Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 280
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 280

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

280 HIGHER EDUCATION

Academic Program

Concordia College, St. Paul, continues as a fully ac-
credited, 4-year, coeducational Lutheran college owned
and operated by the Missouri Synod, whose purpose is
to prepare preministerials, teacher-education men and
women, deaconesses, and Christian social welfare stu-
dents for their church-related professions, in that order.
The upper-level program continues to be elementary
schoolteacher education. Since coeducation was intro-
duced also in the upper level, the distribution of men
and women is more normal, and the ratio of women to
men is approaching a more equal distribution. Major
concentrations for these young men and young women
who are taking the teacher education program remains
in the areas of humanities, science, mathematics, reli-
gion and theology, and physical education.

New programs for the college are being studied by
the faculty and the Board of Control. A 4-year concen-
tration in social work has been given considerable study
by the faculty, and it is proposed that this program be
combined with the hoped-for 4-year preministerial pro-
gram which is being requested from the Synod for im-
plementation through the Board for Higher Education.
The thought is that more preministerial students should
be given the option of completing an undergraduate
pre-social-work program in addition to meeting the
seminary admissions requirements at St. Louis and
Springfield. The need for this kind of program seems to
be well established on the basis of the research done
by the Board for Social Ministry.

A local community service project has been set up
which envisions the training of 10 to 15 fully trained
elementary school teachers from the minority group
cornmunities in the Twin Cities area for teaching in the
black communities as well as the suburban communities
in the Twin Cities. It is still too early to assess this
program. However, initial indications are that not only
the Twin Cities community as well as its minority group
leadership but also the church leaders of the Districts
from which most of the regular students come for Con-
cordia College are much interested in this program and
have given it their firm support. The underwriting
financially of this program is done by federal grants,
foundation support, and local contributions. In no wise
will this program become a financial obligation of the
Synod.

On the other hand experts who have examined this
program have recognized the unique features of it and
are willing to predict that if this program is successful
it may well become a model program for other urban
areas in the United States. At the time of this writing.
25 minority-group students, including black people and
Indians, all of whom have been carefully selected by a
professional coordinator, are enrolled in this program.
Special counseling and guidance together with programs
of remedial reading and study habits have been made
available to these students. Investigators of this pro-
gram have pointed out that Concordia College, St. Paul,
probably has the largest proportion of minority group

students enrolled on its campus among all of the colleges
and universities in the state of Minnesota. The Board
of Control invites the Synod to watch this program, to
evaluate it sympathetically, and if possible to give it
the same hearty support that the various District synods
have provided as the program was explained to them
during the summer of 1968.

The Board of Control is pleased to report that the
relocation of Concordia Academy, which had been part
of Concordia College from 1893 to 1967, has been suc-
cessfully carried out. The academy now has been
merged with St. Paul Lutheran High School. The com-
bined venture remains under the control of the Board
of Control of Concordia College until June 30, 1971. The
St. Paul Lutheran High School campus is about 6 miles
from Concordia College. The out-of-town boarding
students remain housed in a section of one of the dormi-
tories on the main campus. These students are bused
out to the new plant each morning of the school week
and returned in the evening in time for the evening
meal,

When the control of the institution is returned to the
St. Paul Lutheran High School, the association has
agreed to provide housing for out-of-town students.
The Board of Control reports to the Synod that though
this merger and continuation of accreditation of the
academy was a rather difficult project to carry out,
nevertheless the leadership in the North Central Asso-
ciation favored this move and supplied excellent advice
in the method of achieving this goal. Presently, then.
the combined academy and high school student body,
the faculty, the plant, the classroom building, and the
library and its facilities all have achieved the retention
of the North Central Association accreditation. Much
credit goes to Prof. James Rahn, principal of the merged
institution, as well as to the two faculties of the academy
and the high school respectively, who worked long and
hard to bring about the fruition of the relocation plan.

The principal stake which the Board of Control had
in this merger is that when it relinquishes its control
of the merged institution, the St. Paul Lutheran High
School Association will continue a strong preministerial
and prechurchwork curriculum on the high school level.
The objectives of the Synod for the old academy will be
continued under the direction of the St. Paul Lutheran
High School Association after 1971 as part of the purpose
of the institution together with the general education
program which it has always provided.

Plant and Property

The Board of Control is pleased to report the de-
velopment of a new athletic field. The reader may recall
that in 1957 the State Highway Department condemned
and appropriated a 5'4-acre playground and athletic
field in order to build a new freeway linking the two
twin cities, St. Paul and Minneapolis. It has now been
possible to reinvest the money received for this athletic
field for the development of a new athletic field which
when completed will provide the school an adequate