Holding the Course

HOLDING THE COURSE Northwestern College 125 Carleton Toppe

NORTHWESTERN PUBLISHING HOUSE Milwaukee, Wisconsin

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Card XX-XXXXX Northwestern Publishing House 1250 N. 113th St., P.O. Box 26975, Milwaukee, WI 53226-0975 Š

1990 by Northwestern Publishing House Published 1990 Printed in the United States of America

ISBN O-SlOO-0349-X

CONTENTS Preface

VII

1965 II

III IV V VI VII VIll IX

X Xl

.

The Centennial

3

Administration The NWC Faculty

9

16 28 36 48 56 68

The Curriculum Academic Procedures Northwestern Students Enrollment Motivation

for Ministry

Faculty-Student

Relations

71

Tutors

X III

The Accreditation Issue Northwestern Preparatory

XIV XV

The Alumni Society and the Booster Club Campus Facilities

XVI

The Library

XII

XVII XVIll XIX

XX XXI

Athletics Music Dramatics Brief Items

1990 Appendix Pictures Index

School

75 78 90 102 107 127

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

131 141 147

150 153 159 165 181

PREFACE The logo for the l25th anniversary of Northwestern College is "Classic-Contemporary." In a broad sense it is also the theme of this chronicle of the past 25 years of Northwestern College history. HOLDING THE COURSE Northwestern College 125, too, attempts to relate Northwestern's past to its present. This quartercentury history seeks to preserve a record of the college's past and of its personality, and to hyphenate them to Northwestern College as we know it today. This has called for an evaluation of the past and for interpreting and applying it to the present, meanwhile attempting to maintain a balance between then and now.

The organization is topical rather than broadly chronological.

The history does not advance simultaneously on all fronts. The topical approach makes possible a more rounded treatment of each phase of Northwestern's history or an aspect of its personality.

At the same time there are several strands that help to bind the subject matter of the separate chapters together: the abiding purpose of the school to train young men for the pastoral ministry; the unvaried commitment of the board, faculty and students to the authority of the inerrant Scriptures; and the continuity of change and progress that moves the college in all its parts and features down the stream of history together-still on course.

HOLDING THE COURSE Northwestern College 125 has not been written for the general public, but for the Northwestern family, for readers who know Northwestern College and for those who want to know more about it. It is written for the Northwestern students today who feel that very little changes at Northwestern; it is written for former students who want to know what has happened to the college they knew. It is written for members of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod who support this

PREFACE

pastor-training school and who want to know what this college is like.

Most of the material in this chronicle was a product of my personal association with the college as president of Northwestern Preparatory School from 1959-1974 and of Northwestern College from 1959-1987.The reports to the board of control, the annual entries into the log book of school events, the official correspondence and personal records were the chief sources of information. The minutes of the faculty and of the college board, the synod's biennial Book of Reports and Memorials and its Proceedings and the Northwestern Lutheran confirmed these records and provided additional data. The Black and Red was a source of information about campus events and student attitudes.

Erwin E. Kowalke's Centennial Story, the history of Northwestern College from 1865-1965, supplied background material for events recorded in HOLDING THE COURSE. A certain amount of statistical detail has been included in the treatment of such topics as enrollment, curriculum, academic procedures and library. I trust that these data will be of service to readers as they consider the author's observations and judgments.

At the same time, such detail will also provide resource material for some future historian who will have the assignment to write a more extended history of Northwestern College in its second century.

In the gathering and formulating of the material in this chronicle I am indebted to a number of individuals for their support and for their assistance in gathering and formulating the material in this chronicle: to President Robert Voss and to the Board of Control of Northwestern College, first of all, for entrusting me with the assignment to write this anniversary history; to VicePresident Paul Eickmann, a colleague during nearly all of this quarter century, for editing the material; to President Robert Voss, for reviewing it and furthering its publication; to Registrar Jerald Plitzuweit for providing much resource material and useful exhibits. I acknowledge also the assistance of various other members of the faculty and staff in their respective areas of responsibility: Gary Baumler, Recruitment Officer; William Birsching and Arnold Lehmann, Directors of Music; David Gos-

PREFACE

deck, Librarian and Archivist; Jerome Kruse, Director of Athletics; Edward Lindemann, Dean of Students; Glen Pankow, Business Manager; Donald Selin ow, Chairman of the Faculty Athletic Committee; William Zell, President, Northwestern Preparatory School; Wayne Zuleger, Financial Aid Officer; also to Wayne Borgwardt, Administrator, Board for Worker Training. I thank my wife for her suggestions and reminders, and for her patience while other projects languished. A word of appreciation to students Michael Otterstatter and David Schleusener for their assistance with the pictures. My thanks also to the Aid Association for Lutherans for its generous 125th anniversary gift to Northwestern College. The gift has made a valuable contribution to the publication of this book.

Carleton Toppe March,1990

CHAPTER

I

1965 In 1965Northwestern College celebrated a century of service to the synod in preparing students for ministry in the church, especially for the pastoral ministry. The future looked bright as the second century dawned. Enrollments were swelling. Larger and larger classes were graduating and enrolling at the seminary.

More and more mission stations were being opened, both at home and abroad. The synod was on the move, and Northwestern College was helping to man the expansion.

But the shortage of Christian day-school teachers in the early 1960swas involving the very existence of Northwestern College as an independent, single-purpose pastor-training institution.

The teacher shortage became critical in the late 1950s. New Christian day schools were springing up all over the synod. Dr. Martin Luther College, the teacher-training college in New Vim, Minnesota, was unable to meet the dire need for more teachers.

The synod resorted to emergency measures. For several years it operated a teacher-training program in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, that required no more than the special one-year teacher-training program introduced at Winnebago Lutheran Academy and two summer sessions at Dr. Martin Luther College. Realizing that the WLA program left much to be desired in teacher preparation, the synod established a second program, which required two full years of study at New Vim or at the new junior teacher-training college that opened in Milwaukee in 1960, plus two summer sessions at New Vim. Still, the supply of teachers could not fill the multiplying classroom needs.

In 1961 the Planning Committee for the Educational Institutions of the synod recommended that the synod's teacher-training

2

1965

facilities be expanded and that all three of the synod's ministerial schools on the college level (including Northwestern College) be combined in a completely new facility to be established in the Milwaukee area.

For the next four years the synod wrestled with the question of where the sorely needed teachers should be trained. It engaged Dr. Robert Keller, of the University of Minnesota, to serve as a consultant to study our synod's educational system. In November of 1962 a special convention of the synod resolved that a special committee be appointed to restudy the matter of teacher-education facilities and to bring recommendations to the synod. This committee was named the Committee on Teacher-training Facilities (COTTF), popularly known as the "Blue Ribbon Committee."

In May of 1965the committee read its report to the Synodical Council. In brief, it recommended that a new four-year teacher-education institution be built in Milwaukee and that DMLC be limited to serving as a combinationjunior college and preparatory school. The committee also specifically ruled out the single-college concept that would have amalgamated Northwestern College with the new teacher-education college in Milwaukee.

In August the synod in convention failed to support the COTTF proposal that the senior teacher-education college be located in Milwaukee. Instead, it resolved that DMLC be retained as a four-year teacher-education college (while continuing to maintain a synod preparatory school on its campus) and the Milwaukee Lutheran Teachers College be established on its own campus as a junior college for the present. The synod, however, did accept the COTTF decision that ruled out a single workertraining college that would train both pastors and teachers.

Northwestern College could proceed into its second century with the assurance that it would continue its pre-seminary program on its own campus. It would not become a minority to be combined with a teacher-education college that would soon far outnumber it in enrollment.

With its role in the synod's ministerial training program confirmed, Northwestern College began the first quarter of its second century with full commitment to its assignment: to endeavor to supply the candidates who would meet the need for more and more pastors in our established congregations and in our expanding mission fields.

CHAPTER

II

THE CENTENNIAL The close of Northwestern's first century was marked by events that Centennial Story, the history of Northwestern College from 1865-1965,was not privileged to record. The publication schedule prevented the author of Centennial Story, President-emeritus Erwin E. Kowalke, from including an account of the centennial celebration in his chronicle of the first one hundred years. When the college celebrated its centennial in May 1965, his history was already being distributed. It remains for this chronicle, which is being written for the 125th anniversary of the college, to record the close of its first century. It is a pleasure to recall that memorable year.

Planning the Festivities In the spring of 1964 a committee was organized to plan and manage the festivities. The faculty members of the committee were Walter Schumann (chairman), Elmer Kiessling and Arnold Lehmann. Ervin Bilse represented the campus administration.

Members of the centennial year class who had major roles on the committee were David Gosdeck, John Lawrenz, Mark Lenz, Erhard Opsahl, Karl Peterson, David Seager and Alan Siggelkow. Other college representatives were John Brug, Charles Clarey, James Everts, Paul Keirn, Harlyn Kuschel and John Trapp.

Students from the high school department (as Northwestern Preparatory School was still known at that time) were John Gut, Alan Klessig, Kieth Kuschel, James Naumann, Sandra Niedfeldt and David Pagel. It was a large committee, but there was much business to attend to. And students contributed much to the success of the event, not only with their manpower, but also with their resourcefulness, enthusiasm and energy.

4

THE CENTENNIAL

The committee might have been expected to choose "Centennial Day" as the name for the day of the centennial celebration, but that name had already been appropriated for the centennial year homecoming in the fall of 1964. Because the observance was to be held on Memorial Day, the committee chose the name "Northwestern Day," since in the early part of this century there was an annual or a periodic school celebration that took place on Memorial Day and went by the name of "Northwestern Day." The committee set some appropriate goals for itself: a) to create a festival atmosphere, recreating as much of Northwestern's colorful past as possible; b) to be primarily concerned with including the campus community; c) to offer a program that would be of interest to those outside that community as well; d) to give North western's Centennial Year the broadest possible publicity; e) to keep the day a "free time" by good planning and a minimum of actual labor of the kind that would overtax the schedule of the members of the student body; f) to provide something of interest for every member of the campus community. The committee requested $1500 from the college to help pay for the celebration.

John Lawrenz designed and constructed the bandstand (gazebo), which served as a stage and a focus for the festivities and for the outdoor commencement exercises that followed three days later. The structure resembled the bandstand that stood in front of the 1905dormitory in the early years of this century. Since it was demountable, this replica could be stored and could be reassembled for subsequent campus events. One such occasion was the graduation of the Class of 1971, Northwestern's lOOth graduating class. Preservation of the structure did not present a serious inconvenience until the 1875 dormitory was removed in 1974. In its declining years that dormitory no longer housed students and thus could afford space for such storage. When the dormitory was razed, the bandstand was moved to the garage of the Ernst house; when both house and garage were razed in 1977, the bandstand was sold for lumber.

The Aid Association for Lutherans made a centennial grant of $5000, most of which was not put to use by the college until a number of years later. The college had designated it for a campus sign. An illuminated sign was finally constructed in 1981 at the

THE CENTENNIAL

5

corner of College and Western after the Campus Planning Committee had made a final decision regarding the location of the proposed new library and an access road from College Avenue.

Thomas Bast, who was the architect for the Alumni Society's bell tower, also designed the sign.

Guest Speakers In the course of the year guest speakers presented a series of centennial lectures: Missionary Theodore Sauer, on the Lutheran Church of Central Africa; William Franzmann, of Janesville, Wisconsin, on creativity in modern art; Dr. Heinz Bluhm, a 1928 graduate of Northwestern College and a Luther scholar at Yale, on Martin Luther: Monk and Ex-monk; Dr. Herbert Howe, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison classics department, on the preservation of classical texts; Dr. John Sullivan, on the Free Church of France and Belgium (which he had served prior to his joining the Northwestern faculty); and Pastor Edgar Hoenecke, executive secretary of the Board for World Missions, on our Hong Kong mission.

Doubts About a Sham Battle Student members of the centennial committee had heard of the sham battles staged by the college military company in years gone by. (The company was disbanded in 1929.) The prospect of reenacting such a sham battle on Northwestern Day captured their imaginations. When they proposed this centennial feature, the faculty was less than enthusiastic. Senior members of the faculty who recalled this military display from their days at Northwestern doubted that students who had never seen or taken part in a sham battle could put on a performance the old-timers would recognize or respect.

The cold water the faculty dashed on their splendid proposal did not cool their youthful enthusiasm, however. The enterprising students did their research, and they also secured an adviser with impeccable credentials. At that time Pastor emeritus Otto Medenwald, who was graduated from Northwestern in 1915, was assisting Professor Schroeder in the library. He had been the captain of the military company. Equipped with their newly-gath-

6

THE CENTENNIAL

ered wisdom and fortified by this veteran's know-how, the students appealed the faculty decision. Impressed by their zeal and by the arguments and assurances that youth can muster up when it feels it has a righteous cause, the faculty left the field to the students. Observing them drilling on the athletic field, one could not help being impressed by their dedication. After all, they were not only preparing for a showpiece at the centennial festivities; they were also out to prove something. (Incidentally, the student who wrote the script and was the director of the project is now chairman of the Northwestern College Board of Control.)

Another proposal was not as successful. Encouraged by the synod's Advisory Committee on Education, the faculty agreed to award honorary D.O. degrees on Northwestern Day to President emeritus Erwin E. Kowalke, of Northwestern College, and to President Carl L. Schweppe, of Dr. Martin Luther College. Regrettably, both men declined their awards. Being close friends, they evidently agreed on a response, although there is good reason to believe that E.E.K.'s known disinclination to special recognition swayed the decision.

Northwestern Day Paragraph XXIII of the Centennial Committee's report was entitled "Rain." "In case of rain .... "It did rain the forenoon of Northwestern Day. Anxious calls were put in to the Madison weather bureau, seeking some kind of assurance that the program for the day would not have to be curtailed. But soon the sun was out, and by sham battle time the campus was dry. Spirits were lifted, umbrellas were put aside, and coeds and faculty wives wore their centennial gowns without fear of water spots on the taffeta.

After an informal picnic lunch at noon the program began at the site of the Sprinter. State Assemblyman Byron Wackett presented a civic certificate to the school's president. This was followed by an on-site reenactment of the dedication of the Sprinter statue 53 years before and featuring actual speeches and telegrams, including one from President Howard Taft, and music.

This was the first of four vignettes that were presented that day.

The free hour that followed featured a concert from the specially constructed bandshell. There were also picture displays and tours of the campus buildings.

THE CENTENNIAL

7

As reported in The Black and Red, the synod recognition period that followed included messages from various officials.

Thereupon the first copy of Centennial Story was presented to its author, President emeritus Erwin E. Kowalke. After that, the remaining three vignettes were performed. (Dr. Kiessling had supplied the scripts for all the vignettes.) These included "President Martin and Northwestern University," an enactment of the decision to make this a school to train pastors; "The Fire of 1894," a view of the hope that followed that disaster; and "Crimes and Punishments," a depiction of student life around 1900.

Then came the sham battle, which re-enacted a Spanish-American War episode as it was presented 50 years before on our campus.

Some 50 students armed with rifles and grenades participated in a surprise attack on the Americans, the burning of their "fort," and the following furious battle on the plain. The students acquitted themselves well. The faculty had a feeling that they would.

After an informal supper hour and a variety show by students the day closed with a display of fireworks. The next afternoon the students resumed their final examination schedule after an interlude they would treasure in their memories.

A Milwaukee Journal photographer captured a record of that day in pictures. A half dozen copies of the Sunday Picture Journal, featuring pictorial memories of a gala day in Northwestern's history, are still in the school's archives.

Tau Delta Theta Since 1965 the college has made annual presentations of the Tau Delta Theta award. This is an award made by the Tau Delta Theta centennial society, which is comprised of the members of the 1965 graduating class and the annual recipient of this award, the senior who has been honored for all-around achievements in athletics, academics and campus citizenship. The Tau Delta Theta library endowment fund of $1,000, which was a gift to the college from the centennial class, was established during the centennial year. Each year the interest earnings from this fund enable the senior who receives the award to designate book purchases for the library. The first presentation was made to Paul Keirn in 1966.

8

THE CENTENNIAL

The one hundredth year of Northwestern's history closed with a flourish. Northwestern Daydid Northwestern proud. Although no worship service had been arranged for this centennial day (such a service took place later in the summer, when the synod met in convention on the Northwestern campus), yet in the hearts of Northwestern's sons and daughters who had gathered there on a holiday to celebrate their heritage, there was also the private reflection and quiet recognition that there were greater blessings to remember. The knowledge that this school was also celebrating 100years of valued service to the church and its ministry added a glow to events that would otherwise have been pleasant nostalgia but not much more.

CHAPTER III

ADMINISTRATION It was a simpler administration in 1965. There was no academic dean, no recruitment officer, no financial aid officer, no audio-visual director. There was no secretarial service for the faculty and for the athletic director, and only part-time service for the president, the bursar, the librarian and the business manager.

There were such familiar and traditional administrative positions as those ofthe vice president, the secretary of the faculty, the dean of men, the registrar, the librarian, the athletic director.

These administrative officers functioned much as they do today, but they did have additional responsibilities and heavy classroom loads. The librarian, for instance, was also the bookstore manager and he taught 17 class hours per week.

The president served as administrator for both the college and the preparatory school; he was the admissions officer for both schools and he was the academic dean ..The school catalog was primarily his responsibility. In addition, he taught three courses a semester (one in the prep department and two in the college), a total of ten hours a week.

Ervin Bilse was another prime example of the doubling up in the 1960s. He did not perform all of the functions of a business manager, because a member of the faculty served as bursar and handled accounts receivable. Yet the management of the budget and of accounts payable were Mr. Bilse's responsibility. At the same time he managed the food service, was superintendent of buildings and grounds, and he served as the college's clerk of the works during campus building programs.

10

ADMINISTRATION

Faculty Committees As administrative needs increased, faculty committees provided considerable assistance to the administration in various areas. The 1965-66 catalog listed six committees: Advanced Standing (later, Special Admissions), Athletics, Catalog, Forensics (later, Dramatics or Public Programs), Scholarships (later, Financial Aid), Student Affairs (later, Faculty-Student Relations).

By 1971-72a number of other committees had also appeared on the list: Admissions, Building (later, Campus Planning), Chapel, Curriculum (later, Academic Affairs), Library, Publications, Recruitment, and Schedule.

The 1980-81catalog included three committees that were established after 1971-72: Automobile (originally a responsibility of the Student Affairs Committee-the dean and the president), Campus Improvement (concerned with aspects not covered by the Campus Planning [Building] Committee) and Faculty Development Committee.

Faculty and Staff Offices The role of a number of faculty committees was diminished later in the 1980sas several offices were established or expanded and were manned by faculty members. The classroom assignments of these appointees were reduced to free them for many of the responsibilities previously assumed by faculty committees.

Gary Baumler, while also serving as financial aid officer and continuing to teach speech, was called to serve as recruitment director and later also became director of admissions. James Korthals became the academic dean; Wayne Zuleger, the financial aid officer. John Braun is now the director of recruitment and admissions. In addition to serving as registrar, Jerald Plitzuweit arranges faculty classroom schedules and prepares each student's program. Such committees as Admissions, Curriculum, Financial Aid, Recruitment, Schedule and Special Admissions have seen their responsibilities considerably reduced or even eliminated by the services these officers render.

The service of others in various offices continues along the lines established for them in the past: Paul Eickmann as vice president,

ADM IN ISTRATION

II

Edward Lindemann as dean of men, David Gosdeck as librarian and archivist, Jerome Kruse as athletic director. Except in the case of the librarian, who still serves both the college and the preparatory school, these men now confine their activities to the college rather than to both schools as their predecessors in office did in 1965. This does not necessarily mean that more was accomplished in those offices in the past. In 1965 the dean of men, Carl Leyrer, was responsible for both the preparatory school and the college residents of three dormitories. There was little opportunity to devote attention to a single dormitory as the dean of preparatory school students can today. There was still less opportunity to deal with the problems of individual students. Today the deans and their tutor assistants spend much of their time counseling individual students.

In 1965 Ervin Bilse was the college business manager-food service manager-superintendent of buildings and grounds. Today four employees of the college devote most of their time to areas once assigned to him: Glen Pankow as business manager, together with his full-time assistant, Todd Eggenberger; Willis Hanke as food service manager; and Michael Vesper as superintendent of buildings and grounds and of the maintenance and custodial department. And Erv Bilsealso carved the roasts served in the dining hall.

But lest it appear that we depreciate the value of the services his replacements provide today, we should recognize that the present business manager's assignment is more extensive and complex than it was 25 years ago. Not only must he prepare and periodically adjust a more detailed institutional budget and maintain a growing array of financial records; he must also file more frequent reports with the synod's fiscal office and, what is perhaps most time-consuming and frustrating, must contend with the involved and ever-shifting regulations of government agencies as he processes a variety of financial aid programs packaged for NWC students by the financial aid office.

Likewise, the superintendent of buildings and grounds has a full-time job as he not only continues to keep the campus well groomed and to give its buildings a spit-and-polish gleam, but he also contributes many hours of skilled service as he works along-

12

ADMINISTRATION

side the other members of his maintenance staff. Ronald Zank, Robert Burdick and Gary Bauer preceded Vesper in the office of superintendent after Bilse retired in 1973.

College president Robert Voss does not have charge of the operation of Northwestern Preparatory School (terminated as part of the college president's responsibility in 1974), but the administration of the campus and of all ofthe buildings occupied or utilized by the college faculty and students as well as by the prep school remain under his supervision. He is still responsible for the college catalog and for the admissions program. In the classroom he offers the speech course. Off campus he is active in the recruitment program. Ultimately he is responsible for the operation of the entire school.

Support Staff The work of all who are involved in school administration, whether the president or associate administrative officers and faculty committees, has been lessened by the significant expansion of support staff. In 1965there were fewer than two and a half secretarial and bookkeeping office workers available to assist administration personnel in carrying out their assignments. Now there are at least II people on the support staff, over half of them engaged in secretarial work. However, approximately half of those who serve during the school year are only part-time employees. Northwestern is blessed with a very competent support staff, whose services are valued highly.

These were the members of the support staff in 1989-1990: Mrs. Diana Bessel (library assistant) Mrs. Helen Birsching (assistant librarian) Mrs. Sandra Braun (business office clerk) Mrs. Kathleen Eickmann (financial aid secretary) Mrs. Beth Gabb (college recruitment and admissions secretary) Mrs. Barbara Gorsline (athletic department secretary) Mrs. Lois Jenswold (administration secretary) Mrs. Bonnie Kuerth (faculty secretary) Mrs. Ann Lindemann (library assistant) Miss Debra Paulowski (student health office) Mrs. Lois Strobel (dormitory secretary) Mr. James Wendt (campus store manager and printer) (Previous members of the support staff are listed in the appendix.)

ADMINISTRATION

13

Board of Control At the top of the administration pyramid is the board of control. The Northwestern College Board of Control is unique in this respect that it has nine members; boards of controls of the other synodical schools have seven. One should not draw the conclusion, however, that the NWC board requires two additional members because it is the only board of control that establishes policies and oversees the affairs of two schools. It was the charter that Northwestern University (later named Northwestern College) received from the State of Wisconsin in 1867that recorded a nine-member board of control.

The college has made no request of the state of Wisconsin to effect a reduction in the membership of its board of control, despite the fact that it requested the synod to authorize a change in the membership ofthe board when the preparatory department of Northwestern College became a separate institution. In 1973, as noted in the chapter on Northwestern Preparatory School, the synod approved the expansion of the Northwestern board of control to 12members, of whom three were assigned to a committee that was to concern itself with the operation of NPS while the entire board retained its control over the prep school. By 1981the NWC board of control requested the synod to restore the membership to nine; there wasn't enough business to warrant the additional members.

Executive Committee Traditionally, a goodly portion of the business of the Northwestern board of control was transacted by its executive committee. For many years the executive committee was composed ofthe secretary of the board and two lay members. This committee was also called the "local board" because its members lived in Watertown or in the vicinity. They could conveniently attend monthly meetings of the committee. The business manager and the president also attended these meetings, and in more recent years the chairman of the board was also expected to take part, so that he would be better informed about the business of the board that was carried on by the executive committee. Although the exact duties and responsibilities of the executive committee ofthe board were

14

ADMINISTRATION

not clearly defined, it performed yeoman service to the college throughout its history, especially during building programs, in which it took an active part, and also as it supplied representatives on the Campus Planning Committee.

In recent years the activity of the executive committee has declined, and the participation of the full board in the affairs of the college has grown. The orientation seminar for the boards of synodical schools that was held at the Yahara Center near Madison gave impetus to greater involvement on the part of the board.

Papers on Roles, Responsibilities and Relationships were applied to the boards of control and to the presidents. The meeting was a welcome opportunity for board representatives to compare notes with the members of the boards of other synodical schools.

Classroom Visitation Classroom visitation had always been one of the responsibilities of the board of control, but it was not vigorously pursued until ten years ago. The faculty approved a Faculty Development Committee report that members of the college board be encouraged to visit the classroom of each instructor at least once in three years and that a written report of the visit be shared with the instructor and the president. Reacting to the committee report, the board agreed to step up its classroom visitation schedule and to provide instructors with the kind of reports the committee recommended. Structured interviews with instructors whose classes were visited were included with the classroom visitations.

To carry out its visitations more frequently and to acquaint all of its members more fully with the performance of the faculty in its classrooms, the board divided itself into four visitation teams with rotating schedules.

Recently the board has become more active in the institutional planning process as President Voss has oriented them to this aspect of their government. As Northwestern College celebrates its 125th anniversary, the fcllowing are members of the board of control of Northwestern College and Northwestern Preparatory School.

The Rev. Alan H. Siggelkow, Chairman The Rev. David A. Tiarks, Vice-chairman

ADMINISTRATION

15

The Rev. Harold W. Sturm, Secretary Mr. Ormal E. Kiesling, Treasurer Mr. Carl F. Bartels The Rev. David W. Waege Mr. Michael Werner Mr. William J. Schmidt Mr. Arnold K. Schumann (The complete list of board members from 1965 to 1990 appears in the appendix.)

Sixty-five years ago relations between the board of control and the faculty were severely strained when the board set aside suspensions imposed by the faculty in a situation involving a large number of thefts. (The case helped to ignite the Protestant controversy in the synod.) "For a long time a cordial relation between board and faculty was impossible. The passage of time gradually wore away the tense feeling that existed" (Centennial Story, p.

186).

Since that time, except for a brief period during the accreditation study, when there was a difference of opinion between some of the members of the faculty and the board concerning government grants-in-aid, relations between board and faculty have been harmonious. The board has generally approved the significant role the faculty has played in the operation of the school.

CHAPTER IV

THE NWC FACULTY Within three years after Northwestern College celebrated its centennial, nearly a third of its faculty concluded its service to the college. Four members ofthe faculty entered retirement, and Paul G. Eickmann died a few months before his planned retirement.

Including Elmer Kiessling, who retired in 1973,they were the Old Guard of the faculty. All six of them had graduated from Northwestern College between 1908and 1917.Only one of them served on the faculty fewer than 40 years. President-emeritus Erwin Kowalke taught at NWC for 53 years.

The five who left the faculty between 1966 and 1968 were Theodore Binhammer (1919-1967), Paul G. Eickmann (19241968), Erwin E. Kowalke (1913-1966), Walter Schumann (19241939; 1946-1967)and Gustav Westerhaus (1916-1966): 231 years of service to the college. With Elmer Kiessling's 46 years (19271973, which included a year of study in a doctoral program), the Old Guard amassed a total of 277 years. An amazing record! We salute their dedication and their loyalty.

As a result of the departure of the five men who left between 1966 and 1968, and also because the college faculty was being expanded to accommodate the growing college enrollment, ten men became members of the joint faculty between 1964and 1968: Robert Behnke (Science), Paul Boehlke (Science), Leland Dahlberg (Mathematics), Paul E. Eickmann (Hebrew), Jerald Plitzuweit (Greek), Sylvester Quam (English), Donald Sellnow (History and Psychology), Cyril Spaude (Greek and Hebrew), John Sullivan (German), James Thrams (History and Religion). After a period of four years 40 percent of the faculty was new.

THE NWC FACULTY

17

The college faculty experienced an even larger turnover in the 1980s. During the seven years between 1981and 1987eleven men joined the college faculty: John Braun (English), Daniel Deutschlander (German and History), Joel Fredrich (Classics), Dennis Gorsline (Athletics and Physical Education), David Gosdeck (Library), James Korthals (History), Jerome Kruse (Athletics and Mathematics), John Schmidt (Greek), Roger Sprain (Spanish), Robert Voss (President), Wayne Zuleger (English). By the end of these years more than half of the college faculty was new.

The Pastoral Component Ifventilation of the faculty was desirable, this would have been the opportune time for a fresh breeze to arise and sweep away some "ancient" traditions and "ingrained" faculty attitudes and practices. Why didn't this happen?

Who were these eleven new faculty members and why haven't they refashioned the faculty? Six of them were active pastors when they were called. Two others had been pastors and then had become educators. One was a day-school teacher who had subsequently taught in a synodical preparatory school. Of the two who had graduated from secular colleges, one had been on the faculties of two synodical preparatory schools; the other had attended a synodical prep school, and soon after receiving his degree from a secular college joined the faculty of Dr. Martin Luther College.

The educational world shudders at such inbreeding.

If there is any aspect of the Northwestern College faculty that calls attention to itself, it is its pastoral component. Fifteen of its 21 members are clergymen. Whether they are new recruits on the faculty or whether they are veterans, their background is in the same proportion-three quarters of them were trained for and have served in the parish ministry.

It is clearly the policy of the college board and of the synod to select a significant number of men from the pastoral ministry to educate the synod's future clergy. This is not because the average parish pastor is a noted scholar, though many of them are academically above average. A busy pastor can't afford much time to focus on scholarship beyond his sermon preparation and an occasional conference paper; he has too many other responsibilities to

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tend to. But given the opportunity to join a faculty and to devote himself to study and to teaching, he can become a capable scholar.

Advanced Study The college has a generous study-leave program to encourage its faculty to do graduate work in their assigned fields. It picks up the tab for board, room, tuition, travel, and course materials. It supplies a replacement in the classroom if the faculty man must do his graduate study during the school year. (Master's degrees in foreign languages are not easily acquired through summer courses.) For some there have also been special grants available, such as those once provided by the Aid Association for Lutherans. These grants have even defrayed most of the costs of the participation of several faculty members in archaeological digs in Israel.

This generous study-leave policy is in marked contrast to one that was still in effect 40 years ago, when the college reimbursed a professor who voluntarily entered a graduate study program only for his tuition costs and expected him to acquire his advanced degree in summer sessions. In the case of a doctorate, the faculty member salaried his own classroom replacement during the year he spent in residence completing his degree requirements. The current study-leave program is an attractive incentive to pursue advanced studies, and it leaves a faculty scholar with little excuse to neglect this opportunity for academic advancement.

Experience In addition to looking for academic growth in the faculty, the college board and the synod also expect other qualifications in the men who train our pastors-to-be. They want a number of men on the faculty who have had firsthand experience with the vocation for which they are preparing their students. The pastoral ministry is a vocation that is many-faceted. Even in his pre-seminary years the prospective pastor must become aware of the need for developing a variety of qualities and attitudes, of skills and habits, to meet the varied demands of the parish ministry. The NWC faculty needs a strong component of men with pastoral experience who

THE NWC FACULTY

19

know the pastoral ministry and who can guide others into it and can inspire them for that ministry because they have been there and they love and cherish that ministry. They continue to feel an attraction to it, even after they have left it for the teaching profession. They welcome opportunities to serve as supply preachers in our congregations.

The young men at Northwestern who are aspiring to the parish ministry need teachers who are scholars, and teachers who know and love the pastoral ministry, but, above all, they need teachers who are faithful in their confession.

The Confessional Ingredient Denominational colleges and seminaries in our country teem with scholars who play fast and loose with the sacred Scriptures and who are devastating the confession of their church bodies by subverting the faith and the confession of the students they teach.

Church body after church body, once sturdily confessional, has experienced the tragedy of seeing the academic elite on its faculties, men who once bowed to the authority of God's Word, sacrifice their childhood faith for the approval of apostate and untruthful scholars at whose feet they sat in prestigious colleges and seminaries. Church body after church body has seen its theological faculties taken over by men who were trained by such noted scholars and who subsequently have betrayed the faith they once vowed to uphold before God and before his trusting people.

And seminarian after seminarian enters the pastoral ministry of such church bodies-a traitor to his faith and to the faith of his people from the start.

Unless the confessional integrity of a pastor-training faculty transcends its academic achievements and its vocational competence, the pastoral ministry it trains will become the bane of its church body. Whether a man has served in the pastoral ministry or not, every member of the faculty at our pre-seminary college must be a faithful confessor of all of God's truth. In this requirement those who have served in that ministry and whose faithfulness to their confession has been tested in that ministry bear a special responsibility.

The college board of control and the synod are still mindful of their responsibility to staff the Northwestern faculty with men of

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THE NWC FACULTY

such academic competence and of such confessional integrity. If this confessional requirement makes for a certain uniformity in the faculty, so be it. If there has beena sameness in the Northwestern faculty from decade to decade, or even from generation to generation, it is largely this confessional continuity that has been responsible for it. Confessional integrity will not be valued highly by secular educators or by "liberated" Lutheran scholars, but the Lord of the church makes it his first qualification for the ministry.

It is he who will render the final evaluation of the education Northwestern College provides for his future ministry.

