Augsburg University is a private, coeducational university located in Minneapolis, Minnesota affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Upon its founding in 1869, it was a Norwegian-American Lutheran seminary known as Augsburg Seminarium. Its first college class began in the fall of 1874. Today, the university enrolls approximately 3000 undergraduate students and 800 graduate students. The school is known for its emphasis on service learning; volunteering in the community is both an instructional strategy and a required part of a student's coursework. In 2010 Augsburg was one of the six higher education institutions to receive the Presidential Award for Community Service, sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service. On September 1, 2017 the name of the school became Augsburg University.
Video Augsburg University
History
Augsburg was founded as a seminary by Norwegian Lutherans. It was named after the Augsburg Confession, the confession of faith presented by Lutherans in Augsburg, Germany in 1530. Augsburg Seminarium opened in September 1869, in Marshall, Wisconsin, and moved to Minneapolis in 1872 and the name changed to The Norwegian Danish Evangelical Lutheran Augsburg Seminary after the church body that sponsored the school. Undergraduate classes first began in the fall of 1874 with the first class graduating in the spring of 1879. In 1892, the name was shorten to Augsburg Seminary. In 1893, Augsburg leaders formed the "Friends of Augsburg", which became the Lutheran Free Church in 1897. Women were first admitted to the college in 1921. The school was officially known as Augsburg Seminary until 1942 when the name was changed to Augsburg College and Theological Seminary although that name had been informally used since the 1910s. When the Lutheran Free Church merged with the American Lutheran Church in 1963, Augsburg Seminary merged with Luther Seminary in Saint Paul and the name of the school became Augsburg College. There was also a high school level Augsburg Academy on campus until it closed in 1933. In 2017, the name of the school officially became Augsburg University.
August Weenaas was Augsburg's first president (1869-1876). Professor Weenaas recruited two teachers from Norway--Sven Oftedal and Georg Sverdrup. These three men clearly articulate the direction of Augsburg: to educate Norwegian Lutherans to minister to immigrants and to provide such "college" studies that would prepare students for theological study.
In 1874 they proposed a three-part plan: first, train ministerial candidates; second, prepare future theological students; and third, educate the farmer, worker, and businessman. The statement stressed that a good education is also practical. Augsburg's next two presidents also emphatically rejected ivory tower concepts of education. This commitment to church and community has led to Augsburg's theme of over 130 years: Education for Service.
This attitude began to change after World War I. In 1911, George Sverdrup, Jr. became president. He worked to develop college departments with an appeal to a broader range of students than just those intending to be ministers. In 1937, Augsburg elected Bernhard Christensen, an erudite and scholarly teacher, to be president (1938-1962). His involvement in ecumenical and civic circles made Augsburg a more visible part of church and city life. After World War II, Augsburg leaders made vigorous efforts to expand and improve academic offerings. Now the College was a larger part of the institution than the seminary and received the most attention.
As a result, Augsburg added departments essential to a liberal arts college, offering a modern college program based on general education requirements and elective majors. The seminary moved to Luther Theological Seminary (now Luther Seminary) in St. Paul in 1963 when the Lutheran Free Church merged with the American Lutheran Church. Augsburg continues to reflect the commitment and dedication of the founders who believed an Augsburg education should be preparation for service in community and church. Providing an education grounded in vocational calling, that provides students both the theoretical learning and the practical experience to succeed in a global, diverse world.
Nobel Peace Prize Forum
In 2012 and 2013, Augsburg University housed the Nobel Peace Prize Forum. It provided an opportunity for students and staff of Augsburg to interact with people who have fundamentally made a large change in the world. The forum is not affiliated with, but modeled after the exclusive Nobel Conference.
Maps Augsburg University
Academic life
Augsburg University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
The student-faculty ratio at Augsburg University is 16:1, and the school has 64.4 percent of its classes with fewer than 20 students. The most popular majors at Augsburg University include: Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services; Education; Health Professions and Related Programs; Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs; and Social Sciences.
Academic offerings
Augsburg strives to educate both traditional and non-traditional students, offering undergraduate degrees in over 50 major areas of study. The University also grants eight graduate degrees.
Augsburg offers one postgraduate degree the Doctor of Nursing Practice.
Awards and rankings
In 2010 Augsburg University was one of six higher education institutions in the nation to receive the 2010 Presidential Award for Community Service, the highest honor in the annual President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.
U.S. News & World Report named Augsburg as one of the best colleges for service-learning, which includes 31 schools across the country where volunteering in the community is both an instructional strategy and a requirement of a student's coursework. According to the U.S. News & World Report rankings, Augsburg University is 23th in its Regional University Midwest Ranking.
