# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S207
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 207

library building. The auditorium seats 510. The dining hall
seats 492. The gymnasium seats 1,800 but can make room for
about 1,000 additional chairs on the main floor for such special
gatherings as conventions. Each dormitory houses 34 students
in double rooms and provides, in addition, a reception lounge,
a small private study for the use of students who may be tem-
porarily inconvenienced in their living room, and a tiny prayer
room. .

In adopting comprehensive plans for the establishment of
Concordia Senior College, Synod had provided for the appointment
of a ten-member Board of Control incorporating wide synodical
representation. After the appointment of members to this Board
had been completed, it met for its first meeting on April 8, 1954.
President Behnken, of course, is an ex officio member. Synod is
represented further by one of its Vice-Presidents, Dr. Walter
Lichtsinn of Hammond, Ind., who is also chairman of the Board.
Dr. Ottomar Krueger, former president of two of Synod’s colleges
and now President of the Central District, is an ex officio member.
Other members include Rev. Oswald Riess of Detroit; Rev. Allen H.
Fedder of Des Plaines, Ill; Rev. Cliff Aulick of Fort Wayne, who
was elected board secretary; Mr. E. F. Sagehorn of Cleveland;
Mr. Carl Geist of Cincinnati; and Mr. Robert Berning, Mr. Arthur
Hein, and Mr. Robert Moellering of Fort Wayne. (For reasons of
brevity and economy, no parallel report to this synodical convention
has been prepared. The board is almost fully represented at the
convention.)

As the planning of the new Senior College progressed and com-
petent professional estimates were procured, it became painfully
clear that the cost estimates, originally prepared in 1948 and 1949
for the 1950 convention and augmented in 1953 by the proceeds
of the sale of the Junior College at Fort Wayne, would not be
sufficient to build the entire campus.

This disturbing development confronted Synod’s three Boards
with responsibility in the area with the consideration of three
alternatives. Alternative 1 would have been to postpone all building
until after the St.Paul Convention in 1956. This was a costly
alternative because it would have forced the construction of
another dormitory at the St. Louis Seminary immediately at an
estimated cost of $500,000, and would have so delayed the develop-
ment of Concordia Senior College that it would most likely have
had to be built after 1956 at still higher prices.

Alternative 2 was to build as much of the plant facilities as
possible with the money available and to defer everything else.
This was judged to be a very unsatisfactory alternative, since it
would expect the Senior College to reach its objectives and to