Ever evolving, always Augsburg

Growth��in graduate programs

From its early years, Augsburg stressed that a good��education is practical and focused on educating��ministerial candidates and theological students as well as��farmers, workers, and businesspeople.

So, it’s no surprise that Augsburg today offers��a number of professional master’s and doctoral��degrees — a mix of programs that makes Augsburg��already more like a university than a college. While there��is no fixed definition outlining the distinction between a��“college” and a “university,” offering post-baccalaureate��degrees commonly is associated with institutions named��as universities.

Augsburg’s first advanced degree program, the��Master of Arts in Leadership, launched 30 years��ago. Since then, 3,700 people have earned master’s��or doctoral degrees from Augsburg. This past fall,��Augsburg’s graduate enrollment reached a record��high—representing 28 percent of total enrollment—and��continued growth in Augsburg graduate programs is��anticipated in the coming years.

Augsburg Name Change History

1869
Augsburg Seminarium

1872
The Norwegian Danish Evangelical Lutheran Augsburg Seminary

1892
Augsburg Seminary

1942
Augsburg College and Theological Seminary

1963
Augsburg College

2017
Augsburg University

The Augsburg logo

The Augsburg University logo is designed to feel similar to people who are already familiar with the College logo, connecting the new design with Augsburg’s legacy. In the new logo, the word “Augsburg” is more bold than the word “University.” This approach reflects research findings indicating that people’s strong associations are with the name, “Augsburg,” whether or not it is followed by “College” or “University.”

The logo design also introduces different type treatments for the two words—with the font for “Augsburg” conveying an established, academic feel, and the font for “University” providing a sleek, contemporary balance. The contrast of the two words creates a dynamic energy.

If you imagine the Augsburg College campus, what do you see?

With just 23 acres, bound by Interstate 94, the University of Minnesota, and the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, Augsburg’s Minneapolis campus needs careful planning to ensure it remains a vibrant, efficient, and sustainable learning environment. This fall, the Augsburg College Board of Regents approved the College’s 2016 campus master plan, the work of a cross-campus task force that lays out a 20-year vision for Augsburg’s Minneapolis location.

Here is a snapshot of some of the major initiatives illustrated in the plan plus insights from Campus Master Plan Task Force members.

The Quad

One of the top near-term priorities in the campus master plan is to extend and reimagine the Augsburg College quad. The existing quad, just outside the front door of Christensen Center, is enclosed by five buildings. Upon completion of the Norman and Evangeline Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion, however, many of the department and program offices now housed in Science Hall will relocate, offering the College the opportunity to raze that building and open the existing quad’s western border to make the new signature academic building visible from the campus core.

Expanding the quad east-to-west will create a ribbon of pedestrian traffic—a greenway—connecting the Hagfors Center on the west and Murphy Square in the east to the pulse of campus and community life.

Old Main

Another high priority in the campus master plan is the restoration of Old Main. The historic beauty of the College’s oldest standing building makes it a centerpiece for student learning as well as for welcoming alumni, community members, and special guests.

Key features of the project include refurbishing the original, multi-story skylight at the center of the building and restoring the chapel space to host events and gatherings. With the north doorway of Old Main opening directly to the extended quad, Old Main will sit at the heart of campus. New, more accessible entrances and updated elevators will make the building more welcoming to all visitors. An interdisciplinary approach to classroom scheduling in the building will give a diverse array of students the chance to take classes in Old Main during their time at Augsburg.

“Physical spaces tell the story of a campus, and I have seen dramatic differences in the experiential stories told by organizations that have a master plan and those that do not.�� Augsburg has intentionally worked to plan what it is and what it is striving to become. The master plan guides how the campus will evolve to support our mission and long-term vision.”

Andra Adolfson, business development director for Adolfson & Peterson Construction, Inc., and Augsburg College Regent

East End

The campus master plan also calls for new development on the easternmost edge of campus. Augsburg’s plan is to partner with a developer to turn the current surface parking lot into a multi-story, mixed-use building that combines retail and office spaces, residences, and a six-story parking ramp.

By moving parking to the edge of campus, the College, over time, can make the remainder of campus greener – by removing numerous other surface parking lots – and help its streets become more pedestrian-friendly by reducing through traffic and street parking. This work will transform the campus experience from one that is car-centric, with buildings surrounded by parking, to one where the buildings are connected by greenery and walkways.