U.S. News & World Report also consistently ranks Augsburg as a Tier 1 institution for its Physician Assistant program. In 2013, Augsburg ranked #70 in the nation. Augsburg shares the #70 rank with the following institutions: University of Southern California, Western University of Health Sciences, and the University of New England.
On 27 June 2015 at the United International College's 7th Graduation Ceremony in Zhuhai, Augsburg University's President Dr Paul C Pribbenow was rewarded with the Honorary Fellowships.
Campus
Residence halls
- Urness Hall is the first-year building. It has 9 floors of traditional-style residence hall rooms (plus two other floors), with one co-ed floor. Each floor is led by a Resident Advisor (RA).
- Mortensen Hall (known as Mort) is connected to the Urness lobby and has 13 floors of apartment-style housing (eight apartments on every floor). It is the tallest building on the campus. Mortensen Hall is named for Gerda Mortensen, Dean of Women at Augsburg University between 1923 and 1964.
- Anderson Hall is a four story building with four different styles of housing available. These include single person suites, four person apartments, eight person townhomes (two floors), and 15 person floorhouses.
- Martin Luther Residence Hall (also known as Luther Hall and formerly known as New Hall until October 1, 2007) was built in 1999 from state funding (because of this there was no major contributor to name the hall after). As it is no longer the newest building with the completion of Oren (see below), the old name of New Hall is misleading. Luther Hall has studios, two bedroom and four bedroom apartments. The apartments all consist of single or double person rooms and have a full kitchen.
- The Oren Gateway Center is a substance-free residence hall and houses students in the StepUP program, as well as other students who choose sober living and has rooms for 106 students.
Other buildings
- Old Main is the oldest building on campus and is still in use today. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
- The Christensen Center contains admissions offices, the cafeteria, a coffee shop, computers, an art gallery, and until August 2007, the bookstore (after which the bookstore moved to the Oren Gateway Center). On March 28, 2008, a student lounge opened in the former bookstore space. It is connected by skyway to Urness Hall/Mortensen Hall.
- Sverdrup Hall (formerly known as Sverdrup Library until the completion of the Lindell Library in 1998) contains the Enrollment Center and Registrar's Office as well as several class rooms and computer labs on the upper level.
- The James G. Lindell Library has four levels containing approximately 190,000 items. With the new addition of a computer lab, Academic Advising will soon relocate from Sverdrup to Lindell before 2012. The library is connected to Sverdrup Hall and the Oren Gateway Center by skyway.
- The Oren Gateway Center has six classrooms, an art gallery, and housing for 106 students.
- The Foss, Lobeck, Miles, Center for Worship, Drama, Communication contains the chapel, a theater, and several classrooms.
- The Sverdrup and Oftedal Memorial Hall contains offices for the college's professors.
- The Norman and Evangeline Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion is the newest building on campus and also the largest.
Future expansion
Several new facilities are currently planned including a new residence hall to replace The Science Hall, a parking ramp, and other buildings.
Student life
Augsburg's student body totals approximately 3,800 students representing some 40 states, more than 40 foreign countries, and 24 tribal nations/reservations. The main campus newspaper is the Augsburg Echo with a circulation over 1000. The college is involved in providing services to students with physical or learning disabilities, and to students in recovery through its "StepUP Program". StepUP is Augsburg's program for students in recovery from drug and alcohol abuse. The program provides a sober environment for about 60 students in the Oren Gateway Center (see below). The program claims an excellent success rate: 84% abstinence over 538 people between 1997 and 2007.
This on-campus diversity is enhanced by Augsburg's location in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, the Twin Cities' most culturally diverse neighborhood. The largest concentration of Somali immigrants in the U.S. is located throughout the Augsburg neighborhood, and one of the largest urban Native American populations is within one mile. Augsburg is also located in the heart of a major theater center. The university has been designated as a Minnesota Indian Teacher Training Program site.
On 26 August 2014, some students from Augsburg University went to BNU-HKBU United International College to be interns.
Campus organizations
Augsburg students have opportunities for involvement in more than 50 clubs and organizations, including student academic societies, publications, Student Government, Augsburg Business Organization, Augsburg Asian Student Association, Campus Ministry, Augsburg University Pre-law Society, Pan-Afrikan and Pan-Asian Student Union, forensics, cheerleading, Amnesty International, Intertribal Student Union and the Hispanic/Latino Student Association.
The Echo
The Echo is the student-produced newspaper for the university.
The Echo consists of 8 pages divided into five sections: News, Opinions and Editorials, Sports, Arts and Entertainment, and Features. The paper is printed in black and white on tabloid-sized paper. The faculty advisor is Boyd Koehler.
The Echo is printed by Print Group Midwest on recycled paper.