Faculty Development In the mid 1970sthe Commission on Higher Education began to encourage the seven synodical schools to embark on a program of improvement of instruction. Executive Secretary Voss constructed a report questionnaire that embraced such areas of concern as graduate study; participation in workshops, institutes and conferences; classroom visitation; independent professional development; and on-campus faculty development. The schools submitted annual reports to the Curriculum Committee of the CHE on their progress in developing procedures for improving instruction on their campuses.

There was increased activity in this direction at Northwestern College in the late 1970s. In 1978 the Committee on Faculty Development, composed of John Sullivan, Jerald Plitzuweit and Paul Eickmann, chairman, arranged for a one-day presentation on library usage (by members of the Dr. Martin Luther College faculty) and a presentation on "Improvement of College Teaching" by Wilbert J. McKeachie, a nationally recognized authority on the subject. During the summer Professors Eickmann and Plitzuweit participated in a Workshop on Interactional College Teaching and Learning at Oberlin College, and reported their reactions to the faculty.

The next year the committee set up an off-campus visitation program to observe other teachers in their specific subject areas.

Members of the faculty visited classes at Concordia-River Forest, the University of Chicago, UW-Milwaukee, Edgewood College, Ripon College, St. Olaf College, and other schools.

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Classroom Visitation In 1980 the Committee on Faculty Development featured classroom visitation-on three levels. Visitation of classes by the board of control was of long standing, but it needed to be expanded. The committee recommended more frequent visits by board members (visiting a class taught by each faculty member at least once every three years), conferences between board members and the professor whose class they had visited, and written reports on the visits. A copy of the report was to be given to the professor and shared with the president (and with the other board members if deemed appropriate). The board approved the faculty request. Since that time fraternal understanding and cooperation between individual board members and faculty members has been advanced.

The second level of visitation was new. The committee proposed classroom visits by the president, at his convenience. There had been a tradition that the president respected the privacy of a professor in his classroom. In years gone by a former president had encountered the force of that tradition when he suggested classroom visitation, and a member of the faculty firmly declared that if the president set foot in his classroom, that particular professor would leave. It was not until 1981 that the precedent was broken-not without some apprehensions but without casualties. By this time the faculty had become responsive to the need for improvement of instruction, and the president had established himself as a protagonist of the faculty.

The third level was colleague visitation. This was approved by the faculty on a voluntary basis. Prior to this there had been colleague visitation on the departmental level. It had been practiced informally before a procedure was established.

Inter-faculty Accord When two families occupy the same premises, it is almost inevitable that there will be occasions for friction and tension.

Such is the nature of human relations. But considering the close quarters in which the faculties of Northwestern College and Northwestern Preparatory School work and share facilities on

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one small campus, the two faculties are getting along well. The faculty members mingle freely in faculty rooms and at campus events. Their wives meet together and work together on joint projects. Faculty members attend each other's anniversary observances and weddings of each other's children.

The kinship of the curricula of the two schools helps to foster this unity. The N PS course of studies is integrated with the NWC curriculum in foreign language studies. The prep school Latin and German teachers provide the foundation courses for intermediate and advanced college studies in those languages and for foreign language study in general.

The linkage is also strengthened by the flow of graduates from NPS to NWC to continue their studies for a calling both schools serve, the pastoral ministry. NPS teachers follow their students' careers and communicate this interest to their college faculty friends.

Perhaps the closest ties are between the senior members of the college faculty and the senior members of the NPS faculty. They were members of the joint college-prep faculty before 1974, before the preparatory school was officially separated from the college. A teacher-student tie also exists between some younger members of the prep faculty who were students of senior members of the college faculty.

The tradition of an integrated, unified faculty still lingers. For most of its history the NWC faculty was understood to include the instructor in Sexta (9th grade) English as well as the teacher of Hebrew to college seniors. In another decade or two the tradition will have disappeared with the departure of those faculty who were once part of it and carried out a great task together. If the two schools continue to share the same campus, the two faculties will need to exert more conscious effort in maintaining the interfaculty accord. But, in our common cause, it will be worth it.

European Interlude Faculty retreats help to unify the faculty. Being together away from home makes it more aware of its oneness and of its common purpose, above all when its "retreat" takes place in a foreign land.

The faculty's excursion to Europe was such an experience.

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23

On June 21,1983, most of the college faculty, their wives and two faculty widows boarded a plane that flew them to Frankfurt, from where they traveled to Lutherland in East Germany and to Luther sites in West Germany. They also made an excursion to Austria. It was the summer of the quincentennial of Luther's birth.

The two-week tour was largely a gift of Pastor Albert Lorenz (NWC '39) and his wife Elva to the Northwestern College faculty.

The tour was one of eight the Aid Association for Lutherans arranged for its members that summer in connection with the Luther anniversary.

The trip was a memorable travel experience for a faculty, but it was also an occasion for all to be impressed by the wondrous ways God took to accomplish the reformation of his church, and it was a time for all to thank him for preserving Luther's heritage for us so that we might entrust it, unblemished, to those who will come after us. It was a memorable interlude to have experienced together.

Faculty Wives As mentioned above, the faculty wives shared the bonus of the Luther excursion with their spouses. They were entitled to it.

The wives of Northwestern faculties continue the associations of the unified faculty that existed up to 1974. Whether their spouses teach at Northwestern College or at Northwestern Prep School, nearly all of the women are active in an organization that is known, simply, as "Faculty Wives." The official separation of "departments"that went into effect 16years ago is ignored. This may be for the good. Their free associations with each other may help to preserve at least some of the rapport that obtained between the NWC and NPS faculties for more than a century.

Their services have been primarily social: welcoming the wives of new members of the faculties with food showers; planning and arranging the picnic at a local park for the Northwestern faculty members and their families and welcoming new members of the faculties to Northwestern; arranging for entertainment and fashioning table decorations for prep and college graduation banquets; planning and arranging retirement and farewell banquets.

In the past they had supplied gifts at the weddings of tutors and

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THE NWC FACULTY

instructors who had completed their tours of duty at Northwestern, and they had provided gifts for members of faculty families who were ill. A number of faculty wives have used their artistic and creative talents to provide banners for the chapel and displays at the chapel entrance.

Noteworthy services to the school are those the wives provide for their husbands in their ministry: the respect they show for their spouses' work, their willingness to support their husbands' ministry, their encouragei:nent when their spouses experience difficult days in the classroom and their dedication to the ideal of rearing a Christian family.

Faculty Housing Prior to 1972 the Northwestern faculty was housed in residences owned and provided by the college. In 1971the synod's Board of Trustees and the Commission on Higher Education established a faculty housing policy that permitted the purchase of off-campus homes by faculty of synodical schools, subject to restrictions that require all on-campus homes to be fully occupied. A monthly housing allowance was set. A favorable housing market prompted four or five members of the joint faculty to acquire their own homes at the time. In 1989 eight members of the college faculty and four members of the preparatory school faculty owned their own homes. The college still provided 23 faculty residences.

These families were no doubt prompted by the natural desire to own their own homes, or they saw an opportunity for an advantageous investment. In some instances they had been dissatisfied with the maintenance of their college homes.

The college's residence-maintenance committee has always had a difficult assignment in trying to keep 25 to 30 different faculty families, with different tastes and standards, happy with the maintenance of their homes as the committee attempted to uphold a uniform standard of maintenance within a limited budget.

The committee today includes not only representatives of the board and administration, but also two faculty couples, one representing the prep, the other the college faculty. To one who has observed changes in home maintenance over the past 25 years it appears that the standard of maintenance has gradually been raised and its scope has been broadened.

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A Faculty Portrait Who is a Northwestern College faculty man? He is God's servant who is -willing to give up the front center stage he occupied in a congregation or parish school; -willing to forego his independence for participation in a team ministry; -willing to subordinate his personal interests to serving a larger purpose; -willing to be a rung in the ladder that future pastors are climbing to reach their goal of the public ministry.

But he is also happy -to

have a responsible hand in the preparation of our future ministry; -to enjoy the scholarly and vocational associations with dedicated colleagues in the ministry, and also for the give-andtake of faculty associations at leisure; --for the respect and compliance of some of the synod's finest youth as they are being trained for the church's greatest task; -to attend the daily morning chapel devotions; -to share in the activities of a college campus; -for the encouragement and inspiration of life in a Christian academic community.

The NWC Faculty, 19a9-90 Baumler, Gary P. (1976-1989) Admissions and Speech (Accepted call to Northwestern Publishing House in 1989) Birsching, William H. (1979) Music Braun, John A. (1984) Admissions and English Deutschlander, Daniel M. (1984) German and History Eickrnann, Paul E. (1966) Hebrew

Franzmann, Gerhard W. (1959) Religion, Latin, Art Fredrich, Joel D. (1987) Religion and Latin Gorsline, Dennis D. (1985) Athletics and Physical Education Gosdeck, David M. (1985) Librarian, Religion, Philosophy Kirst, Eugene A. (1954) Science and Logic Korthals, James F. (1982) Academic Dean and History

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Kruse, Jerome, L. (1981) Athletics and Mathematics Lindemann, Edward W. (1974) Dean of Men and Religion Plitzuweit, Jerald J. (1967) Registrar, Religion, Greek Schmidt, John H. (1981) Religion and Greek Sellnow, Donald C. (1966) History and Psychology Spaude, Cyril W. (1966) Greek and Hebrew

Sprain, Roger J. (1987) Spanish Strobel, Richard W. (1975) German and Sociology Voss, Robert J. (1987) President and Speech Zuleger, Wayne N. (1983) Financial Aid and English Tutors: Kenneth Brokmeier (1988) Tutor and Religion Ross Stelljes (1989) Tutor and Greek

Professors Emeriti (1989-1990) Lehmann, Arnold 0., Ph. D. (1962-1979) Pieper, Edgar (1960-1981) Quam, Sylvester (1964-1982) Scharf, Erwin R. (1956-1982) Schroeder, Erwin M. (1944-1986) Sullivan, John F., Ph. D (1964-1984) TenBroek, Wayne B. (1979-1987) Thompson, Lloyd E. (1970-1985) Toppe, Carleton (1948-1987) Urnnus, Lenoard J. (1935-1974)

In Memoriam A number of well-remembered men on the college and preparatory school faculties have died since 1965. All except two were teaching when Northwestern's second century began.

Theodore (1919-1967) Mathematics, economics, business courses Bursar, 1925-1967 Blume, Frederick (1939-1948) Greek, history-religion Eickrnann, Paul G. (1924-1968) Science Kiessling, Elmer, Ph. D. (1927-1973) English, history Binharnmer,

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Kowalke, Erwin (1913-1966) English, Hebrew Athletic director, 1913-1919 President, 1919-1959 Rohda, Dudley (1939-1975) German, English Schlenner, Orville (1956-1979) Latin Registrar, 1959-1979 Schumann, Walter (1924-1939; 1946-1967) Greek, history-religion, English Vice-president, 1959-1967 Sievert, Rudolph (1947-1974) Business courses, typing, history Wendland, Ernst (1914-1959) Mathematics, German, Latin Vice-president, 1944-1959 Registrar, 1924-1954 Westerhaus, Gustav (1916-1966) Medieval history, religion, German, logic, psychology, philsophy

CHAPTER V

THE CURRICULUM Northwestern College entered the 20th century with a 19th century curriculum and made comparatively few substantive changes until 1960. In the late 1920s and in the 1930s German ceased to be the medium of instruction, except in the advanced German courses. The use of German in the synod's parishes had declined, and a growing number of applicants without a background in German were enrolling in the ministerial program.

Greek was no longer taught in the eleventh and twelfth grades in the synod's preparatory schools. Juniors and seniors in college no longer took Latin. After the 1930s beginners' German was postponed until the tenth grade and then, in 1958, until the eleventh grade. There were changes in a few other courses, but most of the changes were in the foreign language syllabi. Despite the reduction in foreign language requirements, however, students in the pastor-training program in 1960 still needed to earn 211 credit hours for graduation, 106 of which were in foreign languages (including six New Testament Greek credits). Foreign language credits made up almost half of all credits required for graduation.

Curriculum Revisions In 1960-61the college curriculum was overhauled. The revised curriculum required 157credit hours for graduation (an average of 19.6 hours per week, vs. the 26.3 previously carried). Eighteen of the 157 hours were to be chosen from elective courses. In the revision a number of courses that were previously required were assigned elective status, which meant that on average only a minority of students would be taking a given elective course. Such

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English literature courses as Shakespeare, World Drama, Chaucer, and the Victorian Age were placed on the elective list. So were previous junior and senior Greek courses and German courses and sophomore Latin courses. Graduation requirements in the field of foreign languages were reduced to 75 hours (including New Testament Greek courses). But more material could be covered in a class hour because the student's course load had been reduced by 25 percent.

Ten years later, in 1970-71, a curriculum review committee, chaired by vice-president Armin Panning, made some adjustments in the curriculum, but the number of credit hours required for graduation was reduced by only four (to 153). Thirty hours were now available in elective courses. It was possible to graduate with 65 foreign language credits. German bore the brunt of this reduction, losing eight credit hours.

Another ten years, and there was another reduction by four hours (to 149). The number of required foreign language credits remained constant. English and music lost ground.

In 1986 the number of hours required for graduation was reduced to 134, of which 38 were in elective courses. The number of foreign language credits now required for graduation was between 50 and 53. Before the major revision ofthe curriculum in 1960, foreign language courses represented 50 percent of the required graduation credits; since 1986, between 37 and 40 percent. This considerable reduction in the number of required foreign language credits calls for an explanation.

The German-Latin Problem Although all students benefited from the successive revisions of the curriculum prior to 1986,the freshmen appeared to benefit the least. In the early 1980stheir normal course load was 20 hours per week; upperclassmen had fewer hours. Juniors and seniors had electives; freshmen had none. But the freshman's most serious disadvantage was his schedule of foreign language courses. College studies had always been a challenge to an incoming freshman, but doubly so when three of his courses were courses in foreign languages. He continued his Latin and his German studies at a higher level in a college environment, and he began the study of Greek.

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Members of the college board of control objected to this intimidating overload and urged the faculty to find relief from this pressure. In February of 1980the college board resolved to recommend "to the faculty that it continue to study the curriculum in the freshman year with a view to lessen the impact of the required language courses." The dean of men and other members of the faculty had the same concerns. The dean's dormitory contacts convinced him that many college freshmen experienced morale problems as they struggled with their foreign language assignments.

But the faculty did not see its way clear at that time to accomplish this reduction of the course load for freshmen. The freshman English and mathematics courses could not be postponed until the sophomore year; they were foundation courses on which sophomore English and science courses were built. Besides, freshman English taught skills that were basic for the entire college program. The history and religion courses were also needed as foundation courses for the intermediate and advanced college courses in these areas, essential for pre-seminary and seminary education.

What about the languages? The four-year Greek program was one of the real strengths of the NWC curriculum. It laid a good foundation for the New Testament Greek in the junior and senior years and, of course, for exegetical study at the seminary. Meanwhile it was also a major contributor to the liberal arts component of NWC pre-seminary education.

Latin and German were still being required by Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary for theological studies. Preparatory school graduates enrolling in the "regular" course at NWC had gained high school credit for four years of Latin and for two years of German in the eleventh and twelfth grades. Latin still needed two semesters of college study, and German, four semesters, to bring the students to a level of competence needed to work prod uctively with ecclesiastical Latin and theological German at the seminary.

To postpone either Latin or German to the sophomore year, for example, would create the problem of a fallow year, a real setback in foreign language studies. If the fallow year were tolerated, and either Latin or German were postponed to the sophomore year,

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31

the course of studies for upperclassmen would be impacted. To meet Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary's theological language requirements, both as to required college semesters (six in each case, counting each secondary school year as equivalent to a semester of college study) and as to acceptable quality, there should be continuity in the Latin and German programs. Elective courses were available in the last two years of college.

To meet NWC and WLS foreign language requirements without overloading schedules of upperclassmen and without reducing the quality of the foreign language programs, NWC students needed to take Latin, German and Greek in their freshman year on campus. The faculty did not see a way out of its dilemma without ignoring the expectations of the seminary.

The logjam was broken when the seminary, in 1983, offered to reduce its theological language entrance requirements. It communicated to the college that it expected "all regular students to have the competence to use either [emphasis mine] Latin or German as a tool for theological research," but that it believed that "all students should have some exposure to both languages in the prep school program."

In its curriculum revision in 1986 NWC chose to require two years of high school German and three years of high school Latin as "some exposure to both languages in the prep school system." NWC also determined that the equivalent of six college semesters would provide "the competence to use either Latin or German as a tool for theological research." Students entering Northwestern College would then have the choice of completing either the college Latin or the college German requirements.

Accordingly, in his freshman year a student who had taken both Latin and German in high school would continue either his Latin or his German studies, not both. The freshman foreign language requirements would thereby be reduced to either Latin and Greek, or to German and Greek; two foreign languages instead of three. The "impact of the required language courses" on the freshman program would be lessened, as the board recommended in 1980. In 1986the faculty and board approved the new curriculum that incorporated these changes in the foreign language program.

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This change in foreign language requirements for freshmen (and sophomores) accounted for most of the reduction of the number of foreign language credits required for graduationfrom 65 to 50 (Latin option) or 65 to 53 (German option).

There have been four general revisions of the college curriculum since 1960:in 1960-61, 1970-71, 1979-80and 1985-86. During this time the number of credit hours required for graduation was reduced from 211 to 134. The negotiations that effected this reduction were intensive and time-consuming. In 1979-80, for example, the ad hoc curriculum committee met 46 times. Deadlocks might have been anticipated as faculty departments defended their turf, but they did not develop, because there was a collegial determination to reach a consensus, and there was a willingness to defer to a majority decision concerning course priorities. Curriculum revision was a democratic process.

The Current Curriculum In the process of constructing a revised curriculum that requires only 134credit hours for graduation, the Academic Affairs Committee reduced the six academic courses required of students each semester to five, allowed the introduction of several desirable required courses, extended some elective choice to sophomores, and made possible "larger amounts of assigned readings, more practical in critical analysis of sources, and more frequent writing assignments," objectives the faculty had long since sought to attain but had been frustrated by the heavy course loads the students were carrying.

The 1986revision of Northwestern's course of studies, however, also introduced a new foreign language into the programSpanish. Both the synod's Board for World Missions and its Board for Home Missions urged that courses in Spanish be offered to equip a corps of our future ministry for gospel outreach among Hispanics, who have been flooding into our country by the millions. Both Michigan Lutheran Seminary and Martin Luther Preparatory School also asked the college to offer Spanish studies so that their graduates who had taken Spanish courses on their campuses could retain and enhance their competence in college. Spanish and an introductory course in minority cultures are now being offered to upperclassmen on an elective basis.

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33

Seminary Certification Program The curriculum revision also arranged for a Seminary Certification Program to provide an avenue for older men to prepare for the ministry of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Bethany Lutheran College had previously conducted this certification program. Both degree programs and non-degree programs are available. There are non-degree programs for men who have done no college work; for men who have earned some college credits but have not attained to a college degree; and for men who have a college degree. The non-degree seminary certification program concentrates on the basic courses in religion, Greek, and Hebrew essential for work at the seminary. The ability to communicate effectively in writing and in public speaking is also a major component of the seminary certification program. A number of liberal arts degree requirements are waived.

Losses and Gains How does the present curriculum compare with the curriculum of the 1950s? It reflects both losses and gains. Except in the case of Hebrew, which actually gained two credit hours through the revision process, competence in the foreign languages has been diminished. In the 1950sit was possible for Northwestern graduates to enter national competition in classical Greek studies and to walk away with prizes. They had been obliged to carry classical Greek courses five days a week for four years (40 credit hours).

Today, upper level classical Greek must subsist on 18 required credit hours, most of which are elementary and intermediate foundation courses. (Of course, free electives will add to that total.) In the late 1950sfour years of college German followed two years of German in the preparatory schools, and two years of college Latin (even four years in the 1930s)followed four years of preparatory school Latin (which had included Virgil's Aeneid).

Comparatively few of the great works of German and Latin literature are being read today.

Previously, five or six semesters of masterpieces of British literature were required of all students; now the student is held to take only one British literature elective, although some quality literature is being read during the second semester of the fresh-

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man composition course. A number of electives are offered in all of the above fields, but only a minority of students pursues a given elective. The writer will surely be pardoned for suggesting that the great masterpieces of English literature merit the addition of at least another required semester in this area. Shakespeare and Milton, for example, certainly have rich contributions to make to the liberal arts education of ministerial students.

There have also been gains to balance the losses. The most obvious gain has resulted from the reduction in the number of courses and the number of hours carried by a student. This reduction permits both instructors and students to do more college-level work in their courses. The instructor can make more extensive reading and writing assignments, and the student has the time available to devote to those assignments. (In the 1950sa student carried an average of26.3 class hours per week; now his course load averages 16.75 hours, slightly above the 12-16hours undergraduates carry in other colleges.) The instructor does less prepackaging of course material; the student must develop more of it on his own.

This is essential preparation for his future serviceas a pastor, whose calling requires much self-directed and and self-motivated study.

Classic-Contemporary The curriculum changes also contribute more to the continuum of pastor-training education at Northwestern College and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. The seminary's homiletics department is appreciative of the benefits of the training in public speaking provided by the speech course. NWC graduates also enter the seminary better acquainted with current psychology and sociology, and with the history of twentieth century America, with its emphasis on political, social, economic and religious aspects ofthe period. They are better prepared for the milieu they must know in order to do more effective work in it as pastors. The required survey course in the history of Western philosophy adds depth and focus to an understanding of the human solutions the world's leading thinkers have proposed for man's problems throughout the ages.

Competence in Latin is now furthered by a required course in ecclesiastical Latin; in German, not only by a course in readings

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35

from Luther's Bible and his Hauptschriften, but also by electives in German Lutheran theological writings. The seminary can now expect its students to have greater facility in reading German or Latin theological literature in the language of their choice.

As noted above, the study of foreign languages and the classics occupies a reduced portion of the current curriculum, but it is still a considerable segment, especially when it is compared with the area occupied by such studies in the curricula of other pre-seminary colleges. Three out of every eight credits required for graduation at Northwestern College are still in the foreign language sphere.

An elective course in art adds to the liberal arts dimension of the education of a Northwestern student. The elective course in world religions contributes to his motivation for world mission work. Gaps in the secondary school science background of students can now be filled in more readily because four area science offerings are available to help provide each student with a broader overview of the major fields of science. Eight electives in history maintain interest in a field of learning that both Northwestern and the seminary have always deemed vital in the education of an informed ministry.

Northwestern must be more than a Bible college and also more than a traditional liberal arts college. It must also be less than either. In this tension the balance of an ideal curriculum is hard to achieve. Current needs tend to tilt it to the pragmatic and the ad hoc; the benefits of more than a century of a tried and true curriculum argue for the preservation of a broader culture. If the course of studies is not to become a mere creature of the day, a passing fancy, blown about by every social, cultural and ecclesiastical wind, its changes must be trued up with the foundations on which our fathers built the education of our synod's pastoral ministry. Northwestern's pastor-training program can ill afford to decline to the level of that offered by most other pre-seminary college programs in our country--unorganized, unfocused, trendy. Students they transfer to the seminaries often know neither Greek nor Hebrew, are confessionally shallow, and lack a Weltanschauung derived from acquaintance with both God's inspired writings and with the best products of the mind of man.

Our synod's pastor-training program deserves better than that.

CHAPTER

VI

ACADEMIC PROCEDURES Every school has a cluster of academic procedures that form around its course of studies and its classrooms. Teaching not only involves conveying subject matter but also such practicalities as scheduling, grading, advising and counseling, and graduation procedures. Changes in all these procedures have developed since 1965.

Saturday Classes It might have been expected that when the large number of

credit hours needed for graduation was reduced in 1960-61, Saturday classes would have been phased out at the same time. It would have been a simple matter to fit 19.6 class hours into a five-day week because the previous five-and-a-half day week had room for 26.3 class hours. Yet Saturday classes were not abolished until 1971.

The Saturday morning schedule became increasingly distasteful-and unproductive. The schedule maker attempted to spread the discomfort around so that no classes would appear to be victimized by having courses scheduled on Saturday mornings.

But it did happen at times that juniors and seniors (who are most sensitive to unfavorable scheduling) found themselves almost alone on the second floor of the Chapel-Arts building at ten o'clock on a Saturday morning, while undeserving lowly freshmen had completed their week's schedule earlier that morning or even on Friday afternoon. There were times when teachers of

ACADEMIC

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37

upper-level courses had their equanimity sorely tried as they walked down a nearly deserted hall to meet with an unenthusiastic group of upperclassmen in elective history or English courses.

Junior and senior class attendance often declined noticeably on Saturday mornings. Most attended their class from a sense of duty, but few rewarded their teacher with their evident desire to appropriate the knowledge he offered.

The matter of Saturday classes had been reviewed by the faculty on several occasions during the 1960s, but tradition held its ground. However, in 1971the Northwestern faculty voted to drop Saturday classes, beginning with the 1971-72 school year. A committee report had advanced several more-or-less cogent and practical reasons for proposing this break with the past, such as: other conference schools scheduling inter-school activities on Saturdays, college students needing free time to do research in libraries in Milwaukee, students no longer needing excuses to go hunting or to attend weddings on Saturday, preps being encouraged to make more frequent visits home. The committee might also have listed the increasing resistance by both students and teachers. Teachers were experiencing diminishing returns from those classes because of waning student morale and increasing inroads into attendance. And-perish the thought-a growing number of faculty members simply did not care to teach on Saturdays.

Even during the turbulent 1960s, when some prestigious universities almost dealt a way their birthrights to irresponsible campus rioters, Northwestern did not abandon tradition easily. Yet it is likely that the college would have dropped Saturday classes sooner if the prep school schedule had not been involved.

School Calendar In its early years Northwestern College held its graduation exercises in the latter part of June. By the mid 1960sthe date had been advanced to the first week in June. In 1973 the school commencement was held on May 24. It has taken place as early as May 16. Perhaps the chief factor influencing the faculty to recommend moving up graduation day by approximately two weeks was the increased competition for summer jobs. Other colleges

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had been advancing their graduation dates and thus giving their students an advantage in the job market. When the 70 members of the class of 1972 were polled regarding the proposed earlier graduation date, 67 indicated that they preferred the proposed change, even though they could not accept employment that required them to work through the Labor Day weekend.

Another consideration was the lame-duck session of the first semester. Under the old calendar, the first semester concluded at the end of the last full week in January. That usually allowed fewer than two weeks of classes before the semester examinations-hardly enough to recover from the dissipation of knowledge over the lengthy Christmas holidays. It made good sense to wrap up the first-semester courses before the holidays. The problem was solved by advancing the opening of school by two weeks.

Since then, first-semester classes ha ve been beginning between the 21st and the 28th of August instead of as late as a week after Labor Day. The athletic department also welcomed the change because its football practice schedule now paralleled that of other conference schools. This move spared the department the problem of securing funds for a football training camp before school opemng.

Class Advisors The 1965-66 college catalog outlined the responsibility of a class advisor as follows: "Each class is under the supervision of a member of the faculty who, as class advisor, directs the work of the students, keeps himself informed at all times of the progress of the students under his supervision, and receives all special reports of deficiency or failure on the part of individuals. Students are urged to consult him freely on all questions pertaining to their courses or conduct."

Essentially the same paragraph appeared in the 1989-90 catalog. Yet there has been a considerable change in the role of a faculty advisor. Back in the 1960s a typical faculty advisor was responsible for 20 to 30 students in a given class, usually one that was taught by him. At the opening of school in the fall he registered the students and distributed their class schedules. If they were new students, he briefed them on general academic

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39

routines. Each semester he copied their grades from the permanent record cards onto report cards, showed them to his advisees, and then turned them in at the office for mailing to their parents.

If a student failed a course or was in danger of failing because of poor grades, the advisor informed the student of his academic predicament, wrote an appropriate letter to the parents and enclosed it with the report card. A carbon copy was sent to the student's pastor. During the following grading period he kept an eye on any advisees who were in academic difficulty, warning and encouraging them as need be. And he urged them to "consult him freely on all questions pertaining to their courses or conduct."

But if a college student was in academic good standing, he may not have "consulted" any advisor for four years, except to register his choice of elective courses.

There were no significant changes in advisorship procedures until the late 1970s, when the faculty adopted new guidelines for advising freshmen. The guidelines proposed dividing up the new students into sections of six or seven advisees and assigning them to volunteer advisors who would be willing to add this assignment to their normal responsibilities for advising upperclassmen. More than half of the faculty signed on as advisors of freshmen and special I students.

Because these sections were small, the advisor was expected to become personally acquainted with each advisee. He was asked to invite them to be guests in his home. At the end of each semester he would write a letter to each student's parents and a separate letter to each student's pastor, informing them of their son's or their parishioner's progress. Later, because of a prevailing stress on treating all college students as adults, the advisor was asked to write a letter to each advisee and encourage him to share it with his parents or guardians. Pastors of new students would receive a more general letter. The investment of time, effort and personal interest has been beneficial. The dropout rate has not declined significantly, but freshman morale has been improved.

Counselors In the process of improving the effectiveness of the freshman advisorship program, the advisor also became a counselor. He

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was not only the student's academic monitor; he also became the student's patron and friend. Now the faculty was ready for a workshop on counseling. In 1979 Frederick Matzke and the Rev. James Berger, of the Wisconsin Lutheran Child and Family Service, conducted a counseling workshop for the faculty. The faculty was appreciative. It resolved to ask the WLCFS to conduct an expanded workshop the following summer.

The proposed workshop did not materialize in 1980. In 1981it became a three-day retreat at Green Lake, with not only the WLCFS taking part, but also a regional director of the Educational Services Division of ACT and the president of the synod. John Juern, of the WLCFS, spoke about "The Need to Listen to Students and How to Go About It." President Mischke's topic was "Counseling Onward and Counseling Out." He impressed upon the faculty the importance of identifying the procrastinators, the loners, the "odd-balls" and the boors, and of counseling them away from the parish ministry if they did not overcome their deficiencies.

A number of roundtable discussions, role-plays, break-out group sessions, plenary discussions, and evaluations filled out the program. The faculty commended the Faculty Development Committee (Eickmann, Baumler, Lindemann and Plitzuweit) for arranging and conducting a well-organized, interesting and informative motivational program. The workshop was funded in large part by an AAL grant.

Motivated by the workshop, the faculty broadened the responsibilities of faculty advisors to include attention to personality development. While their primary function was to assist the student in academic matters, they were also to be available for counseling their ad visees regarding personal and spiritual problems. To accomplish this purpose the advisor was to arrange for meeting with his advisees on a regular basis. A room in Wittenberg Hall and two rooms in Wartburg Hall were equipped as counseling rooms for faculty members who found them more convenient than their classrooms or their studies at home.

While most students needed only to be counseled onward to their goal of the Christian ministry, there were also those who apparently were not suited for the preaching ministry because of personality weaknesses, chiefly inability to relate to people. After

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41

consultation with the seminary president, Professor Armin Schuetze, the faculty drew up guidelines for counseling out unlikely prospects. These guidelines have been kept in mind at the annual evaluations of upperclassmen when their advisors, teachers and the school administration review the personality development and the character traits of each student. The faculty is now committed to advisorship that includes counseling the whole person in addition to monitoring his academic program.

At the same time, the dean of men, assisted by his dormitory staff, remains the chief source of moral and spiritual counseling.

He has been called to be the student pastor. He has a broader contextual relationship with the student than the teacher in the classroom has. (What, for example, does the classroom teacher know about how a student keeps his dormitory room?) The faculty rightly attaches special weight to the dean's evaluation of a student, much of it gained in after-midnight sessions with the student. Dean Lindemann now coordinates academic counseling.

The NWC student of the 1980sand 1990shas been more likely to consult with his faculty advisor than he would have been in his father's day. Faculty-student relations are no longer the same as those the grad uates of the 1950s recall.

Academic Dean In 1979 the Curriculum Committee of the Commission on Higher Education (now the Board for Worker Training) of the synod began to place the position of academic dean at Northwestern College on the CH E priority list. At first it was assumed that candidates would be nominated by the synod constituency, and then one of them would be called to that position. Later, it was determined that he should be appointed from the faculty, since the constitution of the synod required that only professors, presidents and deans of students be called by the school's governing board. Registrars, athletic directors, recruitment officers, vice presidents and faculty secretaries, for example, should be selected internally, by appointment or election.

Northwestern College had no official academic dean until 1985, when Professor James Korthals accepted appointment to that office. Prior to that time the functions of an academic dean

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were discharged by the president, assisted by an academic affairs committee and the faculty.

The academic dean serves as chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee, which includes a faculty representative and the registrar. The president is ex officio a member. The academic dean recommends to the president the equitable distribution offaculty teaching and service loads, coordinates curricular revision, is responsible for course syllabi, the academic calendar, the faculty handbook, the academic budget. He serves on the Admissions Committee. He concerns himself about the orientation of new faculty, the educational development of each faculty member, faculty development activities, class visitation.

The president of the college breathed a sigh of relief when the academic dean appeared on the scene.

Graduation Graduates of Northwestern College and of its preparatory school in the early 1960s remember being seated on the stage in the old gymnasium, college seniors to the audience's left, preparatory school graduates to the right. By 1963the stage could hardly accommodate the combined number of college and prep school graduates, and the crowd almost overflowed the gymnasium.

