Augustana College is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

college in Rock Island, Illinois. The college enrolls approximately 2,500 students. Its campus is adjacent to the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

and covers of hilly, wooded land.

History

Augustana College was founded as Augustana College and Theological Seminary in 1860 by the

Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod The Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church (previously the Augustana Lutheran Synod and also Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America and Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America) was a Lutheran churc ...

. Located first in Chicago, it moved to

Paxton, Illinois Paxton is a city in Ford County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,473 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Ford County. History The town was initially named Prairie City in the late 1840s, then Prospect City by an Il ...

, in 1863 and to Rock Island, Illinois, its current home, in 1875. After 1890, an increasingly large Swedish American community in America promoted a new institutional structure, including a lively Swedish-language press, many new churches, several colleges, and a network of ethnic organizations. The result was to foster a sense of Swedishness with pride in the United States. Thus, there emerged a self-confident Americanized generation. Augustana College put itself in the lead of the movement to affirm Swedish American identity. Early on all the students had been born in Sweden but by 1890 the second generation of American-born students predominated. They typically had white-collar or professional backgrounds; few were the sons and daughters of farmers and laborers. These middle class youth developed an idealized view of Sweden, characterized by romanticism, patriotism, and idealism, just like their counterparts across the Atlantic. The new generation was especially proud of the Swedish contributions to American democracy and of the creation of a republic that promised liberty and destroyed the menace of slavery. The college grew by donation of on the south in 1886 and purchase, enabled by donation of C.J.A. Ericson, of 10–12 acres to the north in 1899. In 1947, when Conrad Bergendoff was college president, the Augustana Seminary formally separated from Augustana College and became an independent body. It remained on the Rock Island campus until the 1960s, when the Seminary moved to Chicago. It merged with other

seminaries to form the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

Campus

Academic buildings

Old Main was constructed between 1884 and 1893. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. On August 2, 2010, the New Science Building was officially named the Robert A. and Patricia K. Hanson Hall of Science after Robert Hanson, a former John Deere CEO. Hanson, who donated $8 million to the college, credits his success in life to his time spent at Augustana. The science building, dedicated in 1998 and enlarged in 2019, is the largest academic building serving approximately 700 students in 17 majors, minors and concentrations. The Hanson Hall of Science's facilities and resources include seven classrooms, 35 laboratories (including a cadaver lab), a 400 MHz liquid-and solid-state NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectrometer, scanning electron microscope, instrumentation for X-ray powder crystallography and a fully functioning greenhouse. In October 2021, Augustana dedicated the Peter J. Lindberg, M.D., Center for Health and Human Performance in honor of alumnus Peter J. Lindberg. The 52,000-square-foot Lindberg Center is home to the college's new kinesiology program and growing public health program, as well as the men's and women's swimming/diving and new water polo teams.

Residential complexes

Augustana has five traditional residence halls: Andreen Hall, Erickson Residence Center, Seminary Hall, Swanson Commons, and Westerlin Residence Center. All five of these residence halls are coeducational. The majority of first-year and sophomore-year students typically reside in one of these five residence halls. For juniors, Augustana also offers Transitional Living Areas (TLAs), apartment-like complexes or traditional off-campus houses administered by the college's Office of Residential Life, in which Augustana students live. The school takes care of basic maintenance in these areas, some of which are House on the Hill, Naeseth, and Arbaugh Apartments. These areas usually have 2–6 students who share a bathroom, a kitchen, and other living spaces.Augustana College – Campus

Fryxell Geology Museum

Th Fryxell Geology Museum, named after Augustana geologist Fritiof Fryxell, features a large collection of dinosaurs and fossils, rocks and mineral specimens. Displays include a complete skeleton of a

Platecarpus ''Platecarpus'' ("flat wrist") is an extinct genus of aquatic lizards belonging to the mosasaur family, living around 84–81 million years ago during the middle Santonian to early Campanian, of the Late Cretaceous period. Fossils have been fo ...

"sea serpent", skulls of

Parasaurolophus ''Parasaurolophus'' (; meaning "near crested lizard" in reference to ''Saurolophus)'' is a genus of herbivorous hadrosaurid ornithopod dinosaur that lived in what is now North America and possibly Asia during the Late Cretaceous Period, abo ...

Ankylosaurus ''Ankylosaurus'' is a genus of armored dinosaur. Its fossils have been found in geological formations dating to the very end of the Cretaceous Period, about 68–66 million years ago, in western North America, making it among the last of th ...

Apatosaurus ''Apatosaurus'' (; meaning "deceptive lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. Othniel Charles Marsh described and named the first-known species, ''A. ajax'', in 1 ...

, Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex and a 2-billion-year-old fossil. There is also a complete skeleton of Cryolophosaurus, a large, crested carnivorous dinosaur discovered in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

in 1991 by Augustana paleontologist William Hammer. The museum is located in the Swenson Hall of Geosciences and is open during the academic year. Admission is free.

