LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Page 270

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270 HIGHER EDUCATION

for one year beginning in October 1974. so that he could serve
as director of the Program Emphasizing Adult Christian Educa-
tion (PEACE project). sponsored by the Board of Parish Edu-
cation of the English District. The other members of the execu-
tive staff who continued to serve included: Dr. Arthur M.
Ahlschwede. Executive Secretary: Dr. Lester R. Bayer and Dr.
Samuel I. Goltermann, Assistant Executive Secretaries: and
Miss Gert Moddelmog. Administrative Assistant.

Activities of the Board

The board met 11 times for a total of 23 days in the 2-year
period since the last convention. One meeting was held on the
campus of Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne. All other
meetings were conducted in St. Louis or Chicago.

On three occasions the board convened its Advisory Council.
consisting of the presidents of the colleges and seminaries.
for mutual consultation on issues of systemwide concern. One
of these meetings was expanded to include a member of the
board of control and a member of the faculty of each institution.
Another of the sessions was enlarged to include the chairman of
each board of control.

Individual members of the Board for Higher Education and
committees of the board were involved in visiting various cam-
puses, representing higher education at meetings, and serving
on synodical committees that dealt with the needs of individual
schools and with systemwide programs and planning. The board
continued to give special time and attention to the concerns
relating to personnel for the colleges and seminaries. The chair-
man of the board or his representative served as an elector in
the call meetings for presidents and in the interviews of prospec-
tive personnel for the seminaries.

During the biennium the Board for Higher Education spon-
sored separate meetings for in-service growth and system
coordination involving the business managers, deans of students,
academic deans, registrars, and representative instructors of
education and of social sciences. Admissions personnel from the
colleges at Winfield, Austin, and Concordia (Missouri) were in-
volved in a special board-sponsored meeting on recruitment
issues. A vocational counseling-recruitment conference for
representatives from all colleges and seminaries was held.
Several meetings relating to ministerial programs among racial
minority groups were conducted,

The plan designed by the board and carried out under the
direction of the staff for expanded, overall evaluative visits of
each campus over a 3-year period was continued during the
biennium. The teams that visited the various campuses in-
cluded synodical faculty members and “outside” leaders in
higher education, in addition to the staff members of the Board
for Higher Education. After each visit a detailed report, includ-
ing evaluations and recommendations relating to all aspects of
Operations, was presented to the president as the executive
officer of the board of contro! of the institution. The visit plan
also involves follow-up contacts and reports by the staff member
of the board who serves as chairman of the evaluation team that
visits the school.

The Planning Project and the Task Force

Prior to the New Orleans convention the Board for Higher
Education had proposed to synodical officials that a portion
of the funds received from the 125th Anniversary Thankoffering
be used for “a study on the future of higher education, bringing
together the ideas. evaluations, and suggestions of experts
and others interested and involved in the synodical colleges
and seminaries.”’ A detailed plan of the study as proposed by
the board was presented to Floor Committee 6, the committee
on higher education, at the convention. In response to that pro-
posal, to similar suggestions from several of the colleges in their
reports to the Synod, and to a number of overtures suggesting
various studies of higher education, the floor committee pro-
posed. and the delegates at New Orleans adopted, Resolution
6:30: ‘To Consider Restructuring Synod's System of Higher
Education.”

The first two resolves of this most important resolution re-
lating to higher education read:

Resolved. That the BHE convene a meeting with the president,
a member of the Board of Control chosen by that board. and a mem-
ber of the faculty of each synodical college and seminary chosen by

that faculty. in order to discuss aims. objectives, and functions of the
synodical system and of the individual schools: and be it further

Resolved. That the BHE. in consultation with the Board of Direc-
tors, appoint a task force outside of the membership and staff of the
Board for Higher Education to study the Synod’s program of higher
education and to bring concrete resolutions to the 1975 convention
for action.

Immediately after the convention. in July 1973, the Board for
Higher Education began to collect names and information con-
cerning prospective members for the task force. A timetable for
the entire project was adopted, and plans for carrying out the
first resolve were developed.

The major issues relating to the project were identified and
discussed in a meeting involving the Board for Higher Education
and the Advisory Council in September 1973. The college and
seminary boards of control and faculties elected their repre-
sentatives in October. The meeting proposed in the resolution
was scheduled for January 1974.

A comprehensive questionnaire was developed by the
Board for Higher Education to gather adequate background
and preparatory material for the January meeting. The ques-
tionnaire asked for opinions relating to all the central issues
of the project including recruitment, planning theses, pattern
and structure of the system, programs and curricula, financial
considerations, subsidy patterns, seminaries, role of the system,
and role of individual schools.

The questionnaires were mailed in November 1973 to all
Participants of the meeting required by the resolution, and to
the presidium, Board of Directors, and division executives of
the Synod, as well as to a sampling of District Presidents and
District executives.

All questionnaires were returned by Dec. 1. 1973. Each of
the colleges and seminaries submitted not only the completed
individual questionnaires from the President, board of control
member, and faculty delegate but also a school consensus copy
developed through discussions by the representatives of that
school.

The Commission on Research and Planning and members
of the staff of the Board for Higher Education met 3 days in
December to do a summary and analysis of the results of the
questionnaires. The 73-page document developed through these
efforts was mailed to all participants prior to the January
meeting.

In the meeting itself the participants were divided into six
groups. Each group included a member of the Board for Higher
Education, at least two presidents of schools, two faculty repre-
sentatives, two board of control delegates, and a member of the
Board for Higher Education staff or the Commission on Re-
search and Planning. At least eight campuses were represented
in each group by college or seminary delegates.

In the group sessions both written and oral reports were
prepared relating to the issues in higher education and to the
summaries and analyses of the questionnaire results. The re-
corders of each group met toward the close of the conference
and prepared written consensus statements summarizing the
opinions and recommendations of the participants on each of
the issues relating to higher education.

Later in January the Task Force was appointed by the Board
for Higher Education in consultation with the Board of Direc-
tors. Much prayer and great care were involved in the selec-
tion of the Task Force to secure the best expertise possible re-
lating to the issues to be studied and at the same time to include
broad representation from the various groups and areas in
the Synod.

Members who served on the Task Force included: Dr. Milton
Carpenter, Treasurer, The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod.
St. Louis, Mo.; Dr. Richard Dickinson, Minister of Urban
Affairs, Northern Illinois District, Chicago, Ill., Dr. William L.
Halvorson, assistant professor of botany and assistant dean of
graduate school, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, R. L:
Dr. Leonard W. Heidemann, pastor, St. John’s Church, Seward.
Nebr.: Rev. Roger J. Humann, pastor, Resurrection Church.
St. Catharines, Ont.. Can.: Dr. Arnold H. Koschmann, professor
of electrical engineering and computer science, University of
New Mexico, Albuquerque, N. Mex.: Mr. Walter H. Moeller,
director of Christian education and principal, Grace Church,
Winter Haven, Fla.: Dr. Gordon E. von Stroh, director of public
administration program and associate professor, College of
Business Administration, University of Denver, Denver, Colo.: