Tim Pippert, Augsburg’s Joel Torstenson endowed professor of sociology, and Graduate Assistant Savannah Mitchell recently highlighted Augsburg Family Scholars on the “.” Created by the University of Pennsylvania Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice, and Research—the podcast explores the pathways, resources, and relationships that empower older youth in foster care as they navigate the journey into adulthood. 

Pippert developed Augsburg Family Scholars for young people with foster care backgrounds to find community and support on their education journey. In the podcast, Mitchell highlights the , an initiative in Minnesota that pays for the cost of college tuition for students with foster care experience to reduce disparities faced by this population when pursuing higher education. Augsburg Family Scholars’ holistic approach provides financial resources, academic mentoring, and community building to student participants.

“Augsburg Family Scholars works here because it takes an entire campus to do this really well,” Pippert says in the podcast. “We work with admissions. When admissions sees a student who identifies with having a foster care background, they let us know so we can reach out to them. When students have an issue with financial aid, we send them to WonWon Bjorklund in student financial services, and WonWon answers their questions, not a random person behind the counter. When we have an academic advising issue, Julie Froslan Ferralez takes care of it. Julie advises all of our scholars. Like WonWon, like Stephanie Ruckel and Stacey Severson in Admissions—they’re just wonderful people.”

Listen to of the 2026 Field Center Aging Out Podcasts.

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Jeremy Myers, associate professor of religion and executive director of the Christensen Center for Vocation, was appointed the Bernhard M. Christensen professor of religion and vocation in July. He succeeds Professor Emerita Martha Stortz, who retired in 2020. A distinguished scholar in vocation and congregational ministry, Myers joined Augsburg in 2006 and has facilitated the Theology and Public Leadership degree program, the Youth Studies minor, and the Augsburg Youth Theology Institute. The Christensen Chair was established in 2005 to honor the legacy of Bernhard M. Christensen, who served as president of what was then known as Augsburg College and Seminary from 1938–1962. The chair provides public leadership in interpreting and advancing Augsburg’s educational mission, pursues scholarship and teaches in the religion department, and serves as counsel to the president and Board of Regents.

Andy Aoki, professor of political science, was named the M. Anita Gay Hawthorne professor of critical race and ethnicity studies in June. He succeeds Professor Emeritus William Green, who retired earlier this year. Aoki, who joined the Augsburg faculty in 1988, is a prolific writer and speaker about Asian American identities and racial politics. During his tenure, Aoki has served as chair of the department of political science, senior fellow in the Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship, Faculty Senate president, and, most recently, chair of the department of critical race and ethnicity studies. The Hawthorn professorship honors the legacy of Margaret Anita Gay Hawthorne, who drew upon the concept of Pan-Afrikanism to create a program at Augsburg unique to any college in the country.

Mary Elise Lowe, professor of religion, was named the Batalden faculty scholar in applied ethics in Spring 2022. A member of Augsburg’s faculty since 2003, Lowe’s work focuses on new understandings of the human person with special attention to the doctrine of sin, the image of God, and human sexuality. Her focus as Batalden Scholar will be on “embodied ethics”—an expansive category that includes traditional sexual ethics as well as questions of embodiment that are often excluded from traditional Christian ethics. She will also focus on intersectional topics, including disability/ability, race, body image, and human relationships. Funded by an endowment established by Abner Batalden ’36 and supported by his family, the Batalden Faculty Scholar Program in Applied Ethics is designed to strengthen the infusion of ethics and values on campus, so that ethical discourse and practice is enhanced as a hallmark of Augsburg’s students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

A transformational gift from Board of Regents member John Schwartz ’67 will create the Leland B. Sateren ’35 professor and chair of music, a new endowed professorship to be held by the chair of the music department. An alumnus of the Augsburg Choir baritone section and a steadfast supporter of Augsburg students, Schwartz has maintained a passion for choral music throughout four decades as a healthcare executive and into retirement. With previous gifts, he established an endowed choral professorship, a fund for choral music, and an endowed scholarship. This latest gift will help advance the music department with inclusion, access, equity, and belonging and advance the department’s work locally, regionally, and nationally among diverse constituents. It will also bring expertise in music from beyond the Euro-Classical canon and/or in ethnomusicology.
The endowed chair honors renowned Augsburg choral conductor and composer Leland Sateren ’35, who died in 2007 at age 94.