Admission for the family and friends of the graduates was by ticket, five per graduate. The class of 1964would be considerably larger-approaching a combined total of one hundred. The situation called for new arrangements.

Instead of opting for two separate graduation exercises, the faculty chose to continue the joint graduation exercises but in a different setting-out-of-doors, for the first time in more than half a century. The change met with the approval of the graduates, particularly of the college graduates. Several years before, some college seniors had called for an outdoors commencement.

The Northwestern Lutheran reports this break with tradition: The faculty and graduates marching out of the gymnasium, down the steps, around the Sprinter, were not taking part in the recessional after the commencementexercisesat Northwestern Collegeon June 4. Contrary to appearances, it was the beginning of the graduation procession. The gymnasium had served as a

--------------------------------_.

----.

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43

marshaling point from which the procession began rather than as the goal of the procession, as in former years. This time the goal of the procession was the open area north of the library building, where the audience was seated in the pleasant June sunshine, awaiting the arrival of the graduates.

The transfer to the out-of-doors was made with some misgivings, but the offer of the graduating seniors to plan for the outdoor exercises, and the willingness of both graduating classes to accept the responsibility for setting up the facilities and for removing them, together with ideal weather (although plans for an outdoor commencement concert the night before were called off because of cold weather) allayed all doubts about the feasibility of making the change. The experiment may also have served as a trial run for next year's centennial graduation exercises.

Other graduation traditions were dropped in 1966. Instead of the German "oration" and the English "oration," there were two English presentations. One treated a secular, the other a religious subject. (The distinction has not always been clear-cut since that time.) It was felt that too few in the audience were sufficiently well versed in German to follow the speaker. (Truth to tell, the competence of most Northwestern College students in German was also deteriorating.) The tradition of participation by school choruses was also discontinued. It had become too difficult to persuade underclassmen to stay over for graduation.

In 1967the graduation exercises were held south of the gymnasium, chiefly because the construction of the new dormitory (Wartburg Hall) was under way near the previous site, and the unsightly mounds of raw excavation soil detracted from the pleasantness of the setting.

The graduation exercises were held in the new location for several more years. Sometimes those in the audience who were seated in the sun became uncomfortably warm; at other times those who occupied chairs in the shade wished they had places in the sun. It was the preparatory school graduates who were most uncomfortable. There was no shade where they were seated alongside the south wall of the gymnasium; the brick wall also reflected the warmth of the early June sun on them. With their golden gowns the graduates appeared to glow in the bright sunshine. But during the eight years in which graduation exercises

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were conducted out-of-doors, it did not become necessary to shift the exercises indoors because of rain or cold.

By 1971 there was a separate graduation exercise for the preparatory school. It was held in the afternoon in the old gymnasium. But the college seniors continued to prefer the outdoor setting for their graduation. It appeared appropriate to the class of 1971 to receive their diplomas from the bandstand that had recreated the past at the college centennial six years before. After all, they were celebrating a centennial too. The Northwestern Lutheran chronicled this special graduation.

A custom of 70 years' standing-except for one year-was interrupted on June 3, when 48 college seniors dispensed with the traditional cap and gown at their graduation in favor of Prince Albert coats, high wing collars, and period bow ties. The occasion was significant enough to justify the break with tradition: the class of 1971 was the 100th class to be graduated from Northwestern College. Even the beards were in place at such festivities.

In its attire the class only imitated the class of 1872. Its faith and purpose, however, duplicated the faith and purpose of the first graduating class. The statement of the class, as printed in the commencement program, declared as much: "In most places the celebration of a centennial is a semihumorous occasion; as often as not it signifies nothing. We would hope that this centennial is more than that. The externals of the grooming and dress have been imitated, brought back from 1872. The manner of dress, the haircuts and beards, of that first class have almost completely faded away; today they seem strange and impractical. But the love of God, the desire to study and to prepare for His work, the spiritual blessings of our Lord are things that are not merely simulated for this one-hundredth commencement; they have been with us since that day."

That was the most significant part of the centennial observance.

The confessional Lutheranism of the first class is not just a wistful memory or an irretrievable blessing. The past was not merely remembered at our 100th commencement; God has kept it alive.

We are grateful that the ancient spiritual landmark the fathers set has not been removed.

However, when the class of 1972, the largest college class to graduate from Northwestern up to that time (70 members), requested an outdoor graduation, the faculty demurred. Instead,

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45

the class became the first to be graduated in the new gymnasium.

(Only the class of 1985, with 72 members, has outnumbered the class of 1972.)

Since 1972both graduation exercises have been held in the new gymnasium: the college in the morning, the preparatory school in the afternoon. But the graduates of both classes still form a line out-of-doors after the exercises to receivethe congratulations of the faculty and of familyand friends. Aesthetically,the gymnasium can't compete with the park-like surroundings of previous graduations, but it isa surer bet when the weather forecast is on the doubtful side.

The tradition of having the president of the college serve as the main speaker at the college graduation exercises has been maintained. When the faculty reviewed the practice in the 1960s, it voted to continue the tradition. They preferred a speaker who, they felt, would be more likely to understand and articulate the dual role of the college. Since 1971only the college exercises have remained a combination of the sacred and the secular, reflecting the dual nature ofthe college curriculum. The preparatory school graduation has been conducted as a service, with a guest speaker delivering a sermon. The student speaker is the highest ranking graduate who will be enrolling in the pastor-training program at Northwestern College.

Diplomas From time immemorial, Northwestern College diplomas were inscribed with predicates that apparently had been in vogue in German schools of higher learning when the college was founded.

In the 1960sthe college had determined its predicates on the basis of an A=3, B=2, C=I system, with a 3.0 being a perfect academic rating. In 1970, for diploma purposes, an A was assigned a point value of 4.0; a B, of 3.0; a C, of 2.0; a D, of 1.0. Now a 4.0 was a perfect academic rating.

On the basis of an A=4, a B=3,etc., a 3.60-4.00 rating earned a per bene (very good); a 3.20-3.59, a bene (good); a 2.80-3.19, a rile (fair); a 2.30-2.79, a satis (satisfactory). Anything less than a 2.30 was a blank (no predicate). This rating scale was not very generous. Even a perfect 4.00 received merely aper bene, a "very good," although per bene was understood to include "excellent."

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In 1987the college retired part of its 19th century tradition and adopted the American system of cum laude predicates, but it still continued the traditional bene, rite, satis ratings. The new diploma predicates and the corresponding grade point ratings include: Summa cum laude 3.90-4.00 Magna cum laude 3.70-3.89 Cum laude 3.50-3.69 Bene 3.00-3.49 Rite 2.50-2.99 Satis 2.00-2.49 It will be noted that the former blank rating (2.00-2.29) has now been given credit. After all, the C- student has also earned a college diploma. Noper bene appears on the new register. Ifit had been placed below the cum laude predicate, which has a 3.50-3.69 rating, all recipients of per bene in the past would have seen their honor grades debased. Their per bene may even have been a 4.00 (excellent), but with the three cum laude predicates now ranked above per bene, it would not even be valued as a 3.50 grade.

A Northwestern College diploma is reproduced below, together with the translation prepared for officials in Zambia and Malawi who must pass on applications of our missionaries to work in their countries. Lest these officials, and those NWC alumni whose Latin is too small to construe the testimonial in the diploma they have received-lest they suspect that the diploma conceals sinister or embarrassing information, a reassuring translation is recorded for all on page 47. (Translation provided by Professor-emeritus Erwin Schroeder) Academic procedures are not central to the function of a school, which is instruction, but they help to make the pursuit of such instruction more comfortable. Schedules and calendars contribute order to the learning process. Counseling helps to shape attitudes that make that process more acceptable. Grades and graduation convey a sense of accomplishment.

Changes in academic procedures have not replaced learning, but they have provided an environment in which the educational process operates more comfortably.

Northwestern College Diploma (before 1987) Quod Deus o.m. felix faustumque esse iubeat auctoritate antistitum A Synodo Evangelica Lutherana Visconsinensi rite creatorum ordo professorum COLLEGII LUTHERAN I HYDROPOLITANI cui Anglice nomen est Northwestern

College

satis rite post eruditionem

comprobatam bene per bene

studiorum curriculum in eo praescriptorum recte et honeste confecisse testatur eundemque BACCALAUREUM ARTIUM LlBERALIUM rite creat et his ipsis literis solemniter pronuntiat Hydropoli in civitate Visconsinensi sub sigillo Collegii Die

Mensis

Anno P. Chr. N.

May the best and the greatest (o.m.=optimus order this to be blessed and favorable.

maximus)

God

By the authority of the Board duly elected by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Wisconsin the faculty (ordo professorum) of the LUTHERAN COLLEGE AT WATERTOWN, whose English name is Northwestern College, bears witness that -upon learning approved as (satisfactory, fair, good, very good) has properly and honestly completed the curriculum of studies prescribed in it and duly makes and with this very document [formally] pronounces the same a BACHELOR OF THE LIBERAL ARTS at Watertown in the state of Wisconsin under the seal of the College.

On the ____

of the month of after the birth of Christ.

in the year

CHAPTER

VII

NORTHWESTERN STUDENTS In many respects Northwestern College students are like millions of other students on American college campuses. They are in college to receive an education that equips them for their chosen vocation. They are there to complete their growing up to become mature men and women. There they establish their philosophy of life. There they work and play; there they savor today and worry about tomorrow, or they fret about today and dream of tomorrow.

Northwestern College students share such college experiences with their peers on other campuses. But there are also college experiences they do not share. Few students in our country attend all-male colleges. Few are preparing themselves to serve in the church as pastors. Fewer than few rest their preparation for that calling on the inerrant Word of God. There is a uniqueness about NWC students-these young men, headed for parish ministry, with God's Word as their absolute authority and their guide.

Background Who are these NWC students, who share their college years with millions of their contemporaries but are also set apart from them by their goals and by their faith?

Northwestern College is not a prestigious school as Americans conceive of prestige. Few of its students are elite as Americans count eliteness. The majority of its students come from lower middle class homes. Most of their families are in the $20,000 to

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$40,000 income bracket. Few are children of upper middle class professionals. Nearly a century ago (1897) the largest single group of students (both prep and college in this case) came from farms.

The ministry was the second source. In 1989, among 76 new students there was one solitary student who listed his father's occupation as farming.

The vocation making the largest group contribution to NWC enrollment is the WELS ministry. The families of the synod's pastors and teachers send more sons to Northwestern than does any other group. From 1980to 1990more than one out of every three graduates (ca. 35%)came from the home of a pastor or a teacher. In 1989every other graduate was the product of the WELS ministry.

Between 1963 and 1968 only 29% had a ministerial family background. It speaks wellfor the calling and for the families of the men engaged in it that they encourage their sons to enter the work of the church. It also speaks well of the young men who choose the ministry despite the waning regard in which the public holds it, and despite the lower middle class salaries it offers in a materialistic age when many, if not most, college students judge a profession by the prestige and the financial rewards it promises.

Geographically, enrollment at NWC has become more diverse.

In the 1960s the graduates of most classes originated almost exclusively from the heartland ofthe WELS, the upper Midwest.

Between 1963and 1968 only ten graduates were from beyond its borders. Now a sizable number come from distant areas like the Pacific coast, Arizona, Texas and Florida. In most classes, however, more than half of the graduates are still from Wisconsin.

Well Qualified The college continues to enroll a high percentage of students who are academically well qualified. They are intelligent and alert. The median ACT composite score of 76 new students in the degree program in 1989 was 25. Sixteen had a score of 29 or better. Incidentally, the ACT composite median at UW-Madison, which maintains higher academic standards than most large public universities, was 24 in 1989. Year after year Northwestern enrolls many gifted young men in its ministerial training program. Mensa-class students, however, may be somewhat fewer in

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number than in the past, partly because of intense recruitment by the nation's colleges, luring such students with free-handed scholarship grants and with promises of prestige and affluence. At the same time it is also gratifying to see that average (ACT 15-19) students can complete the NWC course of studies by dint of faithful application of their gifts, and with that same dedication serve well in the ministry.

In general, NWC students are conscientious. They apply themselves to the task at hand, but only a relatively small number do more than they are required to. It might be added, however, that abilities not totally committed in the classroom are often devoted to avocations like improving their computer skills. In many cases it remains for the seminary and the ministry itself to call forth the kind of dedication the Lord's work requires of its gifted servants.

Most NWC students come from the homes of committed members of WELS congregations. The majority have attended Christian day schools and either prep schools or area Lutheran high schools. NWC students arrive on campus with a respect for Scripture, although many still lack clear perceptions of the proper use of law and gospel. Reformed theology, communicated by the media, has affected the spiritual attitudes of a number of students, but with few exceptions these students are willing to be led by Scripture and to advance in spiritual knowledge and understandmg.

Yet Also Needing to Become Qualified In their conduct, NWC students are still more than a cut above their peers on the nation's college campuses. It would be self-deluding, however, to expect them not to be affected by the self-gratifying ways of most American youth. The young man preparing himself for a sanctified calling in this pleasure-seeking and materialistic age must struggle to maintain his Christian principles and to walk in the paths of godliness. It is not that there were no temptations to self-indulgence in the past, but America is now awash with immorality, and public standards have sunk so low that public officials commend those who are proud of their perversion. Today's mores make it even more difficult for Christian youth to keep from "being polluted by the world."

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But whether students strayed from the paths of virtue then or whether they stray now, the college is thankful for the saving grace of God that leads them to awareness and to repentance, assures them of forgiveness, and renews their dedication to his service.

Many Northwestern students need to grow in their understanding of the place of money in their lives. There is a legitimate concern for money--to pay their school fees and to provide for reasonable personal needs. Fees for resident students now are over $4400. Variable costs (books, supplies, transportation, personal expenses, etc.) are estimated to be $1840. Most students can no longer earn such sums during the summer. Even with the help of grants-in-aid, loans, on-campusjobs, and other support, averaging out to nearly $2000 per student, they struggle to meet their school expenses. Their parents generally cannot afford to pay more than a portion of their children's college costs.

Twenty-five years ago NWC students paid $510 for their education. Most could earn this amount and a considerable portion of the funds for other needs through summer employment. Most students were not engaged in regular employment during the school year to meet their needs, and they could participate more freely in extracurricular activities that used to be an important part of college life. Today school organizations and worthwhile campus activities often go begging for lack of participants.

A number of students also spend many hours at their jobs during the school year for reasons other than to pay their school fees. Most students feel they must have their own cars on campus, even if they frequently serve their pleasures more than their real needs. Expensive stereos are common. Quite a number have color TVs, video recorders and computers. Along with their American counterparts on other campuses they think they need and must have more of the good things of life. At the expense of their education they work many hours during the school year to acquire their creature comforts and to indulge their recreation habits. It is regrettable that materialism and pleasure seeking do make inroads into the lives and commitment of a number of NWC students--attitudes they need to unlearn and habits they need to undo before they enter the ministry.

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Willing to Serve Yet, despite the failure of such students to comprehend their own self-indulgence, they are still clay the Holy Spirit can use to fashion servants for a selfless calling. There is promise in the concern they express for those who are less fortunate than they are and in their concern for greater causes than their own selfgratification.

The Christian ministry requires Christian empathy and sympathy of its representatives. A pastor must have human concerns.

It is gratifying to see evidence of such humanity, not only in the brotherliness and caring exhibited by students in their campus community, but also beyond its borders. Many of them volunteer when opportunities for service present themselves. They take part in surveys and canvasses. Thirty-four volunteered to tutor prep students, underclassmen in the college, and youngsters in the community. They cond uct devotions at Trinity-St. Luke's school.

Many more than can be accepted volunteer for summer evangelism programs. Year after year students have served as big brothers to the handicapped at Bethesda Lutheran Home. There were 64 men who volunteered for Travel-Canvass-Witness during a spring vacation, "only to be disappointed because there were enough synodical funds to send but one team."

There are more of such opportunities for service today than there were in the 1960s,but graduates of the late 1960sremember the gratifying response to the call for participating in the Inner Core project in Chicago and the request for teaching assistance at St. Mark's school.

In this self-serving age it is refreshing to see NWC students who are willing to serve others as an expression of their concern for their neighbors, though there could be and would be more volunteers if they spent less time at their jobs.

Other Observations Northwestern students are very dependable in the work place.

There are employers who hire them also because they do not cheat. They are very willing to take on responsibilities on campus and they perform well. More than one out of four students has part-time employment at the college.

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53

Most students are devoted to the purpose of Northwestern College. Most are not yet certain of their goal, but they are willing to be guided by God's Word and by his representatives in the way they should go. Such diffidence can be wholesome. It can help to keep them from assuming that they are already ministers, before their time.

NWC students are better informed about the ministry today than they have been in the past. Not only have the pastoral motivation programs presented during the four or five years the students have spent on campus given them a broader acquaintance with the Christian ministry; improved faculty-student relations also encourage them to ask their advisors more questions about their place in that ministry.

They are less well informed regarding the world about them.

Not many students read a newspaper daily (not counting the sports page and comic strips) or a news magazine weekly. Their favorite TV viewing is not Washington Week in Review or the MacNeill Lehrer News Hour.

Socially they still reflect the dormitory syndrome at an all-male school, though most appear to be more socially aware than their predecessors were 30 years ago and many of their contem poraries on other campuses are today. "A good wife, however, is still a necessity. " Marriage In 1981 the synod relaxed its restrictions on the marriage of undergraduates at its two colleges. At that time there was some apprehension that more than a few NWC students would rush into marriage without reckoning with the burden of financial responsibilities it would impose in addition to the educational costs they would still have to meet. These apprehensions have been allayed. Only three married students were among the 218 enrolled for the 1989-90school year. However, ten percent of the students are engaged and expect to be married soon after graduation or in their early years at the seminary. On average, one could wish that students would delay their marital arrangements until they, as seminary students, became better acquainted with the demands of the pastoral ministry and with the qualifications

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needed in the wives who will accompany them into a profession where both they and their wives must practice Christian selfdenial and where both need to have a sanctified concern for others.

The Northwestern Student Like any other Christian, the Northwestern student is a combination of flesh and spirit. He may be given to self-service; he is also capable of service to others. There is still a contrast between what he is and what he is on the way to becoming. This ambivalence, however, is not a recent phenomenon at Northwestern.

Generations of former students have experienced it. But all through the years the Holy Spirit has taken such uncertain recruits for the ministry and has formed them into steadfast and faithful spiritual leaders for God's people.

The characterization of aN orthwestern student presented in an essay delivered to the synod convention in 1965 may still be apropos today: We make the observation that there are attitudes among our graduates that we value for the ministry. A certain wholesome diffidence in place of an inflated sense of their own importance; a quiet reserve rather than pretension; a sense of not yet having arrived in sanctification rather than a display of piety; sober moderation rather than an intemperate enthusiasm. They do not expect to be coddled, but they know what concern means. They prefer to be independent, but they know what loyalty means.

They know what it means to quit themselves like men, but they can show a warm sentiment too. They can work without honors, and serve without praise. They can criticize their school for its shortcomings, but they will go out into our congregations to recruit others to enroll at their school.

To them the Bible is a book to be respected, not to be assessed; revelation is a fact to be believed, not to be sifted; the parish ministry a goal rather than a steppingstone, an honor rather than a humiliation.

They are not without weaknesses and follies, but we are grateful for these qualities of moderation in them. Of those who do

NORTHWESTERN STUDENTS

55

not profess great worthiness, the Holy Spirit can make worthy servants of the Word.

(Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Convention of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, August 1965, pp. 80,81)

CHAPTER VIII

ENROLLMENT In 1989 the synod in convention approved the Vision 2000+ statement on strategic planning for the WELS up to and beyond the year 2000. The objectives the Conference of Presidents had proposed for adoption by the synod in convention focused on both internal strengthening and spiritual growth and on outward expansion. It set a goal of 1500congregations and of increasing the production of pastor candidates to 70 per year in order to reach that goal. These 70 graduates are also to provide manpower for new cross-cultural missions and for expansion in foreign missions, in addition to meeting current needs for more administrative staff and for increasing numbers of associate and assistant pastors requested by our larger congregations.

Northwestern College is in the eye of this focus. Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary cannot produce 70 pastoral candidates per year unless Northwestern College, which is now the source of practically all WLS students (having taken over the "Bethany program," the seminary certification program), produces an average of 80 graduates each year. This number is based on the experience table of a minimum of a 12percent attrition rate after graduation. That rate results from combining the number of NWC graduates who do not enroll at the seminary and the number of those who drop out at WLS or are counseled out by WLS. Furthermore, at its present on-campus rate of attrition NWC cannot produce 80 graduates per year unless it enrolls an average of 114-115 new students per year. This figure is based on an attrition rate at NWC that has averaged out to 30 percent over a number of years. The total enrollment would have to average 370 to 375 students per year; now it is in the vicinity of 220. There

ENROLLMENT

57

is reason to hope that this rate of attrition can be reduced to 25 percent. If it is, NWC must enroll an average of 106new students per year. The total enrollment would then have to average perhaps 360 per year.

Can Northwestern College meet this expectation and achieve this goal? Its enrollment experience in the past 25 years tends to discouragement--but it also yields hope. The graph on page 65 records Northwestern's enrollment experience. (The enrollments from 1987 to 1989 would have been even lower if seminary certification program enrollees had not been included each year.

In 1987, for example, there were four such students.)

Discouraging Demographics The graph shows that enrollments at NWC have fallen almost all the way back to those of the early 1960s,before the great surge in our synod's growth. In less than 20 years the peak enrollment of 298 ebbed to 198. Since the late 1960s and the first half of the 1970s the general trend has been downward.

Moreover, there is little statistical prospect for a complete recovery in the near future. The reservoir of students in high school and in the upper grades of elementary schools, from which colleges must draw their students, is low and will remain so for some time to come. The level in the reservoir from which NWC drew its students during the nine years between 1967and 1976was considerably higher than it was between 1976and 1984.

There has been a general coordination between the number of confirmations in our congregations and the number of collegeage students four years later. From 1963 to 1971 the numbers of these confirmations were 6848, 6984, 7274, 7436, 7152, 7462, 7531,7446, 7749-anaverageof7321 per year. Four years later Northwestern's enrollments were 275, 298, 291, 284, 286, 280, 290,273, 268--an average of 283. From 1976 to 1984, however, the number of confirmations ranged from a high of7565 to a low of 6l33--an average of 670 I per year. Four years later, beginning in 1980, NWC's enrollments were 256, 275, 273, 261, 242, 211, 204, 198, 203-an average of 236. The temporary increase between 1980 and 1983 was due chiefly to the enrollment of three large freshman classes in succession: 87 in 1980,92 in 1981and 79

ENROLLMENT

58

in 1982. Between 1985 and 1988 the number of confirmations dropped from 6168 to 5316, for an average of 5543 per year+-an omen of continuing low enrollments at NWC. Certainly demographics has been an important factor in the decline in Northwestern's enrollments from the late 1960s to the present. Will it help to restore its enrollment levels? If Northwestern's enrollments continue to be coordinated with the number of confirmations four years before, there is little hope for improvement until 1994. By 1996,however, they should have increased by 15 percent because of the larger numbers of pupils now in the middle elementary school grades.

Another discouraging demographic factor appears to be the correlation between preparatory school enrollments and enrollments at Northwestern College. In 1970 the enrollment of male students in the synod's preparatory schools stood at 473; in 1975, at 465; in 1980, at 461; in 1985, at 383. Four years later, in each case, there were totals of 273, 243, 242, 218 students enrolled in the college. (In 1989 there were 326 male students in the prep schools.)

Much of the drop-off in prep school enrollments has been due to the expansion of the Lutheran high school system and the drying up of preparatory school recruitment areas. In total, the Lutheran high schools have been sending more of their graduates to Northwestern College, but not enough to compensate for the loss of the students the preparatory schools would normally have sent on to Northwestern, had these students been enrolled in preparatory school pastor-training programs. Unless recruitment for NWC becomes much more productive in Lutheran high schools, Northwestern's enrollments are likely to continue to decline when preparatory school enrollments decline.

Other Discouragements It is not easy to ascertain to what extent the materialistic

attitudes and life-styles of parents will dampen the inclinations their promising sons may have toward the ministry, but that they do tend to disincline their children from entering the service of the church is hardly debatable. "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it"(Proverbs 22:6). Unless

ENROLLMENT

59

worldly aspirations of our families are tempered, the materialistic air our children breathe will stifle potential desires to enroll at schools that will prepare them for a spiritual calling that is not highly remunerative.

At the same time, rising school costs are beginning to depress enrollments at synodical preparatory schools, which have been the largest single source of students enrolled at Northwestern College.

A pre-seminary college that is recruiting for students who will prepare themselves for the pastoral ministry must also contend with the widespread disrespect for the pastoral ministry fostered by the press, by radio and particularly by television. (The disgraceful conduct of some prominent TV evangelists has also contributed to this disrespect, to the point of contempt.) The length of the pastor-training program and the program's foreign language requirements have discouraged some. For others, a parish pastor's calling appears to be too much of a hassle. And so, for whatever reason, many gifted young men do not accept the Lord's invitation to become shepherds and bishops of bloodbought souls. For such, God's high calling goes begging.

Recruitment Northwestern's former recruitment director, Gary Baumler, developed a program that was well organized, competently managed and attractively packaged. Northwestern Today continues as a readable and informative publication. Brochures are "state of the art" and video tapes are professionally done. Prospective students receivea variety of mailings from the recruitment office. Since 1981 the Focus on Ministry programs, first known as Retreats, have brought an average of 60 prospective students per year to the campus for weekends of information and motivation for ministry.

The prospective students hear men who have served in world missions and home missions. A parish pastor describes his ministry to them. They observe faculty members conducting mini classes in Greek, religion, history and Hebrew. The students are housed in Wartburg Hall, where they become acquainted with student life and activities. They visit Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, where NWC graduates complete their pastoral ministry training.

60

ENROLLMENT

The recruitment director and his associates also go out to where the potential students are. In one two-year period the recruitment director presented a program to 160day schools and visited all the Lutheran high schools except East Fork. (His sched ule continues to include annual visits to all these high schools. The dean, who is a member of the recruitment committee, visits Martin Luther Preparatory School and Michigan Lutheran Seminary each year, as does the recruitment director, and students from both campuses are regularly brought to the NWC campus. John Braun, Baumler's successor, took over the direction of the program in 1989. The president also takes an active part in recruitment.

The program is extensive and it is actively pursued. But it must contend with attitudes toward the pastoral ministry that appear to be increasingly negative. It must endeavor to draw more enrollees from a shallower pool of secondary school students. There is good reason to believe that the college's recruitment program has kept Northwestern's enrollments since 1985 from declining well below 200. In view of these circumstances it was gratifying to see the enrollment climb to 218 in the fall of 1989, but the goal of restoring the numbers attained 15to 20 years ago is still far off. If Northwestern College is to meet the needs of the synod for a larger supply of pastors, a double portion of God's grace must rest on its efforts. These efforts must include recruiting in earnest by the synod's pastors and teachers.

A Basis for Hope

Yet the record is also a basis for hope. In the early 1960s,when the synod was regaining its breath after concluding its exhausting confessional struggle with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Northwestern's enrollments remained flat. From 1960 to 1963 they were: 180,189,187,192. Then they surged upward: 222, 239, 258, 275, 298.

It was a time when the synod not only knew that it must go out on its own instead ofleaning on its big brother, the Missouri Synod, but it also began to viewits future course as an exhilarating challenge. It needed to multiply the numbers of its own congregations outside the Upper Midwest to gather in its own people, thousands of whom were moving to the Sunbelt and to the Southwest.

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61

The synod was responding vigorously to the acute shortage of teachers in its parish schools. The enrollment at Dr. Martin Luther College had spurted from 265 in 1960-61t0439 in 1964-65, and the new teachers college in Milwaukee had already enrolled 155 freshmen and sophomores by 1964-65. Michigan Lutheran Seminary and the Michigan District, for example, were determined that Michigan Lutheran Seminary increase the number of graduates it sent on to Northwestern College. In 1960and 1961it had contributed three graduates per year to the college, five in 1962 and seven in 1963. In the fall of 1964 26 young men from MLS appeared on the Northwestern campus to enter the pastortraining program. Between 1963 and 1964 the preparatory schools increased their contributions to NWC's enrollment from 38 to 63.

Demographics and confirmation could hardly have predicted such amazing growth in the numbers of young people preparing for the preaching and the teaching ministry between 1960 and 1964. Other factors were involved. The synod saw a need and was determined to meet it. It made the filling of manpower needs a top priority, and its people worked together with good will and confidence to achieve the goal of staffing their classrooms and manning their new missions. Under God such awareness of our needs today, such a sense of purpose, such a spirit of trust and confidence, and such activity can result in another manpower miracle--despite demography.

We can also take heart from the experience of the early 1980s.

There had been no decline in the number of confirmands four years before the NWC enrollment plummeted from 290 to 236.

But in four years it recovered to the 270s. Once again there was correlation between the number of enrollees and the number of confirmands four years before. Three large classes in succession made the differences. It was a heaven-sent boon to our ministry.

Indeed, all of God's ministers are heaven-sent, whether they be many or whether they be few. But the few can and will become more if we heed our Lord's simple but arresting answer to the lack of gospel messengers in his day: "Pray for workers."

A synod's program planning or its decision packaging may produce results in fiscal areas, but it will not suffice to produce its

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ENROLLMENT

ministry. Synodical machinery cannot meter out precalculated numbers of church workers. The workers we need come in answer to the prayers of God's people. Upon fervent prayer will follow the mindedness to serve, the dedication, and putting the hand to the plow.

Dropouts The student retention rate is an important ingredient in the enrollment record. If Northwestern College could have retained more of the students who enrolled in its program in the 1980s,the projected shortage of pastoral candidates in the early 1990swould not be so severe.

Between 1970and 1984the dropout rate averaged 30 percent, with a high of 35 percent and a low of 23 percent. The graph on page 66 indicates the number of new students enrolled, the number of dropouts and the dropout percentage. The rates for 1985could not be computed at the time of this writing, since the five-year students who matriculated in 1985 had not completed their program at Northwestern.

The second graph records the total number of students enrolled in a given year and the total number of dropouts from all classes in that year.

At first hearing, a college dropout rate of 30 percent appears to be high. But it is not excessive when we consider that many, if not most, students at secular colleges and universities do not follow through on the major courses of study in which they had enrolled as freshmen. When they change majors, however, they may very well continue at the school at which they had originally enrolled, since most college students in our country attend multipurpose colleges. They merely transfer to another course of study at the same school. Even so, only 58% of freshmen enrolled at UW-Madison graduate with baccalaureate degrees from that university. On the other hand, a Northwestern college student who drops his major (the pastoral ministry course) must also drop out of his college. Northwestern has only one course of study. Its dropout rate cannot fairly be compared with that of multipurpose colleges or universities offering a variety of major courses of study.

ENROLLMENT

63

Why Do They Drop Out?

Why do NWC students drop out? A study prepared by Cyril Spaude for a faculty conference in 1980 identifies 16 separate reasons for dropouts. An enrollment and dropout profile for 1970-1980 indicates that academic difficulties accounted for the largest number (38.2%). Career decisions (24.7%) and career indecision (14.7%) combined for a total of the 39.4% who discontinued their preparation for the pastoral ministry (and also for the teaching ministry), whether they had decided on a different vocation or were simply too uncertain about the pastoral ministry to continue to pursue that goal. Marriage (4.6%) and discipline (3.4%) were the most important minor reasons for dropouts.

Since regulations governing student marriages were relaxed at the synod's colleges in the early 1980s, marriages of undergraduate students at NWC today are seldom occasions for discontinuing studies for the ministry.

Identifying reasons for dropouts, however, is an inexact science.

Academic failure is not occasioned solely by the demands of the curriculum-by Latin or mathematics or English composition, for example. Troubles at home can affect a student's morale and his application to his studies. Discipline problems have bearing on vocational decision or indecision. Character and temperament flaws hinder and even obstruct growth in qualities required in the ministry. Frequently there are several elements that coalesce to influence a student to discontinue his studies. In a number of cases no one on the college staff knows the real reason or all of the reasons for a dropout, especially when it occurs during the summer, when the college has little contact with the student. There is a parcel of reasons why NWC students become dropouts.

At the same time, as much as the college deplores the dropout loss, it can and must rejoice that as many as seven out of ten students have been completing their pre-seminary preparation for the ministry.

After all, God's requirements for the ministry are high. The young men who aspire to the pastoral ministry must become respectable theologians, for the parish ministry is also a scholarly profession. They must learn to know the Scriptures from cover to cover. They must learn how to approach and to relate to people in

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ENROLLMENT

all walks of life and all conditions of life. They must be of good moral character. They must become reliable and faithful in their ministry, even when their responsibilities are unpleasant. They must put aside self-centered interests and devote their lives to the welfare of others. They must be God's visionaries but must also exercise common sense. No wonder the synod's Conference of Presidents urges Northwestern to screen its pastor-training students even more closely than it does.

In these days of depressed enrollments Northwestern must continue to be selective in the enrollment and retention of its students (for the ministry is a high calling, whether the aspirants to that calling be many or few). The college has effected curriculum relief and can yield little more of its course of studies without sacrificing vital components of it. Its faculty must continue to strive for higher standards of teaching. It must also continue to give counseling and encouragement of its students a high priority.

But when all this is said and done, it must acknowledge its inability to assure a supply of God's workers and must join with the whole synod in the prayer that the Lord of the church will bless the labors of its feeble hands to prepare a competent ministry for his people.

