LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 248

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248 PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

agencies to renew accreditation which is ordinarily granted for
a term of two to five vears initially and for five-to ten-year
periods thereater.

In preparation for the evaluation visit the faculty and
executive staff are conducting a far-reaching self-study. Work-
ing under the guidance of a general steering committee, seven
subcommittees have been working regularly to examine
strengths and weaknesses in all areas of the seminary's
endeavors. Among the areas being surveyed, in addition to
academic programs, are student body and student life. faculty
and teaching, library, graduate school. finances, facilities. and
services administration. The self-study process will eventually
be crystallized in a detailed. printed self-study manual for the
benefit of the examiners as well as the faculty and executive
staff. Accreditation by these two prestigious agencies en-
hances the value of all degrees granted to students and assures
acceptance of Concordia Seminary academic credit at all other
accredited schools. This process is also intended to assure the
church that those charged with the operation of the seminary
are functioning faithfully and administering the affairs of the
seminary according to the highest academic standards.

The seminary is presently in the process of completing work
on the conversion of the master of sacred theology degree
(S.T.M.) in pastoral counseling to a doctor of ministry degree
(I).Min.)in pastoral care. This new program will be submitted
to the Association of Theological Schools for its approval. The
seminary has been in contact with the agency and we have
been encouraged to proceed. Essentially, the conversion takes
the S.T.M. in pastoral counseling requirements and adds a unit
of clinical training. as well as additional course requirements
in the departments of exegetical, systematic, and historical
theology. It is hoped that the transition can be made at the
beginning of the summer school of 1983 and that the D.Min.
program will be expanded to other areas in the future.

Division of Business Services

As reported previously. the seminary’s Forward Fund
campaign was highly successful—$2,380,000 was raised in
gifts and pledges toward numerous programs and projects.
One of these projects is the renovation and repair of the
Wyneken Hall auditorium which has had to serve also as a
chapel since the present campus was established in 1926. An
overture requesting a Synodwide drive for funds. including
funds for the building of a separate chapel. is being presented
to this convention. Meanwhile. this past year, under the
direction of the board-designated Planning Committee, archi-
tectural consultants were engaged to determine what could be
done with available funds to remodel the room as a temporary
chapel and permanent auditorium. A number of proposals were
made. and at this writing the Planning Committee has for-
warded one proposal to the board for action. Renovation could
begin as early as June 1983 with completion following ap-
proximately six months thereafter.

Another project funded through Forward Fund was the
renovation of Stoeckhardt Hall as an office building. Formerly
a dormitory, the building now houses the Division of Seminary
Relations and Division of Business Services.

Loeber Hall has also received extensive renovation, thanks
to Forward Fund moneys. An attractive and nicely furnished
student center combines study areas, a game room, the snack
bar, lounges, and student organization offices in what was
formerly unused dormitory space. Student mail boxes and an
enlarged bookstore now occupy the lower level of the building.
In addition to this renovation, seminary maintenance funds
were used to modernize the second-floor housing area by the
addition of fire and smoke detection equipment and some new
plumbing.

The Forward Fund gift of a ten-unit apartment building for
the seminary’'s married student housing program was only the
beginning of the growth experienced in this program during
the past two vears. In September 1981 the same friends of
Concordia seminary who made the ten-unit apartment gift
permitted the seminary to assume the mortgage on 40 ad-
ditional one-bedroom units at approximately one-fourth of
their appraised value. These apartments, located in the north-
western suburb of St. Ann, have been 100. occupied. with a few
exceptions, in the current school vear. Friends and donors of

the seminary have helped cover the expense of assuming this
mortgage through their generous gifts to the Parc Chalet
apartments fund. In addition Concordia Publishing House has
given the seminary temporary use of four apartments on
Indiana Street in St. Louis at no charge. This brings the total of
available units for our married students to 110. Meanwhile.
older apartment buildings owned by the seminary on San
Bonita in Clayton continue to be used for housing married
students, foreign student families, new faculty and staff
families, as well as emeriti. In order that these units may be
maintained, the seminary plans to renovate one apartment
each budget year, using operating funds.

Yet another project made possible by Forward Fund is the
reroofing of the fieldhouse. Built in 1949, the building's roof
has needed attention for a number of years. In 1981 the roof
was reinsulated, and a single-ply membrane roof was installed
using Forward Fund money. The roof bid came in low enough
that remaining funds, along with $16,000 in Forward in
Remembrance funds, permitted the seminary to install insu-
lated wall panels with windows in place of the uninsulated
corrugated metal wall originally constructed.

At the conclusion of the Forward Fund campaign. the
Synod conducted its highly successful Forward in Remem-
brance program. FIR funds were made available to educational
institutions of the Synod, primarily for deferred maintenance.
Concordia Seminary applied for 36 different projects, totaling
over $574,000. Of these, we have received funding approval for
29 projects totaling $479,685. The seminary is extremely
grateful for this assistance, knowing that these needs would
have remained unmet because our operational budget is no
longer able to support the expense of maintaining our 55-vear-
old buildings. —

The seminary received virtually no FIR money for energy
conservation projects because it had received over $200,000 for
such work from grants awarded by the United States Depart-
ment of Energy. The 12 separate grants were matched by
seminary funds to provide for a wide range of energy-
conserving measures across the campus that will effect sig-
nificant energy savings both in winter and summer. In all
nearly $450,000 was spent in this effort during the past two
years, providing the seminary with state-of-theart energy
management equipment and bringing it the “Gateway to
Energy Conservation” award from the American Society of
Heating, Refrigeration. and Air Conditioning Engineers. In-
asmuch as the conservation mechanism has not vet been
operational for a full year. we are not vet able to determine the
extent of our energy savings. However, efforts continue not
only to identify sources of energy savings, but to encourage the
seminary community in practical energy-conserving steps.

Finally, other smaller but equally important projects made
possible by Forward Fund gifts include the restoration of the
only carillon in the state of Missouri, located in our own Luther
Tower. Another project in this category involved the design of
a campus master plan to aid in the locating of future parking
lots as well as the general care and landscaping of the campus
and reforestation of the Big Bend Woods and other portions of
the 72-acre campus. Forward Fund moneys paid for the neces-
sary design work. done by a nationally recognized landscape
architectual firm. as well as the planting of 35 trees in the
quadrangle areas as a first step in implementing the master
landscaping plan. Subsequent plantings have been funded
from the operating budget.

The last two years have seen the seminary enter the
computer age in a number of areas, perhaps the most signifi-
cant being in eight of our administrative offices: Admissions
and Ministerial Recruitment, Financial Aid, Housing, Account-
ing. Payroll, Seminary Relations, and Communications. Two
vears ago these offices were either using data processing
services agencies or manually kept records to handle the
information flow. Now each department is able to share a
common data base of student information, and student billings
are automatically generated after registration because of the
computer. This has been made possible by a telephone link to
the Univac 9080 computer located at Concordia College, River
Forest, Ill. Use of computer programs developed by staff over
the last decade has saved the seminary untold expense and
time delays in converting to computerized data processing. In
addition the seminary is now able to communicate easily with