Photo by Megan Koepp
Dr. Martin Brokenleg does some research in his office
between classes. The Native American studies profes-sor
will be a part of a forum discussion with.the Dalai
Lama at the University of Minnesota on May 9.
Photo by Carrie DeRuyter
Nontraditional social work major Joan Benz visits with social work Professor Andy East-wood.
Eastwood accepted a position at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, a week after
Augie administration announced it would cut the social work program effective May 2003.
The Augustana Social work program pulled
Sioux Falls, S.D.
Friday, May 4, 2001
Volume 89, Issue 19
Forum
The best
two catches
on campus
Variety
Pastor
Maribeth
leaves her
mark
Sports
Salmela s
legendary
day
BY KATIE MCKEE
MIRROR CO-EDITOR
Repositioning Augustana for the
future leaves the social work pro-gram
without one.
Administration has decided to
end the 32-year-old accredited joint
program with the University of
Sioux Falls (USF) at the end of the
2003 academic year.
President Bruce Halverson cites
the college's academic master
plan's intent to increase the student
to faculty ratio as one reason behind
the cut. The plan calls for increasing
the 12:1 ratio to 14:1. Other reasons
include the small size of the pro-gram
and in part, the college's cur-rent
financial difficulties.
"It's the budget, but it's not just
the budget," Halverson said. "It's
really about repositioning the col-lege
and where you are going to put
your priorities and *here you're
going to emphasize."
According to Academic Dean
Dick Hanson, the decision did not
come without careful consideration
and examination into all of Augus-tana's
programs.
Nor did it come easy. "It was very
painful," he said. "These are people
I admire and respect."
Social work is one of Augus-tana's
smaller departments. Profes-sors
Barb Barclay, Andy Eastwood
and Harriet Scott work between
Augustana and USF campuses. Stu-
'dents in the program attend classes
at both campuses as well.
According to Scott, 23 Augustana
BY GARRICK MORITZ
MIRROR ASSISTANT EDITOR
Throughout his life
the Rev. Dr. Martin Bro-kenleg
has participated
in many crusades for
social change and jus-tice.
Being a minister as
well as a college profes-sor
certainly places him
in a raised position. In
addition to this, he is a
shaman of the Lakota
Sioux tribe.
With all these accom-plishments,
one might
think that he's accom,
plished more than many
people ever do. All the
same, an opportunity to
speak at a forum with the
Dalai Lama is a rare treat
that he is quite happy to
indulge in.
Months ago Broken-leg
was approached by a fellow
Episcopal minister from Minneso-ta,
asking if he wished to partici-pate
on a panel discussion at the
University of Minnesota with His
Holiness, as a representative of the
Native American people. His
response was simple.
"I said, 'Absolutely!"' Broken-leg
said. "I've read his books and
studied his teachings. He is worthy
of the praise he receives."
Brokenleg heard nothing else
about the panel until only two
weeks ago when he received a let-ter
from those in charge. They
students are
enrolled in the
social work pro-gram,
accounting
for a little more
than half of the
40 total social
work students
enrolled between
the colleges.
Hanson says
Augustana's larg-er
departments
like business
administration
and biology, for
example, have
nearly 200
majors each.
"The president
and I have a
responsibility to
make sure that
we can continue
to provide a qual-ity
educational
product to our students," Hanson
said. "This is one of the times when
we needed to reorient the 'system."
Hard feelings.
The decision to cut the program,
however, has not come without hard
feelings, and the fact that the admin-istration
informed no one of its
ideas prior to the actual decision has
upset many faculty and students.
In fact, the social work faculty
was informed - of the cuts on April 6
— two days after Halverson's April
4 faculty meeting and repositioning
wished to obtain a copy of the
remarks he planned to make so that
His Holiness could prepare a
response. He sent them off this last
Tuesday, just making his deadline.
Brokenleg was told by university
organizers that the tickets for the
forum sold out within two hours of
opening.
"Wherever [the Dalai Lama]
goes he tries to connect with reli-gious
leaders from any persua-sion,"
Brokenleg said. "He doesn't
agree with everybody, and he says
that, but he still feels that we
should be able to talk. I'm just so
excited to see how it will go."
statement stating that all cuts had
been made. Halverson says the
intention was to inform them
together ahead of time, but one pro-fessor
was out of town.
"It was an honest intention by
us," he said. "We got stuck, and we
apologize, but we think it was the
right thing to do in order to be fair to
people."
The social work program isn't the
only program that was informed of
cuts after Halverson stated all cuts
had been made. Four teachers at the
Campus Learning Center learned
Brokenleg has no easy
task at this forum, for he
is representing not only
his tribe, Augustana, and
his ministry, but the
entire Native American
culture.
"This dialogue will be
a discussion of religious
principles," Brokenleg
said. "So my task will be
to outline for him the
essential tenets of Native
American belief."
Brokenleg will speak
about the commonalities
shared by two very dif-ferent
religions; those of
Tibet and that of the
Native Americans.
"Native American peo-ple
have had an experi-ence
very like the experi-ence
of the people of
Tibet," he said. "We have
had another population of people
that have numerically and cultural-ly
overwhelmed us. So we under-stand
the difficulties of maintaining
identity and values. That is certain-ly
an issue with Tibet and their
nation's problems with the Chinese
communist government."
The panel discussion will take
place on the University of Min-nesota
campus in the Northrup
Auditorium on May 9 in Min-neapolis.
The program is sponsored
by the Tibetan American Founda-tion
and the Tibetan Association of
Minnesota.
that their jobs would no longer be in
place next fall. This announcement
came just five days after Halver-son's
original statement.
Other departments are facing
changes as well. Special education
and computer science will each lose
one position. In addition, Hanson
says, one more position will be
eliminated that has yet to be identi-fied.
For Eastwood and Scott, it's not
Social work
continued on page 11
Lamppost
vandalism
bends
budget
BY JUSTIN VINJE
MIRROR CO-COPY EDITOR
Toppled lollipops, a big kid's
urge acted upon, are eating into
the college's collective pocket-book
while leaving the grounds
with somewhat spotty nighttime
coverage.
This recent rash of vandalism
directed toward the globe lights
at Augustana, destroying at least
10 in the past several months,
has left members of the commu-nity
in the dark and seeing red,
according to Elmer Smolnisky,
supervisor of maintenance.
"The poles are $500 apiece,
plus the electrician's time,"
Smolnisky said. "That's really
stressful on the maintenance
budget, to come up with another
$5,000 a year, just to replace
lights that shouldn't need replac-ing.
It's just costing each student
more money."
But the whole downed-lamp
fiasco becomes more than just
an immediate out-of-pocket
expense upon examination of
the opportunity cost, according
Vandalism
continued on page 11
Brokenleg to meet Dalai Lama