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CHAPTER

IX

MOTIVATION FOR MINISTRY The freshman at Northwestern College is a long way from the ministry. It will be eight or nine long years before he will be ordained in his calling. He takes courses at Northwestern for which he may see no real purpose in the ministry. He wearies of term papers and book reports and examinations. There is never a year when he does not study foreign languages. He wonders what the ministry is really like. Will he fit into it? Is he cut out for it?

Perhaps he is making the wrong choice. In his indecision he casts about for reassurance.

The dean and the tutors strengthen his sense of purpose. Chapel devotions keep his eyes focused on the Christian ministry.

There are friends and classmates who can encourage him. Yet three out of ten of his freshman classmates will be likely to discontinue their studies for the ministry before he graduates from Northwestern, many of them for lack of sufficient motivation for pursuing the ministry as their calling in life.

Only the Holy Spirit can place men into the ministry, but he can make use of varied motivations to accomplish his purpose with them.

Fellow students, the administration and the dormitory staff arrange opportunities to do canvassing in Milwaukee and Madison, or to join canvas teams in exploratory fields in various parts of the country where our synod hopes to start new congregations.

Last summer 18 Northwestern students were assigned a Summer Evangelism Experience in nine congregations of our synod. Local congregations arranged for room and board and a summer job in

MOTIVATION FOR MINISTRY

69

the community. In their free time the students assisted the congregations in their outreach program.

Vacation Bible schools need teachers. There are day-school pupils in Watertown who need tutoring. Upperclassmen present devotions ata day school in the city. The pastors of some students offer to take them along on shut-in calls to give them some experience with this phase of the pastoral ministry. There has been a variety of ways in which an individual student can draw nearer to the work of the ministry and thus be drawn closer to it, but many students do not participate in such activities, nor are the opportunities extensive enough to embrace all students more frequently.

The Pastoral Motivation Program All along, Northwestern did have a pastoral motivation program. A number of men from both foreign and home mission fields had appeared at assembly programs for both college and preparatory school students. To assure the parish ministry of equal time with home missions and world missions, parish pastors had also been invited from time to time to represent aspects of their ministry.

In 1980 the program received more organization and more reference to the parish ministry. To inform and to inspire students for the pastoral ministry, the faculty arranged a program that schedules four presentations per year, primarily by parish pastors and synod administration and service personnel, on various aspects of the parish ministry. The presentations are made during the student assembly hour, at mid-morning on a class day, so that all students can conveniently attend. That first year Professor Paul Eickmann and Mr. William Hughes spoke to juniors and seniors about ministry to the handicapped; and Pastor Richard Lauersdorf, about ministry to the elderly. All college classes heard Pastor Reuel Schulz, about the pastor as scholar; and Pastor Wayne Mueller, about the pastor as preacher. The results encouraged the faculty to continue the program.

Since 1980-81there have been four pastoral motivation speakers a year, scheduled in a four-year cycle. After four years on campus a student has heard presentations on sixteen different

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MOTIVATION FOR MINISTRY

aspects of the parish ministry. (Recently the cycle was lengthened to five years.)

Among the topics that have been presented have been the pastor as writer, as counselor, as missionary, as catechist, as reader, as teacher, as administrator, as music man, as family man.

Other topics were the pastor and world missions, the pastor and home missions, ministry to the sick, youth work, evangelism, and current immorality. The list is lengthy but it is included here to demonstrate the range of information Northwestern students receive about the calling they are aspiring to.

While they have not been, strictly speaking, a part of the pastoral motivation program, faculty-student discussions arranged by the student dormitory council also provide encouragement for the parish ministry. The year the faculty introduced its expanded pastoral motivation program, the council scheduled presentations on such topics as speaking in tongues, the role of the layman in the church, and choosing the pastor's wife. In other years their speakers have treated such topics as WELS church relations, alcoholism, the curriculum, faculty-student relations.

From their vantage point at a pre-seminary college Northwestern's students welcome views of the distant landscape of the parish ministry that still lies many days' journeys away.

Other Motivations Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit has been making use of avenues and vehicles that have always been there: Scripture study, devotional reading, the chapel services, faculty counseling and classroom presentations, faculty role models, in addition to the encouraging words and examples of the families and pastors at home to keep a young man on course to his ministry. Last year the Conference of Presidents met on campus, and each president gathered the young men from his district to speak to them about the ministry.

Pastoral motivation is a many-faceted proceeding and activity.

But, like recruitment, it must depend on the Spirit's motivation.

His blessing must rest on the program.

CHAPTER X

FACULTY-STUDENT RELATIONS The Vietnam War protest days of the late 1960swere a troubled time on many college and university campuses. Students at Columbia took over President Kirk's office for six days, and Mark Rudd insolently smoked the president's cigars. In Berkeley, students rose in protest and revolt and dared the administration to take action against them. Time assigned a reporter to Madison to keep the country informed about student marches in that Midwest hotbed of radical student unrest. It was a time when status quo and the powers that be were being trashed.

Northwestern College was not in the eye of that storm, but it would be naive to maintain that the attitudes of NWC students in the late 1960swere unaffected by the whirlwinds in the academic world. There were Northwestern students who contributed to an adversarial relationship with the faculty. An underground publication, the "Phoenix," provoked a confrontation. On another occasion a delegation of students pressed the administration to give them good reasons why Northwestern had not invited Father Groppi, the nationally known protest leader, to speak at an NWC assembly. Several students declared to the administration that there were faculty people who were "liars and hypocrites." Though they were guests at a faculty-senior banquet, several seniors seized that occasion to make their protest statements there. A year later six seniors boycotted the faculty-senior banquet. Consciously, or simply imitating their peers, many students made their statements with their hair and beards and with their attire.

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FACULTY-STUDENT

RELATIONS

While the Black and Red made some references to poor facultystudent relations during this period, and because some items were excised from materials submitted for publication, the student magazine did not stir troubled waters. Rather, several editorials even encouraged students to make efforts to talk to the faculty and not to expect the faculty to assume the entire responsibility for establishing good relations between faculty and students.

Toward Better Relations No doubt in large part in response to deteriorated student attitudes toward the faculty, the faculty devoted special attention to the problem of faculty-student relations, whether perceived or real. In 1968faculty advisors were urged to invite their advisees to open house at their homes. In 1971a faculty committee made a major study of faculty and student motivation. Their report also included recommendations for improving faculty-student relations. Among these recommendations were "the cultivation of more friendly attitudes and of a spirit of greater helpfulness by the faculty, ""more encouragement of students to keep the goal of the Gospel ministry in mind," "improvement of campus life and activities," "the establishment of a more effective Faculty-Student Relations Committee." Indirectly, this report constituted an agenda that the faculty worked through in the 1970sand 1980s.

In 1977,for example, the freshman class was assigned to eleven faculty advisors, each one responsible for six or seven students.

These faculty advisors were instructed to develop more personal relations with their advisees and their families.

The evening of the first day of classes all new students were invited to a get-acquainted faculty-student banquet, at which each faculty member and each student were introduced. (In subsequent years the banquet was shifted to the evening before the first day of classes, recently to orientation day. The anxious freshmen had been too nervous about all the assignments they had received the first day of classes and which they had not yet completed. Some had even left the banquet early to return to their desks.)

By 1976, college upperclassmen also began to contribute to improvements in faculty relations with students. The Corpora-

FACULTY-STUDENT RELATIONS

73

tion of Seniors, an unofficial social activities steering committee, invited the faculty to a polka party. (The faculty was appreciative but respectfully declined their invitation.) The next year, the students, particularly the seniors, requested an opportunity to become better acquainted with their fellow students and with the faculty. The entire college student body and the members of the faculty and their families mingled at a bratwurst picnic at Riverside Park. The college seniors arranged for a similar picnic the following year.

In the chapter of Academic Procedures the sections on advising and counseling record steps taken by the faculty in the 1980s to develop closer relations between teacher and student.

Relaxation of controls over student life and activities dissolved some irritations that had contributed to poor relations with the faculty and administration. Sophomores began to receive car privileges. (They might have received them earlier if parking areas had been available.) Local driving restrictions were reduced. New privileges sweetened student dispositions. In 1972a campaign to allow private television in dormitory rooms was successful. Telephones were installed in recent years (the students assuming the costs). Efforts are currently being made by the college to arrange for computer hookups. With their stereos, TVs, VCRs, computers and greenhouse plants many students may have as many comforts and amenities in Wittenberg and Wartburg halls as they have at home. On more than one occasion the dean has been constrained to chastise occupants for their misuse oftheir dormitory room to accommodate all their installations and comforts, and for insisting that it was their room--they had paid for it.

Couldn't they fit it out as their home if it was their home?

It appears that Northwestern students today have fewer complaints about school facilities or about poor faculty-student relations. Those relations are reasonably well balanced today. However, there will never be a millennium at Northwestern. There will always be students who are too self-centered to be content with what their families or Northwestern or society give them. There will also be faculty who make ill-timed and irritating comments in the classroom, who lag behind their peers in carrying out faculty programs for the improvement of faculty-student relations. There

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FACULTY-STUDENT

RELATIONS

will always be students who pick and choose among professors on the basis of their personalities or of the subjects they teach, and they let that preference determine how they feel about facultystudent relations in general.

It is too much to expect Northwestern College men to become chummy with the faculty. However, they do appear to be more responsive to cordial expressions by the faculty today than they were in the past. President Voss has posted such a cordial expression on the bulletin board: "The president's office is open to you for consultation, for sharing your concerns and your suggestions, your joys and your problems." An increasing number of students are accepting his invitation.

CHAPTER

XI

TUTORS It is hard to classify a Northwestern College tutor. Is he a head resident assistant? An instructor? An associate pastor? A counselor? An assistant coach? A bus driver? An inspector? A traffic controller? A "gofer"? Many a Northwestern tutor would say that he is all of these and more.

At first hearing, the title "tutor" appears to be inadequate. A Northwestern tutor is not a private teacher or instructor. He seldom engages in ongoing one-on-one instruction of an individual student in a branch of learning, as the designation of his position appears to imply. But in English university terminology he is a tutor. At Oxford and Cambridge a tutor has been "a college officer (usually a fellow) who supervises the study, discipline, etc., of undergraduates specially assigned to him" (Webster's definition). It is evident that such a tutor is concerned about much more than giving private instruction in Greek or Hebrew. "Discipline, etc.," covers a range of services to students in his charge. It includes social and moral guidance; in church-related schools it includes spiritual guidance. No WELS tutor performs exactly the same duties as a British tutor does, of course, but there is sufficient similarity to justify continuing the use of the title in our educational circles.

During most of the years since the tutor system was established in 1915 the tutors have been graduates of our seminary. From 1959 to 1975, however, the Conference of Presidents assigned only one seminary graduate per year to Northwestern. Most Northwestern tutors were seminary undergraduates. There was a pressing need for seminary graduates to serve in the parishes and in the mission fields of the synod. Between 1967and 1972,gradu-

76

TUTORS

ates of Dr. Martin Luther College were also assigned to Northwestern. Since 1975all college tutors have been seminary graduates.

A graduate of Northwestern College receiving a call to the position of tutor at the college after he had completed his seminary training for the parish ministry was generally not considered to be a man of distinction by his seminary classmates. A call to a foreign mission field, or to a large congregation or to a promising home mission attracted much more attention. There was little prestige or status attached to a tutor call to Northwestern, even though the unmarried graduates were "first-round draft picks"by the schools-before the District Presidents could assign graduates to their own districts. The tutor was in a species of no-man'sland during his period of service. While his classmates settled into their life's calling, for which the seminary had prepared them, he was performing chores in a dormitory; he was not even ordained.

Improved Status Things have looked up for tutors at synodical schools in the course of the last 15years. Eleven years ago Northwestern College and Northwestern Preparatory School began to ordain and install tutors in special services. Thus, belatedly, !pecial recognition was given to the pastoral work that is an important aspect of their ministry as tutors. In reality a tutor at NWC is often pressed by sharp and argumentative students to employ his seminary pastoral training in challenges his classmates in the parish ministry may seldom encounter. Training young men at NWC for the pastoral ministry is a demanding test of the pastoral ministry training the tutor has received. Martin Stuebs probably had heavier responsibilities in this regard than any other Northwestern tutor has had in recent years. He served as acting dean during most of the 1973-74 school year.

A few years after the introduction of special installation and ordination services, each of the college tutors received an assignment to teach a college class instead of the traditional Sexta history-religion course or Quinta English class, both of which were previously taught by college tutors.

As if in keeping with their elevated status, their living quarters were also upgraded. When Wittenberg Hall was built in 1975,

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apartment facilities adequate for a married tutor were incorporated. Tutor and Mrs. Richard Kogler were the first married couple to live in the Wittenberg apartment. The tutor's quarters in Wartburg Hall were expanded by appropriating and converting several adjacent student rooms to provide facilities similar to those in Wittenberg Hall. Augsburg Hall quarters for preparatory school tutors were also remodeled. To visitors entering the campus byway of Tower Road the most readily visible symbols of their status are the electrical outlet posts at the north end of the Tower Road parking strip, where the prep and college tutors, and the housemother park their cars. Such amenities have helped to distinguish the returning alumnus of Northwestern College from his undergraduate charges, and they reflect his new status as a person to whom his church has entrusted vital aspects of the training of its future ministry. Many a pastor in our synod has reason to thank God for the counsel, direction and encouragement he received on his way to the ministry from men who entered the ministry, unheralded and unsung, as tutors.

But there are times when men who once served as tutors do receive recognition that is uniquely appropriate. Between 1987 and 1989(before President William Zell retired) everyone of our synodical schools was headed by a man who was once a tutor at such a school.

The tutor's highest recognition will come when the Lord of the church says, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

CHAPTER XII

THE ACCREDITATION ISSUE The accreditation of Northwestern College did not come easily to the faculty, nor was the synod of one mind about it. In 1975, when the synod convention considered the matter of exploring regional accreditation for NWC, the original report of the convention floor committee on the training of church workers recommended that the college decline to apply for permission to explore such accreditation. After considerable debate, however, the delegates voted down the committee's first proposal and authorized NWC to explore accreditation. In 1981, when the college had completed its exploration and was being offered accreditation by the North Central Association (NC), the faculty vote to accept accreditation was a tie, with four abstentions. The synod vote that summer was 158-129in favor of accepting accreditation. If 15 more delegates had voted "no," the accreditation of Northwestern college would have been voted down. Northwestern's accreditation by North Central was indeed a moot question.

Why the concerns? It was not because NWC had had an unpleasant experience with the North Central Association or with any other accrediting agency. There had been no contacts with such agencies. It was not because the faculty was averse to graduate study. Practically all of its faculty had done graduate study on secular college and university campuses. When the accreditation process began in 1975, there were three earned doctorates on the small faculty, and there were quite a number of master's degrees.

The faculty had not closed ranks against secular learning.

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Nor did the faculty deem its curriculum, its course of studies, sacrosanct. In 1961 it had reduced the number of credit hours required for graduation from 211 to 159. When the curriculum was reviewed ten years later, the number was reduced to 153.The curriculum was not cast in bronze.

The college did not need accreditation to attract students.

Students enrolled in its ministerial program in gratifying numbers, especially in the late 1960s,despite the lack of accreditation.

And despite the lack of accreditation, credits generally transferred to accredited Wisconsin colleges. From time to time outof-state colleges, unacquainted with NWC, accepted the credits of our matriculating students only provisionally, but they soon validated them when they observed the competence of our students in their classrooms. For one hundred ten years Northwestern had not needed accreditation. Why should it give up its independence and seek it in 1975?

A number of issues came to the fore during the six-year accreditation process from 1975to 1981. The presence of Northwestern Preparatory School on the campus was a concern, especially when the first North Central visitation team raised the question.

Were the educational standards of the college being compromised by its association with an academy on its campus? But North Central soon realized that Northwestern had already taken major steps to separate the administration and the educational programs of the two schools and was following up with further steps in the direction of the independence of the preparatory school, including the complete phasing out of faculty crossover. The basic operation of NWC would not be encumbered by the academy that shared its campus.

A more central concern was the NWC curriculum. Though it had been considerably streamlined by faculty action in 1961and 1971,the curriculum remained uniq ue among liberal arts colleges (the category into which North Central teams placed it). Sixtyfive of the 153credits NWC required for graduation in 1975were in foreign language fields. Add required "non-language" religion courses to that total, and more than half of the credits required for graduation were not in typical "liberal arts"fields. What if North Central leaned on NWC to tilt it toward a more "balanced"

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curriculum? Would the college still fulfill its responsibilities to Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary if it scaled down the foreign language requirements the seminary expected for admission of NWC graduates to its program?

Another concern was the impact accreditation could have on the teaching philosophy and practice of a Christian college, especially of a college that trains its students for the church's ministry.

Secular education holds that a college should be non-directive in its search for truth. A Scripture-based college like NWC holds that it must be directive in the transmission of spiritual and moral truth, though it may be more non-directive in other areas of learning. Could a secular accrediting agency understand the need for and the value of "indoctrination, "both in inculcating a Christian philosophy of life and in preparing students for the study of propositional theology? Could a secular and humanistic agency determine whether a confessional theological school had clearly defined and appropriate educational objectives, and how to teach accordingly?

Less clearly defined but still hovering in the background was the concern over potential (and increasing) involvement of the secular state in the affairs of religious schools, since government grants would be subsidizing the educational programs of church schools. Some day, would he who pays the piper want to call the tune?

There was the uncomfortable feeling that it was inappropriate for a secular agency, unspiritual in its educational philosophy, to judge the Spirit-led education of the future ministers of Christ. It was not easy for the college to find answers to these questions.

Pressure from the Veterans Administration What precipitated Northwestern's exploration of accreditation at this time, despite these and other misgivings? The first occasion was pressure, in 1965, from the Veterans Administration. From time to time the college enrolled a veteran in its ministerial program. The Veterans Administration announced that it would grant a full measure of financial support to these veterans if they were attending institutions that were eligible for such benefits. To be eligible, a college must either be accredited or must supply

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evidence that three accredited institutions of higher learning would accept credits earned at Northwestern College at full value on a transfer basis-without examination.

UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee and Marquette were approached. They obliged with pertinent testimonials. The VA office, however, ruled that only one statement fully met their requirements. The other two letters "implied [acceptance of NWC credits] but were not specific in stating that credits received on transfer would be at full value." Furthermore, the VA also required a certification "that at least 40% of the subjects in the degree curriculum offered in your school are acceptable in partial fulfillment for a baccalaureate or higher degree at three universities."

The VA, however, continued to grant benefits to veterans enrolled in our program.

In 1973 the VA called for updating of the three required credit acceptance letters. Northwestern again contacted UW-Madison (and again received a satisfactory certification), but it turned to two other institutions of higher learning to secure the second and third testimonials. After securing statements from a number of state colleges, the testimonials of Northern State College, of Aberdeen, South Dakota, and of Mankato State University in Minnesota were selected. A number of Northwestern Lutheran Academy and Dr. Martin Luther College and Martin Luther Academy faculty had done graduate work at those institutions.

Despite the good records our graduates had achieved there, the testimonials of these two schools did not satisfy the VA (nor the Department of Health, Education and Welfare).

An Edict from the UW System At this time a major impetus toward accreditation came from Madison. In the spring of 1973 the UW system, recently established by combining UW-Madison with its three branch campuses and nine state universities (former teachers colleges), 14 university centers and a number of extensions into a huge system of higher education, adopted a UW System Undergraduate Transfer Policy that devaluated the academic currency of all non-accredited, post-secondary educational institutions in Wisconsin. In November a letter from Donald K. Smith, Senior

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Vice-President for Academic Affairs at UW-Madison, communicated the edict: credits for transfer to colleges in the UW System after September 1975 would no longer be accepted except by examination (where courses granted this right). Later the deadline was extended to September 1976.

If a non-accredited institution should pursue efforts to obtain accreditation with North Central and would not be successful in being accredited or achieving the candidate for accreditation status, that institution could request that a UW faculty team come and review one or more departments to secure a limited credit transfer (in classics, perhaps). However, Northwestern College would be required to pursue accreditation first.

Nudges toward exploration of accreditation were also received from the VA and the HEW. The VA implied a cutoff of benefits because the agency would henceforth use the UW System's evaluation of NWC credits. The three-college testimonial route was still an option, but it had not led to success in the past. In response to inquiry, the HEW, which administered the Basic Educational Opportunity Grants program of financial support for college students, ruled that NWC was eligible on the basis of the UWMadison testimonial, but the statements from Northern State College and Mankato State University were inadequate. In the end, to be eligible, Northwestern College had to be accredited.

North Central Enters the Picture Northwestern College now approached the North Central Association. Discussion began with Dr. Steven Bennion, assistant to the academic dean in Madison. He encouraged the college to contact North Central and at least to investigate the possibility of accreditation. If, after adequate investigation, the college found that it could not comply with all the demands of North Central without jeopardizing its fundamental program and purpose, an evaluation team would be sent out from Madison with a view to granting accreditation on a department by department basis.

Dr. Bennion recommended Dr. Victor Baldi, an assistant executive director at North Central, as the contact man. (Meanwhile, Dr. Bennion tried to use his influence to procure for Northwestern an exemption from the new UW System policy. The graduate

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departments of Hebrew and the classics sent letters of recommendation to the dean's office. Although the letters expressed high regard for the past performance of NWC transfers, the exemption was not forthcoming.)

In 1975 the synod decided to explore accreditation. As the governing body, with ultimate supervision over its worker-training schools, the synod was consulted concerning the propriety of accreditation for NWC. The first floor committee report was negative. When the synod, after "lengthy and spirited discussion," rejected the committee's report, the committee submitted the following resolutions: a) That the faculty and the Board of Control of Northwestern College and the Commission on Higher Education actively explore with North Central what is necessary regarding accreditation, and report such findings to the district conventions and the synod convention; and be it finally resolved b) That such exploration cease if the college finds any conflict with the synod's scriptural principles or philosophy of education, or if the college finds any conflict with its purpose and program.

The synod still had apprehensions and reservations about accreditation for its pastor-training college, but it also wanted to know whether they were justified.

Dr. Baldi, who had been recommended to serve as our liaison man with North Central, proved to be an appropriate choice. At a meeting in Chicago in April 1975 he removed some apprehensions about NWC's potential for accreditation. He was reassuring when he stated that North Central was more concerned about NWC's attitude toward graduate study than about a quota of doctorates, and about library use than about a ratio of the number of books to students. He encouraged NWC to make capital of the preparatory school on the campus. He pointed out that the unbalanced "liberal arts" curriculum would be vulnerable-but that Northwestern should be forthright when articulating its validity and function. He granted that NWC could not have made its case before North Central five years before. But by 1975 North Central had relaxed its standards for accreditation,

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especially for non-standard schools with special or uncommon programs. The accrediting agency did not presume to evaluate educational quality absolutely but rather inquired whether an institution was meeting its own stated educational goals.

When he spoke to the faculty in the fall, after the synod had approved entry into the accreditation process, he communicated much the same assurance that Northwestern could meet the requirements for accreditation. The faculty applied itselfto its first assignment, its status study, with a right good will, even though not all members of the faculty were convinced that the college should indeed become accredited.

Visitation Team, I The status study, a self-study of the college, was submitted to the NC office. In the spring of 1976the first visitation team came to the campus. The committee's report identified both strengths and weaknesses. Their one-word impression was "healthy." They noted a "good physical plant," commended our "clarity and singleness of purpose." The faculty's indigenous theological background encouraged "greater realism in pretheological education." The library was "well-managed," the athletic program "well administered and balanced." The student body was characterized as "outstanding-candid, wholesome, and concerned."

Among the more significant weaknesses they noted were the coexistence with the preparatory school, the course loads carried by faculty and students, the limited space for both stacks and study areas in the library, under-utilization of the library. There was criticism of teaching methods, of the failure to teach philosophy and science as standard liberal arts colleges do, of a lopsided curriculum, and of a lack of "the highest possible academic preparation. " Candidate for Accreditation Status In July of 1976the North Central Review Committee granted NWC Candidate for Accreditation status. When he was informed of this action by North Central, the senior vice-president of UW-Madison informed Northwestern that "for purposes of the

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UW System transfer policy your institution will be treated as an accredited institution for transfer purposes."

Candidate for Accreditation status qualified Northwestern students for Basic Educational Opportunity Grants (later, Pell Grants). Faculty opinions were divided concerning the desirability of accepting government grants, but the college board felt it could approve entry into the program. It pointed out that "it would be difficult to explain the faculty position in the light of Dr. Martin Luther College's and Bethany's acceptance of B.E.O.G." The faculty acquiesced in the decision of the board, but not without a request on the part of some that the Conference of Presidents, or the synod convention, should reexamine the issue of government aid. Meanwhile, NWC students began to receive B.E.O.G. benefits (Pell Grants), which have been a major source of student financial aid since 1977.

Faculty debate on the issue of accreditation escalated in the spring of 1979. In the interval between North Central's approval of Candidate for Accreditation status in July 1976 and April 1979, the college had engaged Dr. Larry Barrett, of Kalamazoo College, as a consultant. After visiting classes at NWC, he registered his concerns about teaching style, about the high number of student contact hours, and about library use. In sum, he felt that "a good deal of the learning at Northwestern goes on in the classroom. " Visitation Team, /I The second North Central evaluation team had visited the campus in October 1978. In general, it observed: "The team finds that all areas of concern expressed by previous visitors have been addressed, not with total compliance but with a studied and thoughtful appraisal of the appropriateness of the concern to a college with a special mission and tradition." (And one of the two members of the team professed to be a Marxist!) They recommended that Candidate for Accreditation status be continued and that a decision regarding full accreditation be made in 1980. The North Central Association approved the recommendations ofthe second evaluation team. By the spring of 1979 it appeared likely that Northwestern would become accredited in two more years.

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Faculty Reservations In May 1979the faculty presented an Accreditation Report to the college board with the recommendation that the synod implement a wider discussion of the concerns of a number of Northwestern faculty people. Specifically, it recommended that the synod direct the Conference of Presidents, in consultation with the Commission on Higher Education, "to study the spiritual and doctrinal implications of accreditation for NWC and OM LC and report to the 1981synod convention." In June faculty officers met with the 0 MLC Academic Council to discuss accreditation issues that disturbed the NWC faculty.

The college board, the CHE and DMLC urged the faculty not to impose its reservations on the synod's August 1979convention agenda by presenting a special report. The faculty yielded to their plea. The issue of NWC accreditation was not debated at the convention. But NWC's concerns about accreditation had become more than a local issue.

In January 1981the third North Central evaluation team visited the campus. It recommended accreditation in 1981, with a comprehensive review in 1984. In April the college board received a special report ofthe NWC faculty concerning the North Central Association offer to grant NWC accreditation. The report reflected the 7-7 vote (with 4 abstentions) of the faculty on accepting North Central accreditation. It presented arguments on both sides of the accreditation issue and exhibited the varying degrees of concern its members had. The concerns included: North Central pressures for more liberal arts courses (displacing what?); recommendation of a less directive teaching style; more intensive secular training; the difficulty of withdrawing from the North Central Association if unacceptable demands are placed on the college; the unpromising experiences of some accredited Christian colleges; the impropriety of submitting a confessional pastor-training program to influence, if not direction, by a secular agency.

The report set forth the division of opinion within the NWC faculty regarding the dangers of accreditation. But, the report continued, " ... these differences are not doctrinal; they are differences ofjudgment, reflecting degrees of apprehension." This became the faculty's official report to the synod. A minority

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report, signed by four faculty members, was presented as a memorial to the synod. In its own report to the synod, the board of control recommended that NWC accept North Central accreditation on the basis of the arguments for accreditation the faculty listed in its divided report.

These arguments were: Northwestern's credits now transfer readily; Pell Grants and other government aids have become available; the college benefits from the self-study process and from the criticism of educators from outside our synodical circles; Northwestern's sister school, DMLC, has accepted accreditation; the North Central Association does not espouse an official philosophy to which all its members must subscribe; the accreditation process to this point has not required NWC to violate any scriptural principle.

After considerable debate the synod accepted the report of its floor committee, recommending accreditation for Northwestern College. The faculty members who had opposed accreditation accepted the synod's decision in the spirit of the concluding words of the faculty report to the college board: "Many members of the college faculty have deeply-held and differing opinions on the subject of accreditation, but the faculty is united in its determination to be guided by the Word of God. The differences among us are not doctrinal disagreements, but the kind of differences of judgment which Christians experience also in some other aspects of their life in the world. Having explored accreditation, we submit the issue to the judgment of the college board and of the synod, praying that God will lead them to a decision which will serve His glory and the good of the church.

Whatever choice the board and the synod make, we pledge our continuing commitment to the mission which has been assigned to Northwestern College: helping to prepare men for admission to the seminary and for service in the Christian Gospel ministry. " The relatively small margin of the vote of the convention, in spite of the reservation clauses in the resolution, indicated that there was considerable hesitation in the synod regarding secular accreditation of its pastor-training college, and that the constituency of the synod was looking to the faculty and the board of

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NWC and to the CHE for careful monitoring of the effects of accreditation on the college.

Accredited In its report the 1981 North Central evaluation team enunciated three concerns to which the college should address itself before the 1984evaluation: I) evidence of comprehensive internal planning, 2) upgrading of faculty with emphasis on subject matter preparation, and 3) external audit of the college itself. The college took note of these three concerns. The number of participants in graduate study was the largest in many years. Internal planning centered on the new library-administration building, on providing additional manpower in the administrative area, especially an academic dean, and continuing faculty development programs.

The external audit of the college was only a procedural problem.

In 1984 another North Central Association evaluation team visited the college. Its report expressed satisfaction with the progress the college had made in the past three years in the three areas cited by the 1981evaluation team. In fact, the team recommended to the North Central Association that the accreditation of NWC be continued "without review until 1994." In August the Executive Committe of the North Central Association approved the action of the evaluation team and the review committee.

The Accreditation Experience The president's report to the college board that fall reviewed the North Central experience as the college looked to the future: "With the next accreditation visit ten years away, we shall be tempted to rest on our oars. After all, the North Central Association is becoming more indulgent. It now tolerates diversity and individuality it would not have permitted ten years ago.

"Northwestern College must rise above such opportunism.

Apart from accreditation, the college must ever be active in maintaining and improving itself. Whether accredited or not, we need to work and plan for a new library and administration building. Library use across the curriculum will need to be improved. We need to encourage and develop better liaison with our students regarding instructional matters. We need to review our

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curriculum periodically, accreditation or no. We need to make sure our faculty does not lag in self improvement through graduate study and scholarly presentations. We need to owe such progress to ourselves more than to the North Central Association. " Thus the prolonged and most vexing issue of the first 125years of Northwestern's second century came to a quiet and peaceable close. The apprehensions ofthose who opposed secular accreditation for NWC were in a type of remission. NWC had not been obliged to compromise its purpose, nor had it lost control of its unique curriculum. It had not relinquished its superintendence over graduate study; it had not yielded it to accreditation agency formulas.

The real pressure to qualify Northwestern College for government grants came from our own synodical circles and constituency. Our synod membership and educational entities exerted more sustained pressure to reduce the foreign language component of the Northwestern course of studies than North Central had.

Yes, in the process NWC lost some of its total accountability to the church. It became more dependent on government financial support. It is vulnerable to potential North Central pressures for faculty degree quotas in the years ahead.

On the other hand, the North Central accreditation process has forced the college to take a hard look at itself. It has raised faculty consciousness of teaching style and has stimulated its program of faculty development. It has made the case for a college library with a larger place in the sun.

It has elicited from Northwestern College a greater certainty of its priorities. It has helped Northwestern gain a larger knowledge of itself. The accreditation process has increased the college's awareness of its uniqueness. Northwestern College is a special kind of college, with a special philosophy of education and a special and crucial mission in our church. It must remain its own type of college if it is not to generalize and to contribute less and less to Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary'S training of our future ministry.

CHAPTER

XIII

NORTHWESTERN

PREPARATORY SCHOOL For more than a century the tie between the preparatory school and the college on the Northwestern College campus was so close that Northwestern College was identified as "an institution composed of two departments: the High School Department and the Collegiate Department." Northwestern College was viewed as an institution with an eight-year program (seven-year program prior to 1919). The 1971-1972 school catalog began to differentiate more exactly and to give the secondary school its own name: "Northwestern Preparatory School (the preparatory department, which offers a four-year high school program) and Northwestern College (the college department, which offers a four-year college program). The name Northwestern College is also generally applied to the entire institution." It was not until 1974, when the preparatory school received its own president, that the separation between the two schools was basically complete.

Toward Separation During most of this time college students and preparatory school students lived together in dormitory rooms. A typical room was occupied by a college junior or senior "monitor," a college freshman or sophomore, and two preparatory school students. Most members of the faculty taught classes on both levels. Up until the 1930s there were even some well-developed preparatory school athletes who played on the college football and baseball teams. A brief experiment with the separation of

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collegiates from preps in the dormitory occurred in the early 1930s, but it was not until the 1950s, when East Hall (now Augsburg Hall) was built, that they were separated by dormitories, or by floors in the old dormitory. A limited number of college resident assistants, however, were quartered in the prep dormitory areas, thus preserving a valuable feature of the communal living of the past. This arrangement continues to the present day.

These carefully selected resident assistants, mature collegejunior, and seniors, ha ve been a real asset in the supervision of preparatory school dormitory students.