Student life

Organizations

Since 1950, Augustana has had a chapter of the

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

honor society. The college also has non-"Greek" collegiate fraternal organizations, including

Epsilon Tau Pi Epsilon Tau Pi () Fraternity was founded in 1999 at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, Ohio. Its objective is to provide a collegiate Fraternities and sororities, fraternity for Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America), Eagle Scouts at u ...

(ΕΤΠ)(Eagle Scouts),

Alpha Phi Omega Alpha Phi Omega (), commonly known as APO, but also A-Phi-O and A-Phi-Q, is a coeducational service fraternity. It is the largest collegiate fraternity in the United States, with chapters at over 350 campuses, an active membership of over 25, ...

(APO) (service), Sigma Alpha Iota (SAI) (music), Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (PMA) (music),

Epsilon Sigma Alpha Epsilon Sigma Alpha International () is a community and collegiate service organization for anyone ages 18 and older. The organization states that its purpose "is to inspire leadership and service by bringing good people together to pursue progr ...

(ESA) (Service), Alpha Psi Omega (ΑΨΩ) (theater), and others. The Omicron chapter of

Phrateres Phrateres ( ) is a philanthropic-social organization for female college students. History Phrateres was founded at UCLA in 1924 by the dean of women, Helen Matthewson Laughlin.

, a non-exclusive, non-profit social-service club, was installed here in 1941. Between 1924 and 1967, 23 chapters of Phrateres were installed in universities across North America. (The chapter name "Omicron" was reused for the chapter installed at San José State University.) Augustana has a local Greek system, which includes seven sororities Chi Alpha Pi (CAP), Chi Omega Gamma (COG), Delta Chi Theta (D-Chi), Phi Rho, Sigma Kappa Tau (KT), Sigma Pi Delta (Speed), and Zeta Phi Kappa (Zetas) and eight fraternities Alpha Sigma Xi (Alpha Sig), Beta Omega Sigma (BOS), Delta Omega Nu (DON), Gamma Alpha Beta (GAB), Iota Chi Epsilon (IXE), Omicron Sigma Omicron (OZO), Phi Omega Phi (Poobah), and Rho Nu Delta (Roundels). Augustana has many other organizations, including a chapter of MENC: The National Association for Music Education, a National Band Association chapter, American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), Paintball Team (NCPA),

American String Teachers Association The American String Teachers Association (ASTA) is a professional organization for bowed string music teachers based in the United States. It is the largest organization in the U.S. for string teachers. ASTA serves teachers and students in all ar ...

(ASTA), College Democrats of America,

College Republicans College Republicans are college and university students who support the Republican Party of the United States. Many members belong to the organization College Republican National Committee (CRNC), College Republicans United (CRU), or various ind ...

, Psychology Club, Business Club, DDR Club,

Anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

Club, Asian Student Organization (ASO), Latinx Unidos, Investment Club, Ladies of Vital Essence (L.O.V.E.), The Order of the Phoenix, Martial Arts Club, Student Government Association and Viking Pups, a club dedicated to training service dogs on campus.

Athletics

Augustana athletic teams are nicknamed as the Vikings. The college is a member of the Division III level of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA), primarily competing in the

College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) is a college athletic conference which competes in the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). CCIW schools have accounted for 50 national championships ...

(CCIW) for almost all of their sports since the 1946–47 academic year. The only current exception is women's bowling, in which the Vikings are charter members of the single-sport Central Intercollegiate Bowling Conference (CIBC) that began competition in the 2019–20 season. The Vikings compete in a combined total of 25 male and female team sports, and five out of seven students compete in some form of varsity, club, or intramural sport. The Vikings previously competed as a member of the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) from 1912–13 to 1936–37. Augustana College competes in 28 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, eSports, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, volleyball, water polo and wrestling; while women's sports include basketball, bowling, cross country, eSports, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, volleyball, water polo and wrestling;. Between 1983 and 1986, the Augustana College football team won four consecutive Division III national championships under Coach Bob Reade. Coach Reade's overall winning percentage of 87% is second only to Larry Kehres and Knute Rockne on the all-time list.

Notable people

Alumni * William Albracht (1975) –

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

U.S. Army captain, recipient of three

Silver Star The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an e ...

s, five

Bronze Star The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. W ...

s, and three

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

s * Dave "Gruber" Allen (1980) – television and film actor * Ken Anderson (1970) – NFL quarterback with the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The club's home ...

for 16 seasons * Brenda C. Barnes (1975) – former CEO of both Sara Lee and PepsiCo * Craig Blomberg (1977) – Bible scholar * A. J. Carlson (BA.1898, MS. 1899) – Chairman of the Physiology Department at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

* K. G. William Dahl (1907) – Lutheran pastor and author, founder of Bethphage Mission *

Charlotte Erickson Charlotte J. Erickson (October 22, 1923 in Oak Park, Illinois – July 9, 2008 in Cambridge) was an American historian.Lane Evans Lane Allen Evans (August 4, 1951 – November 5, 2014) was an American attorney and politician who served as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1983 until 2007, representing the 17th District of Illinois. Ev ...