“Through the process of engaging different campus groups [in updating the campus master plan], we really thought about Augsburg as a community. We want a lively campus where people are regularly crossing paths with one another as we go to and from classes and offices-such interesting conversations and inspiration arise when people from different disciplinary and experiential backgrounds share space.”

Nancy Fisher, associate professor, Department of Sociology

Memorial Hall

The master plan also outlines changes to Memorial Hall. Updates to this building, which was constructed in 1938 as a dormitory, would align its interior design with its contemporary use. Today, Memorial Hall has faculty offices lining central, narrow hallways within its brick-and-ivy exterior. The remodel would preserve the building’s exterior but update the interior configuration to improve accessibility and introduce gathering areas for informal learning and student-faculty interaction. These spaces, or “department homes,” would enhance the student learning experience by encouraging students to meet and engage with their professors outside of the classroom.

Longer-Term Plans

Enhancing student interaction is at the heart of a vision to transform the southwest area of campus. New construction would replace Urness and Mortensen residence halls and introduce an athletic field house connected to student housing. This residential-recreation center will promote healthy lifestyles and invite all Auggies—including residential, commuter, adult, and graduate students—to a central space to hang out, work out, study, and relax.

The master plan also touches on the ways people navigate to—and through—campus. And these efforts to improve the safety for motorists and pedestrians will allow for the expansion of student learning spaces. Introducing a roundabout at the northeast corner of Murphy Square and realigning the northern portion of 23rd Avenue South to form a right-angle with Riverside Avenue opens up space for additional buildings near the existing Foss Center and Anderson Music Hall. Augsburg’s campus master plan calls for using this space to build a unified arts district that includes studios and performance spaces for studio arts, music, performing arts, and related disciplines. The master plan also includes a similar roundabout and street realignment of 22nd Avenue South, creating another main entrance, facing Riverside Avenue, for Hoversten Chapel.

“The campus master plan reinforces our commitment to creating our campus as an asset both to the College as well as the broader community. Expanding the quad to create more green space and a gateway to the community provides an inviting environment for our neighbors and all who experience our campus.”

Steve Peacock, director of Community Relations

 

 

---

Read the to learn more about these and other initiatives.

Renderings courtesy of Oslund & Associates

 

Nearly 600 Auggies representing more than six decades and from as far away as Norway attended the 2015 Augsburg College Homecoming celebration. The class with the most attendees? Alumni from 1965, marking their 50th reunion! If you’ve never had the chance to see the campus canopied in fireworks, you should plan to attend Homecoming in 2016.

---

2015 Homecoming Alumni Award recipients:

Homecoming 2015 in photos

For more than five years, Augsburg College has undertaken important efforts to intentionally diversify the traditional undergraduate student profile. This work is not only a prudent move in terms of growing enrollment, but it is also proving to be an important factor in sustaining the region’s economic health.

This spring, more than 200 Augsburg College faculty and staff met with Minnesota State Demographer Susan Brower to discuss the “shape and scale” of the demographic trends in the state that will influence its vitality in the coming decades. Two significant trends detailed by Brower were the increasing diversity and aging of the state’s population – trends that heighten the importance of education now and into the future.

“We don’t have the capacity, going forward, to leave anyone behind.” —Susan Brower, Minnesota State Demographer

Education will grow in importance because the relative size of our workforce affects economic production and the strength of our region. As older adults retire in the next 20 years and the workforce shrinks in proportion to the overall population, Minnesota will need the skills and talents of the entire working-age population.

“Employers are going to have a much greater interest in bringing populations who previously may have been marginalized into productive work,” Brower said. “We don’t have the capacity, going forward, to leave anyone behind.”

For Augsburg, this demographic reality is significant because about 25 percent of college-bound Minnesota high school graduates express interest in Augsburg by applying, inquiring, or visiting campus. In order to successfully enroll and retain these students, Augsburg needs to be intentional about meeting the educational needs of this diversifying population.

Augsburg already has an important advantage in this area because, with nearly 33 percent students of color in the traditional undergraduate program, the College is one of the most diverse higher education institutions in the state. This is attractive to students of both minority and majority populations because it offers them the opportunity to learn and work with many different types of people, which is increasingly important given that the pace of demographic change will accelerate dramatically in the next 15 years.

---

Demographic Trend #1: Growing diversity.