This stratification by dormitories or in dormitories was the first stage in the development of the preparatory school as a separate entity. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the movement toward more complete separation gathered momentum. In 1968the faculty discussed principalship for the preparatory school. The new name for the "preparatory department"- Northwestern Preparatory School-was chosen in 1970. Other steps toward separation followed in quick succession. The president's report to the board of control records: "Some of the faculty members have felt for some time that high school seniors should be given a greater sense of accomplishment, of having reached a milestone in their education rather than to move almost imperceptibly from high school to college. In response to this feeling and to the desire of the high school seniors for greater recognition, the faculty has sanctioned a class trip to Detroit and is making arrangements for a Tertia banquet. A faculty committee report is also recommending that the faculty consider arrangements for separate ... graduation exercises at the end of the 1970-1971school year." In the spring of 1971 there was a modest banquet for graduating Tertianers and there was a separate graduation exercise. By that time the Northwestern Prep Student Council had also been launched. By 1973 the number of separate college faculty and prep faculty meetings was increasing. The Northwestern College president continued to preside at the meetings of the plenary (joint) Northwestern faculty; he also served as chairman at the meetings of each separate faculty.

It may seem strange to most people that a high school could continue to function.in such a subordinate role until nearly three

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quarters ofthe way through the 20th century. But the relationship did express a unity of purpose and spirit. Both the preparatory school and the college were dedicated to preparatjsn for the high calling of the Christian ministry, primarily for the pastoral ministry. Subordination to that continuum was not only amazing; it was also a blessing for which to thank God. The awareness of a common purpose was not lost when the two schools became organizationally independent of each other. For that we continue to thank God today.

Two more significant steps in the development of an independent preparatory school were taken in 1971,when the synod approved a separate deanship for Northwestern Preparatory School (NPS) and also directed Northwestern college to expedite the separation of its college and preparatory departments. Pastor Martin Schulz, of Moorhead, Minnesota, was called and became the first NPS dean in the fall of 1973. Earlier that year the faculty adopted a report calling for the establishment of the office of president of Northwestern Preparatory School, rather than for a principalship.

The board of control approved this action by the faculty and also approved its proposed allocation of responsibilities in the relationship between the preparatory school president and the college president, and in the relationship between the preparatory school president and the board of control. Pastor William Zell, of the NPS faculty, was called to the prep school presidency in the fall of 1974 and was installed in his office on December 1. He served as president until his retirement in 1989.In 1975NPS adopted its own seal and published its first school catalog.

During these years the separation of faculties was an ongoing alignment process. In 1970 two members of the NPS faculty taught a college class apiece, and at least seven members of the college faculty, not including the college tutors, crossed over to teach in the preparatory school. Faculty changes and attrition reduced this number to two (including the music director) by 1980. College tutors discontinued teaching prep courses in 1984.

The only crossovers at present are the college music director, who has charge of both bands; and the prep music director, who administers the entire keyboard instruction program. When the North Central Association visitation committee began observing

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the interrelationships between Northwestern College and Northwestern Preparatory School in 1976,it took note of the crossover that still existed at that time but was assured that it would soon be phased out. By 1980North Central no longer considered it a factor that could affect the accreditation of the faculty of the college.

Enrollment Enrollment in the preparatory school declined from 258 in 1967 to 175 in 1974. Aware of the decline in NPS enrollment and also ofthe need for more teachers, the Commission on Higher Education of the synod proposed that N PS consider installing a teachertraining curriculum parallel to that in operation at the other synodical academies. The faculty approved the proposal. It was encouraged by the need to arrest the decline in enrollment in the preparatory school and by the desirability of providing a better social atmosphere for its students. After some hesitation by the board because it was concerned about the possible effect on the enrollment at Lakeside Lutheran High School and because of a possible loss of pastor-training students, that body also approved of the two-track program for NPS. Synod approval followed in 1975.

The effect of the two-track program on NPS enrollment was startling. In four years the enrollment skyrocketed from 175 to 323, 112 of whom were ninth graders. Of the 323, 130were girls, who were now eligible to enroll in greater numbers because the teacher-training program was in operation. Dormitory quarters were available for girls in Augsburg Hall, the prep dormitory, because the completion of Wittenberg Hall in 1975added considerable campus housing for college students. A number of girls were also housed in North (Coburg) Hall, above the administration offices. College students had been quartered in North Hall previously.

The NPS enrollment plummeted as rapidly as it had soared. It fell to 192 by 1982and has leveled off in the vicinity of 200 since that time. (In 1989-90 NPS enrolled 85 girls.) This sudden collapse in enrollment was occasioned largely by the transplantation of another synodical preparatory school, Martin Luther Academy (M LA). In 1977 Dr. Martin Luther College announced that

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its campus could no longer accommodate Martin Luther Academy students, forcing the synod to provide new quarters for the academy. In 1978 the synod, in special convention, resolved to purchase the former Campion High School property in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and to relocate MLA there. Students from Northwestern Lutheran Academy, which the synod voted to close down in 1979, were referred to the new campus at Prairie du Chien, where most of them joined MLA students in the fall of 1979at the newly established Martin Luther Preparatory School.

In 1978 the synod had also requested NPS to "phase out its teacher training program within a three-year period beginning with the 1979-80 school year and direct all its efforts to the recruitment and training of pastor training students as was done before 1975." Supporting this resolution was a "whereas" which stated that "the acquisition of the Campion campus would also make it possible to relieve immediate space problems at NPS." The 560 students enrolled at NWCj N PS in the fall of 1978 did indeed occasion a "space problem." The synod also wanted to assure Martin Luther Preparatory School of success in its new location, less than 145miles from Watertown. Later, in 1983, the synod relaxed the restrictions on non-pastor-training students when it resolved, "That while greater emphasis is to be placed by the prep school on recruitment for pastor training, yet the recruitment of students for teacher training shall not be discouraged as long as the basic, single-track curriculum is offered." The total enrollment of NW Cj NPS was not to exceed 500, and the needs of the college were to take precedence. NPS could continue to share the Northwestern campus, considering removal only when "needs and circumstances dictate it."

As far as student housing was concerned, "sharing the campus" involved assigning Augsburg Hall to N PS for dormitory purposes. The two lower floors were occupied by boys. The third floor was reserved for girls, but occasionally they had to yield a portion of their floor for occupancy by boys. Separation was effected by a temporary wall and by electronic controls. For two years girls were quartered in Coburg Hall, and Quarta boys had rooms on the third floor of Wartburg Hall. (Tertia boys were needed in Augsburg Hall as room monitors.)

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Dormitory Supervision Supervision in Coburg Hall was supplied by Mrs. Erwin Ploetz, who served as housemother for 20 girls in 1975-76. Miss Jean Lenz succeeded her there. She moved to Augsburg Hall when NPS girls occupied the third floor of Augsburg in 1977. In 1984 she resigned her position in favor of marriage. Then Miss Rachel Fritze served for three years, followed by Miss Georgene Borth from 1987-89. Both likewise resigned in order to be married and to raise families and to apply their experience and expertise to bringing up their own teenage girls. Miss Ann Sauer is the current housemother.

Dormitory supervision for boys followed the pattern that had been established before NPS struck out on its own in 1974. At first, seminary undergraduates and DMLC graduates were assigned as tutors. Since 1980, only seminary graduates have been serving in this capacity. These tutors have been ably supported by the four to six resident assistant college students, depending upon the number of floors of the dormitory the boys occupied.

North western Pre para tory School has had the services of three deans since 1974. Dean Martin Schulz was in office at that time and continued to serve until 1977, when he returned to the parish ministry, accepting a call to St. John's in Milwaukee (68th and Forest Home). Pastor William Gabb, of Houston, Texas, replaced him. In 1984 Dean Gabb accepted a call to be the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Watertown. Since 1985 Pastor Mark Bitter, formerly of New Orleans, has held the office.

Consolidation of the NPS student body was furthered in 1988, when town boys and town girls were evacuated from their basement "home rooms" in the Chapel-Arts Building and in the Library-Science Building and were assigned lockers and other needed furniture for day students in the south end of the Augsburg student union. This move accomplished the complete integration of the NPS student body and relieved NPS administration of the supervision and the housekeeping problems of the town student rooms. Many of these town students had been spending much of their free time in Augsburg anyway. That's where most of their friends were.

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Recruitment Problems Even though N PS has been limited in the number of students it can serve under the shared campus arrangement with the college, its quota of students has not been attained easily. Ten Lutheran high schools and a synodical preparatory school are located within 175 miles; three of the high schools are less then 45 miles away. Furthermore, the synod restricted recruitment for teachertraining students. These limitations have been serious obstacles to recruitment for NPS. Despite these handicaps, the administration of the school and its recruitment officer, Robert Bock, have done well to maintain their target enrollment of 200 students, a considerable number of whom are in the pastor-training program (although in 1989-90 the enrollment declined to 181). With few exceptions the boys must take four years of Latin and two years of German. The girls may drop Latin after two years.

Except during the high enrollment years in the late 1970s and early 1980s-in 1981,for example, the preparatory school graduated 77 students, the largest number in its history-its graduation classes have been smaller than those of Michigan Lutheran Seminary and Martin Luther Preparatory School. But over the years NPS has been the largest single source of ministerial students at Northwestern College and of pastors in our parishes. Six current WELS district presidents are graduates of NPS. The Preparatory School Committee In 1971, when the faculty and the board of control were taking steps to effect a greater separation between Northwestern College and its preparatory department, the board resolved that a committee be established to serve as a body of control for the preparatory department. The board requested the synod to authorize the addition of three members to its constituency to implement this directive. The synod convention concurred with this request in 1973 and increased the membership of the board of control to twelve, with three men constituting the Northwestern Preparatory School commitee.

By 1981the board of control realized that there was not all that much business for the committee to transact, not nearly as much

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as was in the domain of the boards of the other preparatory schools. On the NWC campus most of the responsibility for the joint school operation was in the hands of NWC administration, since the college board was responsible for all school property.

Furthermore, NPS was no longer operating a two-track system.

That had been ordered phased out by the 1979convention. Upon the recommendation of the NWCj NPS board the 1981convention resolved that the NWCj NPS board should be reduced to its original nine-member constituency and that this reduction be accomplished by 1985 through three successive convention elections.

Athletics Perhaps the most important change in the NPS athletic program in recent years was the development of the girls' athletic teams. A combination of circumstances accelerated the transition. Government policy had decreed that schools must provide standard athletic programs for female students that were basically comparable to its traditional programs for male students. The number of girls in NPS multiplied after the two-track program was inaugurated in 1975. And a new gymnasium, built in 1971, provided the space and equipment needed for various athletic activities during the indoor months. The girls now participated in conference volleyball, basketball and track (previously, softball).

And they did quite well. Girls' teams earned championship a wards in volleyball, basketball and softball in 1979. By 1981they had won the volleyball championship five times in succession; in 1983 they were also Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association (WISAA) Class B State Champions. Their basketball teams have also garnered their share of laurels. In 1979they were conference and WISAA Class B State champions. Conference championships and co-championships followed in quick succession. Since the mid-eighties, championships have been harder to come by, since fewer girls are now enrolled at NPS. The last ten years have also been glory years for the boys' athletic teams. The football team won the WISAA Class B State championship in 1980and 1984. In 1989it won sole possession of the Midwest Classic Conference football championship. The sea-

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son was capped by a 12-0 record and the WISAA Division II State championship. The basketball team enjoyed even greater success. During the 1980s(including the 1989-90 season) it won five conference championships and six first-place trophies at the Lutheran High School Invitational Tournament at Northwestern College. It also won the WISAA Class B State championship three times, with the most recent championship (1989-90) crowning a 25-0 season. In 1989-90 the wrestling team added another conference championship and finished with the best Prep wrestling record ever. They compiled a 13-1 dual meet record, won three tournaments and placed second at the regional tournament.

Reed Degener, a member of the team, was the first NPS wrestler to win a state championship at the WISAA state tournament. In 1990the baseball team also won a conference championship. The junior varsity football and basketball teams had "no losses" records in 1986-87 and 1987-88. The basketball team also went undefeated in 1989-90. In golf, Mark Sellnow was medalist in 1983and 1984and was second in WISAA Class B State in 1984.

Much of the credit for this impressive record during the late 1970sand the 1980sgoes to the head coaches: Judith Kruse, Gayle Bauer, Jill Bartelt and Robert Bock, girls' volleyball and basketball; Jerome Kruse and Ronald Ham, football; Jerome Kruse and Paul Bertolus, basketball; Allen Zahn and Ronald Hahm, wrestling; Leland Dahlberg, baseball; Donald Sellnow, golf; and to their assistants.

NPS has relied heavily on its younger faculty members for assistance in coaching. In recent years Robert Bock, Leland Dahlberg, Steven Ehlke, William Gabb, Ronald Hahm, Roger Kuerth, Kenneth Taylor and Allen Zahn-more than half of the NPS faculty--have been involved as head coaches or as assistant coaches in prep sports. College students have also been of assistance, especially in JV basketball and cross country.

The Music Program At one time, in the 1950s, there were only eighteen coeds enrolled at Northwestern. The choral director, Hilton Oswald, pieced together the alto and soprano sections of the mixed chorus by recruiting a number of ninth grade boys whose voices had not

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yet changed. He would have envied Franklin Zabell, who took over the preparatory school music program in 1972.In 1976there was an enrollment of 92 girls from which to select the female voices for the Prep Singers,the small choral group he organized when he arrived on campus in 1972.In the spring of 1977he took this group on the first concert tour ever undertaken by a Northwestern Preparatory School singing group. They presented concerts in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Since then this singing group has made numerous concert appearances on the campus and also in many of our churches, particularly on its biennial extended tours to distant areas of the synod. As noted in another chapter, the college musicdirector has had charge of both the collegeand the prep bands, whilethe preparatory school musicdirector administers the keyboard instruction program for both schools.

Sharing the Campus Amicable sharing of the campus with the college, which has priority rights to its facilities and in their use, requires careful planning, tolerance and good will. Irritations and tensions will develop, especially in the athletic area, when two schools attempt to operate a variety of programs and allot space and activity time to a large number of athletic teams and units. The gymnasium was hardly designed to satisfy the needs of programs that have developed since its completion in 1971.A full athletic program for girls came into being later, as did junior varsity and freshman teams for male students. College soccer, a latecomer sport, appropriated an area in the middle of a crowded athletic field. Rational discussion, brotherly concern and due consideration for both rights and needs have maintained a balance both schools can live with. Ifgood morale is to be maintained, it is important, however, that the students perceive that it is a fair balance.

Fortunately, each dormitory has its own student union and canteen. In their leisure hours twenty-one year olds do not have to adjust to the fifteen year olds' ideas of self-expression and a good time. (Sometimes even the eighteen-year-old freshman strains the tolerance of the college junior or senior.) Supervision and classroom and dormitory study room schedules keep socializing and trysting from disturbing quiet study in the library. The cafeteria is

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large enough to provide separate areas where college students and prep students can congregate to eat their meals. Separate chapel services have eliminated college versus prep pew privileges. Each school has its own classrooms and laboratories. Without such apportionments of space, good relations between the two schools would be harder to maintain.

Preserving

Good Relations

The key figure in the NPS effort to preserve these good relations was its president, William Zell. Without his cooperation, it would have been difficult to maintain them.

For most of his presidency President Zell was unique among synodical preparatory school presidents. In his case a goodly portion of the kind of responsibilities his fellow administrators had at Michigan Lutheran Seminary and at Martin Luther Preparatory School at Prairie du Chien was in the hands of the college president, who had jurisdiction over the property and facilities the preparatory school occupied. President Zell was not master of all he surveyed. There were many people on the campus over whom he exercised no authority. He was not in the position of the centurion in the Gospel, able to say to almost anyone on the campus, "Go, and he goeth," and "Come, and he cometh."

On the other hand, he also had responsibilities his colleagues did not have. Northwestern Preparatory School needed to get along with a campus partner and to share with it. For President Zell it was a matter of abiding by the articles of agreement and of respecting the boundaries that were set when NPS became an independent school.

It was also a matter of sensing the difference between claiming one's rights and asserting one's preferences. He was in a position where he and his coworkers could not help seeing the rights and privilegesa college can enjoy, but they had to remind themselves that a preparatory school should not presume upon them.

On the other hand, he was constantly aware that in its location on a college campus N PS enjoyed certain services and facilities and shared in certain amenities a preparatory school ordinarily does not have. At the same time he recognized that NPS was there to serve the pastor-training program of the college and to work together with the college in carrying out that program.

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In the 15 years of his administration President Zell exhibited the tolerance and good will necessary for NPS to live in harmony with its senior associate. He must have winced and may even have gulped when the college made certain decisions, but he did his best to see to it that NPS and NWC remained good neighbors.

President Zell retired at the close of the 1988-89 school year.

The Rev. Mark G. Schroeder of Maitland, Florida, was installed as his successor in the office of president of Northwestern Preparatory School on November 8,1989. He was graduated from NPS in 1972 and from NWC in 1977 (including a year of study at UW-Whitewater).

The NPS Faculty, 1989-1990 Behnke, Robert (1964) Science Bertolus, Paul (1981) Athletics and Physical Education Bitter, Mark (1985) Dean and Religion Bock, Robert (1977) Science Dahlberg, Leland (1967) Mathematics Ehlke, Steven (1984) Latin Hahm, Ronald (1978) German and Latin

Kuerth, Roger (1987) Latin Moldenhauer, Martin (1983) English Schroeder, Mark (1989) President Taylor, Kenneth (1985) English Thrams, James (1966) History and Religion Zabell, Franklin (1972) Music

Instructors: Philip Rehberger (for Martin Moldenhauer, who is on study leave) Jeffrey Wegner (for Allen Zahn, who accepted a call into the pastoral ministry) Professors Emeriti: Baer, George (1963-1986) Kuehl, Paul (1961-1984) Zell, William (1960-1989) Tutors: Charles Westra Snowden G. Sims

CHAPTER

XIV

THE ALUMNI SOCIETY AND THE BOOSTER CLUB Each spring, at graduation time, hundreds of alumni of Northwestern College return to their alma mater and renew ties with their school. Conviviality and good fellowship are in the air as former classmates and schoolmates greet each other and compare notes on how they have fared since they once were on campus together. It's a time for sociability and reminiscence, professors included.

Many of these alumni attend the annual meeting of the Alumni Society held the afternoon of the day before graduation. Although the society has business to attend to, sociability is still the order of the day there. As Professor John. P. Koehler, the president of the Alumni Society, told its members in 1909, "their coming together was justified even if they met for no other reason than to express their love for their Alma Mater and to foster social feeling and comradeship." (He emphasized this because in its early years the society also arranged for periodic presentations on academic and scientific subjects to its members.)

The business of the society reflects the feelings the alumni and alumnae of Northwestern College have for their alma mater.

There is affection for what this school was for them in their growing years, when they were being molded and shaped into what they are today. That affection wants to preserve this school

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as it was. Over the years the business of the alumni society has expressed that desire by supporting projects that preserve its past.

In 1964, for example, the society contributed $4,000 to subsidize the publication of Centennial Story, which recorded the history of the college from 1865-1965. More recently it underwrote the cost of the portraits of Northwestern College presidents E. Kowalke and C. Toppe and of the president of Northwestern Preparatory School, W. Zell. In 1988 it contributed $2,000 for upgrading the school's archives. Its major contribution in behalf of preserving Northwestern's past was made in connection with the centennial of the Northwestern College Alumni Society in 1979.

The society gathered more than $30,000 to erect the bell tower, which houses the college bell that for nearly 70 years had rung out countless hours from the top of West Hall (the 1905 dormitory) before that building was razed in 1974.The Chi Rho design of the tower was submitted by architect Tom Bast, a 1959 graduate of Northwestern's Preparatory Department.

But Northwestern's alumni and alumnae also feel a sense of pride in what their school can be. Where they can contribute to enhancing her service to her students, they stand ready to assist.

When the new library was built in 1950, the alumni society contributed "all its wealth, "$8,000, for library furnishings. When a new gymnasium was erected in 1971, the alumni provided $10,000 for special equipment. In 1979another centennial gift to the college was a recruitment filmstrip. In 1982the alumni society contributed $5,400 for the press box and the announcer's booth on the athletic field. On two different occasions it provided offset printing presses, and it helped to remodel the print shop. Their donations have enabled the college to acquire such varied items as equipment for the music hall, a new telescope, an intercom system, a trophy case, a human torso for the science department, a VCR, and equipment for a Spanish language laboratory.

In recent years the society has been directing most of its support to build up an endowment fund to provide financial aid to students. According to a recent resolution, 40 percent of its income will be channeled into the Northwestern Alumni Society Endowment Fund, from which "Carleton Toppe Scholarship Grants," funded by the Endowment Fund earnings, are distribut-

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ed annually. The remaining 60 percent of the society's income is distributed for current projects and to defray expenses.

These past twenty-five years the members of the Alumni Society of Northwestern College have not only retained their affection for their school, and their pride in its service, but they have also increased their support of its programs. The presidents of the Alumni Society (Walter Schumann, 1948-1966;George Baer, 19661973; Robert Voss, 1973-1987; Alan Siggelkow, 1987-) and the members of the projects committee during this time deserve a special word of thanks for their planning and their encouragement.

Alumni Society Centennial It was appropriate that the centennial of the Alumni Society on May 22, 1979, be a gala affair. The co-chairmen, Dr. John Lawrenz and Pastor Alan Siggelkow, contributed their creativity and industry to the project and deserve special thanks for arranging a memorable program. They had also served well as student representatives on the Northwestern College centennial committee in 1964and 1965. Professors P. Eickmann, G. Baumler and A. Zahn served as the campus arrangements committee.

Of the more than 2500 people who were drawn to the campus for the festivities more than 2200 saw the new college filmstrip, "Now, Then, and Always" and the 1949 Northwestern movie. A large tent provided additional cafeteria facilities. The service of thanksgiving in the gymnasium at 10:00 a.m. was memorable, especially for the alumni chorus and Pastor Mischke's sermon.

Campus displays included a gallery of historical pictures, campus landmark identifications, a roster of alumni, hand-lettered by Pastor Stephen Lawrenz.

Attendance at the meeting of the alumni society, which was held in the gymnasium, was perhaps the largest ever. The golden anniversary class of 1929was well represented. Altogether, perhaps 250 alumni and alumnae were present when the roll was called.

Spectators had to bundle up against the chilly breeze that invaded the outdoor program in the evening. There were choral and band selections, skits by Forum (Alumni Symposium) and Rostra (Sexta Success Story), both written by Dr. Kiessling. (His Centennial Memoir, an informal history of the Alumni Society,

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was his major contribution to the centennial.) Anniversary speakers held forth, and there was a formal presentation of the bell tower, the gift of the alumni society. The honor of ringing the bell for the first time went to the oldest alumnus present, Dr. Henry Koch, a 1909 graduate of Northwestern College. During the playing of the 1812 Overture, which concluded the program, former professor and band director, Hilton Oswald, also pressed the button to ring the college bell. The evening was cool, but all those present have warm memories of the day's festivities.

As we take leave ofthese friends of Northwestern, we hail them with the once familiar tribute that was often raised at special occasions at the college: Vivat! Crescat! Floreat!

Booster Club In recent years another group has also been active in its support of school activities. The Northwestern Booster Club, patterned after the Michigan Lutheran Seminary Booster Club, was established in 1973. Lloyd Thompsonand James Fricke, who had been members of the MLS faculty, were leading promoters of the new organization. Its membership was open to both alumni and alumnae and also to men and women who had not attended Northwestern. Until a few years ago the club held regular meetings, but these were reduced to a brief meeting before the football game on Parents Day because attendance at meetings had shrunk to the point where the majority of members present were Northwestern College and Northwestern Preparatory School faculty and their wives. The concept of a booster club never did establish itself at Northwestern as well as it had at Saginaw. An important reason for this lack of success may have been the circumstance that the established support groups for area Lutheran high schools in the vicinity and the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary women's auxiliary were competing with the Northwestern Booster Club for members and for loyalty and support.

Yet the booster club, like the alumni society, has assisted the school in a number of ways. Much of the booster club's support has benefited Northwestern's athletic programs, e.g., providing a balance beam for girls' athletics, bleachers for the football field, an outdoor basketball court, and tiling the football field. But it

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has also provided drapes and instrument lockers for the auditorium, color television for the dormitory girls, new black and gold ensembles for the Prep Singers, blazers and vests for the college quartet, ceiling fans for the chapel and a sound system for the cafeteria, a manikin for the physical education department, flats for the drama groups.

The chief source of booster club funds for its projects has been the entry fees and the canteen revenues from the volleyball tournament in spring. In 1989 the college gymnasium and the three gymnasiums of the WELS congregations in the city accommodated 64 men's teams and 37 women's teams. The athletic director of the college, Jerome Kruse, and a local representative of the booster club organize and manage the tournament.

CHAPTER XV

CAMPUS FACILITIES A college cherishes its "Old Main." With that campus building many a college made its announcement to the public that a new college had arrived on the scene and had a purpose to fulfill. It was ready to serve its constituency and the community. Northwestern College had such an "Old Main," affectionately called the "Kaffeernuehle" because it resembled an old-fashioned coffee grinder. For Watertown in 1865 it was an imposing edifice.

The Kaffeemuehle was an all-purpose building. Food service and accommodations for food service personnel were located in the basement; classrooms and living quarters for unmarried members of the faculty, on the first two floors; dormitory and study rooms for some students, on the third floor. A frame dormitory erected in 1868 provided housing for 32 students.

When it burned down in 1874, it was replaced by the brick building identified as the 1875 dormitory. In 1887 a refectory (food service building) was added to the campus. The college now had three "main" buildings.

In the mid 1950sthe original multi-purpose classroom building was razed in favor of the present Chapel-Arts classroom building.

Strictly speaking, the building that was razed was no longer the college's "Old Main," since the original building had been destroyed by fire in 1894 and had been replaced and expanded (incorporating the brick walls that survived the fire). This 1895 replacement became known simply and matter-of-factly as the Recitation Hall.

It was only with reluctance that the synod's Board of Trustees had authorized the razing of "Old Main." Many of its members had been students in the Recitation Hall classrooms and had

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ÂŽ sprinter

0 Gymnasium

1912-

0 EmstHouse

1872-1977

New DormitOrY 1905-1974

Old Dormitory 1875_1974

0 o~ The

Refectory

1887-1956

'i;

Recicitation Hall 1895 _1955

0

Ott House 1895-1955

~ Western Avenue

Early Campus Map attended chapel in its aula. They were bent on preserving the building by remodeling it rather than demolishing it. Only when the architects convinced the Board of Trustees that such reconstruction was not feasible or economical, especially in the absence of plans and specifications for the old structure, did the board yield and allow the college board to plan for a new building.

Furthermore, the wood interior had been "flimsily built"and was very flammable.

At the same time, a new food service facility was built to replace the old refectory. Only the 1875dormitory remained, and it had a declining role in the operation of the school. After only 30 years it had been demoted to serve as an extension of the new and considerably larger residence hall erected in 1905. By 1965 the Wisconsin Industrial Commission no longer permitted the third floor of the 1875 dormitory to be used for dormitory purposes.

The third-floor rooms were used for storage, as was one of the two large second-floor rooms on the east end of the dormitory. The

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other large room served as a bedroom for first-floor residents.

Though the third floor had officially been closed down to student residence, there was a weight-lifting room on the third floor to which students had access via the stairway. There are reports that some students also used the room as a rendezvous for other purposes, especially as a safe place to smoke forbidden cigarettes.

Soon after a new dormitory (Wartburg Hall) was built in 1967, the first and second floors of this "Old Main" were also retired from service as student housing. By 1967 the music department had installed the studio and practice rooms for its keyboard instruction program on the first floor.

Like a decrepit nonagenarian, the aged dormitory was nearing its demise. No real effort was made to preserve this structure as had been made to preserve the Kaffeemuehle in the 1950s. The preservation of this old gray dormitory was only a wish that President Kowalke once expressed. He wondered whether it might be granted the status of a WELS historical building and perhaps become a museum.

The college's Campus Planning Committee did give thought to preserving the Ernst residence, the synod's oldest structure, by converting it from a faculty residence to a use for such purposes as a girls' dormitory, an administration office or a student union.

The house had been built for President Ernst in 1872. The proposal was dropped when it was learned that the estimated cost of the remodeling necessary to prepare the aged building for such use would exceed $50,000. This college landmark passed from the scene in 1977, after the Kia Tou Lee family occupied it briefly.

(Kia Tou, a Laotian, was a college maintenance staff employee.)

Wartburg Hall But by 1967,forces had built up that would call for the demolition of both the 1875 dormitory and of its younger companion, the 1905 dormitory. Nostalgia and sentiment had to yield to the urgency of growth and progress. The college's aging buildings could not cope with the influx of students after the middle 1950s.

Between 1955 and 1959 the college-prep combined enrollment increased from 311 to 411; between 1959 and 1967, from 411 to 508. It reached its highest ¡point in 1968, when 532 college and

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prep students crowded onto the campus. The college enrollment peaked in 1968, when 298 students registered. Ten years before, there were only 148. The major building programs of the 1950s had increased the capacity of the school to serve more students, but after a few years the campus facilities were again overtaxed.

This was especially true of the dormitories. In 1964the college students occupied East Hall, the dormitory built in 1955 (now named Augsburg Hall), and the preparatory school male students were housed in the old dormitory, West Hall (chiefly the 1905 portion of it). In 1965 the number of college students had increased to the point where most of the two-man rooms in East Hall had three occupants, and the three-man rooms provided quarters for four. A number of college students were also quartered on the fourth floor of the prep dormitory. And all indications pointed to a further increase in enrollment.

The 1965 synod convention took due note of the burgeoning enrollment at Northwestern and authorized the construction of an additional dormitory to meet its housing needs. At the same time it authorized a $4,000,000 special building fund drive during the next biennium. This was the highly successful Missio Dei collection, which raised nearly $5,500,000 for construction at the synod's educational institutions. Funds would now be available for building a dormitory at Northwestern.

Master Plan

But where should it be placed? The college's Campus Planning Committee had the answer ready for the 1965convention of the synod. It displayed a master plan ofthe campus that indicated the placement of the proposed dormitory and also for a dormitory to replace the deteriorating old dormitory, the placement of a new gymnasium and of a library-administration building. The proposed buildings were to be aligned to form two rectangular courts, one rectangle extending from the chapel-arts building on the south to the proposed new gymnasium on the north, with twin dormitories establishing the rectangle's east and west sides; the other rectangle extending from East Hall (now Augsburg Hall) on the east, past the south ends of the new dormitories, to the proposed library-administration building on the west, with the

CAMPUS

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III

Campus Plan Chapel-Arts building and Library-Science building bordering it on the south. The two rectangle courts would form a large T, with the foot at the site of the proposed new gymnasium.

Before designing the new dormitory, the architectural firm of Law, Law, Potter and Nystrom of Madison (who had designed the campus buildings erected in the 1950s) arranged for a new primary access road into the campus. The new road entered the campus via Hill Street, from the junction of College Avenue and Wisconsin Street. To provide an access of proper dimensions, the college razed a College Avenue home it had purchased, relocated a garage that was serving two College Avenue faculty residences and expanded the parking area north of the old gymnasium.

The Campus Planning Committee, which also functioned as the college building committee, approved the architects' plans for twin three-story dormitories of brick construction, to house approximately 140 students apiece. The two dormitories were to parallel and face each other across a court that formed part of the

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north-south rectangle. One of the architects had his heart set on dramatizing the chapel as the soul of the campus by designing a formal garden east of the chapel, where students could stroll about and meditate in the relative seclusion provided by a low brick perimeter wall and by hedges and shrubbery that would shield the retreat from the view of traffic on Western Avenue. In the opinion of the building committee, our college was not prepared to breathe the romantic atmosphere of medieval cloistered walks. The proposal was quietly laid aside.

A brief ground-breaking service for the new dormitory took place on the opening day of the 1966-67school year. A year later, on the opening day of the 1967-68school year, the new dormitory was dedicated and was ready for occupancy. Pastor Oscar J. Naumann, president of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, preached the sermon. The cost of the dormitory project was $616,000.

For lack of a better name, the new dormitory was first called Senior Hall. By November it was officially named Wartburg Hall.

Students greeted the new name with typical student humor, but they soon accommodated themselves to it. In the late 1960s student cooperation was sometimes an iffy thing.

Upon completion of the new dormitory, students were redistributed as follows: seniors, juniors and some sophomores were housed in Wartburg Hall. Sophomores and freshmen occupied the first and second floors of East Hall. Tertianers and Quartaners were on the third floor of East Hall. Quintaners and Sextaners were placed in West Hall, the old 1905 dormitory. The latter arrangement was short-lived. In exercising authority over Sextaners, Quintaners were hardly big enough for their breeches, even though a tutor and several college upperclassmen supervised the dormitory.

Gymnasium Rising enrollments in the 1960salso put pressure on the sports and physical education facilities. The 1912 gymnasium was simply too small to accommodate all athletic activities, particularly intramural programs. The prep coeds were at the bottom of the totem pole. In February and March of 1969, for example, they could use the gymnasium one afternoon a week.

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The gymnasium also served as the school auditorium, thereby superimposing another demand on the building. The arts had to contend for Lebensraum with the sports programs of two schools.

Rehearsals for school plays sometimes extended until near midnight, an unseemly hour for the prep girls whom the college Forum Society drafted to play the female roles.

