# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S51
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 51

Rev. C. Thomas Spitz, Belleville, Ill, 1955; Rev. J. E. Nopola,
president of the National Ev. Lutheran Church, Esko, Minn., 1955;
Rev. Heinrich Stallmann, Germany, 1955; Rev. Richard Laabs,
Germany, 1955.

During the summer of 1954 our Chorus under the direction
of Prof. F. L. Precht made a tour of England, giving. thirty-two
concerts in thirty cities. Funds for this trip were raised by the
members of the Chorus. One of the choristers, Mr. Robert Weder-
gren, remained in England to do field work. His salary was paid
by contributions from the Chorus and the student body of Spring-
field. Through his efforts a new congregation was established in
Sunderland.

The Missionary Society under the leadership of Prof. L. M.
Petersen and Prof. A. E. Graf offers limited opportunities for field
work to the members of the Senior and the Graduate classes.
Twenty-seven stations, including rest homes, sanatoria, hospitals,
jails, etc., are being served by the students, subsidized in part
by the Central Illinois District.

Synod has no housing facilities for our married students.
All of them must find their own living quarters. Thirty-seven
married students live in a Government housing project several
blocks from the Seminary. Living conditions in this project are
not favorable for the children nor conducive to study.

Requests
The Houston Convention granted us the sum of $600,000 for
a library-administration building and for a dormitory. Since no
money was available, these buildings could not be erected. We are
requesting a reappropriation of these funds and are underscoring
our need for these buildings in the following:

Library-Administration Building. The present library is lo-
cated in the basement of the dormitory Craemer Hall. It has
a reference room, periodical room, stack room, a small work room,
and an office for the librarian. The reference room, 20x57 feet,
offers working space for twenty students. The room has basement
windows, 2x3 feet, is difficult to ventilate, and is noisy, since it is
in a dormitory. Neither the reference room nor the stack room
permits any further expansion, and new quarters for the library
are a must if our school is to do its work efficiently. The present
administration offices are in a residence built in 1875. Every room
is occupied, and here, too, there is no possibility of expansion.
Since this building is a former residence, it does not offer the
privacy desirable for counseling, nor are there any facilities for
storing financial and academic records in fireproof vaults.