If you went to college or lived in the Twin Cities before the 1990s, your experience with the diversity of the area’s population was different from today’s scenario.

A. Before 1980, fewer than 6 percent of the Twin Cities population were people of color, numbering only 25,000 to 115,000 people in the total population of 1.5 million to 2 million.

B. The Twin Cities experienced accelerated growth among populations of color from 1990 to 2010. During that time, people of color represented more than 80 percent of the overall population growth.

C. Today, the Twin Cities population is estimated at 3 million residents, with nearly 800,000—about 26 percent—people of color. This number is expected to reach 30 percent in the next 10 years.*

*Other areas of the United States are experiencing similar diversity growth. The U.S. population in 2010 was 36 percent people of color.
**Sources: 2, 3

What’s driving the growth in diversity?

• Younger populations are more diverse. Approximately 25 percent of Minnesota residents younger than age 35 are people of color, whereas populations older than 65 years are predominantly white. So, as the entire population ages, overall diversity grows.
  **Sources: 2, 3
• The number of foreign-born residents in Minnesota is growing. Minnesota, today, is home to nearly 400,000 foreign-born residents—a level not seen since the 1930s. By contrast, from 1960 through the 1990s, just more than 100,000 foreign-born people lived in the state.
  **Source: 4
• Minnesota’s foreign-born population is increasingly diverse. In 1950, 80 percent of the foreign-born population in Minnesota was from Europe. Today, most foreign-born residents are from Mexico, Somalia, India, and Laos.
  **Source: 4

---

Demographic Trend #2: Our aging population.

Minnesota—and other regions of the United States—are experiencing an unprecedented aging of our populations.

How dramatic is the change?

Minnesota will add more than 620,000 older adults (age 65+) between 2010 and 2030. By contrast, during the 60 years from 1950 to 2010, the population of older adults grew by just 416,000.
**Source: 1

The size of the labor force is expected to stagnate in the coming decades while the 65+ population will double. As a result, the ratio of adults ages 18 to 64 relative to adults 65 and older will go from nearly 5 to 1 in 2010 to less than 2.5 to 1 in the next 25 years. That means there will be fewer working-age people in the population as a whole. That’s an important consideration because payroll taxes are critical for funding programs like Social Security and Medicare that the growing population of retired and elderly adults will increasingly draw upon.
**Sources: 2, 3

---

A commitment to diversity and inclusion

In 2015, Augsburg graduated its most diverse traditional undergraduate class in history, with more than 30 percent of graduates from underrepresented populations. In fact, every incoming first-year class since 2009 has included 30 to 40 percent students of color.

Augsburg also has identified faculty and staff diversity as a priority initiative in its Augsburg2019 strategic plan. As a first step, the College highlighted its commitment to intercultural competence, diversity, and inclusion in all job postings this past spring. An early result is that six of the College’s 10 new tenure-track faculty are from non-majority populations.

Augsburg also has named Joanne Reeck, director of Campus Activities and Orientation, as chief diversity officer. Reeck launched an intercultural competence program that involved more than 100 members of the campus community this spring and will expand to include a certificate program in the fall. These programs complement the diversity and inclusion workshops offered each May by the College’s Center for Teaching and Learning.

Augsburg’s work in intentional diversity has garnered attention from corporations and community organizations alike. For example, Wells Fargo recently donated $100,000 to Augsburg’s Center for Science, Business, and Religion specifically because of Augsburg’s proven work in educating underrepresented populations. Augsburg also recognizes that diversity extends well beyond ethnicity and provides award-winning programs for students who represent a diversity of ages, national origins, faith traditions, gender identities, and learning and physical differences.

“Of course, there is still much more we need to do,” Reeck said. “But we are committed to diversity and inclusion because it creates a richer educational environment and prepares our students to lead, innovate, and serve in a diverse and globally connected world.”

This work not only supports future graduates’ individual success, it creates a diverse and well-educated generation that’s critical to our collective future prosperity.

---

**Sources: 1. Minnesota State Demographic Center and U.S. Census Bureau. 2. Minnesota State Demographic Center and U.S. Census Bureau, Decennial Census and Population. 3. Estimates as presented by Minnesota Compass, mncompass.org. 4. IPUMS version of U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010-2012 American Community Survey. Tabulated by the Minnesota State Demographic Center.

---

WEB EXTRA:��This fall, Augsburg will launch a website showcasing the range of programs and opportunities the College offers to support diversity and��inclusion. Visit to read definitions pertaining to this important work, and check back after September 1 for full details.

