My wife, Abigail, and I first met Anne Frame and Bill Frame, Augsburg’s ninth president, some 18 years ago when we were chosen to be part of a new program, sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges and designed by Bill, that helped college presidents and their partners to explore the links between their callings or vocations and the missions of the institutions they served. At that point, I was president of Rockford College in Illinois, and of course, Bill and Anne were at Augsburg. It was a remarkable experience for all of us involved, and we remain friends and colleagues with many of those who shared the program with us. It was during this time that we first witnessed the delightful partnership that Anne and Bill had created—in their marriage, in their leadership of the program, and in their work at Augsburg. Those of us in the program came to count on Bill for thoughtful and weighty treatises (one of us once exclaimed, “Give me a thesaurus!” when Bill’s vocabulary got to be a bit much), while Anne’s gracious and calm presence brought us back to the joy of the work at hand.

Little did we know that just a few months after the program concluded, Abigail and I would be elected as Anne and Bill’s successors at Augsburg. It was during the leadership transition and over the past 15 years that I have come to know the many ways in which Anne’s presence and engagement with the Augsburg community during Bill’s presidency have made a lasting impact.

Anne Frame passed away this past summer, but her legacy lives on in the many ways her life and work have graced the Augsburg community. I would highlight just a few:

Anne and Bill made the case for and then created a place of wonderful hospitality and fellowship at Augsburg House, the residence for Augsburg’s president and family, but more importantly a place at which to gather students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends to celebrate and build community. In fact, Anne and Bill set important traditions at the house that we still celebrate, including a festive holiday party for neighbors who are often inconvenienced by all the cars parked along West River Parkway for our gatherings!

Anne loved to engage with students, participating in activities like Late Night Breakfasts at the end of each semester and City Engagement Days at the beginning of each academic year. It was deeply meaningful to students to see the president and family involved in the life of the campus.

Anne also served as a board member for the Augsburg Associates, a group of committed volunteers who organized fundraising events to support student scholarships. The annual Velkommen Yul celebrations remain a highlight of the academic year, lifting up our Norwegian heritage.

Finally, Anne accompanied Bill on many international trips—to Augsburg’s sites in South Africa and Namibia, to Norway as part of our relationship with the Norwegian Nobel Institute, and perhaps most memorably to China with a group of Minnesota private college presidents and partners to explore a relationship with a newly formed liberal arts college on the mainland, now known as United International College.

After Bill and Anne retired from Augsburg in 2006, they continued to be engaged in the Augsburg community, attending events, visiting donors, cheering us on in our various efforts to make Augsburg the remarkably diverse institution it is today. At the same time, it was a joy for me to see the meaning that Anne found in returning to her chosen profession—her calling—as an accountant for various organizations in the Tacoma, Washington, area. In that way, Anne continued to model for all of us what it means to follow the divine call, wherever it leads us—even when the call is surprising and unexpected.

We celebrate the ways in which presidential leadership over 150 years—shared in partnership with remarkable spouses—sets a foundation for the work we do today!

Faithfully yours,

Paul C. Pribbenow, President

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As we enter a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and plan for our return to campus for our 152nd academic year at Augsburg, I am often asked what we have learned during the past 16 months that will be part of a “new normal” for our community.

Certainly there is much that we have learned about the use of technology for teaching and learning, and for doing our administrative work—technology that will be an abiding and effective tool for the ways we work into the future. We also have learned important lessons about public health and not taking for granted our individual and common well-being. And then there are lessons about the fragility of our economic lives and the need to be laser-focused on our mission as we make decisions about revenue and expenses.

But perhaps the most important and striking lesson we learned during the pandemic is that all of the work we have done the past few years to chart a strategic path for Augsburg—work that culminated in the creation in Fall 2019 of Augsburg150: The Sesquicentennial Plan—provided us with a framework for both navigating through these unprecedented times and for pursuing a sustainable future for our university. In other words, our planning deliberations, grounded in Augsburg’s mission to educate students to be “informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders,” got it right as we named our highest aspirations and our strategic priorities.

In particular, I am proud of the vision we cast for our future, which says that “As a new kind of urban, student-centered university, we are educating Auggies as stewards of an inclusive democracy, engaged in their communities and uniquely equipped to navigate the complex issues of our time.”

Consider the claims we make in this vision statement: to embrace our urban setting, to keep students at the center of our lives, to pursue democratic engagement, and to equip our students to take on the most complex problems we all face. And we honored those claims as we lived through the pandemic: responding to the many needs of our students and neighbors as we kept each other safe and healthy; focusing on the flexibility our students required as they pursued their education primarily online; working together as a community of faculty, staff, and students to navigate an uncharted path; and leaning into the incredibly complex issues raised by the pandemic so that we might all learn from them.

As I begin my 16th year as Augsburg’s 10th president, I am so proud of our community and excited about the future we will create together. It may not be normal, but it will be grounded as always in our mission and vision. Enjoy this issue of Augsburg Now with its engaging stories that make my case for Augsburg’s future.

Faithfully yours,

Paul C. Pribbenow, President

The post Notes from President Pribbenow: On the “new normal” appeared first on Augsburg Now.

“In an era when five- or six-year presidencies are common in higher education, President Pribbenow’s long-term leadership of the university has enabled Augsburg to achieve remarkable things,” said Matt Entenza, chair of Augsburg’s Board of Regents. “The university has become one of the most diverse private institutions in the Midwest during his tenure and has welcomed record-breaking first-year classes in the past two years. The university is fortunate to continue to have Paul’s transformational leadership through 2027.”

Pribbenow is recognized as a leading figure among the nation’s higher education private institutions and is an engaging teacher on ethics, philanthropy, and American public life.

Learn more about Pribbenow’s work and presidency at .

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