Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 281
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 281

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

HIGHER EDUCATION 281

8-acre consolidated field adjoining the main campus.
The city of St.Paul and the community of St. Paul are
to be commended for assisting Concordia College in
making it possible to consolidate this rather large piece
of commercial and residential property in order to carry
out its desire to create an athletic field. Parenthetically
it should be stated that the attempt to purchase a portion
of a public playground, which failed because of the
decision of the State Supreme Court, has not been
abandoned in the long view of the development of Con-
cordia College. However, it would be inappropriate to
depend on a more favorable solution for that particular
problem at this time. Thus it is that the Board of Con-
trol is pleased to report the acquisition of a new and
adequate and appropriate athletic field for Concordia
College, St. Paul. Total cost of the field is approximately
$370,000.

The Board of Control is also pleased to report that
a very difficult and growing problem for the housing of
administrative offices and related facilities has been
solved by the building of a new administration-classroom
building. The funds for this capital expansion would de-
rive from the Ebenezer Thankoffering. Total cost in-
cludes an award of $450,000 from the Ebenezer Fund in
addition to certain local funds. The Board of Control
and the faculty are most appreciative for this generous
gift from the Ebenezer Fund.

At the time of this writing (January 1969) the Board
of Control is projecting the plans for the erection of a
music classroom building which is desperately needed.
The total estimated cost for this building will approach
$800,000 plus equipment. The source of funds for this
building again is partially from the Ebenezer Thank-
offering and from local funds. At the next convention
it is hoped that a more detailed report on this building
can be provided.

We close this section of the report by referring the
convention back to a statement made in the report of
1967. That statement was that the St. Paul community
and particularly its Metropolitan Planning Commission
are greatly concerned about the development of Con-
cordia College and the necessary acquisition of addi-
tional land. The statement was made at that time that
a total of about 45 acres had been assigned to Concordia
College for future development. That is to say, an
additional 20 to 25 acres is on the drawing boards of the
Metropolitan Planning Commission to be assigned even-
tually to Concordia College for expansion in the im-
mediate community. The property involved is middle-
and lower-income-class housing comprising about four
city blocks. The Board of Control is in the process of
considering the creation and development of a holding
corporation with the consultation of and approval of the
Board for Higher Education and the Board of Directors,
in order that the acquisition of these larger tracts of
land may be accomplished in an orderly and agreed-
upon fashion. Further development and progress along
this line will be reported to the Synod from time to
time as the program is implemented.

Miscellaneous Matters

Accreditation. Both the academy and the college
continue to enjoy North Central Association accredita-
tion. The academy was able to relocate and merge with
St.Paul Lutheran High School and at the same time
retain its accreditation. The college received preliminary
accreditation as a 4-year liberal arts college with an
emphasis on elementary teacher education in 1963, and
final accreditation or full accreditation in 1965. At the
time of this writing the teacher education program has
been visited by examiners of the National Commis-
sion on the Accreditation of Teacher Education
(N.C. A.T.E.). The report of the examiners is most
favorable, and it is predicted by the Board of Control
and the administration that by the time the Denver
convention meets it will be possible to announce that
Concordia College, St. Paul, has also received final
N.C. A.T.E. accreditation.

Plans for the Future. Short-range plans consonant
with former predictions still envision a total enrollment
of college and academy by 1971 approaching 1,200. How-
ever, as the reader will have gathered from the preced-
ing part of the report, in July 1, 1971, the academy will
be completely and permanently separated from the col-
lege. The proportion of the projected 1,200 students
made in former reports which comprises the college en-
rollment is 850 to 900 students and 200 to 250 in the
relocated academy. The return to the Synod in the form
of full-time churchwork student graduates remains ap-
proximately what the prediction of the past has been.
That is to say, about 100 women teachers, about 50 male
teachers, and about 100 preministerials, and about 50
Christian social workers, deaconesses, and other special
ministries personnel. The present academic plant and
most of the auxiliary services on the college campus are
being geared to serve a growing student body up to
1,200.

A final word needs to be said with regard to the
outlook for Concordia College and the graduate training
of some of its graduates. We repeat what has been
stated before, that graduate school facilities on campus
are not being planned for the long- or short-range pro-
gram. The graduate school of the University of Minne-
sota is only 10 minutes away from the campus, connected
with Concordia by a freeway which was recently
opened. Wasteful duplication of staff and facilities to
provide a comparable graduate school at Concordia
would seem to be duplicative and hard to defend. There-
fore the Board of Control does not envision in the im-
mediate future nor in the long-range program the de-
velopment of a graduate school at Concordia College.
Having stated this, however, the Board of Control and
the faculty are investigating the possibility of joint
graduate-studies programs with the University of Min-
nesota. This would make use of the finest graduate
school facilities for the secular areas of graduate study
and retain a close relationship with the graduate student
by providing certain concurrent courses on the Concor-
dia College campus in the area of religion, Bible study,
and theology.