Freshman enrollment up 15 percent
following AU rebrand, FSC addition
KAYLYN DEITER
kkdeiter 73@ole.augie.edu
gustana stands for, one of the
goals of the rebrand was to al­ter
potential students' percep­tions
of the school by bringing
what she calls "Augie stories"
front and cen-the
newest building on campus
is one reason why he thinks his ·
class is one of the largest in re­cent
years.
"I think it's the strong image
With the start of the 2016-
20 17 academic year, new Vikings
once again made their way into
the classrooms, sports arenas
and organizations of Augustana.
But besides an influx of new
faces, the class of 2020 brought
something else to campus: a lot
of friends.
ter. This meant
putting more ef­fort
into market­ing,
along with
highlighting the
other changes
that have taken
place on campus
in the past year.
increase, but
the most visible
is definitely
becoming AU."
that· AU is pro­jecting
towards
the health sci­ences:'
Jones
said. "When you
combine a state­of-
the-art com­plex
with caring
teachers and put
them in a tightly
knit commu­nity,
you get a
big draw from
kids looking for
Page 7: For the love of horses
According to Vice President
for Enrollment Nancy Davidson,
freshman enrollment increased
by 54 students from last year,
bringing the class of 2020's total
to 421, plus 3 part-time students.
It's a 15 percent jump Davidson
attributed to a number of factors,
first among them last year's tran­sition
from college to university.
"There's not one thing that we
think caused this increase:' Da­-
vidson said, "but the most visible
is definitely becoming AU:'
Though Davidson said the
switch didn't change what Au-
"We've had
many positive
· changes, includ­ing
the new sci- Nancy Davidson
ence center, an
increase in grad programs and
the addition of a women's swim
team:' Davidson said. "Having
the physical presence of the FSC
has been huge. Now potential
students don't have to imagine­it's
real:'
For freshman Aaron Jones,
a top-notch edu­cation
focused on relationships:'
Building those relation-ships
was a key concern for fel­low
freshman Shauna Pauli, but
coming from a graduating class
of 72, getting to know her new
See APARTMENTS, page 9
First Year Seminar kicks off for all fr~shmen
JACOB BELGUM
jbbelgum 13@ole.augie.edu
As the 2016-17 academic term be­gins,
all freshmen are now unified under
one general education plan, SOPHIA.
With that comes the full rollout of
the First Year Seminar, which under­went
a pilot program last year in which
23 percent of freshmen participated.
The program received solid reviews
and an increase in retention (91 percent
for participants compared to 82 percent
for nonparticipants), which informed
FYS director and philosophy professor
Stephen Minister that the curriculum
was ready for the class of 2020.
Jacob Belgum
Professor Stephen Minister and his First Year Seminar students discuss the merits of
"This is really a significant change,
a significant new program, so when­an
argument Wednesday morning. Minister doubles as the director of FYS. ever you do something new, it's always
Archaeology dig Augie History:
produces historic Students leave school to
discoveries fight in World War I
PAGE7 PAGE4
good to test it out first:' Minister said.
"Generally, we were very happy with
how things went. The instructors really
enjoyed the classes and felt like the stu­dents
did really well in the classes:'
Last year's FYS students did well
enough that nearly all of them elected
to return this fall. Minister said that the
curriculum wasn't created with high­er
retention in mind, but that better
coursework should make students want
to stick around.
"I think retention is a byproduct of a
good educational experience that meets
students where they're at, that gives
them support and carries them for­ward;'
he said. "So my goal was always
to create that quality of education:'
See FYS, page 9
Soccer leans on
culture during
rebuild
PAGE 11
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