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It’s a collision of energy that delights anyone observing, each drawn to its light for reasons both obvious and intensely personal.

Maybe it’s poetry, or maybe it’s providence.

But the meeting of seemingly opposing forces is creating something spectacular in other parts of this border town, too. The magic is made of one cup of coffee, one shared car ride, one page at a time. Here, a book club brings rural community members and urban college students together, meeting each person wherever they are and challenging them to think differently. The book club is one of a number of experiential learning opportunities offered at Augsburg University that put into practice just what it means to pursue one’s calling and build a meaningful life and career.

Removing obstacles

What’s become known as the Anti-Racist Book Club began as the brainchild of Augsburg alumni and Hallock residents Kristin Eggerling ’89 and Paul Blomquist ’88. For some time, the couple had been hosting a club, welcoming their neighbors into discussions of social justice issues. But the group grew to include current Auggies when Timothy Pippert, the Joel Torstenson Endowed Professor of Sociology, began reminiscing about a pre-pandemic writing retreat that gave him time for thought and reflection.

“I started talking to Darcey [Engen ’88] about it, about how I missed it, and she said, ‘You need to meet two of my friends,’” Pippert said.

Engen, professor and chair of the Augsburg theater department and founder of the theater company Sod House, helped get all the parties involved in conversation. Eggerling—a writer, editor, and community activist—found comfort and friends at the Hallock library when she first moved to the town after working for a time in the Twin Cities. Hallock is where Blomquist grew up, and where he returned after college to run his family’s Ford dealership after his father’s unexpected death. Their Augsburg experience was imprinted on them on an almost cellular level, and it eventually led to them celebrating things in Hallock that some overlook or take for granted, while also asking critical questions and inviting others in the community to engage in challenging conversations.

When Pippert heard of the couple’s work, it wasn’t long before he asked if the group could join them.

The couple said yes. With that, planning began in earnest. What book? When? Who will be involved? How? The cumulative efforts of that organizing came together with a Fall 2021 trip, funded by Board of Regents member Mark S. Johnson ’75, that brought the city-dwelling students to the small country community that sits within 20 miles of the Canadian border.

Welcome to Hallock, population 981.

“One of the things we were trying to do was to focus not just on the anti-racism theme, but to explore the urban and rural divide. Many of our students don’t really have a sense of what it’s like to live in or know many people who come from a town of 900 people,” Pippert said.

Conversely, folks who’ve spent their entire lives in and near a place where Friday night is synonymous with fish fry don’t necessarily understand why someone would want to live in a place where a high school can be larger than their entire community.

“When it comes to this idea between urban and rural, there’s a big divide in lots of ways,” Engen said. “Yes, of course, there are often issues around race, but there are economic issues, too. And in greater Minnesota, there are people who are struggling and need resources, the same as in the Twin Cities.”

What’s more, Engen said, specialty skill sets aren’t simply the purview of urbanites. Visiting a small farming community, and actually communicating with the residents there, is a great reminder that gifts and talents are universally distributed.

“To not forget there are artists, writers, sociologists, lawyers in greater Minnesota, all over the state—people who are born in the Twin Cities don’t think about that,” Engen said.

Being exposed to new ideas affects how a person thinks, maybe just for that moment. But sometimes the experience informs a lifetime.

Lydia Rikkola ’22 grew up in Minnesota’s cities and their suburbs.

There were some stereotypes about rural Minnesota that she expected to see when the book club visitors took a tour of Hallock. Rikkola doubted there would be much racial and ethnic diversity, and she was right: Census data confirms 96% of Hallock residents are white.

