Sioux. Falls, SD
Volume 69, Number 23
May 1, 1986
Takes on new role
William Nelson
Fuiure Site
Health, Physical Education and Recreation Building
and related playing fields
Made possible by
college friends participating in the
Commitment to Excellence and Fellows Project #12 campaigns
■
ugustana College
Sioux Falls South Dakota 57197
Photo by Christy Schmidtke
This sign on the corner of 33rd and Grange was put up in anticipation of ground-breaking
ceremonies this spring. The Augustana Board of Regents decided over the weekend that
more funds neededto be raised before approval would be given.
Nelsen resigns as president
Karin Bumgardner
assistant editor
Augustana President William
C. Nelsen announced his
resignation Wednesday, effec-tive
as soon as an acting presi-dent
can be named following
graduation ceremonies in May.
Nelsen will then begin a new
full-time position as chancellor
of fund raising at Augustana.
President for the past six
years, Nelsen said the move was
mutually decided upon by the
Board of Regents and himself
last weekend. Part of the
Regents' weekend involved an
evaluation of Nelsen under-taken
every six years by the
Board.
"The Board and I have
evaluated where I can best be
helpful in this cause and have
concluded that such a move
would allow a maximum fund
raising effort on my part while
allowing an acting president to
give attention to the day-to-day
management of the college,"
Nelsen said.
Nelsen offered three reasons
for his "intense personal move"
— to assist in development ef-forts;
to assist more directly in
obtaining funds for the propos-ed
HPER complex; and to allow
the new president to attend to
daily college matters.
Nelsen's main new respon-sibilities
are tied to the Commit-ment
to Excellence Campaign,
begun last April and scheduled
to continue until June 30, 1987.
The campaign's three fund
raising goals include the HPER
complex (see related article on
same page), a Lutheran
Brotherhood scholarship
challenge grant, and a National
Endowment for the Humanities
grant.
`Pledged HPER funds total
$3.3 million, $2.2 million short
of planned total costs. The
$900,000 Lutheran
Brotherhood grant, due June
30, has thirty percent of its
funds left fo raise. The NEH
grant has raised $1.1 million of
the $1.2 million needed. It is
due July 31.
Nelsen's new position is tem-porary,
and tentatively schedul-ed
to be eliminated upon com-pletion
of the campaign's fund
raising.
Contacted at his home in Ap-pleton,
Wisc., Richard Gunder-son,
chairman of the Augustana
Board of Regents, commented
on the presidential evaluation
procedure. "We evaluate and
discuss the future of our college
presidents like you do with any
organization," Gunderson said.
"We talked with Bill (Nelsen)
early in '86 and late '85. We
wanted to discuss issues on his
future and the college's future."
Listed on the Board's agenda
for two months, Nelsen's
evaluation was discussed by the
Board with three specific op-tions
available — reappointing
Nelsen for another six-year
term (by-laws don't necessarily
mandate another six-year ap-pointment),
reappointing
Nelsen for a two-to-three-year
term, and the chancellor posi-tion.
Gunderson said an acting
president will be appointed as
soon as possible after the May
25 commencement and a search
committee will be announced.
"I'm sure there will be many
candidates," he said.
Nelsen said his decision was
accompanied by mixed feelings
("This is an intense personal
move on my part"), but was
made to best serve the. college's
needs.
"This is a move to try to meet
fairly directly, and with a sense
of urgency, some of the needs
we see," Nelsen said.
"Specifically, we're talking
about increasing our student
scholarship needs which is a
crucial need for the future of
this college."
The president and the Board
"mutually agreed on the ven-ture,"
according to Nelsen.
"The final idea of resignation
was mine," he said.
Nelsen expressed his ap-preciation
for the opportunity
he has had while serving as
president of Augustana.
"I'm very proud of what has
happened to this college over
the last six years," he said.
Building HPER complex postponed
Alan Petersen
editor
To build or not to build, that
apparently is not the main ques-tion
involving the proposed
HPER complex at Augustana.
According to the parties in-volved,
the complex will be
built, the question is when.
At the Board of Regents
meeting last weekend, the pro-posed
facility was mentioned
briefly, according to Lee
Bowker, provost at Augustana,
and John Sorenson, faculty
representative on the Board.
"I don't think they (the
Board) would have even dealt
with the HPER complex except
there was a motion given to
them from Development that
asked if once they had achieved
80 percent of the goals in
pledges, with 50 percent in
cash, if that would be enough to
go ahead and break ground
with," Sorenson said. "The
Board indicated they had ques-tions
about going ahead with
that amount. Fifty percent (in
cash) they didn't think was
enough."
Currently, Augustana has in
the bank $2.7 million in cash
directly targeted for the project,
with $600,000 in pledges which
need to be collected. That's a
total of $3.3 million of the $5.5
million the entire project will
cost.
Bowker said the Board wants
to see a substantial amount of
capital on hand before agreeing
to the project's ground-breaking.
"They simply didn't want to
have such a motion on record,"
he said. "They wanted to see
the money before coming to the
meeting and saying it would
automatically be built at this
point or that point. That's my
understanding.
"We (the college) just have
not been collecting the money
that would have given us that
amount of money needed by the
summer. The campaign goes
for another year so there's, in
their mind, no need for a mo-tion
or action now."
Richard Gunderson, chair-man
of the Augustana Board of
Regents, also could not specify
on the amount of money the
Board would need to approve
the building of the complex. He
said, however, the Board is
"strongly and solidly commit-ted
to getting it done."
A separate Fellows grant of
$130,000, according to Presi-dent
William Nelsen, may be
enough to break ground this
summer on practice and in-tramural
fields surrounding the
proposed HPER complex. The
Fellows plan to raise an addi-tional
$170,000 to complete the
fields. Nelsen indicated that
could have a positive impact as
far as collecting pledges and
raising funds is concerned.
Bowker said that anticipation
of the HPER project being
started this spring was
premature.
"I don't think the action was
delayed," he said. "We have no
intention of building without
the money and that's all that
we're saying."
Still, he left the door open as
far as when the project will be
started.
"If we got in some of the big
gifts we've asked for, that could
get us close enough where one
might desire to start building
before it freezes this year,"
Bowker said. "Believe me, if
that money came in, they'd (the
Board) be more than willing to
talk about it right away.
They're not dying to postpone it
either."