# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1941_S109
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Report of Board for Higher Education 10%

1. Synod’s educational aims in training pastors and teachers

undoubtedly can be achieved at a substantially lower cost to Synod.

than the present cost. bios

2. The financial problems of Synod’s institutions cannot be con-
sidered independently of the educational objectives and policies of
these institutions. There is urgent need for a clear definition, of

educational objectives, especially with respect to general or lay

education.

3. There is no evidence to indicate that the growing admission
of students who do not have the ministry or teaching in view con-
tributes even remotely to any reduction in the burden upon Synod’s
treasury. ;

4, The available data on institutional operations and costs and
on synodical needs for pastors and teachers is at present too limited,
too scattered, and too uncertain to afford a basis upon which an
objectively conceived, adequately supported, and thoroughly com-
prehensive plan for the improvement of Synod’s educational system,
also from the financial point of view, can be constructed and sub-
mitted.

These conclusions prompt your Board to submit the following
recommendations: ;

Institutional Survey. — Although the Board for Higher Educa-
tion, in other sections of this report, submits certain proposals
which are calculated to afford some relief to the treasury of Synod
in the operation of its educational institutions,, your Board. is
thoroughly convinced that further opportunities for financial im-
provement do exist and that these opportunities merit full investi-
gation. However, financial problems cannot be separated from
educational objectives and their problems. This makes it impos-
sible to probe the financial situation without also thoroughly exam,
ining the entire educational structure of Synod’s institutions.
Moreover, the problems of one institution can seldom be considered
without reference to their relationship to other institutions. Thus
a sufficiently informed view, not only of the financial situation in
our colleges, but also of the entire intimately related educational
arrangement requires constant access to factual data on all major
aspects of institutional operation. Such a fund of data is not now
available anywhere in Synod, and your Board for Higher Education
has had neither the time nor the facilities to provide it.

At almost every turn in its deliberations over a mounting
volume of financial, educational, and other problems connected
with your institutions, the Board found itself severely handicapped
by the lack of readily available, adequate, and reliable information
about our institutions. Furthermore, your Board is impressed ‘with
the diversity of opinion in synodical circles about the right: course