Long ago, this blog predicted that three tiny colleges would not continue to exist within one day's driving distance.
After spending $30 million on merging DMLC and NWC, closing Prairie, and building up NW Prep (now Luther Prep), and blowing $8 million on a chapel at MLC - WELS is closing the New Ulm campus.
The two causes are poor enrollment and declining financial support.
The pastor track will return to Watertown, giving hope to the bartenders who cater to minors. That will also re-create Northwestern College.
The teacher track will move to Willowcreek's Little College in Milwaukee.
WELS has accomplished so much with the largest charitable gift ever donated to a religious group - the Schwan avalanche, in case you do not know.
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MLC Student from Borneo:
As much as I might hate to say it, that's a pretty viable route for WELS to take. I don't think it'll happen within this school year, but I can conceive it happening perhaps in 2011-2012.
Yet another point adding validity to the claim: Some students at MLC are a lot like unpaid faculty (myself included). For example: suppose I happen to be attending a real college like UW Madison. I could demand about $250 for being an actor in a musical. Being an audio-video technician for a play could get me anywhere from $200-$1000 per performance. Hymn Festival (just earlier this evening) could get me at least $50 compensation for being an accompanist.
I'm doing all of this and more for free. By my calculations, after less than two months of school, Martin Luther College should owe me well over $1000 for services rendered. And don't even get me started on how many thousands in scholarships I didn't get because I'm attending MLC. My freshman year at WLC could have been free.
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Greg, moving the pastor track back to Watertown should not be a big issue. The buildings are already there. All they have to do is either call it Northwestern College again or even Luther College depending on the legalities of the name. I bet most of the profs that would be teaching the future pastors would love to go to Watertown. I just can not see MLC lasting more than a couple of school years. New Ulm just does not have anything there or around it close for these students to do or work for.
I think by what you are hearing it is in the works.
Diablo
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GJ - Someone told me MLC students are talking about the post - "another lie."
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Trevor has left a new comment on your post "WELS Martin Luther College Will Close: Pastor Trac...":
@GJ: The difference between this blog entry and others is that this is a report of news/fact whereas your other entries are commentary. I tend to agree with your commentary because of my understanding of God's Word. But because this report is not supported by any evidence, it has the same credibility as reports in the National Enquirer about Oprah having lesbian relationships with Gayle Kink and Diane Sawyer.
To you (sic) later point, just because the school has contingency plans does not mean that it's failing. As you well know, there are many CG people in the WELS. These people have it in their craw to close ALL of the synod schools. Hopefully those people are kept in check (or better shown the error of their ways) but nonetheless it's prudent to be aware of and plan for many possibilities.
@Brett Meyer: I don't see how your question for me is germane to the thread. That being said, I did not identify as gay at that time.
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GJ - It is a fact that this was passed on to me, and the source was in a position to know. If I blabbed about sources, I would not have any, would I? Someone not believing me is not exactly an argument or refutation.
If nothing happens, I will say, this is the person who said it. Since there is a witness, it cannot be denied. Either it is an actual plan or it is a falsehood fed to me through someone. The statistics argue for the campus closing. The need for parochial teachers is declining rapidly. The current SP newsletter has money being spent elsewhere rather than shoring up the schools.
