Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 274
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 274

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

274 HIGHER EDUCATION

6. The Center for Continuing Education

In response to the encouragement given by the
Synod, the college has been actively engaged in the vari-
ous programs for the continuing education of its pro-
fessional workers. Institutes and workshops have been
held in generous numbers during the past 2 years and
have been attended by many pastors and teachers in the
Chicago area, as well as from more distant places. Some
of the institutes held include the following: Conferences
for Principals of Large Schools, Lectures in Church
Music, Art Workshop on Liturgical Banners, the New
Grammar Institute, Early Childhood Education, Science
Fair for Elementary Schools, and Science Teachers
Institute.

New extension programs include an in-service edu-
cation program for teachers of the Southern District
conducted at Alabama Lutheran Academy and College
under the sponsorship of the Board of Parish Education
of the Southern District; an extension center at Northern
Illinois University offering students the opportunity of
earning up to nine semester hours’ credit in theology
which may be applied toward satisfying degree re-
quirements; and an extension center at Concordia
Senior College in Fort Wayne, where a summer pro-
gram will include courses offered by Concordia Teach-
ers College in the areas of education, psychology, and
mathematics.

7. Step One: Music for Youth

This program was offered for the first time in the
summer of 1968. It provided an opportunity for 36
high school students who had completed their junior
year to come to our campus for a college-credit study
program in music. The program included courses in
theory, literature, and performance. One of the chief
purposes of the project is to interest young students
with musical talent in pursuing a career of full-time
service in the church as musician, parish teacher, or
director of Christian education. The program is to be
continued at least through 1972.

8. Children’s Theatre

An impotrant addition to the college’s drama pro-
gram and to the college’s service to its geographic areas
has been the expansion of the Children’s Theatre. Dur-
ing the past 2 years the total number of on-campus per-
formances has increased to 24 per year, and the atten-
dance reached 9,900 this year. In addition to the on-
campus program, the Children’s Theatre toured to Mil-
waukee and Detroit for a total of 12 performances. The
college students participating in this program become
acquainted with the Children’s Theatre repertoire and
meet unique challenges and opportunities presented by
the learning of basic staging skills and by the contact
with juvenile audiences. They also learn to see actual
situations under which drama must be offered in the
typical parish situation.

E. Plant and Property

During the past biennium only a minimum of minor
capital improvements were undertaken at the River

Forest campus. While these projects do reflect minor
improvement in physical facilities, the college feels con-
strained to advise the Synod that the continued diminu-
tion of synodical funds for preventive physical plant
maintenance is causing an alarming rise in the number
and complexity of problems. Unless preventive main-
tenance is assured through regular appropriations, a
backlog of major renovating projects is bound to de-
velop.

The college is grateful that extensive planning efforts
carried on during the past biennium and longer are now
cu minating in another major building program on the
River Forest campus. A residence hall, financed by a
loan under the college housing program of the Depart-
ment of Housing and Urban Development, will be under
construction by mid-1969. With funds allocated from
the Ebenezer Thankoffering, the present library will
be remodeled and enlarged to about twice its present
size. A chapel-auditorium, planned to offer a greater
flexibility to both worship and drama activity, will be
constructed with funds available as the gift of the
Northern Illinois District at the time of the college’s
centennial. A new community building to be con-
structed will include the food-service facility, book-
store, post office, student recreation areas, and office
and work space for Student Association activities.
The addition of these buildings will bring about
a major reorientation of the campus. The major
public entrance to the campus will be changed from
Augusta St. to Division St. Other general campus
improvements will be undertaken as funds may become
available.

The college continues its management and use of
the existing facilities at North Riverside. This utiliza-
tion has been intensive, and the college looks for-
ward not only to the continued use of the facilities
at North Riverside and improvements to them as
required but also to the eventual development of
this site as a full second campus serving the college
and the Synod.

The Board of Control has submitted to the Board for
Higher Education its building requests for the next
three biennia. These requests are reflected in the report
of the Board for Higher Education to the Synod.

F. Plans for the Future

The future of the college lies in continuing to pro-
vide for the Synod the services that are needed as part
of God’s mission to the world. The River Forest campus
is approaching full optimal utilization. With the eventual
remodeling of spaces that may be vacated by the trans-
fer of some functions to new buildings now under way
and the addition of some residence hall space, the master
plan providing for the enrollment of 1,800 students on
the River Forest site will be fulfilled.

The college is grateful that it is being permitted to
continue to develop and coordinate the use of the North
Riverside Center and to include this site in its long-
range planning.