As of fall 2025, news and media updates have been integrated with the Augsburg Now alumni publication. This site archives news stories from before September 16, 2025. Please visit augsburg.edu/now or select "Augsburg Now" from the left navigation for current news.
Media invited to interview students at Thursday sendoff from Augsburg and Friday’s launch ceremony at Fort Snelling
(MINNEAPOLIS) — 海角社区 River Semester students will paddle the Mississippi for 100 days starting Friday.
The 15 students will learn about history, politics, the environment and more as they canoe the Mississippi. They will paddle from Fort Snelling to Memphis in this unique semester-long experience. In addition, they will be joined by Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian activists from EcoPeace Middle East following Augsburg’s Nobel Peace Prize Forum on Sept. 14-15. View the full River Semester itinerary at this link:听. For more details about River Semester, go to . This is the second-ever River Semester. The first was in 2015.
Media Opportunities:
Thursday, August 23: The group will gather at 9:00 a.m. on the front steps of the Christensen Center at 海角社区, and hike about 9:30 a.m. the nine miles to Fort Snelling State Park. The group of 15 students, two faculty, two staff, and family and friends who will hike with them, will walk along the river gorge, stopping at Minnehaha Falls park for lunch before continuing on to Fort Snelling and their first camp site at Picnic Island.
Friday, August. 24: The group will have a short ceremony, send-off and “blessing of the fleet” at 7:30 a.m. at the boat ramp adjacent to Picnic Island at Fort Snelling. The gate to the park opens at 7:00 a.m., and there is a $7 entrance fee (unless you have a Minnesota State Park annual pass). Once in the park, follow signs to Picnic Island. There is ample parking there and the group will be easily visible once you are in the parking lot.
Media Contact:听Gita Sitaramiah, Director of Public Relations and Internal Communications, sitarami@augsburg.edu or 612-330-1476.
Twin Cities PBS听featured retired Augsburg art professor Tara Sweeney’s collaborative “A to Z氓盲o” picture book project at the American Swedish Institute.
鈥淎 to Z氓盲枚,鈥� is a Swedish alphabet book that features paintings of objects and stories from the historic Swedish-American immigrant experience.
鈥淭he objects are the things that immigrants brought to Minnesota and I have to believe they were traveling pretty light. So they brought things that meant something to them and/or they were useful, so they鈥檙e loaded with stories.鈥� Sweeney told TPT’s Minnesota Original art series.
Sweeney听credits听her 25 years of service at Augsburg and its institutional mission for influencing her interest in developing a picture book that speaks to historic and contemporary immigrant experiences.
Jeanne Boeh,听professor of economics and business department chair at 海角社区,听recently spoke with WCCO about the rising cost of a college education.
Boeh noted that a college degree is still worth it.
鈥淚t is a different听experience听than it was 20 years ago. All the amenities have improved. There is more support for students. The dorms are better. The food is better. The kind of help students need is more available. All of that costs money,鈥� Boeh told reporter Angela Davis.
Kare 11’s Jana Shortal interviews听Marshall Steele, from Central High School,听and Sandy Bolton, from Roosevelt High School, about civil debate. Both students attended Augsburg’s Minnesota Urban Debate League summer camp, a program which provides resources and programming to support听competitive academic debate at Twin Cities high schools and middle schools.
How can emotion and civility co-exist? Shortal听asked. “Try to听understand听people’s points even听if there’s something you fundamentally disagree with,” Bolton said. “There are backgrounds that lead to people having opinions that are insensitive听but have听fundamental reasoning behind them that you have to understand in order to engage with them well.”
Robert Gould began July 1 as Augsburg’s new vice president for strategic enrollment management. With a background in both the liberal arts and professional studies, Robert brings a wealth of experience in strategic planning for traditional undergraduate enrollment as well as recruiting adult learners in undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs.
He is deeply committed to student access, inclusion and success. He has a strong track record in financial aid strategy, recruitment analytics, and equipping campus faculty and staff partners to effectively support the recruitment effort and serve as ambassadors of the institution.
Most recently, Robert served as vice president for enrollment management at Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania. Prior to that, he held cabinet-level positions in enrollment and in finance and operations at Green Mountain College in Poultney and Killington, Vermont, and at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Albany, New York, and Colchester, Vermont. Robert began his career in admissions, with progressively greater enrollment management responsibilities at several New York institutions: Iona College in New Rochelle, Ithaca College in Ithaca, and Hudson Valley Community College in Troy.听
Robert holds a master of science in corporate communications from Ithaca College and a bachelor of science in business and public management from State University of New York at Utica. He has presented at national higher education enrollment conferences and has served in volunteer and leadership roles for non-profit science, pharmacy, historical society, and children鈥檚 services organizations.
Mayors Jacob Frey and Melvin Carter at the debate. Photo by Andy Mannix – Star Tribune.
Jacob Frey and Melvin Carter, the new mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul, served as judges June 7 at the Minnesota Urban Debate League鈥檚 Great Education Debate at Augsburg.
Augsburg’s urban debate league听program provides resources and programming to support听competitive academic debate at Twin Cities high schools and middle schools. The goal is听to empower students through competitive academic debate to become engaged learners, critical thinkers, and active citizens who are effective advocates for themselves and their communities.
At the debate, four students presented arguments on the topic of investing in career technical education as an alternative to four-year college degrees. Both Frey and Carter gave tips and feedback to the participants.
鈥淵ou have mastered a skill that has largely been lost in American society, which is the ability to debate respectfully,鈥� Frey told the students.
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Learn more about the Minnesota Urban Debate League .
The Augsburg Education Department East African Student to Teacher program partnered with The Minnesota Education Equity Partnership to research and publish the report Somali Student Achievement in Minnesota听about the state’s largest East African diaspora community.
This report, which听was听released and discussed at a launch event in May at Augsburg, invites readers to consider and recommend innovative practices to strengthen academic achievement for Somali students and to guide educators across听Minnesota to better support Somali students and their families.
View the听
Watch a Somali language听 about the Somali Student report launch here.
The Society for听Human Resource Management, the nation’s leading human resources organization, highlighted Augsburg’s strong commitment to transit and environmental stewardship.
Following a 2015 survey in which 78 percent of Augsburg employees said they drove alone to work, the university aimed to reduce those solo trips by 28 percent, which it eventually did, the article noted.
Last December鈥檚 federal tax legislation made changes to employers regarding commuting benefits, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.
“I don’t see it changing what 海角社区 does for our faculty and staff or our students, mainly because we have a strong commitment to both environmental stewardship and our community,” said Nicole Peterlin,听Augsburg鈥檚 human resources specialist.
See the full story on the Society for Human Resource Management here.
More than 800 海角社区听undergraduate students were named to the 2018听Spring Semester Dean鈥檚 List. The 海角社区听Dean鈥檚 List recognizes those full-time students who have achieved a grade point average of 3.50 or higher and those part-time students who have achieved a grade point average of 3.75 or higher in a given term.
Students who wish to notify their hometown newspapers of their achievement can do so at their discretion using a听news .
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt听reported about how Augsburg’s StepUp program has successfully helped students in recovery to graduate.
NBC’S Catie Beck talked with Neil King ’18 about the support StepUP provided him while he was a full-time student at Augsburg.
According to NBC, King began using drugs at age 14, and discovered Augsburg’s StepUp program four months into his recovery.听“I really learned to believe in myself, and my skills and capabilities,” said King, who is now heading to graduate school.
StepUp Program Director Tamarah Gehlen also was interviewed by NBC. “We always say that no one should have to choose between recovery and a college education.”