“It’s very homogenous,” Rikkola said. “But some of the things that surprised me were how open-minded and aware some of the community members were. The woman who runs the food shelf … just to see her passion about social justice and the need for food, that food insecurity is in more places than just the Twin Cities. That was really cool to see her acknowledge that and do everything in her power to address it. It was incredible to see that kind of attention and care and detail.”

‘It became about the meal’

The evening of the group’s tour in Hallock and conversations with various community members, Eggerling and Blomquist invited the whole book club to their house for dinner.

It’s hard to be intimidating when you’re eating.

“Everyone becomes a little more vulnerable and willing to share themselves,” Eggerling said. “We were sharing food and stories, laughing at our cat. It wasn’t rushed; we were able to talk about a variety of things. Some really great connections did come about.”

Engen agreed.

“Yes, absolutely, it became about the meal.”

People sat on the floor, on the couch—wherever an open space presented itself. And the easy environment meant everyone had a chance to just breathe, relax, and reflect.

“I’ll never forget the dinner we had,” Rikkola said. “There were like 30 people stuffed in this house. It was buffet style, and the hosts were so kind as to pay attention to the fact that some of us are vegan, and it was a real home-cooked meal.

“The conversations were so rich. The adults in the room were so interested in seeing us grow, and we talked about everything—politics, social issues, life issues.” The following morning, the group all returned to the Eggerling-Blomquist home for much-needed coffee and a hot breakfast, before a planned tour of the town’s school.

“During part of that morning conversation, one of the students said, ‘I thought all you folks in small towns were hicks and racists’—they voiced that, they felt comfortable sharing that. And that started some really good conversations,” Pippert said.

Taking students out of the classroom and trying something somewhat unknown takes a bit of a leap of faith, Pippert said.

“There are things you can’t control with it, certainly. One of the things we were really cognizant of was that we didn’t want to put students in a position of teaching; it’s not their responsibility to teach the folks up there, and it’s not those folks’ responsibility to teach the students—it has to be about relationships.

“It took us a while to realize that’s where the real work is and the real opportunity: in those relationships. Meeting people who aren’t anything like yourself, and talking and learning not only on the big issues of race, but on all things: Where do you eat in a town that size? How far away is the nearest hospital? The value of experiential learning is that it can be confusing, and it can be scary, rewarding, fulfilling, and life-changing.”

Rikkola said she’s proof of that.

“Through conversation comes growth. It’s so easy to ‘other’ but going on a trip like this stops the ‘othering,’ because the ‘other’ is feeding you, the ‘other’ is caring for you, the shared humanity breaks down barriers,” Rikkola said. “They explain their perspective, and you explain yours and really listen.

“Getting taken out of your environment is so necessary. If you only have friends with the same opinions you’re never challenged, you can’t really learn; you won’t grow.”

Best-kept secret

Experiential learning has been a core feature of Augsburg’s academic framework for more than 100 years. In the late 1800s Augsburg’s second president, Georg Sverdrup, required students to have pre-ministerial experience with congregations around Minneapolis. Today 100% of undergraduate students participate in some form of experiential learning. It takes shape for many students through internships, study abroad, research, and community engagement, in addition to the hands-on components already built into many academic courses.

Joe Connelly is the principal torchbearer for the practice, serving as experiential education specialist with Augsburg’s Center for Global Education and Experience. Connelly said these types of experiences are essential and always relevant for students. The experiences are also part of the university’s thinking about how a liberal arts education should prepare students for vibrant careers addressing challenges in their communities and around the world.

“If there’s one best-kept secret, it would be just what an important role Augsburg plays to provide experiential learning for their own students and students around the country. This is work that is so closely tied to the mission of Augsburg—and creating vocation—and this is work that has been going on for decades,” Connelly said.

And while the opportunities have always mattered, today’s global uncertainties provide perhaps even more motivation to make sure experiential learning continues, he said.

“We provide students the opportunity to immerse themselves in other peoples’ lives, in other peoples’ realities,” Connelly said. “They share a meal, sit around a table and hear other peoples’ stories about their experiences with war or other hardship. We understand that life is very complicated, very nuanced. Things are not black and white; there are a lot of sides to it, and it’s not cut and dry. Through experiential education, students understand that’s what life is—it’s not easy answers; it’s not a yes or no.”

