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Chamber music and Auggie traditions

chamberWednesday’s chamber music recital is a showcase of small ensembles of music students. In the audience will be their classmates, families, and friends. Also in the audience will be many donors who established the scholarships that have supported these students.

Following the recital, the High Tea will give donors and students a chance to meet each other or to get reacquainted. During the tea, announcement will be made of the more than 50 music scholarships awarded for next year, including the prestigious Dorothy Lijsing Kleven Scholarship and the Orville and Gertrude Hognander Scholarships. Continue reading “Chamber music and Auggie traditions”

Augsburg is a Green Power Champion!

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The Environmental Stewardship Committee got its hands dirty for Earth Day, as committee chair Tom Ruffaner and students sorted through a week’s worth of waste to audit the success of the organics collection and recycling programs. Renee Van Siclen (right), Kathy DeKrey, Mo Allen, and Andrew Orrison sifted through the bags, separating paper, organics, and recyclables from the trash.

Augsburg was recently recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the 2010-11 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Green Power Champion, for being the largest purchaser of green power in the conference. “Green” power includes solar, geothermal, biomass, low impact hydro, and wind, for which Augsburg received the recognition. The College and University Green Power Challenge is an initiative for colleges and universities who participate in the EPA’s Green Power Partnership.

EPA’s Green Power Partnership is comprised of more than 1,300 corporations, retailers, educational institutions, government entities, restaurants, and other partners across the country who must qualify by purchasing a minimum percentage of green power proportionate to their power use. Collectively, the partner organizations buy the equivalent of the environmental impact of avoiding the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the annual electricity use of nearly 1.6 million average American homes. Continue reading “Augsburg is a Green Power Champion!”

Something beautiful for free

instructionsSpring is a time to slow down, smell the flowers, and get free art. At least that is what you can do in Murphy Park on Thursday, Apr. 21 from noon to 3 p.m.

Painting and book students invite the campus and community to celebrate “Instructions for a Slower World” in honor of Earth Day 2011. The collaborative artwork sprouting in the garden and trees at the center of the park is a combination of painted totems and handmade paper created by Tara Sweeney’s beginning painting class and Regula Russelle’s paper and book class.

As part of the Earth Day 2011 challenge to create a billion acts of green, students will be giving away the handmade paper artwork.

 

Reading Ulysses all around the town

ulysses_readingYou can’t be sure what senior English majors would do when given the choice between writing a paper or reading James Joyce’s 265,000-word novel Ulysses at the end of one the last classes of their academic career. English majors presumably love reading, but they are also the people who say they’d rather write a paper than take a test.

And while they weren’t really given a choice—their professor assigned the reading as their final major project—the students in Bob Cowgill’s senior keystone course took on a bit of a challenge in reading Ulysses. They’re doing it aloud, in a marathon reading over the course of three weeks, and in several locations around the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. Continue reading “Reading Ulysses all around the town”

Celebrating undergraduate research

undergraduate_researchIt’s Undergraduate Research Week, as resolved by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010. Across the nation, colleges and universities will be highlighting student research projects and hosting events this week to discuss the importance of research in undergraduate education.

At Augsburg, we will mark this week with a series of events including Zyzzogeton, the annual celebration of student research and creativity. Continue reading “Celebrating undergraduate research”

Four honored for distinguished teaching, advising, scholarship

ctl_awardsCongratulations to the recipients of the 2011 Distinguished Teaching and Learning Awards. These awards, the result of nominations by full-time faculty and staff members, recognize individuals who have made exemplary contributions to creating an engaging academic learning environment through teaching, scholarship, and mentoring and advising. This year’s recipients of the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching and Learning Awards are:

For Excellence in Teaching—Timothy Pippert [left], associate professor of sociology (who will deliver the address at opening convocation in September 2011)

For Excellence in Mentoring and Advising—Cass Dalglish [middle left], professor of English, and Cheryl Leuning [right], professor of nursing

For Excellence in Scholarship—Nancy Steblay [middle right], professor of psychology

Continue reading “Four honored for distinguished teaching, advising, scholarship”

Paul from Coopers gets his 15 seconds

explore_minnesotaAndy Warhol said, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”

He’s probably not going to be world-famous, and he got less than 15 seconds, but our own Paul Rutledge, the tall curly-haired A’viands’ employee who makes your lattés and smoothies at Coopers coffee shop, is on the television.

Rutledge, a 2009 graduate from Hamline University’s theatre program, has worked at Augsburg since the fall of 2010. He’s the guitar-playing, jingle-singing, plaid shirt-wearing guy who is sitting in a boat at the beginning of the new Explore Minnesota television advertisement. Continue reading “Paul from Coopers gets his 15 seconds”

Sverdrup Lecture features Barbara Baird of Cornell

The 2010-11 convocation series continues on April 11 and 12 with the Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Lectures.

Barbara A. Baird is the Horace White Professor and chair of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University. She received her BA in chemistry from Knox College and her PhD in chemistry from Cornell University. Her postdoctoral studies were carried out as a Damon Runyon Fellow in the immunology branch of the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health before she joined the Cornell faculty in 1980. Continue reading “Sverdrup Lecture features Barbara Baird of Cornell”

St. Paul students gain pathways to education and the workplace

travelersAugsburg College has been selected for a second major gift by The Travelers Companies, Inc., for its Travelers EDGE program: Empowering Dreams for Graduation and Employment. This innovative partnership between Travelers and 10 colleges, universities, and college-readiness programs in St. Paul, Hartford (Conn.), and Baltimore targets areas where Travelers has significant operations and where public schools show low retention and graduation rates for low-income and first-generation students. Continue reading “St. Paul students gain pathways to education and the workplace”

Strommen Executive Speaker Series features Ecolab CEO, Doug Baker

strommen_bakerThe Strommen Executive Speakers Series brings top executive leaders to campus to share their experience with alumni and students. Join us on Thursday, April 7 at 5 p.m. to hear Doug Baker, chairman, president and CEO of Ecolab, Inc.

On A Mission to Create a Cleaner, Safer, Healthier World

Ecolab rose in the 1920s from humble beginnings: a product to clean hotel carpets, followed by a detergent for early dish machines. Today, the St. Paul-based company is a $6 billion global leader, providing products and services for cleaning and sanitation, food safety, and infection prevention. Continue reading “Strommen Executive Speaker Series features Ecolab CEO, Doug Baker”