This section of the News and Media Services department site tracks stories in print and broadcast media that feature Auggie faculty, students, and staff. The area also is home to material developed for University-related programs, events, and more.
In its March 12 meeting, the executive committee of the Augsburg Board of Regents unanimously approved a six-year contract renewal for President Paul C. Pribbenow.
“In an era when five- or six-year presidencies are common in higher education, President Pribbenow’s long-term leadership of the university has enabled Augsburg to achieve remarkable things,” said Matt Entenza, chair of the Augsburg Board of Regents. “The university has become one of the most diverse private institutions in the Midwest during his tenure and has welcomed record-breaking first-year classes in the past two years. The university is fortunate to continue to have Paul’s transformational leadership through 2027.”
Pribbenow joined Augsburg in 2006 as its 10th president. During Pribbenow’s most recent six-year term, Augsburg changed its name to Augsburg University, recognizing its expansive academic mission serving undergraduate and graduate students on campus and at locations around the world. Pribbenow also led the institution’s largest-ever capital campaign during that time, raising more than $55 million to construct the university’s largest academic facility, the Norman and Evangeline Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion, which opened in January 2018. As a reflection of Pribbenow’s institutional leadership, the Augsburg Board of Regents was awarded the 2017 John W. Nason Award for Board Leadership for its work to initiate an inclusive, five-year strategic planning effort and for leading the institution’s successful capital campaign for the Hagfors Center.
Pribbenow is recognized as one of the country’s most engaging teachers on ethics, philanthropy, and American public life. Learn more about his work and presidency.
About Augsburg Augsburg University offers more than 50 undergraduate majors and 11 graduate degrees to 3,400 students of diverse backgrounds at its campus in the vibrant center of the Twin Cities and nearby Rochester, Minnesota, location. Augsburg educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. An Augsburg education is defined by excellence in the liberal arts and professional studies, guided by the faith and values of the Lutheran church, and shaped by its urban and global settings. Learn more at Augsburg.edu.
MPR News on March 17 featured the final keynote address for the 2021 Forum on Workplace Inclusion, a conversation between MPR News host Angela Davis and Eddie Glaude Jr., a professor at Princeton University. Glaude made a call to action for conference participants, encouraging them to tell the truth about what has gotten in the way of full inclusion and to allow people to bring the fullness of themselves to the table. The MPR News site offers a complete audio version of the conversation, “The ‘workplace revolution’ with author and academic Eddie Glaude Jr.”
William Green, M. Anita Gay Hawthorne professor of critical race and ethnic studies, was one of the experts interviewed in a PBS NewHour story on the Chauvin trial.
Green commented that, while he was hopeful, he also was concerned that there may not be lasting change, even if Chauvin is convicted. “The very nature of a trial narrows down the issue to a focus that may not deal with any kind of systemic change at all,” he said.
About Augsburg Augsburg University offers more than 50 undergraduate majors and 11 graduate degrees to 3,400 students of diverse backgrounds at its campus in the vibrant center of the Twin Cities and nearby Rochester, Minnesota, location. Augsburg educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. An Augsburg education is defined by excellence in the liberal arts and professional studies, guided by the faith and values of the Lutheran church, and shaped by its urban and global settings. Learn more at Augsburg.edu.
The 33-year-old Forum on Workplace Inclusion March 8-12 is the nation’s largest workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion conference designed for national and global audiences and based at Augsburg University.
This year’s Workplace Revolution-themed forum examines both the workplace disruptions caused by the pandemic and the disparities that were a focus of protests following the murder of George Floyd.
The forum asks, “What will it take to start a workplace revolution that moves us from talk to action?”
Sessions include “A Step-by-Step Guide to Developing and Implementing a Diversity and Inclusion Program,” “Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit,” “A New Lens for Revealing Unconscious Bias,” and “Cultivating Trust in Remote Organizations to Support DEI.” In addition, participants can take part in 90-minute small group coaching sessions and connect with others through a virtual marketplace of ideas.
More information and a registration link are available on the 2021 Forum Annual Conference webpage.
About The Forum
For 33 years, The Forum has served as a convening hub for those seeking to grow professional leadership and effectiveness skills in the field of diversity, equity, and inclusion by engaging people, advancing ideas, and igniting change.
The annual conference is HRCI and SHRM Continuing Education Credit (CEU) eligible.
About Augsburg
Augsburg University offers more than 50 undergraduate majors and 11 graduate degrees to 3,400 students of diverse backgrounds at its campus in the vibrant center of the Twin Cities and nearby Rochester, Minnesota, location. Augsburg educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. An Augsburg education is defined by excellence in the liberal arts and professional studies, guided by the faith and values of the Lutheran church, and shaped by its urban and global settings. Learn more at Augsburg.edu.
Augsburg University has again been named a top producer of Fulbright students among U.S. master’s institutions for 2020-21. Each year the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces the top producing institutions for the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. The Chronicle of Higher Education publishes the lists of top producers of Fulbright U.S. scholars and students annually.