Science backs what these educators know: Moving out of a traditional classroom setting and into a learning experience can be challenging, but the effort is worth the work. In a 2019 study published by the Lithuanian Science Council in Public Health Magazine, researchers Viktorija Piščalkienė and Hans Ingemann Lottrup found that, “Experiential learning and experience reflection hold a significant role as an educational methodology, and it is a shared value to prepare students for the challenges in a changing world by developing professionals who can think critically and reflectively.”

Having time to reflect is what motivated Pippert to go north. Associate Professor Joe Underhill was moved to go north, and south.

Underhill, Augsburg’s environmental studies director, wanted time and space to put big questions to his students. Specifically, he wanted to engage his students in more than conversation about climate change—he wanted them to find ways to combat it. And since big questions can benefit from having big space to work within, Underhill turned to the Mississippi River.

“The ideas or inspiration behind the program have to do with the value of direct embodied experience as a way to learn, rather than reading about something,” he said. “You are seeing, feeling, smelling, hearing. Seeing the beauty of the river and the challenges, it sticks with people, it hits home, and it is the kind of thing you don’t forget. If you want to learn about something, there’s no better way than to experience it firsthand.”

‘I can do so much more’

Launched in 2015, the most recent River Semester ran for 101 days in Fall 2021. The team started with a trip to the Boundary Waters, where they paddled and camped for several days while they got to know one another a bit better, learned more about what the semester would hold, and came to grips with spending four months away—far away.

There was a mix of rowing, sailing, and making use of shuttle vehicles that occasionally carried the group from one part of their journey into another. And the group camped on islands or in municipal river parks, eating mostly what they made on cookstoves.

It was an experience that Zoe Barany ’23 won’t forget.

“I have never in my life found a community like I did when I was on the river,” Barany said. “People were so generous and kind with their resources and their authentic love for the environment. We had the ability to take agency and get things done. I just found a home out there.”

As an environmental studies major, Barany said they first fell in love with the promise of nature while in high school. But the River Semester opened their mind to so much more.

“I come from a place of privilege. I’m a white environmentalist, but I have still struggled with things to work through,” Barany said. “Being out there, it challenges you. It reveals things you don’t want to see about yourself. It’s just honest.”

Barany said they specifically learned of the power of clear communication.

“In everyday life you can sweep things under the rug, but when you’re outside you have to go through things,” Barany said. “Sometimes I would lash out at people or be upset, or complain instead of enjoying the time we had. It challenged me to step up, be a leader, communicate, and speak on behalf of my needs and what I need to function in a group. Having that knowledge now is so empowering.”

Elias Wirz ’23 prepared for his River Semester with small trips in 2019 and 2020. There was never any question about making the 100-day journey.

“It’s one of the biggest reasons I chose Augsburg. There’s nothing like it that I’ve found. With the River Semester you get to see a part of the world that you would never see if you don’t do something like this. You get to learn about yourself and what you are capable of, on top of learning some super interesting coursework.”

Wirz said with every experience, the group just kept getting stronger.

“My biggest takeaway is that I believe I can do so much more than I ever could because of the River Semester. Being able to do something like this, you feel like you’re capable of so much more. You want to keep going, trying, testing your limits—if I can do this, what other great things can I do now?” Wirz said.

Some of that understanding came not only from the experience overall, but from the hundreds of small, seemingly innocuous moments along the way. It is in the accumulation of those moments—applying academic knowledge in practical ways and engaging with the people present—that experiential education transforms abstract ideas into real-world skills and understanding. That’s how Augsburg students become informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders.

“There’s a lot of good happening. In every city we went through, in every experience we had, I’m convinced that people are inherently good,” Barany said. “Now I want to serve, to continue this cycle of goodness.”

