LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1973, Page 249

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

HIGHER EDUCATION 249

tional increases have been announced by almost all schools for
the 1973-1974 school year.

As student fees have increased, the need for student financial
aid has risen sharply. The majority of the students in synodical
schools come from homes with low-middle to middle level in-
comes. Each significant increase in fees makes it necessary for
an additional large number of students to enter the group which
requires some aid. Also, summer and part-time jobs have
become less plentiful than in the past. Last year, over 63% of
the professional students enrolled received some financial sup-
port beyond that paid by the students and their immediate
families.

Prior to 1946 almost all student aid came from the Districts
of the Synod. Presently, of course, aid comes from many places.
However, the Districts continue to be the largest single source.
While the average amount per communicant spent for student
aid has continued to rise slowly, the percentage of the total
income of the Districts which is used for student aid is actually
only one half as large now as it was in the 1930s. A few Districts
continue to spend as little as 10 cents per communicant for stu-
dent aid.

The response of local congregations in supplying student
aid has been outstanding. About 20 percent of all aid now comes
from this source. More of the congregations which have no stu-
dents enrolled in a synodical school in a given year are encour-
aged also to include an amount for student aid in their regular
budgets. These funds can then, for example, be sent to one of
the colleges or seminaries for distribution to students with
financial needs who come from other parishes.

The board still feels that the need for financial assistance for
students from minority groups is severe enough to warrant
direct support from the Synod. It is most unfortunate that the
Board of Directors of the Synod was not able to implement the
resolution to this effect which was passed at the Milwaukee
convention.

The fourth area relates to securing more income from other
sources —“‘other” than synodical subsidy and student fees. Al-
though the amount from these “other sources” accounted for
only 10 percent of the total income last year, it has been growing
at a faster rate than either subsidy or student fees. In actual
dollar amounts over the past 10 years, synodical subsidy has
been increased by 55 percent, student fees by 130 percent and
“other sources” by 260 percent.

The trend toward making state funds available to students
in private and church-related colleges picked up momentum in
the past biennium. Many current efforts are aimed at finding
ways in which students can carry these funds across state lines.
Our colleges have continued to apply to the federal and state
governments “for funds from the grant and loan programs which
will make only positive contributions to the schools in the ful-
filment of the synodically approved objectives for the system,”
as directed by the Synod at the New York convention.

Our schools are receiving more funds each year from indi-
viduals, foundations, and other private and public organizations.
More “church funds” are being sought and received which are
not available to the congregations, Districts, or general Synod,
but which are available to the colleges.

—In Institutions

The colleges at Ann Arbor and Milwaukee presently have
requests before the Board for Higher Education for expansion
into 4-year institutions. Both schools have worked carefully
with the statements of the board which list the criteria for 2-year
colleges requesting to become 4-year schools. The board has
the authority, with the approval of the Board of Directors of the
Synod, the Council of Presidents, and the local board of control,
“to grant approval and to permit development of such carefully
prepared 4-year programs as serve the purposes of the church
and are economically feasible." The board has felt up to this
time that it would be unwise to expand any additional schools
into senior colleges. Further consolidation, at least in fiscal
operations, will be necessary, in the board's opinion, before any
additional expansions are ‘‘economically defensible.”

During the biennium, President Frantz of our school at Ed-
monton has been spending one day each week at the Lutheran
Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, teaching one course and
advising The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod students en-
rolled. Upon the suggestion of the Commission on Constitutional
Matters, the board is proposing a Bylaw change for the synodical
Handbook to help clarify the resolution of the Milwaukee con-

vention, 6-20, relating to Saskatoon. The suggested Bylaw itself
is among the overtures in the Convention Workbook.

Several additional items relating to individual institutions
in the future are simply listed here. Added information is avail-
able in the reports to the convention by the individual schools.

Alabama Lutheran College at Selma must move forward in
seeking accreditation for its college department, and major
attention is being given to this need. The board has approved the
combined recommendation of our colleges at Austin, Tex.:
Concordia, Mo.: and Winfield, Kans., that the three schools
continue as individual institutions, with added approved pro-
grams, more cooperative efforts, and regular evaluations and
reviews of progress. The board has scheduled a major review
for 1976 to consider possible consolidations or closings among
the three schools. The popularity of the concepts of high school
students beginning college work during their junior and senior
years has opened new opportunities for the synodica! high
schools. The long range use of the Oakland property has not
been determined. For the immediate future, it will be used by
a private high school association, led by members of the Synod
in the Bay area, to operate a Lutheran high school. The Irvine
school is now scheduled to open in 1975. Funding plans will
need to move forward quickly, however, if that date is to remain
viable. The difficulties being faced in South America in supply-
ing and supporting a program for the preparation of a profes-
sional ministry make it necessary that major attention be given
to our schools there in the next biennium. Study is continuing,
but has not been completed as yet, on the assignment given to
the board by the Milwaukee convention for a plan for “field
service of all seminary faculty members at regular intervals.”
The board feels strongly that accreditation by the St. Louis
and Springfield seminaries can and will be maintained.

—In Continuing Education

No really comprehensive program of continuing education
for pastors and teachers got under way during the past bi-
ennium. This is not to say that individual programs, conducted
by schools and Districts, were not conspicuously successful, but
certainly no reasonable goal in terms of numbers of persons was
attained. Apparently the right formula has not yet been found,
due perhaps to insufficient efforts and funds to develop that
formula by experimentation.

Most members of the Synod’s professional corps readily
agree that regular involvement in a systematic program of con-
tinuing professional education, renewal and refreshment is
greatly desirable, but this consensus did not seem to develop
into an effective demand at the point of purchase.

As profitable as continuing education is acknowledged to be,
most pastors and teachers resist any program that appears to
be mandatory or limited to one designated approach —and the
board has tended to agree. We must necessarily continue to
look for funds to undertake some rather bold experiments lead-
ing to the development of some “packages” which have good
salability.

But we do not want to give a dismal impression regarding
continuing education. Favorable attention should be directed to
the excellent financial support provided by the Aid Association
for Lutherans for a number of continuing education projects to
the successful summer and graduate programs at the seminaries
and teachers colleges, and to the Clergy cassette program, co-
sponsored by Concordia Publishing House and the Board for
Higher Education. The Family Life seminars supported by the
Wheat Ridge Foundation and the Boards of Parish Education,
Social Ministry, Missions, and Higher Education in collaboration
with the several Districts of the Synod, have seen similar
success.

The future possibilities for continuing education programs
still look excellent because of the almost universal popularity of
the concept. Congregations can help insure that adequate pro-
grams become a reality by providing for such areas as educa-
tional leaves (distinct from vacation periods) for their workers,
educational stipends, and book and cassette allowances.

Conclusion

As the colleges and seminaries of the church face the years
immediately ahead, we find we must refute some contentions
and support others.

One notion which needs to be dispelled is that the recent
years have seen the deterioration and destruction of something