Five Augsburg students received 2020-21 Fulbright awards to teach English in four countries. The students are Winni Godi ’17 (Rwanda), Abdulkadir Sharif ’20 (Malaysia), Eh Soe Dwe ’20 (Malaysia), Natalya Arevalo ’20 (Honduras), and Bethany Lor ’19 (South Korea).
The Fulbright Program was created to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Students can teach English, participate in graduate study, or conduct research. Fulbright is the world’s largest and most diverse international educational exchange program. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. 2021 marks the 75th anniversary of the Fulbright Program.
About Augsburg
Augsburg University offers more than 50 undergraduate majors and 11 graduate degrees to 3,400 students of diverse backgrounds at its campus in the vibrant center of the Twin Cities and nearby Rochester, Minnesota, location. Augsburg educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. An Augsburg education is defined by excellence in the liberal arts and professional studies, guided by the faith and values of the Lutheran church, and shaped by its urban and global settings. Learn more at Augsburg.edu.
Mark Engebretson, professor emeritus of physics at Augsburg University, recently surpassed his 300th publication when three articles to which he contributed were published earlier this month:
“Observations of Particle Loss due to Injection-Associated Electromagnetic Ion Cyclotron Waves” in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
“Magnetic Conjugacy of Pc1 Waves and Isolated Proton Precipitation at Subauroral Latitudes: Importance of Ionosphere as Intensity Modulation Region” in Geophysical Research Letters
“Nighttime magnetic perturbation events observed in Arctic Canada: 3. Occurrence and amplitude as functions of magnetic latitude, local time, and magnetic disturbance indices” in Space Weather
With the publication of these papers, he is now the author or co-author of 303 publications. In addition, another of his articles, for which he was lead author, was recently accepted for publication.
In October, Engebretson received his 30th grant from the National Science Foundation.
Scientific research is usually collaborative, so most of Engebretson’s publications were written in collaboration with several colleagues from around the world. Augsburg undergraduates have been co-authors of 27 of these publications, and five students have been lead authors. Engebretson’s publications have included articles in Annales Geophysicae, Nature, and Sun and Geosphere and a chapter in “The Dynamic Loss of Earth’s Radiation Belts,” among many other journals, conference proceedings, and books.
About Augsburg
Augsburg University offers more than 50 undergraduate majors and 11 graduate degrees to 3,400 students of diverse backgrounds at its campus in the vibrant center of the Twin Cities and nearby Rochester, Minnesota, location. Augsburg educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. An Augsburg education is defined by excellence in the liberal arts and professional studies, guided by the faith and values of the Lutheran church, and shaped by its urban and global settings. Learn more at Augsburg.edu.
Lupita Benavides, a student in the Master of Arts in Nursing program’s transcultural nursing track, is administering COVID-19 vaccines in this KARE 11 story. The February vaccine clinic, sponsored by M Health Fairview and St. Mary’s Health Clinics, targeted members of the Latinx community in St. Paul, which has been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
FOX 9 recently featured Minneapolis South High School students Gabe Chang-Deutsch and Clara Conry, who are part of the nation’s top-ranked debate team in the January 2021 National Coaches Poll. Minneapolis South High School is one of the schools that participates in Minnesota Urban Debate League, a program of Augsburg University.
Chang-Deutsch noted that the Urban Debate League’s coaching has helped them be competitive with students from prestigious private schools. Amy Cram Helwich, executive director of the Minnesota Urban Debate League, also was interviewed.
Elaine Eschenbacher leads civic and community engagement at Augsburg University, but when COVID-19 hit, she was tapped by the first lady of Minnesota and Augsburg’s president to help the state get through the pandemic. She became the higher education operations lead for the COVID-19 Testing Work Group at the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC).
In this role, she collaborates with members of the testing workgroup, leaders at colleges and universities, the team of epidemiologists at MDH that focuses on higher education, and others. Eschenbacher remains employed by Augsburg, which has a contract with the state for her time.
Paul Pribbenow, president of Augsburg University, has been appointed to the Young Women’s Initiative Council by Gov. Tim Walz.
The Young Women’s Initiative is a partnership between the Governor’s Office and the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota. It aims to eliminate the barriers young women face and center and engage those most impacted by those barriers to create long-term solutions.
MPR News on March 17 featured the final keynote address for the 2021 Forum on Workplace Inclusion, a conversation between MPR News host Angela Davis and Eddie Glaude Jr., a professor at Princeton University. Glaude made a call to action for conference participants, encouraging them to tell the truth about what has gotten in the way of full inclusion and to allow people to bring the fullness of themselves to the table. The MPR News site offers a complete audio version of the conversation, 
FOX 9 recently featured Minneapolis South High School students Gabe Chang-Deutsch and Clara Conry, who are part of the nation’s top-ranked debate team in the January 2021 National Coaches Poll. Minneapolis South High School is one of the schools that participates in Minnesota Urban Debate League, a program of Augsburg University. 