Augustana College is a private

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

college in Rock Island, Illinois. The college enrolls approximately 2,500 students. Its campus is adjacent to the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

and covers of hilly, wooded land.

History

Augustana College was founded as Augustana College and Theological Seminary in 1860 by the

Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod The Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church (previously the Augustana Lutheran Synod and also Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America and Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America) was a Lutheran church ...

. Located first in Chicago, it moved to

Paxton, Illinois Paxton is a city in Ford County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,473 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Ford County. History The town was initially named Prairie City in the late 1840s, then Prospect City by an Illino ...

, in 1863 and to Rock Island, Illinois, its current home, in 1875. After 1890, an increasingly large

Swedish American Swedish Americans ( sv, svenskamerikaner) are Americans of Swedish ancestry. They include the 1.2 million Swedish immigrants during 1865–1915, who formed tight-knit communities, as well as their descendants and more recent immigrants. Today, ...

community in America promoted a new institutional structure, including a lively Swedish-language press, many new churches, several colleges, and a network of ethnic organizations. The result was to foster a sense of Swedishness with pride in the United States. Thus, there emerged a self-confident Americanized generation. Augustana College put itself in the lead of the movement to affirm Swedish American identity. Early on all the students had been born in Sweden but by 1890 the second generation of American-born students predominated. They typically had white-collar or professional backgrounds; few were the sons and daughters of farmers and laborers. These middle class youth developed an idealized view of Sweden, characterized by romanticism, patriotism, and idealism, just like their counterparts across the Atlantic. The new generation was especially proud of the Swedish contributions to American democracy and of the creation of a republic that promised liberty and destroyed the menace of slavery. The college grew by donation of on the south in 1886 and purchase, enabled by donation of C.J.A. Ericson, of 10–12 acres to the north in 1899. In 1947, when Conrad Bergendoff was college president, the Augustana Seminary formally separated from Augustana College and became an independent body. It remained on the Rock Island campus until the 1960s, when the Seminary moved to Chicago. It merged with other

seminaries to form the

Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) is a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Chicago, Illinois. LSTC is a member of the Association of Chicago Theological Schools (ACTS), a consortium of eleven area seminaries ...

Campus

Academic buildings

Old Main Old Main is a term often applied to the original building present on college or university campuses in the United States. The building serves today as home to administrative offices, such as the president or provost, but in its early inception may ...

was constructed between 1884 and 1893. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. On August 2, 2010, the New Science Building was officially named the Robert A. and Patricia K. Hanson Hall of Science after Robert Hanson, a former John Deere CEO. Hanson, who donated $8 million to the college, credits his success in life to his time spent at Augustana. The science building, dedicated in 1998 and enlarged in 2019, is the largest academic building serving approximately 700 students in 17 majors, minors and concentrations. The Hanson Hall of Science's facilities and resources include seven classrooms, 35 laboratories (including a cadaver lab), a 400 MHz liquid-and solid-state NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectrometer, scanning electron microscope, instrumentation for X-ray powder crystallography and a fully functioning greenhouse. In October 2021, Augustana dedicated the Peter J. Lindberg, M.D., Center for Health and Human Performance in honor of alumnus Peter J. Lindberg. The 52,000-square-foot Lindberg Center is home to the college's new kinesiology program and growing public health program, as well as the men's and women's swimming/diving and new water polo teams.

Residential complexes

Augustana has five traditional residence halls: Andreen Hall, Erickson Residence Center, Seminary Hall, Swanson Commons, and Westerlin Residence Center. All five of these residence halls are coeducational. The majority of first-year and sophomore-year students typically reside in one of these five residence halls. For juniors, Augustana also offers Transitional Living Areas (TLAs), apartment-like complexes or traditional off-campus houses administered by the college's Office of Residential Life, in which Augustana students live. The school takes care of basic maintenance in these areas, some of which are House on the Hill, Naeseth, and Arbaugh Apartments. These areas usually have 2–6 students who share a bathroom, a kitchen, and other living spaces.Augustana College – Campus

Fryxell Geology Museum

Th Fryxell Geology Museum, named after Augustana geologist

Fritiof Fryxell Fritiof M. Fryxell (April 27, 1900 – December 19, 1986) was an American educator, geologist and mountain climber, best known for his research and writing on the Teton Range of Wyoming. Upon the establishment of Grand Teton National Park in ...

, features a large collection of dinosaurs and fossils, rocks and mineral specimens. Displays include a complete skeleton of a

Platecarpus ''Platecarpus'' ("flat wrist") is an extinct genus of aquatic lizards belonging to the mosasaur family, living around 84–81 million years ago during the middle Santonian to early Campanian, of the Late Cretaceous period. Fossils have been fo ...

"sea serpent", skulls of Parasaurolophus,

Ankylosaurus ''Ankylosaurus'' is a genus of armored dinosaur. Its fossils have been found in geological formations dating to the very end of the Cretaceous Period, about 68–66 million years ago, in western North America, making it among the last of the n ...

Apatosaurus ''Apatosaurus'' (; meaning "deceptive lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. Othniel Charles Marsh described and named the first-known species, ''A. ajax'', in 1877, ...

