LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Page 269

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6. HIGHER EDUCATION

6-01

Report of Board for Higher
Education

The Board for Higher Education begins this report with
an overall look at higher education in the Synod during the
past biennium—a biennium characterized as being noisy and
difficult but also as one filled with blessings and reasons for joy
and exhilaration. The work of the board moved ahead success-
fully. including the appointment of the members of the Task
Force created by a New Orleans resolution to study and make
recommendations on the future of the entire system of colleges
and seminaries.

The quality of students enrolling in synodical schools attests
that something very right is being done under God by all those
involved in the recruitment efforts. However, the quantity of
students in the ministerial program has become a severe prob-
lem as the church-work enrollments continue to drop sharply.
In the report the board proposes plans and outlines procedures
for special recruitment efforts in five areas: local congrega-
tions, District recruitment committees, community Lutheran
high schools, community junior colleges. and private and public
4-year colleges and universities.

The dedication and quality of the faculty members continue
to be among the major assets of the Synod. Issues relating to
tenure and salaries for faculty people will require continued
efforts during the next biennium.

Many creative and innovative improvements in the programs
at the colleges were made during the past 2 years despite the
current economic pressures. These pressures, however, make
it especially important that the Synod in convention make de-
cisions on the proposals and recommendations of the Task
Force relating to the future financing and synodical subsidy for
the colleges and seminaries.

Congregations and groups of congregations in the Synod
are encouraged to use the opportunities for improvements in
their educational ministries through greater use of directors
of Christian education. Congregations are urged to help the
ministerial recruitment efforts by providing more student
financial aid.

As the Board for Higher Education looks ahead at the close
of the report, it expresses faith and confidence in the con-
tinued blessings of God. The problems ahead are serious and
many, but they are also opportunities for service to the Lord
and His church through ministerial education.

Preamble

“In most ways this has been a quiet biennium in higher
education.”

This was the opening sentence of the report of the Board
for Higher Education to the 1973 New Orleans convention. If in
fact the pre-New Orleans biennium was one of the most quiet
in synodical higher education, certainly the post-New Orleans
biennium has been one of the most noisy and difficult. Declining
pastoral and teacher education enrollments, the exodus of the
faculty at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. spiraling financial
costs of higher education. dilemmas in pastoral placement
relating to Seminex, tensions that have arisen on all the college
campuses as a result of the conflicts in the Synod—these were
just a few of the well known and heavily publicized crises of the
biennium.

The Board for Higher Education has attempted to provide
leadership and make decisions throughout the biennium based
on what it sees to be in the best interest of the Lord’s work and
of His church and in keeping with the desires of the majority
of the people in the Synod. The board has tried to remain
acutely aware of the obligation entrusted to it by the Synod with
respect to doctrinal matters. At the same time the Board for
Higher Education has constantly been conscious of the necessity
for the local boards of control to maintain immediate responsi-
bility for the individual schools.

In keeping with the Bylaws adopted at the New Orleans
convention, the board has given major attention to developing
the policies needed so that local boards of control can operate

269

the schools within the system more effectively and efficiently.
Much of the board's work relating to planning and to the struc-
ture of the system was necessarily of a tentative nature because
of the wide scope of the assignments given to the Task Force
by the convention.

Individual decisions by the Board for Higher Education in
the past biennium have often been enthusiastically commended
by some and sharply criticized by others in the Synod. giving
another indication of the depth of the loyalties. feelings. and
frustrations in the present controversies. In the same vein the
board realizes that any report it would now write to the Synod
will likely be warmly received by many but will cause unhappi-
ness and irritation to many others.

However, while the “noise and difficulty” of the past 2 years
continue and still require much repentance, humility, under-
standing. forgiveness, and hard work from all of us in the Synod.
there was a great deal more to the biennium than “noise” and
‘crisis.’ The Lord continued to heap blessings on our colleges
and seminaries. In many ways it was a great 2 years for the
schools of the Synod.

Anyone who worked with the students in our schools during
the biennium was bound to experience real joy and exhilaration.
The competency and dedication of the young people who enroll
at our colleges from the homes and congregations of the Synod
are most remarkable and the envy of leaders from other church-
related and church-controlled colleges who visit our campuses.
This can be attributed to the doctrinal depth of our people.

With few exceptions the excellence and commitment of the
present faculty members are certainly among the major assets
of the church. Under the direction of the faculties and through
their efforts and those of the students. the programs on all the
college campuses moved ahead in the biennium and were im-
proved and strengthened in spite of obstacles. tensions, and
difficulties. Students and faculties have maintained a determina-
tion to press on for the sake of their central concern: God's
love in Jesus Christ and the ministry that witnesses to it.

Personnel of the Board

The Board for Higher Education includes seven members —
three laymen. three pastors. and one teacher or District super-
intendent of education. Prior to New Orleans the members
were appointed by the President of the Synod on approval by
the Council of Presidents. Beginning with New Orleans the
board became an elective body as required by a 1971 convention
resolution.

During the past biennium three members of the board served
the remainder of their 4-year terms as appointed members:
Mr. Walter Brunn, an executive with the United States Steel
Corporation. Pittsburgh: Dr. Edgar Homrighausen. pastor of
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. New Orleans: and Miss Morella
Mensing, teacher at Grace Lutheran School, River Forest. Ill.
Four of the members who served during the past biennium had
been elected to 4-year terms at the New Orleans convention:
Mr. Arthur P. Brackebusch. national fire management specialist.
United States Forest Service. Missoula. Mont.: Dr. Alvin W.
Czanderna. professor of physics at Clarkson College. Potsdam.
N.Y.: Dr. Lewis C. Niemoeller. pastor of Trinity Lutheran
Church, Springfield, Il.; and Rev. Merlin S. Pohl. director of
the Lutheran High School Association of Detroit at the time of
his election.

Rev. Pohl. who had served as chairman of the board, re-
signed in October 1974 when he assumed the presidency of
Concordia Lutheran College. Ann Arbor. Dr. Niemoeller was
elected chairman to succeeding him. The other officers who
served during the biennium were: Mr. Brackebusch, vice-
chairman: and Dr. Homrighausen. secretary.

Former members who completed their terms on the board
at New Orleans were: Rev. Elmer Neitzel, pastor of Mount
Calvary Lutheran Church, Milwaukee. Wis.: and Dr. Elmer
Pflieger, who recently retired as a divisional director of the
Detroit public schools. A very special warm expression of
commendation for years of distinguished service on the board
is due to both of these men. as well as to Rev. Pohl.

A member of the staff. Assistant Executive Secretary Dr.
Delphin L. Schulz, was granted a three-fourths’ time leave