 

Today, higher education has come under question—is the debt worth it, are students graduating at sufficient rates, are we educating��enough of our population, are students actually learning what they need?

In this environment, the value of higher education increasingly is being��defined—by parents and prospective students alike—as “getting a good��job.” In fact, this is the No. 1 reason cited by U.S. respondents in the 2012��Gallup/Lumina poll for pursuing education beyond high school. And the second��reason? To earn more money.

“When college students and their parents think about the value��of higher education, they typically think about it too narrowly,”��said Brandon Busteed, executive director of Gallup Education.��“People tend to get caught up with things—like potential��income or getting a job with a ‘blue chip’ company—that don’t��matter” when it comes to predicting career success and satisfaction,��Busteed said. “Focusing on those things is not the best��way to think about a great job and a great life.”

“WELLBEING” AS A MEASURE OF CAREER SUCCESS

What factors do predict career success? According to Gallup,��it’s being able to respond affirmatively to statements like the��following:

• “I like what I do each day.”
• “I do what I do best every day.”
• “My supervisor cares about my development.”
• “I have a best friend at work.”

Agreeing with statements like these indicates that a person��is engaged in interesting and meaningful activities at work,��is using his or her strengths to achieve goals, is motivated by��the team leader, and is supported by colleagues who share a��common purpose. Those characteristics, according to Gallup’s��“wellbeing” research, correlate more with top performance than��income or title or working for a prestigious organization.

Gallup has been studying wellbeing, on a global basis,��since the 1930s.

“Wellbeing is not ‘wellness,’” Busteed said. “It is a multidimensional measure of how people rate their lives.”

In the past several decades, Gallup’s study of people in��more than 150 countries has revealed five universal, interconnected��elements that shape our lives: career wellbeing, social��wellbeing, financial wellbeing, physical wellbeing, and community��wellbeing.

“We didn’t invent these categories,” Busteed said. “The��factors that correlate with wellbeing are what we found from the��data collected over time and across populations.” Of those five��interconnected elements of wellbeing, career wellbeing is the��most important, Busteed said.

“Our careers are a fundamental piece of how we define��ourselves,” Busteed said. “Plus, work is where you spend the��majority of your waking hours,” so it is going to have a major��impact on your life evaluation—not to mention your social,��financial, and physical wellbeing.

Gallup’s research shows that those who have high career��wellbeing are 4.5 times more likely to be “thriving”—versus��merely surviving or, worse, suffering—in life. However, just 31��percent of the U.S. population has very high career wellbeing.

WELLBEING AND WORKPLACE ENGAGEMENT

The career wellbeing issue is connected with low worker��engagement, Busteed said. According to Gallup’s 2012 “State��of the American Workplace” report, only 30 percent of full-time��U.S. workers are engaged and inspired at work. Fifty percent��are not engaged, the report states—“they’re just kind of present,��but not inspired by their work or their managers.” The��remaining 20 percent of all full-time U.S. workers are actively��disengaged in their jobs.

One significant driver of high or low engagement is a person’s��manager, Busteed said. People looking for a “good job”��focus so much on income and landing a position at a “good”��company, but finding a good manager is vastly more important��than working for a well-known company, he explained.

Another factor causing low worker engagement is whether��a person is using her or his strengths every day. “Not just once��in a while, not once every week or so, but every day,” Busteed��said. Among college graduates, he said, the lack of opportunity��to use one’s strengths at work every day points to career misalignment—either getting a degree in a field in which one isn’t��able to get a job or pursuing a field because of others’ expectations��instead of based on one’s own strengths.

“The onus is certainly on the individual [student], but it is��also on the college and mentors to make sure that students are��asking themselves” what they are truly good at, what engages��and excites them, Busteed said.

EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES THAT SUPPORT CAREER SUCCESS

In addition to studying workplace dynamics that correspond��with career wellbeing, Gallup also has identified specific college��experiences that correlate with subsequent career success. In��its research, Gallup has found two educational experiences��that are twice as likely as other factors to predict high work��performance:

1. Working on a long-term project that took several classes to��complete, and
2. Using what was learned in class to develop solutions to��real-world problems.

In short, Busteed said, “what works in school is ‘real work.’”