Top image: Professor Joe Underhill [back row] and students paddled hand-crafted catamarans during the River Semester. (Photo by Courtney Perry)

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, Augsburg’s provost and senior vice president of academic and student affairs, will retire at the end of 2021–22 academic year. Since Kaivola joined Augsburg in 2013, her leadership of the faculty has consistently reflected unwavering commitments to teaching and learning. In late 2019, Kaivola stepped into an expanded role overseeing both academic affairs and student affairs, seeking new alignments and centering both on a holistic view of student learning and development. A committee chaired by Tim Pippert, Joel Torstenson endowed professor of sociology, is in the midst of a national search to identify her successor.

At its October meeting, the Augsburg University Board of Regents approved faculty emeritus status for Milo Schield, professor of business administration; regent emerita status for Ann Ashton-Piper, who retired from the board after 12 years of service; and staff emeriti status for long-serving employees Nancy Guilbeault, James Trelstad-Porter, and Mary Laurel True.

At its February meeting, the board approved faculty emerita status for Laura Boisen, professor of social work; and staff emeriti status for Dianne Detloff, Ann Garvey, and Mark Lester.

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Interfaith at Augsburg: An Institute to Promote Interreligious Leadership was established in 2019 as part of Augsburg’s commitment to interfaith learning and leadership. The newly endowed position will allow the university to hire a strategic leader and distinguished scholar to provide direction for the institute and serve as a member of the faculty. The El-Hibri chair will serve as a national ambassador for the interfaith movement and will partner with campus leaders as a change agent for interreligious learning and living.

The El-Hibris’ gift will help to fulfill one of the goals of Augsburg150, the university’s sesquicentennial strategic plan, to advance the public purposes of an Augsburg education by enhancing interfaith leadership on campus and throughout the nation.

“We live in a world that is religiously diverse, and allowing religions to thrive is a step in the right direction,” said Fuad El-Hibri. “But it is not enough. Interfaith dialogue, learning from one another, and engaging together in meaningful work is what it’s truly all about. The timing now is critical, and we hope this is just the beginning.”

“We have a unique opportunity to build an interfaith learning community that will be a model for all of higher education,” said President Paul Pribbenow. “The combination of Augsburg’s interreligious student body, with Fuad and Nancy’s support and counsel, will create the sort of academic and community leadership the world needs today.”

Top image: [L to R] Nancy and Fuad El-Hibri (Courtesy photo)

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Robert Harper ’16 remembers the first time he was called the n-word.

His family had moved to Minnesota from the South Side of Chicago, seeking a better life. Since then, he’s achieved that better life, earning an undergraduate degree from Augsburg University and a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. He is now a supplier diversity director for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.

“I think I’ve had a unique experience escaping poverty on the South Side of Chicago and North Minneapolis, only to be confronted with the daily decisions made by white people that only re-create those circumstances of oppression,” Harper said.

While he’s now a working professional in a state that prides itself on being “Minnesota nice,” Harper never gets too comfortable, recalling that painful moment when he was walking to middle school and a passing driver shouted the racial epithet at him. More recently, on a trip to northern Minnesota, Harper was told while visiting Gull Lake, ‘You don’t belong here,’ by a white man.

“It’s moments like that when you’re trying to do better, ‘pull yourselves up by your bootstraps,’ that society reminds you that there’s a glass ceiling for some,” Harper said.

Meanwhile, Augsburg University, one of the most diverse private colleges in the Midwest, is positioned to be a statewide leader in the turnaround, with students of color in the majority on campus after years of intentional work on diversity, equity, and inclusion. “I certainly feel that higher education is the clearest path to a middle-class life or better,” Augsburg President Paul Pribbenow said.

“Some people constantly remind you that they decide how far you go, what rooms you enter, and in the case of George Floyd, whether or not you live.”—Robert Harper ’16

Exposing the paradox

George Floyd’s murder three miles from Augsburg University put an international spotlight on not only the experiences of Black people at the hands of the criminal justice system but also the reality of the disturbing “Minnesota paradox.”

That’s how University of Minnesota Professor Samuel Myers describes how Minnesota has such a high quality of life and a history of progressive politicians but is one of the worst places to live for Black people.

