
our members, the Church we love—The Lutheran Church —
Missouri Synod — continues to expand and to embrace an ever
larger number of members in her fold. Neither would we deny
the possibility that after an adequate period of testing it may be
found feasible, or even desirable, to change the structure of a
senior college to a four-year college.

Finally, we are aware that the discontinuance of the use of
any campus, even when such a move is fully justified in every
way, stirs feelings of regret that reflect the emotions with which
our Creator has endowed us. Weare not insensitive of the fact
that this statement has particular significance for our brethren in
Fort Wayne and for all of those among the clergy who call our
Fort Wayne Concordia their alma mater.

As we look back over a period of more than a century, we
trace the history of our Fort Wayne Concordia from its original
location in Perry County, Missouri, to the city of St. Louis, and
thence to Fort Wayne, where it has been used as a preparatory
school, a seminary, a teacher-training school, and then again —