“Real work”—including problem-solving and experiential��education opportunities—helps prepare students for success��after graduation, but Gallup also has done extensive research��on the factors that predict success during college. Here,��Busteed said, Gallup has found that “hope” is statistically a��stronger predictor of educational outcomes than test scores or��grade-point averages. (In fact, according to the work of Gallup��Senior Scientist Shane Lopez, hope is the leading indicator of��success in relationships, academics, career, and business—as��well as of a healthier, happier life.)

HOPE: AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN COLLEGE SUCCESS

“Hope is a strategy,” Busteed said. However, it is not just wishful��thinking, he explained. Instead, it refers to one’s ideas and��energy for the future and includes the following three elements:

1. Attainable goals,
2. The ability to see multiple pathways to achieve those goals,��and
3. Agency—i.e., a belief that you can achieve your goals.

Measures of hope, engagement, and wellbeing account for��one-third of the variance of student success in college, Busteed��reported. And, although college success is also driven by other��things—such as academic preparation and content knowledge—those things are being measured fairly consistently and��systematically through cognitive measures, such as tests.

“But no one is paying attention to measuring the non-cognitive��factors that account for a whopping one-third of��student success,” Busteed said. “We need better balance and��alignment around how we track and promote student success��[in college].”

The same is true for college outcomes, where job placement��percentages and average salaries tell only part of the��story. “What’s the ultimate outcome of an education?” Busteed��asked. “To have a better life,” he said. We need to pay attention��to how we measure that.

�鶹ԭ�� AND CAREER WELLBEING

MATCHING YOUR GIFTS TO THE NEEDS��OF THE WORLD

According to Gallup, career wellbeing requires��that people understand what they are truly good��at and pursue career opportunities that allow��them to use their strengths every day.

Augsburg calls this vocational discernment.

“Augsburg is about forming and shaping��students to lead lives of meaning and purpose,”��said Mark Tranvik, professor of religion and��director of Augsburg’s Bernhard Christensen��Center for Vocation. “At Augsburg, we encourage��students to move beyond self-enhancement and��think about their lives within a wider horizon. We��want them to ask questions like, ‘What am I good��at?’ and ‘How can my gifts best be used to make a��difference in the world?’

“For many at the College,” Tranvik said,��“faith plays an important role in how those questions��are answered.” The exploration of one’s��gifts is rooted deeply in the Lutheran theological��tradition of vocation, and it is a critical part of the��educational journey at Augsburg—for students of��all faith and spiritual backgrounds, Tranvik said.

FINDING THE RIGHT WORKPLACE��ENVIRONMENT

Another important part of the self-discovery��journey is determining what types of work environments��might suit you best, said Keith Munson,��director of the Clair and Gladys Strommen��Center for Meaningful Work. “You can get a job��doing something you love, but if that job is not��in the right place—the right work environment��or culture—you won’t be able to sustain your��motivation for the job very long,” he said.

In other words, you need to pay attention to��where and how your gifts will be used.

A good way to learn about work environments��is through informational interviews,��Munson said. “Networking, of course, ensures��that people learn more about you than can be��picked up from your résumé, but that’s not��the only reason to network,” he said. It is as��important “for you to actually find out if a given��company or department is a good place for you��to work.”

Determining whether a given work��environment is a fit, however, requires that��you understand what kind of work cultures and��relationships are best for you. This involves��self-reflection and, usually, some amount of��coaching. But many students—and many adults��in job transitions, for that matter—skip that��step and just focus on securing a job.

EXPANDING THE DEFINITION OF A��“GOOD JOB”

Munson said he understands why students (and��their parents) think it’s important to get a “good��job” after college. “For many students, following��their passion without worrying or thinking about��their income is not a realistic option,” he said.��“I always tell these students that it’s okay for��them to think about the realities of their career��choices. You can be practical about those matters��and still pay attention to the other piece”—the search for work and work environments that suit you—as well.

“You’re looking for a job anyway,” Munson��tells students. “Why not also try to find something��that you are going to like to do?” In fact, Munson��said, by actively seeking work environments that��suit them, students tend to be more effective in��the job search process. “When you are looking��for something—and someplace—that’s interesting��to you, you are likely to be more motivated��in the job search,” he said. You’ll do more��background preparation, seek more informational��interviews, and ask more purposeful questions.

In the end, Munson said, students shouldn’t��think that they need to choose between following��their hearts and getting a “good job.” You can—and should—do both.