As of fall 2025, news and media updates have been integrated with the Augsburg Now alumni publication. This site archives news stories from before September 16, 2025. Please visit augsburg.edu/now or select "Augsburg Now" from the left navigation for current news.
Students, from Sept. 1 to mid-December, will study, live, travel more than 1,795 miles on Mississippi from St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico
(MINNEAPOLIS) – A class of 16 Augsburg College students led by Professor Joe Underhill will depart Sept. 1 in 24-foot voyageur canoes to spend the semester studying, researching and living on the river. The students taking part in the nationâs first-ever River Semester will travel nearly 2,000 miles of the 2,350-mile-long Mississippi River to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. The group will depart from in a launch event that is open to the public.
Augsburg College Professor of History Bill Green spoke with MinnPost about his latest book, “Degrees of Freedom: The Origins of Civil Rights in Minnesota, 1865-1912.”
Green told reporter Amy Goetzman that his book chronicles conditions for African-Americans in Minnesota in the half-century following the Civil War and picks up where his previous book, âA Peculiar Imbalance: The Fall and Rise of Racial Equality in Minnesota, 1837-1869,â left off.
“The history [of Minnesota] is amazing, particularly when you look at who was here before statehood and how they interacted with each other,” Green said. “I found that we were lacking a good accounting of the black people who were part of that history. Most of them didnât leave a written record, which looks like they had nothing to say, but of course they did. They were part of this experience.â
The International Special Events Society has elected Jodi Collen as its new international president for the 2015-16 year.
Collen, director of Event & Conference Planning at Augsburg, is a previous president of the International Special Events Society’s Minneapolis-St. Paul chapter and has been a member of the International Board of Governors for the past five years. She was inaugurated at the associationâs Annual General Meeting, which took place in New Orleans.
Collen’s achievement was recognized by the following organizations:
History Professor Bill Green spoke with WCCO-TV about why Minnesotans are quick to defend their state’s image.
A recent Washington Post article identified Red Lake County, Minn., as the “absolute worst place to live in America,” and Minnesotans immediately sought to set the record straight. In the news stationâs Good Question segment, Green explained that part of the reason why Minnesotans reacted strongly to the article is because of the major investment they make in ensuring that the state offers a favorable quality of life.
âWe work hard to have good government, we work hard to create a society that attempts to include everyone,â he said. âWe work hard to invest resources into making this place look beautiful.â
This summer, Sod House — a theater company founded by Augsburg College Chair of Theater Arts Darcey Engen â88 and her husband, Luverne Seifert â83 — brought a production of âHoopla Train (with Yard Master Yip and his Polkastra)â to 14 historic ballrooms in different Minnesota cities including Barrett, McGregor, Nisswa, and Sleepy Eye.
Engen and Seifert shared the stage with a troupe of performers to put on the production billed as âLawrence Welk meets âHee-Haw.ââ The Sod House Theater project began in 2011 when Engen and Seifert collaborated to create the condensed version of Anton Chekhovâs play “The Cherry Orchard” with Twin Cities colleagues including Sarah Myers, associate professor of theater at Augsburg.
This year the “Hoopla Train” has garnered the attention of media outlets across Minnesota, including the following organizations and stories:
BringMeTheNews — Hoopla Train: The touring theater variety show coming to a stage near you
—Â Summer is showtime for Sod House, Minnesota’s whistle-stop theater
—Â All aboard the ‘Hoopla Train’ bound for Faribault
Rochester Post-Bulletin —Â ‘Hoopla Train’ pulls into town
— Professional Twin Cities Theater Troupe to perform at the American Legion in Nisswa
Sleepy Eye Herald-Dispatch — ‘Hoopla Train’ show coming to Sleepy Eye next week
—Â ‘Hoopla’ brings old-fashioned fun to outstate Minnesota
Harry Boyte, senior scholar in public work philosophy for Augsburg’s Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship, described the importance of citizen professionals in a recent article for the Huffington Post. Boyte explained that places like Augsburg College are ripe with students preparing to become “citizen nurses” and “citizen teachers” who will serve as change agents in their future careers.
The online media resource Bring Me The News shared a compilation of information about the Augsburg College River Semester, a three-and-a-half month program in which students and faculty members will traverse the Mississippi River from St. Paul to New Orleans while studying topics in the arts, humanities, and sciences. As the story noted, “Students will sleep in campsites instead of dorm rooms and will paddle rather than walk to their classes this fall.”
Augsburg College’s first-ever River Semester will be an opportunity for students to spend the fall and early winter months traveling from St. Paul to New Orleans in 24-foot voyageur canoes on the Mississippi River. Participants will study topics ranging from ecology to history to literature.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune recently discussed this experiential education opportunity in the article, ““
In nationâs first-ever River Semester, students starting Sept. 1 will paddle, study, research, and live on the Mississippi River
WHAT
: Augsburg College on Sept. 1 will launch the nationâs first-ever River Semester. Students, who will earn as many as 16 credits, will travel the length of the Mississippi River from St. Paul to New Orleans in 24-foot voyageur canoes.
Augsburg College Professor of History Bill Green spoke with MinnPost about his latest book, “Degrees of Freedom: The Origins of Civil Rights in Minnesota, 1865-1912.”
History Professor Bill Green spoke with WCCO-TV about why Minnesotans are quick to defend their state’s image.
This summer, Sod House — a theater company founded by Augsburg College Chair of Theater Arts Darcey Engen â88 and her husband, Luverne Seifert â83 — brought a production of âHoopla Train (with Yard Master Yip and his Polkastra)â to 14 historic ballrooms in different Minnesota cities including Barrett, McGregor, Nisswa, and Sleepy Eye.
Harry Boyte, senior scholar in public work philosophy for Augsburg’s Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship, described the importance of citizen professionals in a recent article for the Huffington Post. Boyte explained that places like Augsburg College are ripe with students preparing to become “citizen nurses” and “citizen teachers” who will serve as change agents in their future careers.
The online media resource Bring Me The News shared a compilation of information about the Augsburg College River Semester, a three-and-a-half month program in which students and faculty members will traverse the Mississippi River from St. Paul to New Orleans while studying topics in the arts, humanities, and sciences. As the story noted, “Students will sleep in campsites instead of dorm rooms and will paddle rather than walk to their classes this fall.”
Augsburg College’s first-ever River Semester will be an opportunity for students to spend the fall and early winter months traveling from St. Paul to New Orleans in 24-foot voyageur canoes on the Mississippi River. Participants will study topics ranging from ecology to history to literature.