News and Media

William Green, M. Anita Gay Hawthorne professor of critical race and ethnic studies, is featured prominently in the Spring 2021 Middle West Review, a special issue on the African American Midwest. Not only did he contribute an article, “An Ever-Present Impulse: The Legacy of Anti-Black Violence and the Paradox of Minnesota Exceptionalism,” but his books were also the subject of another article, “The Long History of Black Political and Identity Struggles in Minnesota: A Consideration of the Work of William D. Green” by Jacob Bruggeman. 

The guest editor of this issue, Brie Arnold, served as visiting assistant professor of history at Augsburg in 2008-09.

Augsburg Professor Terrance Kwame-Ross and retired Education Department chairwoman Margaret “Peg” Finders noticed their department meetings would get tense at times, the Star Tribune reported July 24.

Kwame-Ross, a Black man in the mostly white and female department, was convinced his race was the reason that his opinions got pushed aside, according to the Star Tribune story. Finders, a white woman leading the department, struggled to navigate the racial tension in their department meetings. They both came together to examine the discomfort with academic rigor. The result is a framework they call “White Talk Moves”, a workshop to address the moves white people make that tend to silence and discount people of color.

Read their interview with the  Star Tribune here.

Jamil Stamschror-Lott ’16 M.S.W., an adjunct professor in Augsburg’s Master of Social Work program, was featured in Diverse Issues in Higher Education on June 17. “How This Minneapolis Man Is Healing Collective Trauma Through Creative Counseling and Mentoring” focuses on his work leading trauma-informed community healing through Creative Kaponya, a therapy practice founded by Stamschror-Lott and his wife, Sara. Speaking about the importance of healing sessions that include meditation, art, and body movement as well as traditional therapy, he said, “Microaggressions and discriminatory encounters can take a mental and physical toll on your body.”

Annie Heiderscheit, director of Augsburg’s Master of Music Therapy program, was one of three featured guests on Angela Davis’ MPR talk show. MPR’s June 1 show focused on the increase in physical pain that many people have experienced during the pandemic. Heiderscheit spoke about how music can help people manage pain and recommended types of music that can be especially helpful.

Augsburg alumni Olivia House ’20 and Silent Fox ’18 were featured in the Pioneer Press story “Billboards across Twin Cities by Augsburg alums promote call for racial justice” on July 1. House and Fox are creators of billboards that memorialize George Floyd and other Black people murdered due to police violence. The billboards will be on display in 30 Twin Cities-area locations through mid-July.

House and Fox worked in partnership with copywriter Jalen Cannon. The project was made possible by a grant from the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation.

The Sun Current also ran a story, “After growing up in Richfield, artist collaborates on racial justice billboards,” which focused on House’s work on the billboard campaign.

Augsburg University is once again set to welcome one of its largest and most diverse classes this fall. Augsburg’s largest incoming class was in Fall 2019, when 636 first-year students enrolled. In 2020, it welcomed its second-largest class. This year’s incoming class is on track to be approximately the same size as the previous two years. 

In addition, the percentage of BIPOC students at Augsburg has increased significantly since 2008. That year, 18% of incoming students identified as BIPOC. More recently, approximately 65% of first-year students have identified as BIPOC.

A recent KARE-11 News report on fall 2021 enrollment at local universities included a brief interview with Robert Gould, Augsburg’s vice president for strategic enrollment management.

The Monitor published “Diverse, record breaking classes at Augsburg,” covering a May 19 speech by President Paul Pribbenow to the Midway Area Chamber of Commerce Leadership Summit. In addition to mentioning three leadership lessons that Pribbenow shared with his audience, the story described Augsburg’s growth, both in terms of diversity and overall numbers, and its community engagement. 

Augsburg had 636 first-year students in fall 2019, its largest entering class. That first year class also reflected more diversity than the decade before; in 2019, 65% of new students identified as BIPOC as compared to 18% in 2008. The university had its second-largest entering class in 2020 and is on track to enroll one of its largest classes again this fall.