Allosaurus ''Allosaurus'' () is a genus of large carnosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic epoch ( Kimmeridgian to late Tithonian). The name "''Allosaurus''" means "different lizard" alludin ...

and

Tyrannosaurus rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...

and a 2-billion-year-old fossil. There is also a complete skeleton of

Cryolophosaurus ''Cryolophosaurus'' ( or ; "CRY-oh-loaf-oh-SAWR-us") is a genus of large theropod dinosaur known from only a single species ''Cryolophosaurus ellioti'', from the early Jurassic of Antarctica. It was one of the largest theropods of the Early Jura ...

, a large, crested carnivorous dinosaur discovered in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

in 1991 by Augustana paleontologist William Hammer. The museum is located in the Swenson Hall of Geosciences and is open during the academic year. Admission is free.

Student life

Organizations

Since 1950, Augustana has had a chapter of the

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

honor society. The college also has non-"Greek" collegiate fraternal organizations, including Epsilon Tau Pi (ΕΤΠ)(Eagle Scouts), Alpha Phi Omega (APO) (service),

Sigma Alpha Iota Sigma Alpha Iota () is a women's music fraternity. Formed to "uphold the highest standards of music" and "to further the development of music in America and throughout the world", it continues to provide musical and educational resources to its m ...

(SAI) (music),

Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America (colloquially known as Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Phi Mu Alpha, or simply Sinfonia) () is an American collegiate social fraternity for men with a special interest in music. The fraternity is open to men "w ...

(PMA) (music), Epsilon Sigma Alpha (ESA) (Service),

Alpha Psi Omega Alpha Psi Omega National Theatre Honor Society () is an American recognition fraternity for participants in collegiate theatre. History The ''Alpha Cast'' (Alpha Psi Omega's term for "chapter") was founded at Fairmont State College (now Fairm ...

(ΑΨΩ) (theater), and others. The Omicron chapter of Phrateres, a non-exclusive, non-profit social-service club, was installed here in 1941. Between 1924 and 1967, 23 chapters of Phrateres were installed in universities across North America. (The chapter name "Omicron" was reused for the chapter installed at

San José State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

.) Augustana has a local Greek system, which includes seven sororities Chi Alpha Pi (CAP), Chi Omega Gamma (COG), Delta Chi Theta (D-Chi), Phi Rho, Sigma Kappa Tau (KT), Sigma Pi Delta (Speed), and Zeta Phi Kappa (Zetas) and eight fraternities Alpha Sigma Xi (Alpha Sig), Beta Omega Sigma (BOS), Delta Omega Nu (DON), Gamma Alpha Beta (GAB), Iota Chi Epsilon (IXE), Omicron Sigma Omicron (OZO), Phi Omega Phi (Poobah), and Rho Nu Delta (Roundels). Augustana has many other organizations, including a chapter of MENC: The National Association for Music Education, a National Band Association chapter,

American Choral Directors Association The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a non-profit organization with the stated purpose of promoting excellence in the field of choral music. Its membership comprises approximately 22,000 c ...

(ACDA), Paintball Team (NCPA),

American String Teachers Association The American String Teachers Association (ASTA) is a professional organization for bowed string music teachers based in the United States. It is the largest organization in the U.S. for string teachers. ASTA serves teachers and students in all are ...

(ASTA),

College Democrats of America The College Democrats of America (CDA) is the official college outreach arm of the Democratic National Committee. It claims over 100,000 college and university student members in College Democrats chapters across the United States. History T ...

, College Republicans, Psychology Club, Business Club, DDR Club,

Anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

Club, Asian Student Organization (ASO), Latinx Unidos, Investment Club, Ladies of Vital Essence (L.O.V.E.), The Order of the Phoenix, Martial Arts Club, Student Government Association and Viking Pups, a club dedicated to training service dogs on campus.

Athletics

Augustana athletic teams are nicknamed as the Vikings. The college is a member of the

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

level of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA), primarily competing in the

College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) is a college athletic conference which competes in the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). CCIW schools have accounted for 50 national championships i ...

(CCIW) for almost all of their sports since the 1946–47 academic year. The only current exception is women's bowling, in which the Vikings are charter members of the single-sport Central Intercollegiate Bowling Conference (CIBC) that began competition in the 2019–20 season. The Vikings compete in a combined total of 25 male and female team sports, and five out of seven students compete in some form of varsity, club, or intramural sport. The Vikings previously competed as a member of the

Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) was a college athletic conference that existed from 1908 to 1970 in the United States. At one time the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, or IIAC, was a robust league that clai ...

(IIAC) from 1912–13 to 1936–37. Augustana College competes in 28 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, eSports, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, volleyball, water polo and wrestling; while women's sports include basketball, bowling, cross country, eSports, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, volleyball, water polo and wrestling;. Between 1983 and 1986, the Augustana College football team won four consecutive Division III national championships under Coach Bob Reade. Coach Reade's overall winning percentage of 87% is second only to

Larry Kehres Larry Kehres (born September 7, 1949) is a former American football coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at the University of Mount Union—formerly known as Mount Union College—in Alliance, Ohio for 27 ...

and Knute Rockne on the all-time list.

