# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S208
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

208 SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

carry out its functions under the handicap of lacking from the
start very important physical plant facilities.

The third alternative was to defer construction in part by
constructing facilities only to the extent that they were needed
for the planned first year of operation in 1956—57, when it was
expected that only one half of the ultimate student body would
be enrolled, and then to ask this general convention in St. Paul in
1956 for funds to complete the entire project. ,

Between April and September 1954 the Board for Higher Edu-
cation, joined by the Board of Control of the new college, reported
on these developments and these alternatives successively to the
synodical Board of Directors, to the special Survey and Findings
Committees, and to the meeting of the College of District Presi-
dents. In order not to bring activity to a total halt, the Board
of Directors in 1954 granted permission to the Board of Control
to spend $5,200,000 on the Senior College up to June 1956 when
the St. Paul general convention would be in session. The choice of
the third alternative was made by the Board of Directors and by
the Survey and Findings Committee after a very thorough study
of the entire situation and fully reported to the Fiscal Conference
in September 1954.

Meanwhile the Board of Control had requested nominations
from the synodical membership for the presidency of the new
institution. On August 27, 1954, the electors called Dr. Martin J.
Neeb, who had been serving as first executive secretary of the
Board for Higher Education, to become first president of Concordia
Senior College. Dr. Neeb became convinced that he should accept
the call and became first president of Concordia Senior College
on February 1, 1955. With the election of its executive officer,
the Board of Control with the synodical electors could begin the
vitally important staffing of the new institution. (As this is being
written, it appears that seven members of the permanent staff
have been secured, and by the time of the convention it may be
possible to report on others.)

Ground breaking for building construction took place on
May 26, 1955, and a contract covering construction of eight major
educational buildings was awarded on that same date.

The summer of 1955 led to the further complicating and dis-
appointing development that governmental priorities established
for the benefit of disaster areas, particularly the flood-stricken
areas of New England, had negative effect on Synod’s project in
two ways: first, by jeopardizing the accepted construction time
schedule, with a view to opening the school in the fall of 1956;
and second, by significantly increasing the cost and decreasing
the available supply of fabricated steel and other building materials.

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