Northwestern communicated the need for a new gymnasium to the 1965 synod convention. The synod was convinced. It approved the resolution submitted by the Worker-Training floor committee: That a gymnasium as well as a dormitory be built on the Northwestern College campus and that the vacated gymnasium be remodeled. Missio Dei funds built the dormitory but did not extend to the construction of a gymnasium. The 1967convention confirmed the gymnasium's fifth-place ranking on the priority list of the synod's Planning Board for Educational Institutions but put the project on hold. It did, however, approve of the college's proceeding to the design development stage. By 1969the synod's Planning Board for Educational Institutions had advanced the NWC gymnasium project to second place on the priority list, with only the academic unit at Wisconsin Lutheran College (the new teachers college) outranking it. When the convention resolved to close Wisconsin Lutheran College and reallocated the $1,200,000 allotted for that project, the NWC gymnasium project was home free. In February 1970 the Board of Trustees passed the necessary enabling resolution, and ground was broken for the new building in June. Professor Donald Sellnow was the speaker for the occasion.

By blocking access to the "circle," the terminus of the road that provided access to West Hall, the moraines of earth around the evacuation for the new gymnasium inconvenienced parents and students when school opened in September and compelled families to tote wardrobes and gear for Wartburg Hall and West Hall from cars that were parked somewhere on Western Avenue orina distant parking lot, but those who knew how straitened the school had been for adequate athletic facilities accepted the inconvenience with good grace.

The new gymnasium was dedicated on June 2,1971, the day before the commencement exercises. Even though all work on the

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building had not been completed, the dedication was held at this time because student band and choral groups were still available to take part in the ceremonies, and alumni who had gathered for their annual meeting and banquet were also present in goodly numbers, together with the parents of students to be graduated on the morrow. Pastor Carl Mischke, of Juneau, president of the Western Wisconsin District, delivered the address. Very appropriately, the first service the new gymnasium rendered to the synod, whose offerings funded it, was to host the convention in August.

A year before, there had been tennis courts, a garage, a huge maple, a parking area and a canteen on the site: now there was a brand new gymnasium, attractively landscaped-a remarkable transformation.

The new gymnasium not only provided more room for varsity basketball and wrestling teams, but also made expansion of the intramural program possible. Northwestern College students have an intramural program that many other colleges may envy.

Such activities as gymnastics, weight-lifting, handball and archery were also made possible by the new facilities.

The new building has 30,000 square feet on two levels. It can seat 1,400 people on its bleachers. For stage presentations two thousand can be seated on the main floor.

Missio Dei funds furnished the $678,363 for the construction of the building and for basic equipment. The Alumni Fund ($10,000), the Campus Improvement Fund, the Central Conference Gymnasium Fund, and the Gym Equipment Fund provided much special equipment.

The new gymnasium was designed to meet the needs of 500 college and preparatory school students in the 1970s, but its builders did not visualize the demands the Civil Rights movement would make on the building. The Civil Rights Act required comparable facilities and comparable programs for girls. If the boys participated in conference competition, so should the girls.

If an adequate practice period was scheduled for the boys, it should not be denied to the girls.

Emphasis on varsity competition in conference play also expanded basketball programs for both the preparatory school and the college. The college introduced a junior varsity program, and

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the preparatory school added another level to its varsity and B squad program-a freshman team.

Fortunately, college students do not mind playing intramural basketball at ten 0 'clock at night. Thanks to a juggling act by the athletic office the basic demands of an expanding athletic and physical education program are being met. If our teams do not win as many games as we should like, our small enrollment and our non-recruiting policies are more of a handicap than our crowded gymnasium is.

Since 1912the "Sprinter" had poised at the entrance to the old gymnasium as an expression of the spirit of athletic competition, but it was also symbolic of the race the Christian runs in his life of faith (I Corinthians 9:24). In 1979 the statue with its base was moved to its new location at the main entrance to the new gymnasium, where it continues to remind the Northwestern student of the way he should participate in the contests of life.

Wittenberg Hall By the end of the 1960s there were omens that pointed to a request for a second new dormitory. It was not that a dormitory twin to Wartburg Hall, which housed 140 students, would add dormitory capacity when it replaced West Hall. That dormitory had housed 200 preparatory school students prior to the erection of Wartburg Hall. Because of the capacity of West Hall and because the synod's purse was too lean to fund all of the capital projects the educational institutions at Mobridge, New Vim, Watertown, Mequon and Saginaw placed on the priority list of the Planning Board for Educational Institutions, it appeared to the college to be the better part of fiscal responsibility to step up the program of upgrading the quality of the building rather than to demolish the structure in favor of a new dormitory whose projected cost was being escalated by inflation. After all, West Hall (disregarding the 1875wing, which had been retired from its responsibility for housing dormitory students) was little more than 60 years old. The synod found the college's proposal convenient. In 1969it placed $50,000 for refurbishing West Hall on its priority list. Bythis time West Hall had become the dormitory for college freshmen and sophomores; East Hall was being reserved

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for preparatory school boys and their 24 college monitors. The college administration scheduled eight dormitory rooms per year for remodeling (study-bedroom combinations) and refurbishing West Hall.

During the summer of 1969 the college exerted considerable effort to make West Hall more livable, "since it must, apparently, continue to serve the school for at least the next decade." Former residents of the West Hall and pre-West Hall years will appreciate what needed to be done to accomplish this refurbishing. The president's report to the board details: "The entire interior was repainted, showers were installed in the third floor lavatory, new desks replaced the wall models that had barely survived six decades of thumping and carving. The most dilapidated lockers ('coffins') will soon be retired in favor of new double wardrobes.

A number of lowboys have also been purchased. New lounge furniture is being placed into the TV and recreation rooms.

Paneling and burlap wall covering in the office and in the square have greatly improved the appearance of the public area. How much more can be done to refurbish this dormitory will depend on Building Fund priorities." Former residents of West Hall in its declining years can visualize the scene.

By 1971the board of control seriously questioned the advisability of continuing to use the third floor of the dormitory because of fire hazards. They were convinced that, despite its brick exterior walls, the wood interior construction of the building was tinder for a conflagration. In the center of the building there was a three-story stairwell that would act as a huge chimney to create a deadly draft for any fire that threatened to get out of control. The executive committee of the board investigated the possibility of placing a number of West Hall occupants into the former hospital building north of the campus. The manager ofthe facility was remodeling it for residential care and offered the use of part of this building for student housing. The executive committee, however, deemed the proposed $500 per student room charge excessive and pursued the offer no further. A partial solution of the West Hall housing problem might also be found in the utilization of unoccupied rooms in the infirmary and in the quarters for domestics on the second floor of the adminstration wing of the food service building.

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When the board of control recommended, in the fall of 1972, that the second floor of West Hall be vacated, it was evident that the days of the 1905dormitory were numbered. It could no longer serve to house a significant number of students. In January 1973 the board called for "a replacement of West Hall as soon as it can be provided. In keeping with the campus master plan, the new dormitory should be a companion dormitory to Wartburg Hall."

The "companion dormitory," however, should be larger than Wartburg Hall. A committee of the board recommended that the replacement for West Hall accommodate 200 students-equivalent to the former capacity of West Hall.

In its Report to the Synod in May 1973 the board impressed upon the synod the urgency of the need for a replacement dormitory. "Because of the fire hazard students by board directive will not be housed on the third floor of this structure next fall.

Quarters elsewhere on campus will need to be found, probably in the north wing of the first floor of East Hall (as a result, the rest of East Hall will be crowded). The second recommendation of the board is that in the ensuing school year the second floor of the deteriorating structure also be vacated. The housing problem which will then result will be an aggravated one. The Synod should be a ware of this critical issue and take steps to meet it."

The synod in convention did not dispute the argumentation. It concurred in the floorcommittee'sjudgment that the necessity to replace the dormitory at Northwestern College was "extremely critical," and adopted its resolution that this project "be started as soon as possible." The convention looked to the synod-wide thankoffering being gathered in connection with the 1975 observance of the 125th Anniversary of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod to underwrite the cost of the project.

In its last days West Hall experienced some unauthorized interior decorating that will be long remembered by its residents.

Four or five rooms were transformed into surrealistic pads by spray paint, psychedelic colors and outlandish art. The curtains in one room were dyed blood red; a bed in the room was painted a yellow-green that glowed at night under the black lights. "Hars," a Black and Red columnist, relished the memory: "Pride showed itself in the way everyone redid his rooms. Jeske had the third

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floor Penthouse complete with secret exit. For the sports buffs there was Don and Glen's Sports Illustrated Lounge. Goo and Grubby had the general store, and Bitter and Ernie had the dump.

What more could you ask for: Everything was in our favor, and we had a great year."

During the planning and building of the new dormitory, the college arranged for the housing of displaced students by quartering 25 students and a resident assistant on the second floor of the administration wing (North Hall) of the food service building.

Shortly before Christmas vacation, 1973, the last residents of West Hall were relocated. Seventeen were transferred to Wartburg Hall lounges and a basement room. The Scharfs, Plitzuweits and Kruses took in ten. The rest settled down on the first floor of East Hall, a number of them three to a room intended for two occupants. The faculty members who provided housing for students in their homes were reimbursed at the rate of $25.00 per month per student. The students took their meals at the college cafeteria.

During the holidays the custodians and maintenance staff removed a number of usable items from West Hall, or reserved them for transfer in the near future. Faculty members and campus employees were then permitted to buy such items as tables, chairs, desks, bookshelves, chests of drawers and wardrobes at nominal cost, or to salvage paneling and lumber from built-in installations. Students then had the run of the building to pick up items that were for sale or free of charge. Items of special value, such as the balustrades and balusters and several hard maple stair treads from the 1875dormitory, were removed and placed into safekeepmg.

One enterprising young man, whose father knew the value of copper wire, salvaged more than $4,000 worth of this commodity.

A young man like that should go far. In a way he did; he served as a missionary in Africa.

Just before the Easter concert on March 31, 1974, ground was broken for the new dormitory in the area between Wartburg Hall and West Hall. Demolition of West Hall began the next day. That included the 1875 wing, which the synod had slated for demolition three years before but had allowed to stand until the 1912

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gymnasium could be remodeled to house the music department facilities that had been quartered in that wing. By the 9th of April West Hall had been leveled, and three days later all the rubble had been removed from the site.

Thus the good gray building that, except for the Ernst house, was our sole brick-and-mortar link with most of the first half century of the school's existence passed from view-except for mementos gathered at its demise.

Assisting in the removal of the old dormitory were numerous students, a number of faculty members and others, who carried away bricks for bookcases, outdoor fireplaces and perhaps even patios, although most wanted only a few souvenirs of the historic structure. The writer cherishes a brick for which Mrs. Jerome Kruse knitted an appropriate NWC case.

More important than material souvenirs of the two good gray buildings are the memories and influences ofthose two structures over a period of nearly 100 years of Northwestern's history. Life in these halls left indelible impressions on thousands of students who were once housed there. Some imprints were undesirable (sin was not absent from these halls), but most contributed positively to the maturing of unnumbered youth, including many of our present WELS ministry.

The contents of the cornerstone of the 1905dormitory were of interest. Mementos of the year included a German Bible, hymnal and catechism; copies of the college" Hausordnung," "Rules and Regulations," "Verwaltungsregeln" and the school catalog; the "Prograrnm zur Ecksteinlegung"; the May issue of the Black and Red; copies of the Quartalschrift, Gemeindeblatt, Synodalbericht and Schulzeitung; also copies of the four Watertown papers: the Daily Times, the Gazette, the Republic and the Weltbuerger. The box in the cornerstone had been sealed perfectly, and the contents were in mint condition. The printed matter in the metal box in the cornerstone of the 1875dormitory had turned into a mushy pulp.

Only several coins and a Canadian bank token were preserved.

The Madison firm of Potter, Nystrom and Pawlowsky designed the new building as a companion to Wartburg Hall. (The proposal that the new dormitory be capable of housing 200 students was not carried out--chiefly for financial reasons.) Or-

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ville E. Madsen and Son was the general contractor. According to NWC business office records the eventual cost of the building was $942,084. (The synod's fiscal office records a cost figure of $907,000.) The new dormitory was dedicated on May 11,1975, in connection with a "Grace 125" service of thanksgiving that brought nearly 2000 worshipers from the Central Conference to the campus. Pastor Robert J. Voss, executive secretary of the Commission on Higher Education, delivered the sermon.

This last of the new major structures erected on the campus since 1965 had no "milk name." From the start it was named Wittenberg Hall. (Unfortunately, some students never learn how to spell it.). From time to time the faculty had been involved in the naming of campus buildings. It did not view with favor the identification of campus buildings with the names of illustrious men in our synod's history. In this reluctance the traditional hesitation of the Wisconsin Synod to grant prominence to men was expressing itself. Even such names as Ernst, Bading and Koehler were not approved for campus structures. In 1974, however, the faculty agreed on a pattern of names for the three dormitories. They express our Lutheran heritage: Augsburg Hall, Wartburg Hall and Wittenberg Hall. For several years, when prep girls were temporarily housed on the second floor of the administration wing of the food service building, North Hall became Coburg Hall. The remodeled 1912 gymnasium was given the matter-of-fact name of Music-Auditorium, later shortened to Auditorium.

The Bell The story of Wittenberg Hall would not be complete without the chronicle of the bell.

In the dead of a November night in 1973, the year before West Hall was razed, three college seniors quietly climbed the fire escape ladder at the north end of the dormitory where it adjoined the dean's residence, detached the heavy bell from its mounting, wrestled it over to the western edge of the roof and then, at the risk of life and limb, lowered it to the ground four stories below with ropes and pulleys. About five 0 'clock in the morning, their mission accomplished, they clambered down the ladder they had ascended hours before. An inadvertent clank of one the tools

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aroused tutor Martin Stuebs, who was serving as acting dean and was living in the dean's residence. He recognized a member of the trio. But the bell was quickly spirited away for "safekeeping," miles north of Watertown.

At first Dean Stuebs was inclined to treat the incident as a student prank. But the bell did not reappear. The students were holding the bell for "ransom "-as the current president of NWC learned when he received a letter from the president of the student dormitory council setting forth the conditions under which the trio was willing to turn over the bell. They requested that the bell be given a new place of distinction on the campus. It was reported that they and others had a dream of salvaging the two stone columns supporting the entrance to old West Hall, erecting them somewhere on campus and mounting the bell between the pillars.

Their representation, however, had the earmarks of a student prank and escapade, later being set forth as a worthy cause.

The letter had been addressed to Robert Voss as the new president of the Alumni Society and as the executive secretary of the Commission on Higher Education. He replied that he was willing to serve as a mediator between the faculty and the students, but he insisted that, from the start, the administration of the school be involved in the entire matter of the disposition of the bell. If the Alumni Society made a bell tower its project-as the students hoped-the society would do so only in collaboration with the faculty.

Meanwhile, back at the college, the president asked Dean Stuebs to convey a message to the trio: If the bell is not returned before classes resume after the holidays, which were close at hand, they will not be eligible to return to school in January.

On the morning of the day when Christmas vacation began, faculty and students saw a large object, gift wrapped, resting on the college seal in the hall leading to the chapel. Attached to it was a Christmas greeting card. The bell had returned home to Northwestern.

The three students seemingly had not made serious inquiry about the college's plans for the bell. Would the bell go down with West Hall when it was razed? Later, after they had removed the bell, they heard about the plan of the college to secure a crane. Then

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someone is reported to have remarked, "Now they didn't have to rent a crane."

Six years later, at the Alumni Society centennial, the bell was installed in its place of honor in the bell tower the society presented to the college. As it did for many decades, when it was mounted on the roof of the 1905dormitory, it still calls students to chapel and still rings out victories on the football field.

Auditorium

The 1912 gymnasium had never been considered for demolition. Though it lacked only seven years of the age of the 1905 dormitory, it was still sound, had excellent acoustics and could be remodeled at moderate cost for purposes other than athletics and physical education. When the college board proposed to the synod in 1965 that the synod schedule a new gymnasium for Northwestern College and that the basement of the old gymnasium be remodeled to serve as the campus music center, the synod concurred in the proposal.

The 1969convention suggested that $100,000of the synod's Educational Institutions BuildingFund might be available for the remodeling in 1971.The 1971convention allocated $100,000for the remodeling and authorized the collegeto proceed with the project. Potter, Lawson, Findlay and Pawlowsky were the architects. Bylate fall of 1973the remodeling of the basement was basically complete. The music center was dedicated on December 9, in connection with the Christmas concert. The cost of the project was $116,480.

When the construction of Wittenberg Hall was completed in 1975,the Campus Planning Committee turned its attention to the second phase of the remodeling--the main floor. The firm of Boettcher and Ginnow, of Neenah, was engaged to design the renovation and refurbishing of the auditorium area, upgrading and refining it for public performances.

The Wisconsin Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations placed limitations on the extent of the remodeling. If, in its judgment, alterations to the building affected more than 25 percent of the structure, the undergirding of the main floor would have to be strengthened significantly. This limitation ruled out any hope of sloping the main floor to improve visibility for the audience.

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No serious restrictions were placed on the renovation of the lighting system. The Campus Planning Committee engaged Dr. Robert Corrigan, Dean of the School of Fine Arts, the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, as a consultant. Since he was a graduate of Northwestern Preparatory School, he donated his services. Thanks to his expertise the college installed a quality theater lighting system for both the stage and for theater-in-the-round productions on the main floor. In fact, nearly half of the cost of renovating the auditorium was incurred by the lighting project.

Other improvements included a ten-foot extension of the stage into the auditorium, panels for the pipe railings along the balcony, additional access stairs to the balcony, a control panel booth, new auditorium seating, porcelain window panels, renovated storage rooms alongside the stage. Professor Cyril Spaude, the college's audio-visual director, lent valuable assistance in completing the lighting project.

In 1978a used pipe organ, purchased for $1,000 from an ALC church in Edgerton, was installed by Professor Arnold Lehmann and by Mr. Lawrence Marowsky, a teacher at St. John's School, Jefferson. Stage II of the gymnasium remodeling project was largely complete in 1979. The total cost of the Stage II project, including auditorium chairs and other equipment, was $145,907.

Since no synod building funds were available for this phase ofthe project, two college legacies (the George W. H. Shield Fund of $123,975 and the Herman and William Westerhaus Fund of $25,288) covered the construction costs and several additional installations.

Although Stage III in the renovation of the auditorium involved little more than the west entrance of the building, the Campus Planning Committee devoted considerable time to designing the new entrance, giving attention to four requirements.

To satisfy the stipulations of the state Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations easy access for the handicapped and safe exit for all had to be provided. Furthermore, the addition had to be functional for both levels, providing both convenience and additional service area. The entrance had to be integrated architecturally with the auditorium. And the college again had to supply all the funds for the project.

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Except for the landscaping, the new entrance was complete in the fall of 1985. It provided more convenient and safer access to the auditorium from College Avenue. The public no longer needed to negotiate three levels of steps to arrive at the auditorium door. The west approach to the building had presented its hazards in the winter season whenever not all of the snow and ice was removed before the audience arrived. The handicapped now had an elevator to the main floor. Three exit doors from the rear of the auditorium expedited egress from the building, thereby removing a previous safety hazard. The cloakroom area not only accommodated visitors' coats and hats and umbrellas but was also generous enough to afford room for small gatherings of family and friends. In addition to being a very serviceable extension, it was also pleasing to the eye (including the battlement crenels).

The balance of the college's Mark H. Becker Fund (designated for campus building and expansion), a portion of the Gertrude Christian Fund, and other undesignated legacies financed the $175,078 reconstruction. The Mark H. Becker Fund ($129,000 plus interest earnings) had previously provided for a garage and storage area addition to the new gymnasium, a maintenance shop, and public restrooms for the cafeteria.

Other Projects To the roster of major projects, however, the maintenance department of the college would add the subterranean construction on campus. Maintenance and utilities tunnels now connect all the main campus buildings. Constructed by stages from the early 1970sto 1985, the system makes maintenance and repair of underground utility lines economical and convenient. The campus park now thrives undisturbed and unravaged. The total cost of the tunnel construction between 1974and 1985 was $237,364.

Because of its symbolic significance, the building of the president's home at 50 I Tower Road is being mentioned here. This site became available when the city of Watertown replaced its cylindrical watertower, a seventy-year-old campus landmark, with a new spheroid tower on an adjoining plot and freed an area for the home. President Toppe and his family occupied the residence in

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March of 1967. Previously two additional faculty homes had been built on the campus along Concord Avenue, and the home at Harvey and Western was replaced in 1971. In 1988 the college removed its two remaining on-campus homes along College Avenue.

Two major projects are still in prospect. One is the library-administration building, to be located in the college park near College Avenue, to the west of a line between the Chapel-Arts building and Wittenberg Hall. The current construction costs are estimated to be $3,000,000. The project has a place on the priority list of the synod's Educational Development Fund, but the amortization of current programs has delayed this project. Without the aid of major gifts and legacies, this building will not come into being. Amcon, of Milwaukee, has been doing the basic planning.

The second project does not include the construction of buildings. Primarily, it involves the acquisition of property to enable the college to extend its athletic field to College Avenue. When first proposed by the Campus Planning Committee in 1973, the project allowed a choice of uses of the property, even including another campus building. By 1977 it had been designated for athletic purposes. At that time the synod also made moneys available for the purchase of the five homes along College Avenue that must be removed to accommodate the expansion.

When the college acquires all five properties, and the present tennis courts have been removed and a section of Campus Street has been vacated, a quarter-mile track with an interior soccer field can be laid out. The project also includes relocating the approach to the present parking lot and constructing a new parking area to serve the projected library-administration building and to provide additional student parking. The college looks to the synod's Educational Development Fund to complete its financing of this undertaking. The expanded area will be a boon to a campus that must serve a variety of athletic teams on both the college and the high school level.

A Word of Thanks At the close of this account of campus building during the first quarter of Northwestern's second century a word of commenda-

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tion to the Campus Planning Committee is in order. The members of the committee contributed many hours and much expertise to planning, designing and advancing the various building projects that fell to their charge. They also functioned as the Campus Building Committee, with the superintendent of buildings and grounds serving as a resource person and the committee's agent as construction went forward. A word of thanks, then, to Ervin Bilse, Ronald Zank and Gary Bauer for their services.

Likewise to Glen Pankow, the college business manager, who has been responsible for the accounting and for much correspondence occasioned by the various projects. And a word of thanks to the faculty members who served on the committee: Carl Leyrer, Edgar Pieper, William Zell, Armin Panning, Edward Lindemann, Paul Eickmann. And to Arthur Hintz, George Reul, William Schmidt, Arnold Schumann, the Rev. Walter Schumann, William Schumann, the Rev. Harold Sturm and the Rev. Kurt Timmel, who represented the college board on the committee during the past 25 years.

The 1950s witnessed a building boom on the Northwestern campus. Two major buildings were replaced and another was added. Lesser projects included a chapel, a heating plant and an addition to the gymnasium.

The past quarter century almost matched that building boom.

Two major buildings were replaced, another was added. Lesser projects included the conversion of another building to new uses, and the construction of an extensive maintenance and utilities tunnel system. There is now no aged or unimproved building on the campus.

The WELS, with valued assistance from gifts and legacies, has provided well for Northwestern's physical needs. The contributions of hundreds of thousands of our people to the Missio Dei and the Grace 125offerings ha ve given our faculty and staff a very functional institutional environment where they can carry out their assignments comfortably as they prepare a gospel ministry for God's people. Our people have been good to their college.

Awareness of their solicitude and largess makes it easier for Northwestern College to extend itself even further as it endeavors to supply the pastors our synod needs.

CHAPTER

XVI

THE LIBRARY Trees and grass still occupy the site the Campus Planning Committee has reserved for a new library at Northwestern College. The structure they have in mind is being designed to house 100,000 volumes, accommodate the college archives, provide adequate and comfortable study areas, and make technological installations convenient for student use. That new library remains a dream, awaiting special gifts, and earnings of the Educational Development Fund.

In more favorable times synodical funds did provide the college with a new library. It was a very adequate facility when it was built in 1950, especially when compared with the corner room the old library occupied on the first floor of the old Recitation Hall-a room so small and crammed that the faculty was embarrassed to show it to visitors.

During the past 25 years, however, the Northwestern library has been a stepchild in the college's building program. Capital funding drives by the synod did enable the college to meet more urgent needs: to replace old dormitories, build a new gymnasium and remodel and renovate the old gymnasium for other uses. Meanwhile, though library needs have increased, the library is still confined to the limited quarters it occupies in a multipurpose building that also contains several general purpose classrooms, two science department complexes, a campus store, a printshop, a faculty room, a conference room, a service area for faculty and, until recently, day rooms for town girls. (The campus store, managed by James Wendt, the printship operator, has taken over the functions of the college bookstore, which was located in a room adjoining the library reading room and was operated by the librarian. The cam-

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pus store also offers some of the merchandise previously available in the canteens located in the campus dormitories.)

Yet, despite its physical constraints, the library has expanded since 1965. It has enlarged its storage area by annexing a large lower-level classroom, to which it has transferred its periodicals holdings. The bookstore, which was adjacent to the library reading room, has been converted into a librarian's office and library processing center. (The bookstore is now located in the campus store in the basement of the Library-Science building.) Another room adjacent to the library reading room once served as a general conference room, then as the business office before it became a workroom for assistants to the librarian.

Until the mid 1960smuch ofthe reading room was occupied by tables for reading and study, with a few incidental installations in addition to the circulation desk, the card file and the periodicals racks. Now study carrels replace some of the tables. Others have been removed to allow for such installations as a fiche reader and reader/ printer, a video tape player and audio tape players. In one corner there is a lounge area for leisure reading and periodical browsing. New book display shelving and a display case for rare materials have been added. In the reading room and in the librarian's office three computers and two printers assist with cataloging, bibliographies and administrative functions. As a result of these installations the library reading room is nearing a state of congestion.

Personnel Erwin Schroeder served as college librarian from 1944to 1986.

His successor is the current librarian, David Gosdeck. In 1965 Professor Schroeder had the services of a circulation assistant (Pastor Otto Medenwald) and of three part-time student assistants who took turns minding the bookstore and occupying the circulation desk. Three part-time students still service the circulation desk after class hours and in the evening. There is still a circulation assistant during class hours (Mrs. Ann Lindemann).

But library personnel now also include an assistant to the librarian for ordering, cataloging and processing (Mrs. Helen Birsching). Mrs. Edith Thompson was the first to occupy this position

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(1973). Other personnel are the assistant to the librarian for periodicals (Mrs. Diana Bessel) and three student assistants under the provisions of the college's work-study program. These students are engaged in such operations as cataloging, shelving, processing bibliographies, converting current records into MARC (machine readable form) for a future computer catalog. Another student has been assigned to organize, catalog and preserve college archives. (The librarian is also the college archivist.)

Archives Incidentally, NWC's archival deposits have been second only to those the WELS Historical Institute has assembled at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. In the late 1890s, while writing the 50th anniversary history of the Wisconsin Synod, Professor John P. Koehler (who was a member of the Northwestern faculty from 1888-1900) gathered together an estimated 4000 letters that had been received by the early presidents of the synod. He filed and cataloged them and briefly summarized the contents of each letter. The collection consisted chiefly of letters addressed to presidents John Muehlhaeuser (1850-1860) and Johann Bading (1860-1889). Some of the correspondence had also been directed to G. Reim and W. Streissguth (interim presidents while Bading was on leave to collect money to build a Wisconsin Synod seminary [Northwestern College and seminary] in Wisconsin). There was also some correspondence received by Philip von Rohr, who succeeded Bading. The letters had been stored at Grace and St. John's congregations in Milwaukee before they were transferred to Watertown. This so-called J. P. Koehler collection of letters has formed the bulk of the college's archival holdings.

Three of Northwestern College's faculty alumni (Arnold Lehmann, Erwin Schroeder and John Sullivan) are translating and preserving the letters. The original letters and their translations will be placed into the synod's official archives at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. Northwestern College will also own a set of the translations.

The number of library accessions totaled 28,000 in 1965, and 53,500 in 1989. Since 1954,6,200 volumes (many of them German) have been culled from the holdings. The NWC library

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certainly is not a large library by contemporary standards, but a small single-purpose college can approach adequacy in its library holdings if careful selection and active circulation take precedence over six- or seven-figure volume counts. The Wisconsin Interlibrary Loan Service, of which the NWC library is a member, supplements the resources of the Northwestern library. So does the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary library.

Library usage at Northwestern College is not easy to tabulate, even though library personnel have kept statistics for circulation, and for attendance in the reference room. Manya book that has been drawn out by a dormitory student is recorded as a singlereader statistic, but the book may travel about in the dormitory, particularly if it is on the list of books assigned for class reading.

Many students seem to read better when they are wired for the sound of music. But students are reading more than they did prior to the curriculum revision in 1986.

Funding for library acquisitions has never been generous.

When Erwin Schroeder assumed direction of the NWC library in 1944, he secured approval from the board of control to establish an endowment fund for book purchases. Funds for the project were generated from profits from the operation of the bookstore.

Most of the interest earnings from the library endowment fund, which is now $185,000, are used to supplement the synod's allotment for library purchases.

Meanwhile, Northwestern College patiently awaits the gifts that it hopes will enable it to erect the library it needs and desires.

Donors and bequests have already provided well over $1,350,000 for this purpose.

CHAPTER

XVII

ATHLETICS College-Northwestern Preparatory School had one head coach and athletic director, Leonard Umnus, and one assistant coach. Various faculty members lent parttime assistance, especially in prep basketball and football.

After 24 years with one all-purpose full-time coach (19361960), Northwestern called Edgar Pieper as a second coach. He was head football coach for Northwestern Preparatory School and head college basketball and baseball coach. At the same time he had several classroom assignments.

In 1970 Umnus relinquished his athletic directorship in favor of Lloyd Thompson (1970-1985). After assisting Umnus in football in 1970, Thompson became head football coach in 1971. Then Umnus became his assistant for several years. Umnus retired from all athletic department responsibilities in 1974.

The January 1974issue of Northwestern Today summed up his 38-year career at Northwestern, which extended nine years into the past quarter century .

In

1965 Northwestern

..Almost forty years ago a talented and energetic young man came to Northwestern who was to leave his mark on the school and on hundreds of its future pastors. He came to coach and to serve as Athletic Director. He did both remarkably well. He ran a first-class athletic program on a limited budget, and was truly 'a man for all seasons' as he coached football, basketball, baseball, and wrestling, and had winners in all of the sports. His 1946-47 basketball team won 20 of 21 games and looked good enough to challenge the big schools. An old catcher himself, he gave the Umnus touch to College and Prep baseball teams that won enough championships to fill a large portion of the trophy case. When

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wrestling was introduced in 1956, Coach again put out teams that year after year represented Northwestern exceptionally well.

"But football was his first love, and football and Umnus soon became synonymous at Northwestern. His record speaks for itself.

In 35 years of coaching the College gridiron teams, that record stood at 130wins, 64 losses, and 9 ties when he stepped down after the 1970 season. 'Little Northwestern' more than held its own against schools which in almost every case were larger and more affluent. At one time in the early 50s his football teams went 28 games without defeat, won five straight championships, and gained national recognition for our school."

Other Coaches In 1974 Jerome Kruse was called from Michigan Lutheran Seminary as a replacement for Umnus in the athletic department.

He served as Northwestern Preparatory School athletic director and football, basketball, baseball and track coach. In 1981he was called to the college to replace Pieper, who retired. There he served as assistant football coach and head basketball coach and taught several sections of a mathematics course. Upon Thompson's retirement in 1985 he also became athletic director. Dennis Gorsline, from Dr. Martin Luther College, became head football coach, wrestling and track coach and physical education instructor in 1985.

The NWC-NPS athletic department had always relied on part-time coaching assistance, particularly in the years before N PS engaged its own athletic director and basketball coach.

Prior to the 1960s,tutors often served as head football coaches in the prep department. (President Voss was one of these tutors.)

The last thirty years the deans-Carl Leyrer, John Chworowsky and Edward Lindemann-have assisted in football. Periodically other faculty members helped out in that sport-James Fricke, John Schmidt and Roger Sprain. Ron Ebert, an NPS graduate who had also attended NWC, assisted for several years.

College tutors with basketball experience have been drafted to assist in basketball. Ron Ebert helped out in this sport for several years. Faculty members like William Zell, Paul Kuehl and Jerald Plitzuweit took their turns coaching prep basketball.

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James Fricke and Wayne Zuleger took over in college baseball when no member of the athletic department coaching staff was available. The baseball team is now being coached by John Schmidt. Tennis, a stepchild among Northwestern sports, has never been coached by the athletic department staff. Here Paul Eickmann, Jerald Plitzuweit and a number of tutors have been pressed into service.

Donald Sellnow has put in nearly 25 years as college golf coach.

From 1979 to 1985 he also coached the prep team.

New Varsity Sports College wrestling was approved in 1968. Tutor Allen Zahn coached that year. Later, after he joined the NPS faculty in 1975, he helped out in the college program from time to time. In general, Pieper served as coach until he retired in 1981. At one point in the next four years college wrestling was dropped for lack of participation and also because of the problem of securing a coach. It was revived when Coach Gorsline joined the staff in 1985. He has been in charge of the program since that time.