“Measured by racial gaps in unemployment rates, wage and salary incomes, incarceration rates, arrest rates, home ownership rates, mortgage lending rates, test scores, reported child maltreatment rates, school disciplinary and suspension rates, and even drowning rates, African Americans are worse off in Minnesota than they are in virtually every other state in the nation,” Myers said.

The numbers illustrate the bleak story:

• Only 25.3% of Black households in Minnesota own homes versus 76.9% of white households, according to census data, a stark divide given that home ownership is considered the leading contributor to household wealth.
• The median household income for Black households in the state is the lowest of any group at $41,570, about half of what Asian and white households earn.
• In the Twin Cities, African Americans represent 9% of the overall population, but are incarcerated at 11 times the rate of whites who represent 76% of the population, the NAACP reported last year.
• Only 21.7% of Black people hold bachelor’s degrees or higher versus nearly 40% overall.

Meanwhile, between 2010 and 2018, the fastest growing racial group in Minnesota was the Black population, which grew by 36%, adding more than 96,500 people.

Many are immigrants but face the same backdrop of a state that hasn’t historically acknowledged that discrimination plays a role in the Black story here, Myers said.

“When it comes to race in the Twin Cities, in Minnesota, there was this instinctive belief that we already know what the problem is, that it’s not really a problem, and since it’s not a problem, we don’t need to find answers,” Myers said.

The COVID-19 pandemic compounded the inequities. The unemployment rate for Black Minnesotans in the aftermath of pandemic shutdowns rose to 15.3% last July, up 9 percentage points from a year earlier, versus 6.3% for white workers, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development reported. According to a Pew Research report published in December: “Among Black Americans, 71% know someone who has been hospitalized or died because of COVID-19.”

The path to today’s Minneapolis

High profile police killings of Black men in this region—including George Floyd, Philando Castile, and Jamar Clark—have heightened the protests and urgency for change. The viral video of Floyd’s murder with his neck under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer seemed to dawn a new era in the fight for justice.

Protesters took to the streets for weeks around the globe. Graffiti images of Floyd sprang up worldwide, even on a West Bank barrier in the Middle East. CEOs of Fortune 500 corporations in Minnesota wrote an open letter of outrage. Athletes of all races took the knee before matches to show their support for racial equity.

In the city of Minneapolis, at the center of the controversy, there was swift action against the officers, something unprecedented.

“Despite decades of police incidents that resulted in the deaths of people of color, today’s actions by the mayor represent the first time in modern history that Minneapolis police officers were fired within 24 hours for unjustly murdering a citizen,” said Michael Lansing, associate professor and chair of Augsburg’s history department, in a about the Minneapolis Police Department. (Lansing’s comments on the history of uprisings and Minneapolis police were also carried by and .)

Now, many are acknowledging the systems that are behind today’s Minneapolis. Even the South Minneapolis street where George Floyd was killed is in a historically Black working-class and middle-class neighborhood created by housing segregation, Lansing said in his tweet series.

Indeed, Mapping Prejudice Project, a team of community members, geographers, and historians based at the University of Minnesota, have unearthed thousands of racial covenants in Minneapolis that reserved land for the exclusive use of white people.

Those restrictions served as powerful obstacles for people of color seeking safe and affordable housing. Racial covenants, dovetailed with redlining and predatory lending practices, depressed homeownership rates for Black residents. They also limited access to community resources like schools and parks.

While contemporary white residents of Minneapolis like to think their city never had formal segregation, those racial covenants did the work of Jim Crow in the Twin Cities, said Kevin Ehrman-Solberg ’15, a co-founder of Mapping Prejudice.

“The reputation of Minneapolis is that it’s a liberal bastion, yet there’s a racist reality that people live in.”—Kevin Ehrman-Solberg ’15

Looking forward with a pragmatic lens

While the period following George Floyd’s murder looked like a change moment, Augsburg University’s M. Anita Gay Hawthorne Professor of Critical Race and Ethnicity Studies William Green worries that the momentum started to diminish as the summer progressed. “The challenge that we face is to do the hard work to define what change means, and second, how to get at the root of the problems that lead to disparities in society.”

Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce President Jonathan Weinhagen looks ahead to the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder and to the question of how much progress has been made in raising awareness about and working to eliminate the disparities experienced by people of color.

“[Closing the racial divide] is not going to be resolved in a year. It’s going to take more time, but it’s going to have to be far more rapid than anything we’ve done to date.”—Jonathan Weinhagen

The implications of these disparities are wide-reaching, with government officials and the business community concerned that a growing population that isn’t able to fully participate in or benefit from the economy will threaten the vitality of the state as a whole.

“To have a large and growing part of our economy be marginalized is a huge disadvantage to all of us because it takes a huge part of the population out,” said Susan Brower, Minnesota’s demographer.

The NAACP’s 48-page issued in 2019 calls for a comprehensive, multi-pronged policy agenda anchored by five basic principles: economic sustainability, education, health, public safety and criminal justice, and voter rights and political representation.

The role of education

Many are looking to young people to be the lasting change.

The nonprofit in Minneapolis has emerged to support children from “cradle to career,” envisioning a future in which “every child has the academic, social, and emotional skills to thrive in a globally fluent world.”

Alan Page, retired Minnesota Supreme Court justice, and Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, amending Minnesota’s constitution to give every child a civil right to a quality public education. They define the current approach as a system that works well for children from well-to-do families but fails children from low-income families.

“A quality education is without question the most powerful tool we have to break the cycle of poverty and create a society in which everyone can fully participate,” . “It doesn’t just change one child’s life. It has the potential to improve the future for generations to come and lead to a more productive, vibrant society for all of us.”

Meanwhile, Augsburg University is positioned to be a statewide leader in the turnaround, with years of intentional work on diversity, equity, and inclusion. “I certainly feel that higher education is the clearest path to a middle-class life or better,” Augsburg President Paul Pribbenow said.

Despite Harper’s success after graduating from Augsburg, he views the disparate outcomes as a call to action, even forming his own economic development consulting firm, R.D.T.H Consulting, LLC, focused on social impact in addition to his day job. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

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Augsburg’s efforts to address disparities and work toward equity

After the murder of George Floyd only a few miles from campus, Augsburg University introduced in June the Justice for George Floyd Initiatives to focus on working to heal the community, creating leadership and structures that make tangible change, and ensuring accountability for the work of undoing racist systems.

New efforts were introduced to combat systemic racism, including a critical race and ethnicity studies department; diversity, equity, and inclusion training; and a requirement that all faculty and staff complete antiracism training. Augsburg also canceled classes and suspended operations June 4 and 5 so students, faculty, and staff could have an opportunity to grieve.

“We acknowledge the pain, fear, and trauma faced by the Augsburg community—especially our students, faculty, and staff of color—remain a lived reality every day,” Pribbenow said. “This work by Augsburg will be persistent, resolute, courageous, and integrated into everything the university does.”

This ongoing work includes several components:

• Augsburg named William Green, professor of history, the inaugural holder of the M. Anita Gay Hawthorne professorship of critical race and ethnic studies.
• The university is employing new accountability for inclusive, antiracist leadership across the institution and reviewing Augsburg’s major academic and administrative policies and practices with a special focus on undoing bias and discrimination and enhancing student success.
• Augsburg created a scholarship in memory of George Floyd and established a fund that matched donations from students, faculty, and staff for organizations doing important work, especially for Black-owned businesses and nonprofit organizations.
• Augsburg appointed the first Chief Diversity Officer, , in 2016 and became home in 2019 to , the nation’s largest workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion conference.

These moves are an important continuation of Augsburg’s efforts to build and maintain an equitable and inclusive campus that became a strategic focus in 2006, resulting in Augsburg welcoming its most diverse incoming first-year class ever in 2017. Students of color are now in the majority of traditional undergraduates, making Augsburg one of the most diverse private colleges in the Midwest.

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Top Image: Minneapolis is a city with a liberal reputation, but racial disparities persist. (Photo by Courtney Perry)

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Remember those days of uncertainty in March 2020, when we had more questions than answers, and before most of us used terms like “coronavirus” and “social distancing”?