(1974) – former US Congressman (Illinois 17th District). *

Paul Fryxell Paul Arnold Fryxell was an American botanist known for his work on flowering plants, especially those within the Malvaceae. Education and career Fryxell attended Moline public schools and later Augustana College, graduating with a B.A. in 1949, ...

(1949) – botanist *

Greta Fryxell Greta Albrecht Fryxell (November 21, 1926 – September 24, 2017) was a marine scientist known for her work on the biology and taxonomy of diatoms. In 1996, she was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. E ...

(1948) – oceanographer *

David Hultgren David Rodger Hultgren (born April 30, 1951) is a former politician and judge in Illinois. In 1986 he successfully ran for the Illinois House of Representatives, winning the 94th District seat. After serving three full terms, he moved into the ...

(1973) – former Illinois State Congressman (94th District) *

Steven Kemenyffy Steven Kemenyffy (born 1943) is an American ceramic artist living and working in Pennsylvania. He is most recognized for his contributions to the development of the American ceramic raku tradition. Beginning in 1969, he served as a Professor of Ce ...

(1964) – ceramic artist *

Apoorva Mandavilli Apoorva Mandavilli is an American investigative journalist whose work has focused on medical science. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she joined '' The New York Times'' as a health and science writer. In the spring of 2019, she was writer-in-resid ...

(1994) – investigative journalist and science writer with the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Don Morton Don Morton (born April 10, 1947) is a former American football player, coach, and software executive. He served as the head football coach at North Dakota State University (1979–1984), the University of Tulsa (1985–1986), and the University o ...

(1969) – football head coach,

North Dakota State North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota. It was founded as North ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

Carl Marcus Olson Carl Marcus Olson (1911 – May 16, 2011) has been credited as the discoverer of the process to make silicon pure. Early life Carl Marcus Olson was born in 1911, to Swedish immigrants in Chicago. His father, Dr. Oscar N. Olson, a clergyman, and h ...

(1932) – developed process to purify

silicon Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic ...

for electronic use *

Shem-Tov Sabag Shem-Tov Sabag (שם טוב סבג; nicknamed "Shemi"; born April 13, 1959) is an Israeli former Olympic marathoner. He won both the 1984 Lake County Marathon and the 1989 Vancouver Marathon. Early life Sabag was born in Israel, his hometown is ...

– Israeli Olympic marathoner * Thorsten Sellin (1915) – pioneer in scientific

criminology Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and s ...

Theodore Emanuel Schmauk Theodore Emanuel Schmauk, D.D., LL.D. (May 30, 1860 - March 23, 1920) was an American Lutheran minister, educator, author and Church theologian. Theodore Emanuel Schmauk was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the son of a Lutheran minister, Rev. ...

(1910) – Lutheran minister, educator, and author *

Mark Schwiebert Mark William Schwiebert (born August 2, 1950) is the former Mayor of the City of Rock Island, Illinois from May 1989 until May 2009. Prior to his election as Rock Island Mayor, Schwiebert served the people of his City as an attorney and City Coun ...

(1972) – Mayor of Rock Island, 1989–2009 * Donald K. Sundquist (1957) – former US Congressman (1983–1985) and Governor of Tennessee * Carl Aaron Swensson (1877) – Lutheran minister and founder of Bethany College *

Robert J. Swieringa Robert Jay Swieringa (born 1942) was the ninth Dean and is a professor emeritus of the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He also served as an elected member to General Electric Company board of directors. Swieringa ...

(1964) – former member of the

Financial Accounting Standards Board The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is a private standard-setting body whose primary purpose is to establish and improve Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) within the United States in the public's interest. The Securi ...

(FASB) and former Dean of the Johnson School at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

Daniel Tsui Daniel Chee Tsui (, born February 28, 1939) is a Chinese-born American physicist, Nobel laureate, and the Arthur Legrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus, at Princeton University. Tsui's areas of research include electrical pro ...

(1961) –

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winner in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

* Gustav Wahlund (1884) - Lutheran minister and Minnesota state legislator * J. E. Wallace Wallin (1897) – psychologist and early advocate of special education Faculty * William R. Hammer (former faculty) – paleontologist who found the first dinosaur, '' Cryolophosaurus'', in Antarctica. Fritiof M. Fryxell Chair in Geology * Stanley Hauerwas (former faculty) – theologian * Louise Meiszner (former faculty) - pianist

References

External links

Official website

Official athletics website
{{authority control Swedish migration to North America Buildings and structures in Rock Island, Illinois Quad Cities Education in the Quad Cities Educational institutions established in 1860 Lutheranism in Illinois Education in Rock Island County, Illinois Swedish-American culture in Illinois Tourist attractions in Rock Island, Illinois 1860 establishments in Illinois Private universities and colleges in Illinois