Soccer became the new kid on the block around 1970. Pieter Reid, a student from the state of Washington, was one of the chief promoters of the new sport. In 1973 the faculty officially approved student-managed soccer. By 1979the sport had established itself to the point where the team requested permission to a ward letters. The faculty withheld approval until a faculty coach was available. In 1983, when Keith Free, a tutor, was coaching the team, the first letters were awarded. After ten years of subsisting as a club sport and of relying chiefly on team captains as coaches, soccer had achieved the status of a major sport. In 1985 a permanent member of the faculty, James Korthals, took over the coaching position. Roger Sprain assisted Korthals in 1989.

The sport has been popular with students. It affords an opportunity for lively physical activity and for exciting athletic competition for an average of 35 young men at a time of year when it feels good to be alive and galloping about on the campus on a brisk autumn afternoon.

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Competitiveness Could Northwestern be competitive in intercollegiate sports when its enrollment averaged fewer than 255 male students per year from 1965to 1990?Quite competitive, indeed. The next time you come to see a basketball game at Northwestern, scan the crowded trophy cases in the gymnasium lobby and note the array of awards Northwestern College athletes have earned in a variety of sports. Since 1965there ha ve been half a dozen conference golf championships (a 27-4 record in 1986), at least six football conference championships or co-championships, five conference tennis championships, five conference track championships plus a National Little College Athletic Association (NLCAA) championship (1985), and an NLCAA Great Lakes Regional championship in basketball (1978). In 1988-89 Coach Kruse's basketball team won second place in the Lake Michigan Conference tournament. It also won the "first ever" WELS Classic tournament (DMLC, WLS, WLC and NWC).

Northwestern College did not always have a fair chance, certainly not in football. The odds are against a small, non-recruiting "denominational" college competing on equal terms with colleges that offer grants to standout high school athletes who are almost good enough to make it at big-time schools. Northwestern has talented and dedicated athletes who are able to compete with any other small college team, but it does not have enough of them to be competitive in football with the considerably larger schools in its conference. In the Upper Midwest Collegiate (Football) Conference, the only other colleges that do not have the advantage of being able to draw from a pool of athletic scholarship personnel are Maranatha and Dr. Martin Luther College. Northwestern College is very competitive with colleges that have equivalent enrollment restrictions, schools that are truly church affiliated, for example, and whose graduates enter the work of the church. It should be added, however, that the competitive edge that a number of private colleges previously enjoyed has been diminished somewhat because high educational costs have reduced the number of outstanding athletes enrolling at these schools.

There are other small colleges in the Midwest that could be "in our league" in football, but they are located at considerable

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distances from Watertown. Travel costs prohibit forming a football conference with such schools. Very few small colleges in Northwestern's geographical area play football at the level it does, and many do not even have football programs. Despite inequities, Northwestern has been doing well enough in intercollegiate competition in football to have earned four conference championships and co-championships under Coach Thompson between 1972 and 1984 and one under Coach Gorsline in 1985.

Perhaps the dreadful thought that Northwestern might have to drop football after 92 years has heightened the combative spirit of its teams and has kept them respectably competitive.

A football championship that was particularly gratifying was one Northwestern earned in the fall of its centennial year. The college's record was 6-1. Its single loss was by a score of 14-13in a non-conference match with Stout, a member of the state college conference, now the Wisconsin State University Conference.

Stout was no slight competitor; it won the state college championship that year.

There are graduates of Northwestern who still bask in the golden haze of the early 1950s when they charged through four successive football seasons and never lost a game (1952-1955).

Nowadays a .500 football season is a triumph for a small college that doesn't spend one thin dime to recruit football gladiators and gazelles, and fashions respectable football teams from young men who are at Northwestern because they are preparing to do their best in a greater arena.

Keeping the Distant Goal in View Athletics are important to Northwestern students-as they are to students at any all-male college-but for the great majority of our students they are not the end-all and be-all of college life.

They are an outlet for physical strength and skills, and they supply the stimulation of competition youths need and relish as they grow into manhood. But there was also the basketball team that pleased the crowd with its harmony as they sang the national anthem at the 1989 Lutheran high school basketball tournament.

Northwestern athletes were also among the 139 NWC volunteers to help run the Special Olympics in 1985and among the 80 who

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assisted on another occasion. They conduct football, basketball and soccer workshops at Bethesda. And the grit and determination they displayed on the playing fields are also demonstrated in pursuing academic courses they must slog through to qualify for the distant goal of entering their life's work.

The Northwestern College athletic department has pursued its athletic records and championships, but it has kept the eyes of even its best athletes trained on the goal of the Christian ministry.

To Northwestern College coaches that has been the real goal their athletes should strive for. Coach Urnnus's perspective has also been theirs. We quote again from Northwestern Today: "Winning games, as much as Coach enjoyed it, was not the most important thing for him. His biggest thrill was seeing one of 'his boys' in a pulpit and knowing that he had been privileged to help in getting him there. As Coach himself put it in one of his last Homecoming speeches: 'I don't care about statistics. What I care about is every boy at Northwestern and his preparation for the ministry.' " NWC vs DMLC An aside concerning the natural rivalry between NWC and DMLC football teams. DMLC did not reintroduce football until 1972(after a lapse of three decades). It had much catching up to do to compete on an equal basis with the other small colleges in the conference and with Northwestern. Year after year Northwestern won the NWC-DMLChomecominggame. In 1981DMLCdefeated NWC for the first time. The Northwestern team and its followers were crestfallen; they felt they had let their school down. Alumni at the seminary predicted that dire things would happen to the seniors at GA (Gemuetlicher Abend) the next year. But after this painful defeat and after two other DMLC victories in fairly quick succession the pairing has settled down to a spirited rivalry, with each team respecting the other too much to feel disgraced when it loses.

The present NWC football coach knows how both schools feel.

Dennis Gorsline coached the DMLC football teams from 1972to 1984and has coached at NWC since 1985.

Facilities The dual (college and prep) athletic programs tax Northwestern's athletic facilities. The capacity of its medium-size gymnasi-

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urn and of its limited athletic field is pressed to meet the demands of a college athletic program and of a preparatory school program that fields a number of boys and girls teams. There are inconveniences, to be sure. The college teams, for example, are allowed only one and a half hours of practice per day during the early portion of the indoor season, when the coach feels that considerable instruction is required. The college basketball players usually practice late in the afternoon and may not be leaving the gymnasium until 7:00 for their evening meal and for chapel at 7: 15. It is difficult to work out new schedules when the weather causes cancellations in the spring sports schedule. Scheduling two football games at home on the same day is inconvenient when the visiting college team must travel a considerable distance.

But the limitations of the athletic field may be relieved in the not-too-distant future. The proposed extension of the athletic field to College Avenue would provide space for a soccer field enclosed by a quarter-mile track. This expansion would relieve strain on outdoor sports activities, especially in fall. Yet it is the courteous and cooperative relation between the college athletic director and the prep athletic director that is still the key to maintaining good rapport between the college and its junior partner as they dovetail their athletic programs.

In many respects Northwestern's athletic facilities are among the better ones, both in the college conferences and in the prep conferences. For a small college, its athletic department is well equipped, and its athletic department personnel are grateful for this. Numbers are the problem, the problem is not the quality of the programs. But as long as NPS remains a strong supporter of NWC and as longas it channels a significant flow of its graduates into the college (including some first-rate athletes, thank you) the college will tend to view the crowding as a necessary inconvenience rather than as a grievous burden.

Medalists Northwestern College has produced a roster of talented athletes in the past. The past quarter century has added to the list. In football, John Steinbrenner amassed the most passing yardage in four years (1983-1986), completing 307 of617 attempts for 3,874

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yards and 38 touchdowns. He was a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) All-American in 1986. Joseph Dietrich graduated in 1981 with the top rushing record in NWC history. He rushed 717 times for 3,600 yards and 14touchdowns, averaging 5.1 yards per attempt. During his football career from 1985-1988 Philip Sievert caught 199passes for 2,966 yards and 34 touchdowns-another school record. He was also an NAIA AllAmerican in 1986. He set a school record of 1,549 points in basketball, averaging 20 points a game during his career at NWC, barely eclipsing Charles Westra's record set between 1981 and 1985. He was twice named basketball player of the year in the Lake Michigan Conference.

Bythis time the reader may be wondering whether Sievert may not have been one of Northwestern's all-star athletes. If this grandson of Coach Umnus was not the best, he was one of the finest all-around athletes in the history of Northwestern. He won 12 letters in football, basketball and baseball. Six times he was named the most valuable player on his teams. He was all-conference four times in football, four times in basketball and three times in baseball.

Other names also come to mind. David Toepel ('66), a football standout in the middle 1960s,drew some attention from an Atlanta Falcons pro scout. Mark Toepel ('74) starred in football, basketball and baseball, and between games at a doubleheader he entered and won the high jump at a track meet in another part of town. George Swanson ('72) was a standout place kicker, setting a school record with a 57 yard field goal. The Chicago Bears gave him a tryout.

A non-major-sport winner also deserves some recognition. Jon Bendewald ('83) set a number of school and conference records in long distance track events. He was a National Little College cross-country champion in 1980. In the fall of that year he came in third in the Al McGuire Run in Milwaukee, and in 1981 he participated in the Boston Marathon. Now a pastor in Monroe, Michigan, he jogs as he makes his pre-evangelism calls.

Intramurals The college's varsity teams enjoy the glamour and the kudos of intercollegiate competition, but even in a small college like

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Northwestern not many more than half of the students can take part in some kind of varsity competition. Fortunately there is an athletic program that affords competition and physical benefits, gives awards to winners, and provides good fellowship for all. The intramural program involves more than 90% of all NWC students. Credit must be given to athletic director Lloyd Thompson for having developed it to its present level of organization and participation. Currently this program offers flag football, indoor soccer, bowling, basketball, volleyball, softball and tennis. An intramural program like this has an advantage over the varsity program. Together with the physical education program, weight room exercises and gymnastics, it can contribute more to individual physical exercise activity in post-college and post-seminary years, when participation in organized team sports ceases for most graduates. Northwestern varsity athletes also participate in intramurals in off seasons, when they are not involved in their varsity sport or sports.

Balance Northwestern College must be and has been aware of the potential an athletic program has for interfering with the primary purposes of the college: to maintain an academic program of high standards and to develop the moral and spiritual qualities needed in the parish ministry. This preamble to a major report to the faculty in 1980on the place of sports at Northwestern deserves to be cited at the close of a chapter that has recorded numerous athletic achievements: Northwestern College, because of its nature and purpose, is first of all an institution of higher learning, dedicated to one goal, namely, to train ministers of the gospel. There can be no diluting of that purpose and goal. Athletics must occupy a position that is almost incidental to the institution's purpose for being. Athletics does not set the daily schedule of NWC; chapel attendance and the curriculum receive primary consideration. Athletics does not determine the course load or course offerings that any particular student may have; the curriculum does. And because we believe that every course and every class are important to the training of ministers of the gospel, our system calls for mandatory class

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attendance on the part of our students and aims to keep absences at an absolute minimum.

At the same time, we understand that a sound athletic program is desirable. As an extracurricular activity it fulfills a need for the great majority of our students who find athletics a diverting pastime, a wholesome means of exercise, a way to work off tension and enliven spirits, or just plain fun.

The two paragraphs have been kept in acceptable balance, but not without effort and good will.

CHAPTER

XVIII

MUSIC As a Lutheran college, Northwestern could be expected to give music a prominent place in its program. The Reformer, to whose theology it is dedicated, called music "an outstanding gift of God and next to theology." He even ventured to say, "Before a youth is ordained into the ministry he should practice music in school."

Yet music struggles to maintain its place at Northwestern. The male environment does not appear to be hospitable to this art and skill. By and large, young men are drawn more to the playing fields and to physical contests than to studios and the concert stage. The interests of the music department generally do not fare well when out-of-town athletic events conflict with rehearsal hours. From time to time evening services, meetings and convocations displace Monday night chorus rehearsals. The music program must struggle for time. Or students go off to work at 2:30 p.m. on weekday afternoons when band and chorus rehearsals are scheduled.

Nor is there a compelling professional need to playa musical instrument. The pastoral ministry does not require skill at the piano or the organ, even though young pastors could often put that skill to good use when serving a new mission congregation, where pianists and organists are often in short supply.

Furthermore, the Northwestern curriculum deals parsimoniously with music courses. Except for a basic course for some students who enroll without a knowledge of musical terminology and of our Lutheran liturgy and hymns, the only music course required of all students is a historical presentation of music literature. A church music course was once a part of the regular curriculum, but it was discontinued in the 1980 revision of the

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curriculum because it was felt that the study of the Lutheran order of service, of the organ and of choral conducting could be appropriately referred to the seminary's liturgical department. (For the NWC students who are serious about advancing their knowledge of music, there are four elective courses available.)

It's not that the Northwestern male has no interest in music.

Stereos, CD players and radios fill dormitory rooms with the sound of music. Many students are so addicted to music that they seem to have difficulty reading a library book or working out the translation of a Greek sentence unattended by melody and rhythm. But in many cases interest in music does not translate into active participation in the college's music program. The band and chorus must do without the talents of many students who do not find it convenient to join those organizations. Relatively few play the piano or the organ.

Yet there has been progress in the music department during these 25 years. For the first time in the school's history the music department has not been obliged to borrow or improvise its facilities. The conversion of the lower level of the old gymnasium into a music center provided better classrooms, better studios and practice facilities, a better listening library. The remodeling of the upper level into an auditorium resulted in improved performance capabilities.

The keyboard instruction program is well organized. Franklin Zabell, the Northwestern Preparatory School music director, has charge of a program that was once catch-as-catch-can and relied on the services of instructors who were not in the employ of the college. Students sought out their own off-campus teachers.

Charges per lesson varied. Some of the teachers had scant acquaintance with Lutheran music or had no feel for it. Even in the beginning years of the reorganization of the school-controlled keyboard program, music director Arnold Lehmann had to rely on instructors as confessionally heterogeneous as Sook Ihn Saw, a Korean who had just graduated from UW-Madison; and the wife (a non-Lutheran) of the band director at the local high school.

Since the early 1970s,especially since the arrival of the Zabells at NPS in 1972, all instructors have been members of our family of faith. Mrs. Miriam Behnke, Mrs. Alila Kionka, Mrs. Linda

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Moeller and Mrs. Bethel Zabell are the current piano and organ instructors. Since the organization of this program, more college students have been taking keyboard lessons, especially organ.

Their interest assures a continuous supply of chapel organists.

The Bands Throughout most of the school's existence there was only one concert band; it was made up of both preparatory school and college students. This combination resulted in a band of respectable size. It also assured a better distribution of instruments, since-particularly in recent years- NPS girls played most of the woodwinds. Recruits from the beginners band were challenged and stimulated by the performance of the more accomplished college instrumentalists playing alongside them.

On the other hand, there were disadvantages. Concerts by the joint band presented few selections that could be considered challenging. The director had to settle for a mean that could be attained by the least experienced instrumentalists. Some prep players were discouraged by the college competition. Experienced college players tended to drop out of the band, preferring to form extracurricular ensembles or combos that challenged their abilities. College juniors and seniors were often conspicuous by their absence from the Northwestern band.

In 1980music director William Birsching divided the band. The experiment was not successful. After several years the prep and college groups were rejoined. In 1987there was a second effort to establish two bands. This endeavor has been more successful. The preparatory school band has done quite well, despite the absence of the college pacesetters. In 1989it achieved a superior (I) rating in Class B Wisconsin School Music Association competition in the area. The college band is displaying more of the kind of musicianship one could expect of high school graduates, especially of graduates of Lutheran high schools with featured band programs. It must, however, make do with few woodwinds. That problem has not been solved.

Among the extracurricular instrumental groups the jazz ensemble has achieved the most status and stability. It has been student directed, with the college band director serving as consul-

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tant. Jazz, which was on the outer fringes of music 50 years ago, now enjoys a certain respectability, especially when it is contrasted with the excesses of much popular contemporary music. The ensemble's offerings fill a void between the more traditional music played by the Northwestern band and the heavy metal and high decibel music most young people appear to crave.

Free-lance combos generally cater to their tastes, but for obvious reasons they are not permitted to represent the school, except at such events as homecoming rallies and on winter carnival amateur nights, when they abuse the acoustics of the auditorium.

College musical tradition is preserved by the college quartet, which continues to entertain at the alumni banquet and at other school events and to represent the school at congregational functions and at recruitment presentations.

The Touring Chorus The best-known musical organization, and the best ambassador for the college, is the touring chorus, whose members are selected from the college male chorus. It continues the decadesold tradition of presenting choral concerts for congregations the length and breadth of the land. Major chorus tours have been a reward for participation in the college's choral program.

The tours have also provided an interesting store of memories -of the snowstorm in Colorado Springs that threw a tour to Arizona out of kilter; of an overconfident Greyhound bus driver who challenged a "road under construction" warning in western South Dakota, became mired in the spring gumbo, and whose bus was unceremoniously dragged the better part of two miles through the quagmire by a highway department bulldozer so that his passengers could maintain their concert schedule in Minnesota that night; of the unlucky student who purchased sun tan lotion instead of sun screen to protect himself against the Florida sun while he spent the day at a Jacksonville beach, and then spent three hours that evening cooling off his broiled exterior in a bathtub, and who passed the night ruing his folly; of the last diehard in the chorus contending for his rights to preserve his generous locks after members of several congregations at which the chorus would be singing had objected to the appearance of the

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long-haired singers they had seen in the photograph on the publicity poster.

But there are also memories of singers who were deeply moved when a hundred Apache children joined them at East Fork to sing "The Church's One Foundation." Memories of a small Southern congregation that had never before hosted a touring chorus from a synodical school and could hardly thank the Northwestern chorus enough for the concert. And countless individual memories of kind and generous hosts, of fellow Christians in faraway places, of a greater sense of the reality of the one holy Christian church, of a deeper awareness of the power of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to express and share their faith and their hope.

Some touring chorus members also acquired special memories they have reason to cherish life long. On the tours they met the girls who became their wives and their helpmates in their ministry.

But the popularity of chorus tours may have passed its peak, not only for Northwestern College, but also for Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and Dr. Martin Luther College. It appears to be more difficult today to recruit students for the touring chorus.

Lutheran high school choruses in the West and Southwest present concerts for the congregations in their districts. Singing groups from synod preparatory schools are also making tours to the more distant areas of the synod. For more than a few congregations on the way to and in certain "glamorous" tour areas of the synod a touring group has become old hat.

Chapel While they are not a formal part of the college music program, Northwestern's chapel services contribute much to the musical standards of its future ministry. Well-executed organ selections, well-chosen hymns and vigorous male voices filling the chapel with their songs of prayer and praise help to form the worship tastes these young men will need in their ministry if they are to resist the finger-snapping, swing-and-sway music that is being introduced in some congregations by pastors who import Reformed emotionalism into their worship services.

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The music program at Northwestern must struggle to maintain its standards. The director and his music makers need the continued support of students and of all of us who want Northwestern to remain a Lutheran college that accords music an honored place in its curriculum and life.

CHAPTER

XIX

DRAMATICS Despite the names of its drama societies, Northwestern College and Northwestern Preparatory School do present dramatics programs. Both Forum and Rostra (the college and the prep school dramatics groups) are designations that identify other activities, such as forensics, debate, public speaking, discussion of current events. The organizers of Forum and Rostra in 1951 had such activities in mind, but from the start both Forum and Rostra also included dramatics. Rostra did conduct a forensics program during the 1950sand early 1960s,winning a number of A's at regional and state forensics meets before it concentrated on presenting plays. Recently it has revived its forensics program. Forum devoted itself primarily to the presentation of a major drama production or a musical and of one-act plays.

Supervision was exercised by a faculty committee or a faculty advisor. Since 1970, members of the English department have served as advisors. All through the past 25 years, however, the plays and musicals were largely student-directed, sometimes almost exclusively student-directed. Despite the student directors' lack of academic and professional training for their roles, their competence helped persuade the faculty to relax restrictions on advertising and on the sale of tickets to the public. Not until 1984 did the faculty permit charging admission instead of depending on freewill offerings. Fiddler on the Roof helped to convince them that Forum could stage productions that compared favorably with those directed by people with more professional training.

Female roles were a challenge for Forum. Prep school girls generally filled these roles because, even in the 1950s, there were few women in the college department. But prep girls' participa-

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tion in plays put on by the college also disturbed the administration of the preparatory school. Rehearsals were often held later in the evening, primarily because the gymnasium, which also served as the auditorium, was in use during the day and the early evening hours. It also suited the schedules of the college men to rehearse later in the evening. There were times when a Quarta or a Tertia girl did not return to her home or to her off-campus quarters until near midnight, or even after midnight. The problem of the female roles was not resolved until 1982, when the faculty allowed the Forum to recruit women from the community to fill these roles.

Now there were occasions when the age discrepancy was reversed.

The college men appeared too youthful for some of their roles.

But the quality of the productions did improve.

Facilities for presenting stage productions were also upgraded when the main floor and the stage of the auditorium were renovated and remodeled in 1977-1978. In 1978, when Forum presented Midsummer Night's Dream, it could take advantage of the professional lighting and of the proscenium, which enlarged the stage. Later, the Booster Club contributed a number offlats. The storage area for stage properties and for wardrobes was organized and renovated. The new lighting made theater-in-the-round convenient. Cyrano de Bergerac and The Comedy of Errors were presented in this setting.

In the period covered by this history Forum has presented a variety of major productions. There were three Shakespeare plays; such "classical" plays as The Miser. An Enemy of the People; popular plays, like The Mouse That Roared. The Caine Mutiny. A Man for All Seasons. The Odd Couple; less wellknown plays, like The Machinations of Scapin and Fahrenheit 4510• Since 1980 most of the presentations have been musicals: Shenandoah. Fiddler on the Roof, Camelot. 1776. The Music Man. Brigadoon, The popularity of musicals during the past decade is in no small degree due to the contributions women with more acting experience have made to the presentations.

Veteran faculty members who have seen most of these presentations remember roles well played and staging techniques capably executed. The students who took part in the productions cherish their own store of memories of their hours on the stage.

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Professor-emeritus Erwin Scharf still recalls with pleasure his role as an assistant director of She Stoops to Conquer in 1928,the first major play presented to the public by the college. It was directed by Professor Elmer Kiessling, who arrived in Watertown in 1927. Doc Kiessling was the coach and advisor for many an NWC drama production until he retired from the faculty in 1973.

Forum has also occupied itself with non-dramatic productions.

Since 1971 it has presented a Christmas Vespers program in the college chapel. The presentation is not a stage production, but a vesper devotion, together with a choral concert presented by a choir made up of students and of women volunteers. Recordings of the program are sent to all of our world missionaries. The Forum Christmas program does not conform to the pattern of its drama presentations, but no dramatic stage performance by Forum could stir Northwestern graduates in lands across the seas more deeply than to hear the college family welcome the Christchild's coming in the chapel where these missionaries worshiped in their college days.

Forum does not occupy a large place in the average Northwestern student's experience. The calling for which he is preparing is not make-believe, it is reality. But experience on the stage can contribute to the training of young men who must learn how to communicate both thought and feeling to their audiences. And even Luther agreed that there was a place for plays and play acting in education.

CHAPTER XX

BRIEF ITEMS Viet Nam Interlude From 1956to 1982 Professor Erwin Scharf taught history and religion, first at Northwestern Preparatory School and then at Northwestern College. During a six-months leave of absence in 1967-68 he also experienced history first hand and applied religion in a setting far removed from his familiar classroom scene.

From the beginning of August 1967to the end of January 1968he served as our synod's military contact pastor in Viet Nam. More than 500 WELS men were stationed in Viet Nam at the time. (In the peak years of the war there were as many as 1000in the area.) As civilian chaplain he conducted regular Sunday services in his hotel room in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), held devotions and distributed Holy Communion to our men in U.S. encampments and visited our members in military hospitals.

Though he was neither in the U.S. military nor salaried by the government, he had access to military transportation and traveled throughout much of the country, contacting more of our WELS members than any U.S. military chaplain assigned to a unit could possibly have done. At times he visited bases completely surrounded by Vietcong forces.

Professor Walter Schumann, who had retired from service on the faculty in 1967,consented to stay on for a semester and to fill in for Scharf in the classroom. It was a memorable interlude for Erwin Scharf, and NWC is happy to have been in a position to make it possible.

Two years later the curriculum committee of the Commission on Higher Education proposed that the synod's worker-training

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lSI

schools include in their modern history courses some emphasis on the development of the modern nations of Africa and Asia. In response to that request, NWC included such an emphasis in its electivecourse on Modern World History-the World in the Twentieth Century. It has also added a unit on the oriental religions, which is now being offered in a survey course on world religions.

Two Cemeteries Augsburg Hall and the east half of the Library-Science building were built on an abandoned cemetery. In 1947,in preparation for its building program in the late 1940s and in the 1950s, the college had acquired the city cemetery adjacent to its property as a site for the new buildings. Even before 1891 the state legislature had vacated the plot so far as its use as a burial ground was concerned, and there had been no burials there since the 1870s. In fact, a considerable number of the graves had been opened and the remains transferred to other burial grounds.

Attempts at upkeep of the cemetery had long since ceased. Tall grass and wild flowers, lilacs, prickly ash and locust trees had taken over the plot. "In 1947 ... it became obvious to the city authorities that the use to which the college intended to put this ground would greatly improve the appearance of this section of Watertown. The plot was ... deeded to the college with the one stipulation that five known graves should be opened and the bones found there reburied in a plot on Oak Hill Cemetery. If in the course of building operations more bones should be brought to light, they too were to be taken to the Oak Hill burial place.

Seventeen such gra ves were found that still contained bones, all of which were carefully collected and reburied in separate small boxes." (Centennial Story, p. 252) The final service to the dead whose earthly remains had been disturbed by the college's building programs was rendered when a bronze marker was placed at the Oak Hill Cemetery site where the remains had been reinterred nearly 20 years before. The inscription on the marker, which was erected in 1973, reads: This marker was erected by Northwestern College to designate the reburial site of eleven unidentified bodies legally removed from the old Watertown cemetery in 1955.

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The marker is located due east of the Oak hill cemetery office, near the eastern border of the cemetery.

Bible Institute In 1970 Northwestern College launched the NWC-Central Conference Bible Institute as a service to WELS members in the Watertown area. The annual institute is held at the college on eight successive Wednesday nights from September to November. A committee composed of a member of the Northwestern faculty and a Central Conference representative is in charge of selecting the topics to be presented and of securing the speakers.

The list of speakers has included a number of members of the college faculty and of the seminary faculty; personnel from the Northwestern Publishing House and the Wisconsin Lutheran Child and Family Service; a large number of Central Conference pastors; and representatives of specialized ministries. A typical institute offers a study of a biblical book followed by a presentation on practical topics or current issues. Among the latter have been The Christian Family, Practical Aspects of Christianity, The Lutheran Hymnal, Cults and Sects, Luther and the Reformation, Death and Burial Practices, Understanding Israel-Then and Now, Fellowship Practices.

Well over 150 have registered for an institute; in recent years the average has been in the vicinity of 100.

CHAPTER

XXI

1990 When Erwin E. Kowalke concluded Centennial Story, his history of Northwestern College, he expressed several concerns about the future of the school. The "burgeoning enrollment" was creating problems. It had more than doubled since the school celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1940. In 1964-65the combined NWC-N PS enrollment stood at 460. Despite the addition of the Augsburg Hall dormitory in 1956, Northwestern faced the problem of providing more space everywhere on campus-in the dormitories, cafeteria, gymnasium and classrooms.

What disturbed Kowalke more than the lack of space, however, was what he felt was the imminent separation of the preparatory department from the college. "It was quite generally understood" when the new buildings erected on the campus in the 1950s "reached their capacity of four hundred, the high-school and the college should be completely separated." He felt that a complete separation would result in a loss for the pre-ministerial training program of the synod.

Contrary to his apprehensions, the complete separation of the preparatory school from the college did not take place as a consequence of enrollment pressures. Though the preparatory school has become a separate entity, with its own administration, it remains a campus partner, and it supports the same NPS-NWC continuum of pre-ministerial education it supported in the past.

Enrollment Concerns Twenty-five years later, however, there still is concern about enrollment, but in a reverse sense. In 1965 it appeared to the a uthor of Centennial Story that the facilities of the college would

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1990

be overburdened by the swelling numbers of new students on campus. In 1990 NWC and NPS are distressed because their combined enrollment has declined to the 400 mark. Now the problem is that a number of dormitory rooms stand empty and that classrooms are slack-filled. The buildings erected since 1965, together with those provided in the 1950s, can accommodate additional scores of students. Northwestern is equipped to serve an enrollment of 200 in the preparatory school and 300 in the college. For this preparedness the school gives thanks as it celebrates the 125th anniversary of benefits and blessing it has received from God through his church, and as the college looks forward to welcoming growing numbers of students to its residence halls and classrooms.

But today's low enrollment of ministerial training students also raises additional concerns. There will be a shortage of seminary candidates for the WELS pastoral ministry in the 1990s. Pressures may be expected to build up to lower the educational standards for the preparation of pastors. There may be outcries for educational shortcuts to the parish ministry, perhaps two or three-year certification programs instead of the present eight-year training program at our pre-seminary college and our theological seminary. And, given the prevailing climate in church bodies in America today, the question of women's ordination to the parish ministry could arise. If it does, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod's commitment to sola Scriptura will be tested.

Languages-the Cornerstone As he concluded his history, Kowalke made a strong plea for the languages. Though he approved the modifications made in the language curriculum of the college and the high school during his presidency (reducing the prep-college sequence of eight years of required Latin and German to six in each case, the six years of required Greek to four), and though he accepted the further reductions made when the number of semester hours required by the college curriculum was reduced by 25 percent in 1961,he was apprehensive about further reductions in language requirements.

He based his apprehensions on experience. "As far back as memory and the records go," he wrote, "there has been some pres-

1990

155

sure to change or to ease the language requirements." He noted that "acquisition of a foreign language in school is never an easy process, and it has been observed that not all students love hard work or have a special gift for learning languages." He deplored the negative influence of parents and pastors who support students in their resistance to language study.

His case for the languages rested on the character of the ministry for which Northwestern prepares its students.

The work of a Lutheran pastor who looks to men like St. Paul and Martin Luther as his ideals of evangelical pastors, has preeminently to do with the Word, and that means with language. He must first of all receive and understand what the Holy Spirit communicates to him by means of the written word of Scripture (sola Scriptura), and then he must be able to communicate that by means of language to young and old, to learned and to unlearned.

His work is teaching, and to teach well he must be a master of language. Languages must remain the cornerstone of a sound preparation for the ministry, not just one language, but all those languages that the Holy Spirit moved them to write, and that those men employed who gathered from Scripture the doctrine that we have learned and that makes us Lutherans.

Since he wrote those words 25 years ago, language requirements for students preparing themselves for the pastoral ministry have been further reduced-for defensible reasons. (See the chapter on Curriculum.) If more reductions occur, however, especially in the study of Latin and German, they will work toward the removal of both languages from the curricula of the prep schools and will further threaten the existence of the prep school system, which is already at risk for financial reasons. Also, if the study of Latin and German is eliminated in the prep schools, college students will be handicapped in their study of beginning Greek because they will come to it without the kind of linguistic knowhow that especially the Latin contributes to the study of a foreign language like Greek.

If the languages are to remain "the cornerstone of a sound preparation for the ministry," as Kowalke expressed it, there dare be no less concern for that "sound preparation "in 1990than there was in 1965. That cornerstone is smaller today.

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A New President Professor Kowalke did not voice concerns that Northwestern College had forsaken its appointed way after a new administrator took over the reins a few years before. He stated, "There was no notable change in policy or procedure" when his successor took over the presidency in 1959. In this case, history has repeated itself-deja vu. There was no notable change in policy or procedure when Robert J. Voss assumed the presidency in 1987. Northwestern College has retained its purpose and goals, and its unique educational program is still in effect.

A native of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, Robert Voss entered the Northwestern College high school in 1939 and was graduated from the college in 1947. He received his diploma from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 1950. After serving as a tutor at Northwestern College for a year, he was assigned to the pastorate of Faith Lutheran Church, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. In 1955 he accepted a call to Siloah Lutheran Church in Milwaukee. In 1963 he became president of Wisconsin Lutheran College (the teachers college). In the 1960s he attended graduate school at Marquette University, where he completed the course work for a doctor's degree. When the college was closed in 1970, he was called to be the executive secretary of the synod's Commission on Higher Education (now the Board for Worker Training). In 1987, after serving in this office for 17 years, he took over the presidency of Northwestern College. He brought along his considerable executive experience to Northwestern, where he began his ministry 37 years before.

An Independent School?

The cloud that hung over the future of Northwestern College as it concluded its first century was dispelled in 1965,when the synod determined that NWC should not be merged with the proposed senior college for teacher training to be established in Milwaukee, but should continue on its Watertown campus as an independent pastor-training institution.

A similar cloud has arisen as the college prepares to observe its 125th anniversary. In 1991the synod convention will have before it a Prep School Study Commission report that recommends

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merging Northwestern College with Dr. Martin Luther College on the latter's campus so that Martin Luther Preparatory School can be transferred from Prairie du Chien to the Northwestern campus and be merged with Northwestern Preparatory School.

The future of NWC as an independent pastor-training college is again in question.

At present there appears to be considerable sentiment in the synod for retaining NWC as an independent, single-purpose college. For this the college can be grateful. It remains to be seen whether financial considerations will outweigh such factors as the educational and vocational focus of the college, and its past service in the preparation of young men for the pastoral ministry.