The United States saw an increase in COVID-19 infections, and some states—including Minnesota—applied stay-at-home orders to mitigate the spread. Weeks before that inflection point, Augsburg University administrators, faculty, and staff convened a COVID-19 task force.

Not all educational institutions have an epidemiologist on staff, but Augsburg is fortunate. One of the task force’s principal leaders is Alicia Quella, associate professor and director of Augsburg’s physician assistant program. As an educator with a PhD in epidemiology and experience in public health settings around the world, her expertise has proved invaluable for the university’s grasp of the evolving global crisis and Augsburg’s response to maintain the health and safety of community members.

Between fielding student questions about the coronavirus, volunteering at COVID-19 testing sites, and ensuring the Augsburg community can trace contacts and reduce transmission on campus, Quella shared some perspectives on her work and where we go from here.

Q: How have you been involved in Augsburg’s outbreak planning and COVID-19 response?

A: I serve on the pandemic task force, a university-wide team of people that assembled after it was apparent that COVID-19 would significantly affect institutions of higher education across the United States. We collaborate regularly with epidemiologists from the Minnesota Department of Health to implement public health guidelines for campuses. We started to meet daily to coordinate issues involving classrooms and labs, athletics, residence halls, dining services, facilities, and global education. We started a COVID-19 Response Team, which comprises staff and faculty across campus who implement health protocols and support students and personnel who have illness, have COVID-19, or have been exposed to it.

Neither rain nor SNOW can keep ‘s Dr. Alicia Quella from working the walk-up/drive-up COVID-19 testing location Cedar Riverside Clinic

— R.John (@raccajohn)

Q: What were your first thoughts when you heard about COVID-19 and considered its implications for the Augsburg community?

A: When news of a novel coronavirus was circulating in China, I was immediately concerned because I had studied the epidemiology of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV-1) during my doctoral work through the University of Iowa Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases. In 2003, SARS quickly spread to 29 countries, so I knew that this would be a major issue in the United States.

Q: At this stage in the COVID-19 pandemic, what are the most important things for the public to understand and do?

A: To reach herd immunity [when a significant portion of a community is immune to a disease and thereby makes spread unlikely] we all need to continue to ‘bubble’ and limit the number of close contacts, wear face masks, socially distance, and get vaccinated.

I also encourage the students and my patients to be creative and find ways to keep active and engaged—start a new hobby, do something outdoors, and reach out to relatives and friends who may be isolated right now.

Q: What do you see in the post-COVID-19 world?

A: Colleges and universities have seen a rapid diffusion of innovation in how they are using technology to deliver curriculum, participate in athletics, and maintain operations. This energy and innovation will have to continue to promote widespread vaccine uptake. Vaccine hesitancy is an issue, especially in communities of color that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 because of structural racism. Augsburg will need to make this a top priority moving forward.

Q: What’s a memorable moment of the past year that made an impact on you?

A: As an epidemiologist and a physician assistant, I’ve had the opportunity to continue to see patients and work with Augsburg students, staff, and faculty. I recently received the COVID-19 vaccine and have felt humbled and honored to now be able to continue to work more safely in the community.

Top image: Associate Professor Alicia Quella’s experience as an epidemiologist has helped maintain the health and safety of the Augsburg community. (Photo by Courtney Perry)

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Mark Engebretson, Augsburg University professor emeritus of physics, received a five-year grant totaling $805,744 from the National Science Foundation (Award Number 2013648).

supports the continued operation and data analysis of the Magnetometer Array for Cusp and Cleft Studies, which is used to study near-Earth space weather, such as solar winds that may disrupt communication and navigation systems. It represents the 30th research study on which Engebretson has served as the principal investigator through NSF funding.

Engebretson has led several research projects—including some with Augsburg student-researchers—studying ionospheric and space physics in collaboration with European and NASA satellite programs. Nearly 100 Augsburg students have gained paid research experience working on these research projects.

Engebretson has authored or coauthored more than 300 scholarly research articles on topics related to space weather.

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