# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S262
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 261

expense. Some years ago the costs began to be amortized at the
rate of 1% a month (for 84 years) as a synodical current expense.
Very recently, with the introduction of fund accounting in the
fiscal operations of Synod, these monthly internal charges have
been funded.

It is the considered opinion of your Board for Higher Educa-
tion that this self-imposed amortization cost is unnecessarily high
because of the accelerated amortization period. It is difficult,
indeed, to envision sound reasons why Synod should, in effect,
penalize itself by charging itself at a rate which is many times
higher than that usually found in the business world.

Your Board for Higher Education consequently proposes and
recommends:

That the present amortization plan be modified to encompass
at least a 25-year period. Your Board looks forward to the day
when financing of the instructional staff housing, from the current
income of Synod, can be avoided.

Equitable Student Fees at Our Schools

The local boards of control have the responsibility of setting
the annual schedule of student fees at Synod’s colleges and semi-
naries. This is perhaps one of the most sensitive areas of local
pressure for the immediate constituency. For some years past
your Board for Higher Education and the school administrators
have been active in trying to arrive at more equitable bases for
the establishment of such fees. It is obvious that student fees
should not be set at the very limit that the traffic will bear, nor
should a school vie with its neighbors in trying to establish the
lowest schedule of direct fees, followed by efforts to pass on to
Synod the heightened demand for supplementary income. Equi-
table student fees are not mere token fees, nor ought they to con-
stitute an economic barrier because of artificially or arbitrarily
inflated fee structures.

Preferred practice holds that institutions should post a limited
number of fees, lest the number and complexity of special fees
tend to confuse or deceive the student and his parents or bene-
factors as to the true limits of annual charges. On this basis the
general-education fee or the annual tuition should include all
charges for academic and cocurricular purposes, while selected
special fees might include such items as matriculation, student
activity, late registration, change of registration, and graduation
fees. In the auxiliary-service cost area there should be no less than
two divisions, namely, dormitory fee, or room rental, and an
annual board charge. The traditional “synodical tuition” is not
properly classified as an institutional educational fee.