In Gratitude Despite these concerns, Northwestern College will celebrate its l25th anniversary with gratitude. The Savior is still entrusting it with his great commission to equip his ambassadors for royal service to his church. Northwestern's sense of purpose is still clear, and its service is still being blessed by the grateful prayers of God's people.

Northwestern is grateful for a faculty that holds to Holy Scripture as God's inerrant Word and that cherishes the gospel of Christ as its most precious possession. It is grateful for men who are dedicated to their calling, faithful in their service, devoted to the students entrusted to their care and tutelage, and unassuming in their privileges.

It is grateful for its students with their many gifts, thankful above all (in this day and age) for the deep respect they have for God's Word; thankful, too, for their child-like faith, for the love of their Savior in their hearts and for their desire to serve him with their lives. It is grateful for the singular privilege of shaping such gifts of God for service to his people.

It is grateful also for all the gifts God's people have brought to provide it with sturdy and comfortable buildings to meet all its physical needs.

For all of these blessings our anniversary observance is to "give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever."

Northwestern College is living proof of such blessings.

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1990

In Confidence What will assure us that Northwestern College will continue to be one of God's chosen vehicles to uphold his inerrant Word, to preserve his gospel and to prepare a consecrated and faithful ministry for his people? If by God's grace it is to continue to serve as such a vehicle, that assurance must rest on nothing less than the gospel of Jesus Christ, the very heart and essence of all we believe and trust and serve. The confidence President-emeritus Kowalke expressed 25 years ago is and must still be our trust and confidence for the future.

The determining force in the shaping and preservation of our basic educational policy is the Gospel of Christ, which our school is to represent both in our church and before the whole world.

That Gospel is not going to change in the lifetime of our school.

Customs, morals, living conditions will change, governments will come and go, but the Way to Life will not change, nor will the Gospel that records that Way to Life. If we but remain faithful to that Gospel and continue to make that Gospel the purpose of our existence as an educational institution, then our educational policy will take care of itself, and we can enter our second century with complete confidence.

It is that kind of commitment, that kind of selfless purpose, that kind of faithful service that must express our trust and confidence as Northwestern College remains on course in its service to God's church. Only when God's gospel determines our devotion and our trust and our service can we be confident that God's blessings will attend Northwestern College in its service in years to come as they have in the past.

APPENDIX NWC Instructors, 1965-1990 Dose, Brian 1981 Fredrich, Joel 1982-84

Nass, Thomas 1982-84 Wendland, Paul 1975-76

NWC Deans, 1965-1990 1959-1968 Carl Leyrer 1968-1969 Cyril Spaude, acting dean, and Armin Panning, counselor

1969-1973John Chworowsky 1973-1974Martin Stuebs, acting dean 1974- Edward Lindemann

NPS Deans, 1973-1990 1973-1977 Martin Schulz 1977- Allen Zahn, acting dean 1977-1984 William Gabb

1984-1985 Edward Lindemann, acting dean 1985- Mark Bitter

NPS Instructors, 1972-1990 Buske, Mark 1986-87 Grunwald, James 1978-79 Hahn, James 1980-83 Jeske, Mark 1978-80 Mitchell, Robert 1972-73 Moldenhauer, Martin 1973-75 Petermann, Joel 1984-85

Rehberger, Phillip 1989-90 Voss, David 1979-80 Wege, David 1980-81 Wegner, Jeffrey 1989-90 Wessel, Sherwood 1977-78 Woldt, Michael 1977-78

NPS Tutors, 1974-1990 Bitter, Mark 1978-80 Brassow, William 1982-84

Buege, James 1975-76 Gallert, Timothy 1974-75

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APPENDIX

Goldbeck, Beck 1974-75 Grundmeier, David 1980-82 Huebner, Charles 1983-85 Huebner, James 1977-78 Hussman, David 1987-88 Lohmiller, Frederick 1978-80 Neitzel, Mark 1980-82 Radtke, Nathan 1982-83 Schlomer, Lloyd 1985-87

Sims, Snowden 1989Stern, Jonathan 1976-77 Sutton, Donald 1975-76 Tatge, Gilbert 1976-78 Unke, Timothy 1984-85 Wegner, Jeffrey 1987-89 Westra, Charles 1988-90 Wilde, Philip 1985-87

NWC Tutors, 1965-1990 Balge, Daniel 1985-87 Braun, John 1967-68 Brenner, John 1977-79 Brokmeier, Kenneth 1988-90 Burger, Norman 1984-86 Connell, James 1981-82 Edenhauser, Kenneth 1969-71 Free, Keith 1982-84 *Gabb, William 1964-65 Gronholz, John 1968-69 Hartzell, Eric 1969-71 Henkel, Carl 1970-71 Hirsch, Philip 1986-88 Joecks, Larry 1967-68 Kehl, David 1979-81 Kipfmiller, David 1979-81 Koester, Robert 1975-77 Kogler, Richard 1975-77 Kolander, David 1983-85 Kuerth, Roger 1977-79 Kugler, Richard 1969-70 Ladner, Jonathan 1987-89

Leerssen, William 1965-66 Lenz, Mark 1966-67 Luetke, David 1966-67 Martens, Ralph 1965-66 Mehlberg, Ronald 1971-72 Ross, David 1971-72 Schroeder, Gary 1966-68 Schulz, Martin 1965-66 Schwartz, Armin 1973-74 Schwartz, Martin 1969-70 Schweppe, Paul 1972-73 Smith, Dennis 1973-75 Stelljes, Ross 1989Stuebs, Martin 1968; 1971-73 (acting dean, 1973-74) Thompson, Glen 1974-75 Uttech, Frederick 1972-74 Westphal, Walter 1968-69 Woldt, Michael 1981-83 Zahn, Allen 1968-69 Ziemer, Paul 1967-68

*Inadvertently omitted in the Centennial Story roster.

161

APPENDIX

Faculty Members, 1965-1990 Joint Faculty 1965-1974 Baer, George 1963-74 Baumler, Gary Behnke, Robert 1964-74 Bertolus, Paul Binhammer, Theodore 1919-67 Birsching, William Bitter, Mark Bock, Robert Boll, Arlyn 1973-74 Braun, John Chworowsky, John 1969-73 Dahlberg, Leland 1967-74 Deutschlander, Daniel Ehlke, Steven Eickmann, Paul E. 1966-74 Eickmann, Paul G. 1924-68 Franzmann, Gerhard 1959-74 Fredrich, Joel Fricke, James 1970-74 Gabb, William Gorsline, Dennis Gosdeck, David Hahm, Ronald Kiessling, Elmer 1927-73 Kirst, Eugene 1954-74 Korthals, James Kowalke, Erwin 1913-1966 (President, 1919-59) Kruse, Jerome Kuehl, Paul 1961-74 Kuerth, Roger Lehmann, Arnold 1962-74 Lindemann, Edward 1974 Moldenhauer, Martin Panning, Armin 1962-74

NWC 1974-1990

NPS 1974-1990 1974-86

1975-89 197419811979198519771974-84 19841974198419841974197419871974-83 1977-84 19851985197819741982-

1981-

1974-81 1974-84 1987-

1974-79 197419831974-75

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APPENDIX

Joint Faculty 1965-1974

NPS NWC 1974-1990 1974-1990

1974-81 1960-74 Pieper, Edgar 19741967-74 Plitzuweit, Jerald 1974-82 1964-74 Quam, Sylvester 1974-75 1939-74 Rohda, Dudley 1974-82 1956-74 Scharf, Erwin 1974-79 1956-74 Schlenner, Orville 1981Schmidt, John 1974-86 1944-74 Schroeder, Erwin 1989Schroeder, Mark (President, NPS, 1989-) 1974-77 1973-74 Schulz, Martin 1924-39; Schumann, Walter 1946-67 19741966-74 Sellnow, Donald 1947-74 Sievert, Rudolph 19741966-74 Spaude, Cyril 1987Sprain, Roger 1975Strobel, Richard 1974-84 1964-74 Sullivan, John 1985Taylor, Kenneth 1979-87 Ten Broek, Wayne 1974-85 1970-74 Thompson, Lloyd 19741966-74 Thrams, James 1974-87 1948-74 Toppe, Carleton (President, NWC-NPS, 1959-74; NWC, 1974-87) 1935-74 Umnus, Leonard 1987Voss, Robert (President, NWC, 1987-) 1916-66 Westerhaus, Gustav 19741972-74 Zabell, Franklin 1975-89 Zahn, Allen 1974-89 1960-74 Zell, William (President, NPS, 1974-89) 1974-83 1983Zuleger, Wayne

163

APPENDIX

Support Staff, 1965-1990 In addition to those listed as members of the support staff in the chapter on Administration, the following also served as members of this staff between 1965 and 1990: Mrs. Shirley Fritze (bookkeeper) Mrs. Florence Herold (bookkeeper, 34 years) Mrs. Phyllis Kaesermann (business office clerk) Mrs. Esther Lehmann (faculty secretary, administration secretary) Rev. Otto Medenwald (library assistant) Mrs. Pam Nuss (athletic department secretary) Mrs. Jan Pankow (faculty secretary) Mrs. Phyllis Schmidt (faculty secretary) Mrs. Rose Marie Seelman (business office clerk) Mrs. Edith Thompson (assistant librarian) Mrs. Violet Toppe (administration secretary) Mrs. Marian Zell (student health office) The following housemothers also provided secretarial assistance to the dean of Northwestern Preparatory School: Miss Jean Lenz Miss Rachel Fritze

Miss Georgene Borth Miss Ann Sauer

The following have served as members of the Northwestern College Board of Control in the course of the past 25 years.

Asterisks indicate current members of the board. Former chairmen are also identified. *Bartels, Carl Beckmann, Robert Degner, John Engel, Nathan Goede, Ralph Gurgel, Karl (chairman, 1979-1987) Hintz, Arthur Kell, Myron *Kiesling, Ormal Mahnke, Jonathan Naumann, Frederick

Panning, Frederick Prenzlow, Elmer Reul, George *Schmidt, William Schultz, Ferdinand Schultz, Raymond *Schumann, Arnold Schumann, Walter Schumann, William Schweppe, Arnold Siegler, Reginald (chairman, 1963-1979)

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APPENDIX

*Siggelkow, Alan (chairman, 1987-)

*Sturm, Harold *Tiarks, David

Timmel, Kurt *Waege, David *Werner, Michael Winters, Forrest

165

166

The gazebo was a replica of the band shell (bandstand) that was located on the campus until the early 1920s. The replica served as a speaker's stand when the Northwestern centennial was celebrated in 1965and was also used in 1971,when the 100th anniversary class was graduated.

On Northwestern Day in 1965the 1912dedication of the Sprinter statue was reenacted. (Milwaukee Journal photo)

167

College board, 1990

NWC Presidents Carleton Toppe 1959-1987 Author of Holding the Course: Northwestern 125

Robert Voss 1987-

Northwestern College and Preparatory School joint faculty, 1965 Back Row: E. Scharf, E. Pieper, R. Behnke, L. Umnus, G. Franzmann, R. Sievert, E. Schroeder, D. Rhoda, E. Kiessling Middle Row: E. Kirst, J. Westendorf, R. Zehms, S. Quam, O. Schlenner, P. Kuehl, A. Lehmann, W. Zell, W. Gabb, A. Panning, C. Leyrer, J. Sullivan Front Row: E. Kowalke, W. Schumann, C. Toppe, G. Westerhaus, T. Binhammer, P. Eickmann Missing: G. Baer

168

Vice-president Paul Eickmann has taught Hebrew since 1966.

Erwin Schroeder served as librarian for 42 years, 1944-1986.

A chapel service

169

Northwestern College faculty, 1979 G. Baumler, E. Kirst, J. Fricke, P. Eickmann, J. Plitzuweit, L. Thompson, S. Quam, J. Brenner, R. Strobel, R. Kuerth, D. Sellnow, C. Spaude, E. Lindemann

Standing: Seated:

E. Pieper, J. Sullivan, E. Schroeder, A. Lehmann, C. Toppe, G. Franzmann, E. Scharf

Northwestern College faculty, 1989 E. Lindemann, J. Korthals, R. Sprain, J. Braun, D. Gosdeck, D. Gorsline, K. Brokmeier, D. Deutschlander, W. Zuleger, J. Fredrich, J. Ladner, J. Kruse, G. Baumler, W. Birsching Seated: E. Kirst, J. Plitzuweit, D. Sellnow, P. Eickmann, R. Voss, J. Schmidt, C. Spaude, Standing:

G. Franzmann, R. Strobel

Northwestern College dormitory council

170

NWPS Presidents

William Zell, 1974-1989

Mark Schroeder, 1989-

Northwestern

Standing: Seated:

Preparatory

School faculty, 1989

J. Wagner,P.Bertolus, R. Behnke, R. Kuerth, F.Zabell, A. Zahn, J. Thrams, D. Hussman R. Hahm, M. Bitter, K. Taylor,L. Dahlberg,W. Zell, S, Ehlke, M. Moldenhauer,R. Bock

171

Northwestern Preparatory School 1989-1990WISAA Class B state basketball champions, with a 25-0 record. The football team was also a WISAA champion, with a 12-0 record.

, II h II

•

Augsburg hall, the Preparatory School dormitory

172

The college campus, with the 1875dormitory and the Kaffeemuehle, as seen from Western Avenue in the late 1870s

173

Aerial view of the college campus, 1949, shortly before the beginning of the building program

Aerial view of the present campus, 1990. The campus development plan adopted by the synod in 1965 is nearing completion.

174

Chapel-Arts building, 1956

Library-Science building, 1951

Cafeteria, 1955

175

Wartburg hall, a college dormitory, 1967

Wittenberg hall, a twin to Wartburg hall, and also a college dormitory, 1975

176

Gymnasium, 1971

Auditorium, previously a gymnasium, was converted by stages into an auditorium with music facilities after the new gymnasium was built. The remodeling was completed in 1985.

177

The statue of the Sprinter was originally located in front of the old gymnasium.

The college bell, once mounted on the roof of West hall (the "old" 1905 dormitory), was installed in this bell tower, a gift of the NWC alumni society on the occasion of its centennial in 1979.

178

NWC Athletic

Jerome Kruse, 1985-

NWC Dean of Men Edward Lindemann, 1974-

179

Northwestern College Athletes In Action

Basketball

Soccer

180

Northwestern College chorus, 1989

Northwestern College band, 1989

Forum play, "Pacific Overtures," 1990

INDEX A Administration, 9-15 officers, 10-12 support staff, 12 board of control. 13 executive committee, 13-14 classroom visitation, 14 Academic affairs committee, 32, 42 Academic dean, see academic procedures, 41-42 Academic procedures, 36-37 Saturday classes, 36-37 school calendar, 37-38 class advisors, 38-41 counselors, 40-41 academic dean, 41-42 graduation, 42-45 diplomas, 45-47 Accreditation, 78-89 pressure from Veterans Administration, 80-81 edict from U'W-Systern, 81-82 North Central enters the picture, 82-84 visitation team, I. 84 candidate for accreditation status, 84-85 visitation team, II, 85 faculty reservations, 86-88 accredited, 88 the accreditation experience, 88-89 Aid Association for Lutherans, 4, 18, 40

AI McGuire Run, 138 Alumni society, 102-105 centennial, 104-105 Alumni society endowment fund, see alumni society, 103-104 Amcon, 125 Appendices, 159-164 Archives, 103, see library, 129 Athletics, 131-140 other coaches, 132-133 new varsity sports, 133 competitiveness, 133-134 keeping the distant goal in view, 134-136 NWC vs DMLC, 136 facilities, 136-137 medalists, 137-138 intramurals, 138-139 balance, 139-140 Auditorium, see campus facilities, 113, 120 Augsburg hall, 94, 95, 110, 112, 116-117

8 Bading, John, 120, 129 Baer, George, 101. 104 Baldi, Victor, 82-84 Bandshell 4, 5, 44 Barrett, Larry, 85 Bartels, Carl, 15 Bartelt, Jill, 98 Basic Educational Opportunity Grants, 82, 85, 89

182

INDEX

Bast, Thomas, 5, 103 Bauer, Gary, 12, 126 Bauer, Gayle, 98 Baumler, Gary, 10, 25,40,59, 104 Becker, Mark H. fund, 124 Behnke, Miriam, 142 Behnke, Robert, 16, 101 Bell, 120-122 Bell tower, 103, 121-122 Bendewald, Jon, 138 Bennion, Steve, 82 Berger, James, 40 Bertolus, Paul, 98, 101 Bessel, Diane, 12, 129 Bethany Lutheran College, 33, 85 Bethesda, 135-136 Bible institute, 152 Bilse, Erwin, 3, 9, II, 126 Binhammer, Theodore, 16,26 Birsching, Helen, 12, 128 Birsching, William, 25, 143, 146 Bitter, Mark, 95, 101 Black and Red, 7, 72,117, 119 Blue Ribbon Committee, see 1965,2 Bluhm, Heinz, 5 Blume, Frederick, 26 Board for Worker Training, 113, 156 Board of Control, 13-15,85-88,91-92, 96 Board of Trustees, W.E.L.S., 107-108, 113 Bock, Roben,9~98, 101 Boehlke, Paul, 16 Boettcher and Ginnow, 122 Bookstore, 128 Booster Club, 105-106, 148 Borth, Georgene, 95 Boston marathon, 138 Braun, John, 10, 17,25,60 Braun, Sandra, 12 Brief items. 150-152

Brigadoon, 148 British literature, 33 Brokmeier, Kenneth, 26 Brug, John, 3

Burdick, Robert, 12 Business manager, 9, II

c Caine Mutiny, 148 Calendar, school, see academic procedures, 37-38 Camelot, 148 Campion high school, 94 Campus facilities, 107-126 Wartburg hall, 109-110 master plan, 110-111 gymnasium, I 12-115 Wittenberg hall, 115-120 the bell, 120-122 auditorium, 122-124 Campus planning and building committee, 109-111, 122-123, 126 Campus store, 12, 127 Candidate for accreditation, see accreditation, 84-85 Cemetery, old Watertown, see brief items, 150-15 I Centennial, 3-8 Centennial Story, 3, 103 committees, 3 Northwestern Day, 4, 6 bandshell, 4-5 lectures, 5 sham battle, 5 honorary degrees, 6 vignettes, 6-7 Tau Delta Theta, 7

Centennial Memoir, 104 Centennial Story, 3, 15, 150, 153-156, 158 Chapel-Arts building, 95, I 10-111 Chapel services, see music, 145 Chorus, touring, see music, 144-145 Christian, Gertrude fund, 124 Christmas vespers, 149 Chworowsky, John, 132 Civil Rights Act, 114 Clarey, Charles, 3 Class advisors, 38-39

INDEX Classic-Contemporary, 34-35 Classroom visitation, 14, 21 Coburg hall, 93-95, 120

Comedy of Errors, 148 Commission on Higher Education, 20, 121, 156 Committees, college, 10 Confirmations, 57-58 Conference of Presidents, -; see motivation for ministry, 70 Cornerstone, 119 Corporation of Seniors, 73 Corrigan, Robert, 123 Counselors, 39, 40 Curriculum, 28-35 19th century curriculum, 28 revisions, 28-29 German-Latin problem, 29-32 seminary certification program, 33 losses and gains, 33-34 Cyrano de Bergerac, 148 D

Dahlberg, Leland, 16,98, 101 Dailv Times, 119 Dean, NPS, see Northwestern Preparatory School, 92, 95 Dean of men, NWC, 41, 60, 68 Degener, Reed, 98 Department of Health, Education and Welfare, see accreditation, 80-82 Deutschlander, Daniel, 17, 25 Dietrich, Joseph, 138 Diplomas, see academic procedures, 45-47 Disrespect for ministry, 59 Dr. Martin Luther College, I, 61, 76, 86, 93-94, 95, 134, 136 Dormitory council, 70 Dramatics, 147-149 Dropouts, see enrollment, 62-64 E East hall, 110;see Augsburg hall Ebert, Ron, 132

183

Educational Development Fund, 125, 127 Educational Institutions Building Fund, 122 Eggenberger, Todd, II Ehlke, Steven, 98, 101 Eickmann, Kathleen, 12 Eickmann, Paul E., 10, 16,20,25,40, 69, 104, 126, 133 Eickmann, Paul G., 16,26 Elective courses, 28-29, 33-35 Enemy of the People. An, 148 Enrollment, 56-67, 153-154 discouraging demographics, 57-58 other discouragements, 58-59 recruitment, 59-62 dropouts, 62-64, 66-67 NWC enrollments, 65-67 Ernst, August F., 120 Ernst residence, 109 Everts, James, 3 Executive committee, 13, 116 F Faculty, NWC, 16-27 pastoral component, 17-18 advanced study, 18 experience, 18-19 confessional ingredient, 19-20 development, 20 classroom visitation, 21 inter-faculty accord, 21-22 European interlude, 22-23 faculty wives, 23-24 housing, 24 faculty portrait, 25 1989-1990roster, 25-26 in memoriam, 26-27 Faculty advisors, 72 Faculty development committee, 21,40 Faculty, offices, 10-11 Faculty-student relations, 71-74 toward better relations. 72-74 Faculty-student relations committee, 72 Faculty wives. 23-24

184

INDEX

J Fahrenheit 451, 148 Fiddler on the Roof'; 147 Jazz ensemble, see music, 143-144 Focus on ministry, 59 Jenswold, Lois, 12 Foreign languages, 28-32, 33-35, 154- Juern, John, 40 155 K Forensics, see dramatics, 147 Forum, 147-149;seedramatics, 147-149 Kaffeemuehle . 107-109 Franzmann. Gerhard, 25 Kalamazoo College, 85 Franzrnann, William, 5 Keller, Robert, 2 Fredrich, Joel, 17,25 Keirn, Paul, 3, 7 Free, Keith, 133 Kiesling, Orrnal, 15 Fricke, James, 105, 132-133 Kiessling, Elmer, 3, 7, 16,26, 104, 149 Fritze, Rachel, 95 Kionka, Alila, 142 Kirst, Eugene, 25 G Klessig, Alan, 3 Gabb, Beth, 12 Koch, Henry, 105 Gabb, William, 95, 98 Koehler, John, 102, 120, 129 Gazebo, 4 Kogler, Richard, 77 Gazelle, 119 Korthals, Richard, 10, 17, 25, 43, 133 Gemeindeblatt , I 19 Kowalke, Erwin, 3, 6, 7. 16, 27, 103, German-Latin problem, 29-32, 154109, 153-156, 158 155 Kruse, Jerome, II, 17,26,98, 106, 118, Gorsline, Barbara, 12 132 Gorsline, Dennis, 17,25, 132-133, 135- Kruse, Judy, 98, 119 136 Kuehl, Paul, 101, 132 Gosdeck, David, 3, II, 17,25,128 Kuerth, Bonnie, 12 Grace 125 offering, 120, 126 Kuerth, Roger, 98, 101 Graduation exercises, 42-45 Kuschel, Harlyn, 3 Graduation requirements, 28-29, 33-34 Kuschel, Kieth, 3 Groppi, Father, 71 L Gut, John, 3 Gymnasium, see campus facilities, Lake Michigan Conference, 134 112-115, 136-137 Lakeside Lutheran High School, 93 Languages, plea for, see curriculum; H see 1990, 33, 154-155 Hahm, Ronald, 98, 101 Latin-German problem, 29-32, 154Hanke, Willis, II 155 "Hars," 117 Lauersdorf, Richard, 69 Hintz, Arthur, 126 Law, Law, Potter and Nystrom, III Hoenecke, Edgar, 5 Lawrenz, John, 3, 4, 104 Howe, Herbert, 5 Lawrenz, Stephen, 4, 104 Hughes, William, 69 Lee, Kia Tou, 109 Lehmann, Arnold, 3, 26, 123, 129, 142 Lenz, Jean, 95 lntramurals, see athletics, 138-139 Lenz, Mark, 3

INDEX Leyrer, Carl, II, 126, 132 Library, 127-130 personnel, 128-129 archives, 129-130 Library-Administration building, 103, 110-11 L 125 Library-Science, building, 95, 128 Lindemann, Ann, 12, 128 Lindemann, Edward, II, 26, 30, 40, 41, 126, 132 Local board, 13 Lorenz, Albert, 23 Luther, on playacting, 149 Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, 60 Lutheran High School Invitational Tournament, 98, 135

M Machinations ofScapin, 148 McKeachie, Wilbert, 20 Madsen, Orville and son, 120 Manfor All Seasons, 148 Mankato State University, see accreditation, 81 Maranatha Baptist Bible College, 134 Marowsky, Lawrence, 123 Marquette University, see accreditation,81 Marriage, students, 53-54, 63 Martin Luther Academy, 93-94 Martin Luther Preparatory School, 60, 93-94, 96 Materialism and enrollments, 58-59 Matzke, Frederick, 40 Medalists, 137-138 Medenwald, Otto,S, 128 Michigan Lutheran Seminary, 60, 96, 100, 105 Midsummer Night's Dream, 148 Midwest Classic conference, 97 Military contact pastor, 150 Milwaukee Journal, 7 Milwaukee Lutheran Teachers College, 2 Ministry, requirements, 63-64

185

Mischke, Carl, 40, 104, 114 Miser, the, 148 Modern world history course, see brief items, 150 Moeller, Linda, 142 Moldenhauer, Martin, 10I Motivation for ministry, 68-70 pastoral motivation program, 69-70 faculty-student discussions, 70 other motivations, 70 Mouse That Roared, The, 148 Muehlhaeuser, John, 129 Mueller, Wayne, 69 Music-Auditorium, see campus facilities=-auditorium. 120 Music department, 109, 119, 141-146 bands, 143-144 touring chorus, 144-145 chapel, 148 Music Man, The, 148 N National Association Intercollegiate Athletics, 138 National Little College Athletic Asso ciation, 134, 138 Naumann, James, 3 Naumann, Oscar, 112 Niedfeldt, Sandra, 3 1905 dormitory, see West hall and campus facilities, 110, 112, 117, 119 1965, 1-2 1990, 153-158 enrollment concerns, 153-154 languages=-the cornerstone, 154-155 a new president, 156 an independent school", 156-157 in gratitude, 157 in confidence, 158 North hall, 93, 118, 120 North Central Association, see accreditation, 78-79, 82-89 Northern State College, see accreditation,81

INDEX

186

Northwestern College, combined with teachers college in Milwaukee", 2; combined with Dr. Martin Luther College?, 157 Northwestern film, 104

Northwestern Lutheran, 42, 44 Northwestern Lutheran Academy, 81 Northwestern Preparatory School, 90-102 toward separation, 90-93 enrollment, 93-94 dormitory supervision, 95 recruitment problems, 96 preparatory school committee, 96-97 athletics, 97-98 music program, 98-99 sharing the campus, 99-100 preserving good relations, 100-10I, 137 1989-90faculty roster, 101 merged with Martin Luther Preparatory School in Watertown", 157 Northwestern Preparatory School faculty accord with NWC faculty, 99100;graduation exercises, 43-45 Northwestern Preparatory School committee, 96-97 Northwestern Prep Student Council, see Northwestern Preparatory School,91 Northwestern Today, 59, 131, 136

o Oak Hill cemetery, 150-151 Odd Couple. The, 148 Old dormitory (1875), see campus facilities, 108-110 Opsahl, Erhard, 3 Ordination, 76 Oswald, Hilton, 98, 105 p

Pagel, David, 3 Pankow, Glen, II, 126 Panning, Armin, 29, 126

Parish mirustry, see motivation for ministry, 69-70 Paulowski, Debra, 12 Pell grants, 85 Peterson, Karl, 3 Phoenix, 71 Pictures, 165-180 Pieper, Edgar, 26,126,131-133 Pipe organ, 123 Planning Board for Educationallnstitutions, 113 Potter, Lawson, Findlay and Pawlowsky, 122 Potter, Nystrom and Pawlowsky, 119 Plitzuweit, Jerald, 10, 16, 20, 26, 40, 118, 132-133 Ploetz, Mrs. Erwin, 95 Preparatory School committee, 86 Preparatory School girls, 93-97, 99, 112, 114, 120, 147-148 Preparatory School separation, see 1990,153 Prep Singers, 99, 106 President, adminitrator, 9, 12; commencement speaker, 45; chairman of both faculties, 9, 91; relationship with NPS president, 100-10I President, Northwestern Preparatory School, see Northwestern Preparatory School (esp. 100-10I) President's home, 124 Prints hop, 127 Protestants, 15 Q Quam, Sylvester, 16,26 Quartalschrift, 119 Quartet, see music, 144 R Recitation hall, 107-108, 127 Recruitment, see enrollment, 59-62 Refectory, 107 Rehberger, Philip, 101 Reid, Pieter, 133

INDEX Reirn, G .• 129 Republic. 119

Rohda, Dudley. 27 Reul. George. 126 Rostra. 147;see dramatics. 147-149

s Sauer. Ann. 95 Sauer. Theodore. 5 Saturday classes. see academic procedures. 36-37 Saw. Sook lhn, 142 Scharf. Erwin. 26. I 18. 149. 150 Schlenner, Orville. 27 Schmidt. John. 17.26. 132-133 Schmidt. William. 15. 126 Schroeder, Erwin, 26,46, 128-130 Schroeder, Mark, 101 Schuetze, Armin, 41 Schulz, Martin, 92, 95 Schulz, Reuel, 69 Schulzeitung ; 119 Schumann, Arnold, 15, 126 Schumann, Walter, 3, 16,27, 104, 150 Schumann, Walter Jr., 126 Schumann, William, 126 Schweppe, Carl, 6 Seager, David. 3 Secretaries, 12 Sellnow, Donald, 16,26,98. 113,133 Sellnow, Mark, 98 Seminary certification program, 33, 57 Senior hall, 112 1776. 148

Sham battle, 5, 7 She SlOOPS 10 Conquer, Shenandoah, 148

149

Shield, George, fund, 123 Sievert, Philip. 138 Sievert. Rudolph, 27 Siggelkow, Alan, 3, 14, 104 Sign. Northwestern. 4 Sims, Snowden, 101 Smith. Donald. 81 Soccer, 99, 133, 137

185

Spanish. 32. 103 Spaude, Cyril. 1~26.63, 123 Sprain, Roger, 17,26.132-133 Sprinter, 115 Staff. support, 12 Steinbrenner, John. 137 Stelljes. Ross. 26 Stout State University, 135 Streissguth, W., 129 Strobel, Lois. 12 Strobel, Richard, 26 Students, 48-55 background, 48-49 qualifications. 49-54, 63-64 respect for Scripture. 50. 54 willingness to serve, 52, 68-69 marriage, 53-54 Stuebs, Martin. 76, 121 Sturm, Harold, 15, 126 Sullivan, John. 5. 16, 20, 26. 129 Summer evangelism. see motivation for ministry, 68 Superintendent of buildings and grounds, 9. II Support staff, 12 Swanson. George. 138 Synodalbericht

. 119

T Taft. Howard, 6 Tau Delta Theta, 7 Taylor, Kenneth, 98. 101 Teacher shortage, 1-2 college in Milwaukee", 1-2 Blue Ribbon Committee. 2 Teacher-training curriculum, 93 Ten Broek, Wayne. 26 Thompson, Edith, 128 Thompson, Lloyd, 26,105,131,135,139 Thrarns, James. 16. 101 Tiarks, David, 14 Timrnel, Kurt, 126 Toepel, David, 138 Toepel, Mark, 138 Toppe, Carleton, 9, 26,42. 54-55. 8889,91.103,119, 121. 124, 156

INDEX

188 Tower Road, 77 Track. 137 Trapp. John, 3 Tunnels. utility, 124, 126 Tutors. 75-77 improved status, 76-77 Two-track program, 93-94, 96-97 U

Urnnus. Leonard, 131-132, 136, 138 Upper Midwest Collegiate Conference, 134 UW - Madison, see accreditation. 81 UW-Milwaukee, see accreditation, 81 UW-System, see accreditation. 81-83

v Vesper, Michael, II Veterans Administration, see accreditation, 80-82 Viet Narn, see faculty-student relations, 71 Viet Nam interlude, see brief items, 150-151 Vignettes, 6-7 Vision 2000+, 56 Visitation teams. see accreditation, 84-86,88 Volleyball tournament, 106 von Rohr, Philip, 129 Voss, Robert, 12, 14, 17,20,26,74.

104, 121, 132, 156 W Wackett, Byron, 6 Waege, David. 15

Wartburg hall, 77, 94,109-112 Wegner, Jeffrey. 101 WELS Classic tournament, 134 WELS Historical Institute, 129 Weltbuerger, 119 Wendland, Ernst, 27 Wendt, James. 12, 127 Werner, Michael, 15 West hall, 110.112, 115-119 Westra, Charles, 101 Westerhaus, Gustav, 16,27 Westerhaus, Herman and William. 123 Westra, Charles, 138 Winnebago Lutheran Academy, I Wisconsin Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations, 122 Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association, 97-98 Wisconsin Lutheran Child and Family Service, 40, 152 Wisconsin Lutheran College (Milwaukee), 113 Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, 30-31, 75-76,89, 105, 129-130 Wittenberg hall, see campus facilities, 115-120 Women's ordination, 154

Z Zabell. Bethel. 143 Zabell, Franklin, 99, 101, 142 Zahn, Allen, 98, 104, 133 Zank. Ronald. 12. 126 zen, William, 77, 92, 100-101, 103, 126, 132 Zuleger, Wayne, 10, 17,26, 133