Academic Viking Bold goals progress

This is the first part of a continuing series on Viking Bold.

 Over four years after Augustana announced Viking Bold, its strategic growth plan to 2030, it has adopted significant changes in line with the academic pillar of the plan, such as a new governance system, new degree offerings and an interdisciplinary center.

In addition to laying out aspirational goals for the university, Viking Bold is designed to embolden Augustana’s position at the regional and national level while accommodating the changing needs of students, their educations and the Sioux Falls community.

“We’re managing growth,” Interim Provost Joel Johnson said. “I think we are looking to become the school, in this region, of excellence in a variety of programs at the undergraduate and graduate level.” 

While many organizations opt for a three to five year strategic plan, Augustana is two years into phase two of Viking Bold, its first decade-long strategic plan. 

According to President Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, a 10-year strategic plan was important in moving the university forward. She said Augustana was running some structural deficits when she entered her role in 2017. 

“When that happens, there’s a culture of scarcity, and it’s hard for people to think beyond the semester or the current fiscal year or the next fiscal year,” Herseth Sandlin said. “I really wanted people to take a step back and dream with me about the next decade.”

Viking Bold’s three phases consist of four pillars: academics, enrollment and strategic scholarships, athletics, and physical campus and IT. Each phase will last three to four years. 

Part one: establishing schools

Part one of the academic pillar focuses on reestablishing the academic and governance structures, allowing for the growth of undergraduate and graduate programs and generating innovation among existing academic programs. 

“We had a lot of success with our reorganization of the academic sphere,” Johnson said. “We actually ended up being ahead of schedule on that by the creation of the schools and the College of Arts and Sciences.” 

According to Johnson, the new structures are better adapted to Augustana’s current needs and allow for more innovation. Additionally, he said the structure makes it easier to create programs that respond to student interest and the demands of the marketplace. 

Part 1a focuses on restructuring the academic programs to include a College of Arts and Sciences and several schools. 

Prior to the restructuring, Augustana had three separate divisions: humanities, natural sciences and social sciences, each of which division and department chairs governed. Now, the three divisions are collectively known as the College of Arts and Sciences.

“We kept the importance and the priority of the undergraduate liberal arts experience primarily with the keeping of the College of Arts and Sciences,” Laurie Daily, dean of the School of Education, said. “But we also elevated professional programs that have different needs.”

Part 1a also introduced the creation of four schools that currently house graduate and undergraduate programs offered at Augustana. The schools are run by deans and program chairs. 

In 2020, the schools of music and education were created, and they now oversee programs such as those in vocals and instrumentals and a Master of Education in addition to their respective undergraduate programs. 

In the 2020-2021 school year, the School of Health Professions was implemented, which is responsible for programs like exercise science and Master of Science in Nursing, along with the School of Business, which houses the Master of Business Administration. 

“The changing of the structure by creating these schools overseen by deans enables each one of those areas to grow and to actually take on initiatives,” Johnson said. 

According to Johnson, the creation of these schools allows them more autonomy when creating academic programs and forming community partnerships while also still allowing them to be connected to the existing division and faculty members via affiliations.  

Affiliations are made up of divisions and schools. For example, the social sciences division and the schools of business and education make up the social sciences affiliation. 

Moving forward, Johnson said affiliations will work together to find the appropriate balance between autonomy and collaboration.

A shared governance structure

In addition to overhauling the academic model, part one reorganized the governance system into a shared governance structure. In this model, faculty and administrators work together to manage the shared business of Augustana, such as policy and curriculum. 

“Faculty get a lot of voice, especially in things that directly impact faculty and students,” Daily said. 

Part 1b of the academic pillar involves developing a Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, which launched in 2019.

The CIS is not a physical space but a department led by registrar Joni Krueger and journalism professor Jeffrey Miller. 

“Whereas each of the schools might have its ability to grow graduate programs and some innovative things there,” Johnson said, “the College of Arts and Sciences is going to get stronger by pulling closer together and recognizing that maybe the older ways of separation in departments is not how we address the big problems facing us.” 

The CIS establishes connections across divisions to make new academic programs, such as brewing and fermentation, environmental studies, science writing and multimedia entrepreneurship.  

Up next, the CIS plans to launch a neuroscience major and sports broadcasting minor. 

Fifth-year student Cailey Scott said the CIS has helped her explore and combine her different interests. She is an English and religion double major with minors in biology, science writing and medical humanities and society. 

“It’s crazy how it has opened my eyes to seeing all the things I can do with the majors and minors I have,” Scott said. “I’m not really limited to one thing, which is awesome.”

While the CIS is growing, time and funding are consistent hurdles to overcome. According to Krueger, current directors of interdisciplinary programs who work with the Center receive a stipend for their additional work.

Additionally, Krueger said sometimes professors are unable to teach courses needed for interdisciplinary programs because they have to offer the core curriculum courses. 

“We just don’t have enough funding to give everybody a stipend and to pull people out of the classes that they need to teach,” Krueger said. 

Visit our website on Feb. 23 to read about part two of the academic pillar. 

A previous version of this story reported that stipends are often given to directors of an interdisciplinary program, but due to limited budgets, cannot occur in all cases. However, "current directors of interdisciplinary programs who work with the Center receive a stipend for their additional work" is correct.