# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S249
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

A RRR TOE LE COE A RT RE RESET ARETETYRS AS ID mma emt ante eptme

248 SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

or intermittently through special collections held on a Synod-wide
basis. The Boards of Control and administrators who have been
responsible on the scene for the management of plant and equip-
ment have in time past frequently felt that their management
practice was one of moving from crisis to crisis and of making
emergency adjustments ad interim. Those who have served Synod
well on these boards for many years still poignantly remember
instances when it became necessary to accept and administer flat
percentage cuts “across the board” because current operating
funds of Synod could not be made available to assume these proper
capital costs. Disappointing as it is as we remember the millions
of dollars which Synod has recently been investing in its campuses
and plants, it is still necessary to point to a current formidable
piling up of a backlog in terms of capital outlay needs to offset
relentless obsolescence.

Part of the problem has seemed to stem from a widespread
sentiment that the real costs and hence, under the existing policy,
the real obligation of Synod is met when a new building is estab-
lished, rather than from the realization that the real costs of plant
and equipment are the “terminal costs,” calculated to include the
initial cost, plus the maintenance costs for the normal life of the
building, plus the cost of protection of the investment, and, as
a hidden cost, the forfeited interest on the capital outlay as an
alternative investment.

Synod’s commendably expressed intent that “no young man or
woman who has the necessary gifts, consecration, and zeal for pro-
fessional service in the church should be prevented from entering
its ranks because of financial handicaps” has occasionally led to
the championing or characterizing of Synod’s training institutions
as “poor man’s schools.” Yet every synodical institution is aware
of the fact that the synodical membership, generally, endlessly
expects both deeper educational standards and higher living
standards at the schools for the students who are sent to the schools
for training.

When thirty years ago an inclusive, unified synodical budget
was established, no one envisioned that the synodical budget would
ever include such a variety of activities requiring regular and
systematic support, nor did anyone envision that the budget itself
could grow to the dimensions that it has already reached and is
likely to reach in the next period of years. As the leaders of
Synod realize better than any others, the way to the successful
synodical budget has never been easy. In fact, a study prepared
by Mr. Walter Gast, member of the Board for Higher Education,
at the invitation of the Board of Directors and reproduced as a
series of four charts [Charts D, E, F,G, under Section VIII, Finan-

erate ape te ere nt enhnmerneensinenmieninnenn eet

ci
cc

pl

de

to

pl
is