Lutheran university in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, US
This article is about the college in South Dakota. For other institutions with the same name or other uses of Augustana, see Augustana (disambiguation).
Augustana is South Dakota's largest private university[6] and offers more than 100 majors, minors, and pre-professional and graduate programs.
History
Augustana traces its origin to 1835 when Scandinavian immigrants established the Hillsboro Academy in Hillsboro, Illinois. In 1846, the academy became the Literary and Theological Institute of the Lutheran Church of the Far West before moving to Springfield, Illinois, under the name Illinois State University. In 1860, after church leaders formed the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod, Professor Lars Paul Esbjörn and a group of followers moved to Chicago to create their institution. There they established the Augustana College and Seminary, marking the date that the university identifies as the year of its founding.[1]
The Lutheran Normal School opened in 1889 in Sioux Falls, housed in what is now known as Old Main, to educate teachers. City and business leaders lobbied for Augustana to relocate to Sioux Falls, and church leaders in 1918 merged the Lutheran Normal School and Augustana College in Canton under the name Augustana College and Normal School.[1] In 1926, "and Normal School" was dropped from the name and the Canton site eventually became Augustana Academy.[1] Despite the similarities in name, the academy was no longer affiliated with the college, and closed in 1971.[1] The 2010–11 academic year marked Augustana University's sesquicentennial.[8]
Augustana draws its name from the origin of the Lutheran Church in the Augsburg Confession, written in 1530 during the Protestant Reformation. "Augustana" stems from the document's Latin name, Confessio Augustana.[1] On August 21, 2015, the school announced that it would change its name from Augustana College to Augustana University as of September 1, 2015.[9]
Academics
Augustana University offers more than 100 majors, minors, and pre-professional and graduate programs.[10][11] The top majors declared by Augustana students include nursing, biology, business administration, psychology, exercise science, finance, elementary education, computer science, accounting and marketing.[12]
The university's curriculum is based on a calendar divided into two 15-week semesters, separated by an interim period of four weeks during January, as well as an optional summer term of eight weeks. Classes and study-away programs are offered during January. The school has a 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio.[13]
Extensive internship, study abroad, undergraduate research and Civitas, the university's honors program, supplement Augustana's curriculum. Between 2007 and 2008, 285 students participated in an international educational experience, and 44% of students studied abroad before graduation.[14]
In 2023, Augustana's financial endowment surpassed $115 million.[15] Donations have allowed the school to expand its academic facilities, such as the renovation of the Mikkelsen Library, 2015 reconstruction of the Froiland Science Complex (formerly Gilbert Science Center), 2022 addition of Ralph H. Wagoner Hall,[16] 2023 addition of Midco Arena,[17] and ongoing construction of the Morrison Commons.[18]
Admissions and rankings
As of 2016[update], Augustana's student body consists of 1,825 undergraduates,[19] 99% full-time students and 1% part-time, and 59% female.[19] The acceptance rate is 61%.[20][21]U.S. News & World Report classifies Augustana as a "more selective" school,[2] with 62% of the students enrolled having graduated from high school in the top quartile of their class,[14] the average GPA being 3.7.[20]ACT test score submissions had a 23–28 middle 50% range,[20] with an average ACT composite score of 26.[22] Eight percent of incoming students in 2014 submitted SAT scores, with the middle 50% range for the mathematical and critical reading components being 500–650 and 510–580, respectively.[23] The school's retention rate of freshmen returning as sophomores was 80% between 2013 and 2014.[23]
Those enrolled are primarily from South Dakota (42%) and Minnesota (34%), followed by Iowa (12%) and Nebraska (4%).[24][25] In the fall of the 2010–11 academic year, Augustana reported its largest ever incoming class of international students. Fifty-four new students, representing 20 countries and five continents, joined 25 continuing international students for a total of 79 international students from 23 countries, making up about 4.5% of the student body.[26] Although only 46% of students claim a preference for the school's Lutheran religious affiliation, the school is nevertheless composed primarily of students following a Christian denomination, with Catholicism the second largest at 21%; 22% of students are categorized as "other".[14]
Campus statue of Ole, Augustana's mascot
In the 2015 U.S. News & World Report ranking of Midwestern colleges, Augustana placed third.[2] The publication also named it a "Best Buy" school, a designation based on academic quality in relation to cost. The Princeton Review named Augustana one of 159 "Best in the Midwest" schools in 2015.[20]Forbes's list of "America's Top Colleges" placed Augustana 97th among schools in the Midwest and 423rd overall.[19]Peterson's 440 Colleges for Top Students featured Augustana, and Harvard Schmarvard: Getting Beyond the Ivy League to the College That is Best for You listed the school as one of its "top 100 outstanding (but underappreciated) colleges."[27]The Templeton Guide selected Augustana as one of 100 select colleges and universities nationwide as part of its "Templeton Honor Roll".[citation needed] In 2021, Zippia named Augustana the top college in South Dakota, and No. 2 in the nation, for getting a job.[28]