KAUG
KAUG is Augsburg's student radio station, based in the Auggies' Nest in the basement of Christensen Center. KAUG streams 24 hours-a-day online through their website and can be heard on the airwaves on 91.7 FM within a 2-mile radius of the campus.
KAUG provides a venue for a number of DJs, which play several genres of music and talk radio.
Marginalized Voices in Film and Media
Originally known as "Women in Film", Marginalized Voices in Film and Media (MVFM) is a student group dedicated to the advancement of women and other minorities in the film and television industry. The group discusses the depiction of minorities on the screen and their roles behind the camera.
Queer Pride Alliance
...we affirm the following: that people of all sexual orientations and gender identities share the worth that comes from being unique individuals created by God; that people of all sexual orientations and gender identities are welcome with the Augsburg community; and that as members of this community, people of all sexual orientations and gender identities are expected and encouraged to share in the common life of this university.
Known as "Queer and Straight In Unity" (QSU) until 2014, and originally incorporated as "BAGLS" in 1988, Queer Pride Alliance (QPA) is Augsburg's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual support group. After the hostile campus environment towards LGBTQIA individuals culminated in several anti-LGBTQIA incidences in 2003, students occupied administrator offices to protest the university's lack of action. In response, Augsburg established the GLBTQIA Student Services office (today known as the LGBTQIA Student Services office), which became the primary point of contact and support for QSU and the LGBTQIA student body. QPA is advised by the director of the LGBTQIA Student Services office, which jointly provides the campus community with workshops, performances, weekly group meetings, and speakers, as well as exposing students to the wider Midwestern LGBTQIA rights movement by sponsoring retreats and trips to conferences. Today, the university is certified Reconciling in Christ by ReconcilingWorks, which means that in accordance with its theological values, it welcomes and actively affirms "all people in regard to their gender expression, gender identity, and sexual orientation."
Church affiliation
Presidents of Augsburg
Notable alumni
- Peter Agre, M.D., 1970, the 2003 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry and faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
- Jill Billings, 1990, Wisconsin State Assembly
- Rev. Herbert W. Chilstrom, 1954, Retired (and the first) Presiding Bishop of the ELCA.
- Devean George, 1999, Former National Basketball Association player for the Los Angeles Lakers, the Dallas Mavericks and the Golden State Warriors.
- Rev. Mark Hanson, 1971, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
- Roger Huerta, former wrestler, mixed martial artist once competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Bellator Fighting Championship
- Marcus LeVesseur, 2007, 4-time Wrestling National Champion (2003-05, 2007), 4-time Minnesota State High School Wrestling Champion (1998-2001). LeVesseur is the first Division III wrestler with four national titles. He is only the second college wrestler ever to finish his career unbeaten and untied, with a 155-0 career record (Cael Sanderson was the first). LeVesseur is currently competing in Mixed Martial Arts.
- Lute Olson, 1956, basketball coach at University of Iowa and Arizona, coached Arizona to a national championship.
- Anne Panning, 1988, writer, winner of 2006 Flannery O'Connor Award for Super America
- Oscar S. Paulson, 1914, Wisconsin State Senate
- James Pederson, 1934, played in the National Football League from 1930-32 with the Minneapolis Red Jackets, Frankford Yellow Jackets and Chicago Bears.
- Martin Sabo, 1959, former Mn State Representative (1961-1978) and U.S. Congress Representative (1979-2007).
- Dave Stevens, 1991, amputee athlete born without legs, who played college football. Only congenital amputee to ever play college sports.
- Jane Jeong Trenka, activist, author, and winner of a Minnesota Book Award
- Susan Allen, 1992, the first Native American woman elected to the Minnesota state legislature, and the first openly lesbian Native American to win election to a state legislature.
Athletics
The Augsburg Auggies are a member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). Augsburg University participates in NCAA Division III Athletics. The wrestling team has won twelve NCAA Division III National team wrestling champions: 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2015. The men's hockey team had won 3 NAIA national ice hockey championships in 1978, 1981 and 1982.
- Men's Varsity Sports (9): baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, ice hockey, soccer, track & field, wrestling
- Women's Varsity Sports (10): basketball, cross country, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, track & field, volleyball
Conference championships
- c co champions
- *Wrestling is no longer a MIAC sponsor sport
- Auggies athletics webpage
- Auggie football records
- Frank Haege current football coach
See also
- List of colleges and universities in Minnesota
- Higher education in Minnesota
Notes
References
- Chrislock, Carl H. "From Fjord to Freeway: 100 years, Augsburg College" (Minneapolis: Augsburg College 1969)
External links
- Augsburg University Website
- Augsburg University Athletics Website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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