# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S253
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

HIGHER EDUCATION 253

Unless the purpose of the colleges is broadened so
that more nonministerial programs are included, the lack
of growth in enrollment is likely to continue. More stu-
dents are attending public junior colleges in their home
communities. Other students prefer to begin at a synod-
ical 4-year school rather than at one of the junior colleges,
perhaps because the image of junior colleges to them is
one of lower quality or because they have been told
about alleged difficulties in transferring. Competition for
gifted students continues to increase in intensity.

More “General Education” Students

Serious attention has been given by the board to the
possibility of changing all or most of the synodical col-
leges into ‘‘general education” institutions and then mak-
ing efforts to enroll large numbers of non-church-worker
students. Such a change could increase the size of the
smaller institutions to a more efficient level and also
provide opportunities for more future lay leaders to
gain the benefits available from attending one of the
synodical colleges. This plan is being tried on a limited
basis at some of the small colleges. At present, about
9 percent of the total systemwide enrollment is made up
of general education students.

Certainly, more church-sponsored lay higher educa-
tion is a most desirable and valuable goal. Experiments
and efforts in this direction will continue. However,
until significantly larger amounts and new sources of
funds become available, these programs can be under-
taken on a limited basis only. The cost which would be
involved for the Synod and/or the prospective students
and their parents to finance such programs on a broad
scale far exceeds any funds which are presently
available.

Many of the commissions and other groups which
have developed statewide master designs for public
higher education have included 2-year junior colleges
and 2-year (plus graduate school) senior colleges in the
plans. If this pattern is implemented, the prestige of
junior colleges will likely increase. However, the Board
for Higher Education does not expect that our junior
colleges would grow as a result of such changes. Rather,
it seems likely that more students would then plan to
take their first 2 years of work at a community junior
college near their home.

Studies of Consolidation

Because of the difficulties and heavy expenses in-
volved in maintaining top quality in small colleges, the
Board for Higher Education, the commissions of the
board, and the college and seminary presidents have
studied various possible consolidation plans for synodical
colleges. The ease of transportation in our nation today
makes some of these plans more feasible now than in
earlier years. Because of the preference shown by stu-
dents for 4-year institutions, many of the plans include
consolidation into a limited number of 4-year colleges.

Among the specific possibilities being investigated
and considered is a plan to consolidate Portland, Oak-

land, and the proposed junior college at Irvine into a
single West Coast institution — possibly a 4-year school.
In the restudy done by the Board for Higher Education
of the needs for the West Coast, all of the factors de-
tailed in the discussion above—the problems in main-
taining small schools, the image of junior colleges, the
financial cost for any broad expansion into general edu-
cation programs—seem to point to a need for some type
of consolidation for greater effectiveness and efficiency.

Another specific proposal being examined is that
Austin, Winfield, and Concordia (Mo.) be combined into
one school. Junior college campuses which are in major
metropolitan and Lutheran centers, such as Milwaukee
and Ann Arbor, might be maintained but merged as
satellite campuses with existing 4-year colleges.

Any change in structure or consolidation of schools,
of course, should be done only if such a change will
make it possible for our system to do an even more effec-
tive and efficient job. Decisions must be based, as indi-
cated by the synodical Handbook, upon the “objectives
of our whole educational system” and not be influenced
by provincial concerns or arguments. Changes must also
be made only after careful planning and in such a way
that during the period of transition neither the work,
nor the students, nor the faculty, nor the constituents
of the area will suffer unduly.

The Board for Higher Education recommends to the
Synod that the studies of possible consolidation of col-
leges be continued and that the Board for Higher Educa-
tion be given discretionary authority. after consultation
with the boards of control of the colleges involved and
with the approval of the synodical Board of Directors, to
consolidate colleges to the number needed to supply the
church's professional needs, and which is economically
defensible.

c. Assign specialized and graduate programs to
avoid duplication. The careful planning in higher edu-
cation done by the Synod in the past has included the
efforts to avoid unnecessary and wasteful duplication
of programs and efforts. This has been done without
stifling the initiative of the schools to plan and experi-
ment with new programs.

Stronger staffs and more efficient operations are pos-
sible in specialized programs when the number of
schools offering a program is kept to a minimum. The
Synod, therefore, for example, has offered graduate
theological education at the St. Louis campus only. River
Forest has offered the only year-round graduate pro-
gram in teacher education. Winfield has been the only
college to include a curriculum for parish workers.

Because of the willingness of students to travel
greater distances and because of the widespread accep-
tance in higher education of the concept of consortia and
other cooperative endeavors, it is very likely that even
more of the existing specialized programs, as well as new
ones to be inaugurated, can be assigned to single col-
leges. Several possibilities for assigning specialized
programs are being studied by the Board for Higher