Notable people

Alumni * William Albracht (1975) –

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

U.S. Army captain, recipient of three Silver Stars, five

Bronze Star The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Wh ...

s, and three

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

s * Dave "Gruber" Allen (1980) – television and film actor * Ken Anderson (1970) – NFL quarterback with the Cincinnati Bengals for 16 seasons * Brenda C. Barnes (1975) – former CEO of both Sara Lee and PepsiCo *

Craig Blomberg Craig L. Blomberg (born August 3, 1955) is an American New Testament scholar. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of the New Testament at Denver Seminary in Colorado where he has been since 1986. His area of academic expertise is the New ...

(1977) – Bible scholar * A. J. Carlson (BA.1898, MS. 1899) – Chairman of the Physiology Department at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

* K. G. William Dahl (1907) – Lutheran pastor and author, founder of Bethphage Mission *

Charlotte Erickson Charlotte J. Erickson (October 22, 1923 in Oak Park, Illinois – July 9, 2008 in Cambridge) was an American historian.Lane Evans Lane Allen Evans (August 4, 1951 – November 5, 2014) was an American attorney and politician who served as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1983 until 2007, representing the 17th District of Illinois. Ev ...

(1974) – former US Congressman (Illinois 17th District). *

Paul Fryxell Paul Arnold Fryxell was an American botanist known for his work on flowering plants, especially those within the Malvaceae. Education and career Fryxell attended Moline public schools and later Augustana College, graduating with a B.A. in 194 ...

(1949) – botanist * Greta Fryxell (1948) – oceanographer * David Hultgren (1973) – former Illinois State Congressman (94th District) * Steven Kemenyffy (1964) – ceramic artist *

Apoorva Mandavilli Apoorva Mandavilli is an American investigative journalist whose work has focused on medical science. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she joined ''The New York Times'' as a health and science writer. In the spring of 2019, she was writer-in-reside ...

(1994) – investigative journalist and science writer with the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Don Morton Don Morton (born April 10, 1947) is a former American football player, coach, and software executive. He served as the head football coach at North Dakota State University (1979–1984), the University of Tulsa (1985–1986), and the University o ...

(1969) – football head coach,

North Dakota State North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota. It was founded as North Dakota Agricultural College in 1890 as t ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

* Carl Marcus Olson (1932) – developed process to purify

silicon Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic ta ...

for electronic use *

Shem-Tov Sabag Shem-Tov Sabag (שם טוב סבג; nicknamed "Shemi"; born April 13, 1959) is an Israeli former Olympic marathoner. He won both the 1984 Lake County Marathon and the 1989 Vancouver Marathon. Early life Sabag was born in Israel, his hometown is ...

– Israeli Olympic marathoner *

Thorsten Sellin Johan Thorsten Sellin (26 October 1896 – 17 September 1994) was a Swedish American sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, a penologist and one of the pioneers of scientific criminology. Biography Sellin was born in Örnsköldsvik in ...

(1915) – pioneer in scientific criminology * Theodore Emanuel Schmauk (1910) – Lutheran minister, educator, and author * Mark Schwiebert (1972) – Mayor of Rock Island, 1989–2009 * Donald K. Sundquist (1957) – former US Congressman (1983–1985) and Governor of Tennessee *

Carl Aaron Swensson Carl Aaron Swensson (June 25, 1857 – February 16, 1904) was an American Lutheran minister and founder and President of Bethany College. Background Carl Aaron Swensson was born at Chandler's Valley near Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania. He was a son ...

(1877) – Lutheran minister and founder of Bethany College * Robert J. Swieringa (1964) – former member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and former Dean of the Johnson School at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

Daniel Tsui Daniel Chee Tsui (, born February 28, 1939) is a Chinese-born American physicist, Nobel laureate, and the Arthur Legrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus, at Princeton University. Tsui's areas of research include electrical prop ...

(1961) –

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winner in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

* Gustav Wahlund (1884) - Lutheran minister and Minnesota state legislator * J. E. Wallace Wallin (1897) – psychologist and early advocate of special education Faculty * William R. Hammer (former faculty) – paleontologist who found the first dinosaur, ''

'', in Antarctica. Fritiof M. Fryxell Chair in Geology *

Stanley Hauerwas Stanley Martin Hauerwas (born July 24, 1940) is an American theologian, ethicist, and public intellectual. Hauerwas was a longtime professor at Duke University, serving as the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity Schoo ...

(former faculty) – theologian * Louise Meiszner (former faculty) - pianist

References

External links

Official website

Official athletics website
{{authority control Swedish migration to North America Buildings and structures in Rock Island, Illinois Quad Cities Education in the Quad Cities Educational institutions established in 1860 Lutheranism in Illinois Education in Rock Island County, Illinois Swedish-American culture in Illinois Tourist attractions in Rock Island, Illinois 1860 establishments in Illinois Private universities and colleges in Illinois