LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1973, Page 245

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HIGHER EDUCATION 245

TABLE 4

Junior Confirmands and Freshman College Pastoral
and Teacher Enrollments 4 Years Later

Coll. Coll.
Coil. Fresh. Fresh.

Junior Fresh. Male Female

Confr- 4 Years Pastor Teach. Teach
Year mands Later Enroll Ratio Enroll. Ratio Enroll. Ratio
1957 41,064 1961 337 1:122 275 1:149 540 1:76
1958 39,897 1962 332 1:120 293 1:136 554 1:72
1959 40,966 1963 382 1:107 292 1:140 628 1:65
1960 47,176 1964 413 1:114 384 1:123 814 1:58
1961 53,989 1965 465 1:116 458 1:118 892 1:61
1962 51,536 1966 391 1:132 442 L117 803 1:64
1963 54,247 1967 367 1:148 341 1:159 760 1:71
1964 55,351 1968 317 1:174 338 1:163 729 1:78
1965 58,167 1969 329 1:177 414 1:141 778 1:75
1966 59,510 1970 265 1:225 386 1:154 745 1:80
1967 60,112 1971 262 1:229 354 1:170 685 1:88
1968 60,998 1972 251 1:243 262 1:233 572 1:107
Aver-
age 51,918 343 1:151 353 1:147 708 1:73

What Are the Students Like?

“Total number,” however, is not the only important question
about students. At least equally important is the question, ‘‘What
are the students like who are being recruited and prepared for
ministry and church leadership?” Throughout the years the
public has shown a continuing curiosity about young people
who choose a church profession. Some of that curiosity has been
admiring; some, has been cynical and dubious.

Professional interest has been no less keen, and this concern
is appropriate. Nothing is more important for ministerial educa-
tion than a continuous, unsentimental, reasonably objective
evaluation of the students who are enrolling. What are their
personal characteristics? What are their motives? their commit-
ments? their beliefs? their goals?

Students entering synodical colleges consistently score well
above the national averages for entering students on tests of
ability and achievement. Beyond that, the only generalization
safely made about contemporary students is that one cannot
generalize about contemporary students, including those in
the synodical schools. They represent a full variety of viewpoints
on practically every issue.

An observation made frequently nationwide is that students
enter colleges and even professional schools expressing much
less occupational and vocational commitment than they did in
the past. Is this due to realism? confusion? fear? or, openness?
It is hard to say. Perhaps students today simply are less suscep-
tible than their predecessors to the expectations, influences, and
duress of their elders. But as a result, an admissions counselor
who presses for a career decision is likely to meet a resistance
which will invalidate all his recruitment efforts. And the faculty
that takes too much for granted about a student’s commitment
and goals is very likely to lose the student entirely.

Related to the postponement of a vocational decision is the
way students shop for colleges in much the same way that their
parents shop for houses, cars, and furniture. Students want
style and class and pizazz. But they also want value—and the
best possible deal. Least of all are they inclined to go where
they are “supposed to go” and take ‘‘what they are supposed
to take.” This clearly means that the college has to do a real
selling job, not just with glossy brochures but with demonstrable
excellence of resources, facilities and program —to say nothing
of financial aid and scholarships.

Contributing to this development is the growing feeling
among the nation’s youth that going to college might not be so
important after all, and that an active and resourceful young
person may well be able to put together a set of experiences,
far removed from any college campus, which will be much
richer than those a traditional academic curriculum could
provide.

Has the noisy, boisterous, demonstrating crowd of a couple
of years ago become a cold, calculating, mercenary, secular,
self-interested outfit? No! Perhaps no previous student genera-
tion has been warmer, friendlier, more ‘‘spiritual,”’ or more
given to outreach and witness, to Christian growth and service,
to Bible reading and hymn singing. Contradictory? — it is still
true. Some of this religious fervor has found expression in the
“charismatic movement’ —but by no means all. Much of youth-

ful fervor takes the form of organized, disciplined activity,
almost all of it well-advised and formulated and providing a
real sense of ministry in the student's life.

As a result of these developments our colleges have seen a
substantial increase of ‘general education” students, or young
people who have not declared an intention to enter a church
profession. Many, of course, are not committed to any other
profession or occupation either. (We should add, however, that
several decades ago our colleges and high schools enrolled a
higher proportion of general education students than they do
now as shown in Figure 4.)

FIGURE 4
PERCENTAGE OF GENERAL EDUCATION ENROLLMENT IN

SYNODICAL HIGH SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

Of
Yo
fi

| NSE
CLIT LETT

19341937 0 194 "952 1955 1958 «01961 1964 1967-1970 1972 1973

The students themselves quite often regard this distinction
as a technical one having to do with fees and perhaps a few
courses. By and large general education students take the same
courses, display the same attitudes, participate in the same
activities, and show as much commitment to the basic Biblical
understanding of Christian vocation (as distinct from occupa-
tional choice) as do the church-work students.

Our schools have welcomed genera! education students, not
only because the fees they pay are welcome support in a time
of grave financial crisis, but because the students themselves
represent both a great resource and a great opportunity. They
help provide a vitality and diversity in the student population,
important to the development of a meaningful, life-related
education process. They offer an opportunity for strategic
leadership education and provide new impetus and vitality for
a strong sense of mission and vocation in contemporary Chris-
tian congregations.

Our church is presenting to its schools an issue of consider-
able consequence, in a thrust toward a broader concept of
ministry. This thrust includes both a broader definition of
possible professional roles for the public ministry and a more
vital realization of the ministerial role which can be deliberately
and knowledgeably played in a large number of helping and
service-oriented professions and paraprofessions.

Faculty

The excellent faculties in our colleges and seminaries con-
tinue to be a major asset in our Synod’s efforts to constantly
increase the quality of educational experiences and programs.
Financial pressures and slightly declining enrollments have
caused reductions in teaching staffs during the biennium. A
sharp slowdown in “turnover” of faculty members has been
a “plus” to now, but we must monitor this pattern carefully and
continuously lest faculty stability lead to stagnation.

The academic and experience background of faculty mem-
bers shows a most enviable record. Among the full-time faculty
people at the seminaries, 61% have earned one or more doctoral
degrees, while 41% of those teaching at the senior colleges have
achieved this distinction. Among teachers at the high schools
and junior colleges, 78% hold master’s or doctor’s degrees.
Almost two thirds of all faculty members had some full-time
church-work experience prior to joining the synodical faculty.
And our professors, especially those who have competencies
the church can use outside the classroom, serve our church
in a large number of ways. That professors have consistently,
generously, and competently performed these functions is a
genuine blessing to our Synod.

Changes in Presidents

Our colleges at Ann Arbor, Edmonton, Milwaukee, Portland,
and Seward are the only synodical schools —of a total of 16—in