# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S215
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 215

tion, the necessary decisions can be made, in the fear of God and
in love for the church, on the basis of the objectives of the training
program for pastors and teachers adopted and prescribed by the
church.

Decisions must further be made on the basis of the determina-
tion of the necessary resources available to the church as means
to be employed in the attainment of these objectives. Another
principle which Synod has long held to be paramount is the con-
sideration that short-range needs should not determine long-range
goals and programs. It is apparent that the desirable long-range
plan and solution to Synod’s changing problem lies in two direc-
tions: first, the balanced development of the existing institutions
to optimum student capacity, and second, in planned modification
and extension of the training system.

Balanced Plant Development of Existing Institutions
to Optimum Student Capacity

The concepts of optimum student capacity and balanced campus
development are necessarily related to each other if both effective-
ness in the attainment of objectives and efficiency in operation are
to be obtainable.

Optimum student capacity is that level of enrollment at which
any institution can provide for the best training of its students.
In the face of an almost universal tendency for institutions of
learning, especially also of higher learning, and their constituents
to identify optimum student capacity with maximum student ca-
pacity, it is necessary to point out that the two are never the same.
This is not to deny that under special circumstances and in emer-
gency situations the optimum student capacity of any institution
can be exceeded temporarily with the full realization that the
overcrowding leads to the deliberate forfeiting of the most desir-
able conditions for the attainment of student outcomes expected
and desired by the church.

Balanced campus development is the result of the provision
for an optimum student enrollment, of the necessary site, plant,
and other physical facilities and equipment which provide the
proper setting in which effective training can take place. (Pro-
ceedings, 1947, p.165.) Perhaps several illustrations will be helpful.
A campus which was acquired and developed for a total student
body not exceeding 200 students cannot suddenly be made to take
care of 400 students without the unavoidable hazard of forfeiting
much both in terms of effectiveness of training and of efficiency
of operation. A classroom suitably designed for 30 students cannot
suddenly be made to serve an average of 45 in each class period