Sioux Falls, SD
Volume 69, Number 19
March 20, 1986
Finished Dr. Art Huse:aoe and Kathy Welter, senior, display their
1985 summer study grant project, "Civil War
Miniatures." The book, on sale for $3 at the bookstore, is
a compilation of Civil War letters from Union soldiers on
the battlefield. The letters are part of Augustana's ar-chives
Historical book published
Cr
C)
Music Dept. downbeat over cuts
Steve Nelson
staff writer
Confusion reigns in the
Augustana Music Department
as the loss of two positions
seems imminent.
Dr. Merle Pflueger is retiring
at the end of the year and, while
no formal action has been
taken, the retirement of Concert
Band Director Gary Tanouye is
almost assured. These positions
will not be replaced by new
staff.
The band director's spot is
presently filled by David Mit-chell
who temporarily replaced
Tanouye, who suffered a disabl-ing
stroke, at the beginning of
this school year. Mitchell's one
year contract will not be renew-ed.
According to Music Depart-ment
Chairman Walter May,
"Right now I have two faculty
ASA
Tammy Van Wyhe
staff writer
Four ASA representatives
returned from the United States
Student Association Legislative
Conference in Washington,
D.C., on Monday. Jeff Grell,
Erich Steinman, Mary Ritter-shaus,
and Kara Storm spent
the weekend in the nation's
capitol attending workshops and
speaking with legislators on
campus issues.
"We were about the smallest
school at the conference,"
Steinman said. He said many of
the issues discussed at the con-ference
pertained to larger cam-puses.
The topics relating to
Augustana were limited. The
ASA representatives attended
workshops on student aid,
education cuts, and domestic
vs. defense spending.
members who are qualified to
be band directors (Dr. Leland
Lillehaug and Dr. Harold
Krueger). I can't announce who
the band director's going to be
just yet."
Both Lillehaug and Krueger
say they have been talked to
about the vacant position.
Neither would comment about
the likelihood of becoming the
next director.
"I'd like to see the position
retained," Lillehaug said. "I
have no knowledge that I'll be
doing anything differently next
year than I'm not doing
presently."
Krueger stated what seems to
be the dominant feeling of all
concerned with the music cuts,
"I just wish everything would
get squared away so we can start
making plans for next year."
The four students contacted
legislators or congressional
aides from Iowa, Minnesota,
North Dakota, South Dakota,
Montana, Wyoming, and
Nebraska. Rittershaus said she
felt the student contact had a
very positive impact.
"They all assured me they
were concerned with education,
and I really believe they are,"
she said. "We spoke on behalf
of concerned students at
Augustana. We told them we
hoped Pell Grants and GSL's
wouldn't be cut and qualifica-tions
wouldn't be changed."
"Just having someone (from
Washington) in person had
some effect on the represen-tatives
and senators," Steinman
said. "We at least reminded
them that we're watching and
they are accountable for how
they vote on education-related
bills."
May explained that certain
performance pedagogy and
music history classes will be
reduced to an alternating year
schedule.
Provost Lee Bowker called
this a start, but said there would
be more. "I don't think that's
enough," he said. "You have to
ask each performing group to
what extent does it meet the
needs of students; and can our
faculty really handle it."
Bowker noted that "If you have
a performing group in which
half the people who perform are
not Augie students, that takes
half the time of an Augustana
professor away from the
students who are, in fact, pay-ing
that professor's salary."
Bowker said that he has "ask-ed
the department to construct a
plan for the future. We're (the
Steinman said the group voic-ed
their concerns in regards to
education cuts. Since Reagan
took office in 1980, he said,
education spending has decreas-ed
20 percent.
"Education is less than 2 per-cent
of the federal budget,"
Steinman said. That 2 percent is
an 18 percent decrease from last
year's education allowance.
"The decrease includes specific
cuts in student aid," Steinman
added.
"Personally, I don't think
everything will be handed to
(students) on a silver platter,"
Rittershaus said. She believes
students at Augustana and
elsewhere will be affected by the
cuts, but perhaps, because of
student participation in the
USSA Conference, cuts won't
be as drastic as originally plann-ed.
administration) not saying how
the resources are going to be
allocated. That's for the depart-ment
plan to decide. My own
standards have nothing to do
with what the department
should or should not do."
