Viking."
"We looked for acts
that were upbeat, sellable
and had a lot of energy"
Wendland said.
Performing with
Wendland, junior Joy
Lussenden said they tried
to have as much fun as
possible rehearsing their
act. "There are a vari-ety
of students showing
off talent that is part of
Augie spirit," Lussenden
said.
"There is such an energy in our selection that can
be taken over the top," Wendland said.
Senior Laura Nary, who co-directs the show and
See VARIETIES, page 12
Sean McCain
Three reasons you
should read this issue:
1 College Republicans amp
up McCain support.
Page 6
'7 Junior Rob Green takes
4111* Taekwondo up a notch.
Page 9
2 Elevator abusers irk angry
Stavigian.
Page 5
Prospecl.e Students Cun'erl Students Faculy K Tref Alueln, Pa,enis Church &
'DM (ON
•
THE AUGUSTANA
Friday
October 3, 2008 vIIRROR XCVII
No. 3
1908 • CELEBRATING 100 YEARS • 2008
Endowment weathers
U.S. financial crises
Scott Hale/The Mirror
Sophomore Chris Haak displays one of several musical talents in a rehearsal for Viking Varieties 2008: The Year of the Viking.
Varieties embraces 'Year of Viking'
Talent showcase brings music, entertainment in 2008
Viking Varieties 2008: The Year of the. Viking takes
the stage this weekend at the Orpheum Theatre in
downtown Sioux Falls. Students have been working
to produce a showcase of talent for this Augustana
Homecoming tradition.
For the past three weeks, students have been re-hearsing
their singing, dancing and novelty acts,
perfecting every detail in preparation for four perfor-mances
during Homecoming weekend.
Eleven acts are featured in this year's show, a num-ber
senior stage manager Sean McCain said was dif-ficult
to narrow down. "All the acts were pretty good,"
McCain said. "We had to choose acts that were cohe-sive
and worked well in the show together."
Co-director and performer junior Bob Wendland
said this year's Varieties features more audience in-teraction
and several "exciting surprises" that relate
to this year's Homecoming theme, "The Year of the
By Alex George
Mirror Staff Writer
The economy has been
a roller coaster ride for in-vestors
in recent weeks,
but from the viewpoint of
Augustana's financial offices,
the outlook is not yet dire.
_In any market, with per-sonal
portfolios, college
endowment portfolios or
retirement portfolios, it is
expected that the market
will go up and down, but
what to look for is growth
over the long term.
"If the college were a
short-term investor, I think
that would be a greater con-cern,
but the fact is that we
have an investment strategy
that is geared to the longer
term:' said Mark Braun, se-nior
vice president for aca-demic
affairs and dean of the
college.
Augustana's endowment
portfolio is diversified and
fairly stable (see info box on
page 12). The college does
not directly hold stock, but
rather does a lot of invest-ing
through mutual funds,
which in turn invest in
stocks, thereby spreading
out risk.
The college spends five
percent of the endowment
per year, based upon a 12-
quarter (three-year) aver-age.
The balance of the en-dowment
over the past three
years is averaged to deter-mine
exactly how much five
percent equals.
With the current en-dowment
average totaling
around $45 million, that
would mean the college
spends roughly $2.25 mil-lion
from the endowment
Mark Braun
each-year.
That $2.25 million does
not fund everything. Con-struction
projects like the
football stadium and li-brary
renovations are not
funded by the endowment.
However, administration
sometimes does use the en-dowment
to fund housing
ventures, such as the acqui-sition
of the Ronald Mc-
Donald House.
Spending five percent of
the endowment allows the
college to stay invested for
the long term.
"If you're invested for the
long term, this is the appro-priate
portfolio," said Tom
Meyer, vice president for
finance and administration.
"If we were all-cash, which
some people might view as
safer, we're going to under-perform,
and we won't keep
up with inflation needs and
you can't provide for tomor-row."
Augustana is trying to in-crease
the endowment, but
that process can be slow.
"When you have an
economy that's in a little bit
of a hump, that can affect the
donor's ability and desire to
contribute," Meyer said.
See FINANCES, page 3
By Brian Boyenga
Mirror Forum Editor
By Sonia Halbach
Mirror StaffWriter
Many things have changed at
Augustana since school let out last
May. From the newly designed li-brary
to the pile of dirt that is our
new stadium, the school's Web site
also didn't avoid being revamped.
But like the new library it may
take some time for students to
make the adjustment.
Last spring, the Web site mod-ifications
started with a switch in
the email system over to G-mail,
which gave students the option to
chat through their email and was
deemed convenient by many stu-dents,
faculty and staff.
Although students seemed
comfortable making the email
change, reactions to the new Web
site seem to vary.
"I like it better," senior Molly
Buyske said. "I think it's easier
to use, especially for prospec-tive
students who are looking at
Augustana as a potential school.
Students weigh in on Augustana Web site revamp
See WEB SITE, page 3
The Augustana Home Page (www.augie.edu )