THIS YEAR Augsburg marks the anniversaries of three programs providing education to adults and non-traditional students, largely initiated in response to community and marketplace needs. Now, as the College is engaged in refining and sharpening its vision of Lutheran education, it is even more clear how critical adult-learning is to the core mission of the College.

In 1982, Augsburg opened its Weekend College doors to working adults, offering them an opportunity to earn the same education it offers its traditional college students.

In 1987, the College responded to business and corporate leaders by initiating a master's program to help working adults develop leadership skills needed for higher levels of management.

By this time, another program targeted to older adults had already been quietly growing for a decade—the College of the Third Age—delivering educational programs in the community where older adults live and gather.

The reasons that adult students come to Augsburg's programs are varied—completion of a college degree, required job skills, better chances for promotion, personal interest and growth—and their presence is vital to the College.

President William Frame, in his annual speech to the Augsburg community in February, squarely addressed not only the financial benefit to the College adult programs bring, but the significance of these programs to its mission.

"We are preparing our students for vocational lives—that is, called lives of service—in a global society constantly altered by technological innovation," Frame said.

"Such a society demands lifelong learning—of everyone. "Such a reality narrows the difference between a traditional student and a working adult," he continued. "It has reinforced our Lutheran propensity to find a meeting ground in our curriculum for classroom learning and experience ... The refinement of the educational mission envisioned by Augsburg 2004 requires a highly involved engagement in lifelong learning."