Bowker said that the band
program, if anything, will be
helped by the upcoming
changes and that while two posi-tions
are being cut, the money
gained from these reductions
will stay in the music depart-ment
budget. He added that the
music department "may even
need more money when they
come up with a plan."
One band member was con-cerned
over the possible loss of
prospective students. "High
school kids will be pushed
away," the band member said.
"They won't realize that we're
trying to build the program up
and they just won't come."
Alan Petersen
editor
Certain faculty members at
Augustana are being told to go
back to school.
Lee Bowker, provost at the
college, said faculty members
who don't have their doctorates
will have to get them within the
next few years.
Bowker said the standards for
professors at colleges and
universities in this country has
been rising for the past 30 years
and Augustana is no exception.
According to Bowker, having a
doctorate is something pro-fessors
have always been re-quired
to have.
"The difference is," he said,
"we are, shall we say, hurrying
the process up a bit because of
the economics of quality. We
need to move very rapidly.
There wasn't a sense of urgency
before. People did it at their
own leisure."
Bowker said three Augustana
faculty members are currently
Karin Bumgardner
assistant editor
The Rev. Stephen Wohlfeil of
Minot, N.D. accepted the call
last week to serve as campus
pastor at Augustana. Selected
from 70 applicants and seven
finalists, Wohlfeil will begin
work officially April 15.
Wohlfeil, 35, contacted at his
office in North Dakota this
week, explained his initial
reason for applying.
"I didn't know a lot about
Augustana before the
interview," he said. "It was
more a matter of wanting to be
at a church college."
Wohlfeil served as campus
pastor at Minot State College
from 1980-1984, before becom-ing
pastor at Minot's First
Lutheran Church, which he
presently serves.
"I was in campus ministry
before at a state college," he
said, "but I've always wanted
to be a campus pastor at a
church college."
He said his past experience in
camping ministry and churches
has taught him that leaders in
those fields come from church
colleges. He would like to be an
Bowker admits some students
will probably be lost whose in-terests
lie in those "peripheral
activities." But he is confident
that "if you focus more
resources on the things that
matter you'll show that you're
strengthening your programs
and folks that want to come for
those areas will come in larger
numbers and be more
talented," he said.
"There is no danger that we
would be-head a successful pro-gram
simply because we had
other ideas of what Augustana
should be doing."
Poor communication was
mentioned as a block to progress
in the current situation by all
members involved. As one stu-dent
put it, "I'm still kind of
lost. Everything is so up in the
air."
working on their doctorates this
year. They are Joe Pagone,
computer science, and Mary
Otterman and Margot Nelson
of the nursing department.
Quality, according to
Bowker, is the main reason for
professors getting their doc-torates.
He said faculty
members don't receive tenure at
quality institutions without one.
Besides tenure, Bowker said
grants for colleges, students,
and individual research projects
are often times withheld from
people without doctorates, and
colleges that do not require their
faculty to have one.
"If you go to the hospital,
would you allow someone to
operate on you who hasn't
finished his internship or isn't
out of medical school yet?,"
Bowker asked rhetorically.
"That's what you're talking
about when teachers don't have
doctorates. They haven't finish-ed
their educational training."
influence on those leaders while
they are still in school.
The search for a new pastor
to serve the Augustana com-munity
was undertaken by the
Search Committee, appointed
by President William Nelsen.
Wohlfeil's duties will include
serving as the chapel's ad-ministrator,
planning seminars
and conferences, counseling,
and teaching .and providing
pastoral guidance to the Presi-dent's
Council.
Wohlfeil is a native of Bot-tineau,
N.D., completed high
school in Grand Forks and earn-ed
an undergraduate degree in
classical languages at the
University of North Dakota. He
attended Luther Theological
Seminary in St. Paul in 1977
and served another Minot
parish before his first campus
ministry position.
Wohlfeil has also been active
in a family guidance institute,
the YMCA, on Minot's com-mittee
on the handicapped, in
the heart association, as presi-dent
of the PTA, as chaplain of
the city police department, and
as an official timer at Minot
State basketball games.
reps. lobby Congress
Doctorates mandatory
Wohlfeil accepts call