Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 255
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 255

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

HIGHER EDUCATION 255

education has actually decreased slightly. The potential
damage to ministerial education if this trend is permitted
to continue cannot be overemphasized. The percentage
of the Synod’s income which is made available for higher
education must be increased if the objectives of the
Synod are to be fulfilled.

c. Student Fees and Aid. The average fees paid per
year per student at synodical colleges increased from
$852 to $950 during the past biennium. This amount is
high when compared to the charges at public colleges,
but lower than the cost at most other private institutions.

The student fees at our colleges will, no doubt, need
to be raised even higher in the future to meet the in-
creased costs. However, because the majority of the
students in synodical schools come from homes with
low-middle to middle-level incomes, each increase in
fees makes it necessary for more students to enter the
group which requires financial help. As fees are in-
creased, recruitment will be hampered unless adequate
financial aid for students is made available.

District committees presently furnish about 35 percent
of the total aid given to students. While the amounts of
such aid have been increased regularly, the percentage
of the total income of Districts which is used for student
aid is only one half as large now as in the 1930s. Some
Districts now provide less than 10 cents per communicant
each year for student aid. The Board for Higher Educa-
tion recommends that the Synod ask all District leaders
to reexamine their student aid budgets and make efforts
to increase such aid during the next biennium.

Home congregations of students now provide about
20 percent of the total amount of student aid. Many
parishes responded to the synodical resolution adopted
at the New York convention which encouraged each
congregation to “include aid for its students at synodical
schools in the regular annual congregational budget, or
from its auxiliaries ... and that funds so designated be
made available to the colleges and seminaries for use
in general student aid if no students from the congrega-
tion are enrolled in a given year.” More congregations
are needed which will inaugurate such a program in the
coming biennium.

In recent years the officers of the colleges and sem-
inaries, the students in the system, and the Board for
Higher Education have been successful in their efforts
to locate new sources of student financial aid. Twenty
years ago only 5 percent of the total aid was supplied by
individuals or agencies other than Districts and home
congregations. At present this figure has grown to ap-
proximately 45 percent. Active efforts to increase these
amounts must be continued if the assistance required by
the students is to be provided in the years ahead.

d. Other Sources. Because of inflation in our econ-
omy and the spiraling costs of education, new sources
and increased amounts of support will be needed not
only for student aid but also for all other areas of the
work at the colleges and seminaries.

In 1968, about 18 percent of all funds received by the
schools for current operations came from sources out-

side of synodical subsidy and student fees. This was
3 percent higher than in the year preceding the New
York convention.

For capital projects in 1968, about 65 percent of the
total amount of money spent came from sources other
than synodical subsidy, as compared with 25 percent
in the year preceding the last convention.

The colleges and seminaries will need to continue
and even increase their efforts to locate funds outside
of student fees and synodical subsidy. Non-church-
related foundations and other funds have been providing
increased amounts for our schools. More contacts with
such groups are being planned and made.

Federal Funds

As requested by the Synod at the New York conven-
tion, the schools have submitted “applications to the
federal government . . . for funds from the grant and
loan programs which will make only positive contribu-
tions to the schools in the fulfillment of the synodically
approved objectives for the system.” Federal and state
loans and grants given directly to students also have
been and will be utilized to the extent possible.

Church funds which are not available to the congre-
gations, Districts, or general Synod but which can be
secured by the colleges are being solicited by the schools.

4. Provide Compensation to Administrators and
Faculty Members in Line with Scales in Use at
Comparable Institutions

The problems created by the low faculty salaries in
synodical schools were discussed at the synodical con-
vention in New York in 1967. Two resolutions concerning
salaries were adopted (6-11 and 6-28) which indicated
that the “constituent congregations and Districts be
reminded of their stewardship privilege and responsi-
bility in this matter,” that the salaries be “raised to a
level more nearly approaching the standards of other
American church-related institutions of higher educa-
tion,” that the “Board for Higher Education annually
review faculty salary schedules and grant at least a cost-
of-living raise,” and that the “Board for Higher Educa-
tion and the Board of Directors give salary inprovement
high priority.”

The Board for Higher Education is very sensitive
to the need to implement these convention resolutions.
The Board of Directors has continued to evidence its
concern for adequate salary structures.

However, because of the limited amount of total
synodical funds available for higher education, the in-
creases granted in faculty salaries since the last con-
vention have barely offset the rise in the cost of living.
Little progress has been made in “catching up” for the
previous years when no increases were granted. Faculty
salaries continue to be “below the level received by
many parish pastors and District officials,” as noted in
a New York convention resolution. The average salaries
at other church-related schools have increased more
since 1967 than at the synodical colleges and seminaries.