Augustana created the Center for Western Studies in 1970,[7] founded by professor Herbert Krause,[29] which serves as a library, repository for special collections of art and artifacts, and academic publisher.[30] The center holds an annual Dakota Conference on the Northern Plains for history, literature, art, and archaeology. It is "the largest annual humanities conference specifically about the Northern Plains".[31] In addition to shows and galleries of Western, Scandinavian, and Native American art,[32] the Center also hosts the Boe Forum on Public Affairs,[31] which has featured speakers such as Pervez Musharraf, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Mikhail Gorbachev.[33]
The Augustana Choir and Concert Band tour widely nationally and internationally, including to the China,[34]Italy,[35] and Tanzania.[36] While on tour in Egypt during the Revolution of 2011, the band was briefly stranded in Cairo due to anti-government protests.[37]
The Augustana University Theatre Company presents 4 main-stage shows each year, one of which is a musical, as well as 2 student-produced shows by the Augustana Collaborative Theatrical Society.[38] Augustana Theatre sponsors an improv group, Brand Name Improv. The department also hosts the Claire Donaldson New Play Festival (formerly the 8-in-48 Claire Donaldson Short Play Festival), which occurs every other year.[39] It was the first theatre department in the state to host a 24 hour play festival. In 2023, the department collaborated with Lifescapes of Sioux Falls and the Black Hills Playhouse to perform the first all-abilities show, which included a half Augustana cast and a half Lifescapes cast, which Augustana students designing as well.
In 2006, the Center for Visual Arts replaced the old art department buildings, previously used as barracks during World War II.[7] It has artist and professor studios, studio classrooms for design, drawing, printmaking, painting, sculpture, ceramics, an art education lab, and the Eide-Dalrymple Gallery, which hosts several art exhibitions every year.[40]
Civitas
Augustana's honors program, Civitas, launched in 2007 and is directed by sociology professor William J. Swart.[41][42] "Civitas" is Latin for "citizenship", and the program built upon the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a GermanLutheranpastor and theologian who was a founding member of the Confessing Church and a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism. Bonhoeffer's essay "The Structure of Responsible Life" is the program's central focus.[43] Emphasizing Stellvertretung (roughly translated as "vicarious representative action"), Bonhoeffer participated in the Abwehr plot to assassinate Hitler and subsequently wrote the piece as a justification for his actions. Students examine his work in classes specifically designated for Civitas and in special honors sections of existing courses. 40 students are selected from each graduating class; they must maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA,[41] with entrance priority going to incoming students with an ACT score of at least 27 and a 3.5 cumulative high school GPA.[43]
Natural sciences
An average of 90% of graduating seniors seeking admission into medical school have been accepted over the last three years, double the national acceptance rate, and the school claims a consistent 100% placement record of nursing graduates.[44]
Construction began on the Froiland Science Complex in August 2014, involving additions to and renovations of the existing Gilbert Science Center, and ended in December 2015.[45] The remodeled west wing of the building maintains the Gilbert name.[46]
The Augustana Vikings participate in NCAA Division II athletics in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The Vikings joined the NSIC from the North Central Conference, which folded in 2008. The men's basketball team won the NCAA Division II national championship in 2016.[47] The women's basketball team advanced to the NCAA Division II Final Four in 2013.[48] The men's baseball team won the NCAA Division II national championship in 2018.[49] During both the 2004–05 and 2009–10 school years, Augustana wrestlers finished second in the NCAA Division II championship. The Sanford Pentagon is the home court for the men's and women's basketball teams. The Elmen Center, opened in 1989,[7] is the home court for the volleyball and wrestling teams. On December 13, 2018, President Stephanie Herseth Sandlin announced that Augustana would begin pursuing a transition to Division I as part of the university's "Vision 2030" plan. In the fall of 2023, Augustana University launched their Division I men's hockey team, a step towards Sandlin's goal.[50]
Media
The college used to operate a radio station, 89.1 FM KAUR, that broadcasts 24 hours per day. Until 2009, KAUR broadcast a variety of genres of music and specialized in independent or college rock. KAUR was founded in 1972. Augustana also had a self-constructed AM station, founded in 1945.[citation needed] In 2009, Augustana administrators discontinued KAUR's student operations in favor of broadcasting Minnesota Public Radio News.[51]
Canton is a city in and the county seat of Lincoln County, South Dakota, United States. Canton is located 20 minutes south of Sioux Falls in southeastern South Dakota. Canton is nestled in the rolling hills of the Sioux Valley, providing an abundance of recreational activities with the Big Sioux River bordering the eastern side, Newton Hills State Park to the south, and Lake Alvin to the north. The city was named by Norwegian settler and former legislator James M. Wahl. The population was 3,066 as of the 2020 census.
Sioux Falls is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the 121st-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha County and also extends into northern Lincoln County to the south, which continues up to the Iowa state line. The population was 192,517 at the 2020 census, and in 2022, its estimated population was 202,078. According to city officials, the estimated population had grown to 213,891 as of early 2024. The Sioux Falls metro area accounts for more than 30% of the state's population. Chartered in 1856 on the banks of the Big Sioux River, the city is situated in the rolling hills at the junction of interstates 29 and 90.
The Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Member institutions are located in Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The conference was founded in 1969 as the Nebraska Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (NIAC), later becoming the Nebraska–Iowa Athletic Conference (1992) before being renamed the Great Plains Athletic Conference (2000).
The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States, from Minnesota in the east, to the Dakotas, Nebraska and Colorado to the West, and Missouri and Oklahoma to the South. Founded as the Association of Mid-Continent Universities in 1982, it rebranded as the Mid-Continent Conference in 1989, then again as the Summit League on June 1, 2007. The league headquarters are in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Nils Andreas Boe was an American attorney who served as the 23rd Governor of South Dakota from 1965 to 1969. He served as a judge of the United States Customs Court, later the United States Court of International Trade.
Augustana College is a private Lutheran college in Rock Island, Illinois. The college enrolls approximately 2,349 students. Its campus is adjacent to the Mississippi River and covers 115 acres (46.5 ha) of hilly, wooded land.
Augustana Academy was an educational institution in Canton, South Dakota.
KAUR is a radio station broadcasting programming from Minnesota Public Radio's News & Information service. Licensed to Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States, the station serves the greater Sioux Falls area and can reliably broadcast up to approximately 30 miles in any direction. The station is currently owned by Augustana University and operated by MPR. All programming originates from the Twin Cities, but the station has inserts at least once an hour for local underwriting and weather. MPR also maintains a small office space on the Augustana campus.
The University of Sioux Falls (USF) is a private university in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. In fall 2014, the university enrolled a total of 1,142 undergraduate students and 311 graduate students.
Don Morton is a former American football player, coach, and software executive. He served as the head football coach at North Dakota State University (1979–1984), the University of Tulsa (1985–1986), and the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1987–1989), compiling a career college football record of 76–51. Morton's 1983 North Dakota State team won an NCAA Division II Football Championship.
Sanford Health is a nonprofit, integrated health care delivery system headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with additional offices in Fargo and Bismarck, North Dakota, and Bemidji, Minnesota. Sanford manages multiple ground ambulance services across North Dakota, Minnesota and South Dakota with both fixed wing and rotorcraft air ambulances in Bemidji, Bismarck, Dickinson, Fargo or Sioux Falls
The Augustana Vikings are the athletic teams that represent Augustana University, located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Vikings compete as members of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference for all 14 varsity sports. The Vikings joined the NSIC from the North Central Conference, which folded in 2008.
The 2016 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament involved 64 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college basketball. It began in March 2016, following the 2015–16 season, and concluded with the championship game on March 26, 2016.
Ben Newcomb is a former American football and baseball coach. He served as the head football coach at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois from 1969 to 1978, compiling a record of 55–34–1. Newcomb was also the head baseball coach at Eastern Illinois University for one season, in 1966, tallying a mark of 9–17. Newcomb graduated from Augustana College—now known as Augustana University—in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He coached in the public schools in Sioux Falls before moving to Eastern Illinois. Newcomb resigned as head football coach at Augustana following the 1978 season to become director of the school's College Center.
Harold Theodore Spitznagel was an American architect from South Dakota. Spitznagel was best known for residential and institutional architecture, including the original Mount Rushmore visitor center. His styles included Prairie School, Art Deco, and Moderne architecture. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, was posthumously inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame, and has been called the "foremost 20th-century architect" of the state of South Dakota.
Herman Jerome Thompson was an American football and baseball player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Upsala College in East Orange, New Jersey in 1947, Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota from 1948 to 1950, and Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin from 1956 to 1957. Thompson was also the head baseball coach at Augustana from 1950 to 1951.
Midco Arena in Sioux Falls, South Dakota is a 3,082-seat ice hockey arena on the campus of Augustana University. The arena broke ground on October 5, 2021 and opened as the permanent home of the Augustana Vikings men's ice hockey team on January 26, 2024.
The 2022 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament was the single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college basketball in the United States.
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