Five professors reminisce, prepare to retire
An Augustana religion professor assumed at the beginning of his career that he would move around, like many academics do.
He started at Augustana teaching two courses a year, but most of his job involved helping run the Shalom Center for Theological Education, creating courses for pastors.
But after five years of traveling between Rapid City, Mobridge and Sioux Falls for his work, Richard Swanson was offered a full-time, tenure-track position at Augustana. He fell in love with the community, and now he’s finishing his 34th year as a professor.
Swanson is one of five professors retiring from Augustana after the 2023-2024 academic year, including religion professor Ann Pederson, nursing professor Karla Abbott, education professor Sharon Andrews and biology professor Cecelia Miles.
The five professors have over 100 years of combined teaching experience. For many of them, the amount of time they’ve dedicated to the university is due to a combination of a passion for teaching and love for the Augustana community.
“Augustana students want to make a difference, and I like that,” Swanson said. “Even when the field of study has nothing to do with what I teach, they want to change the world, and I want to help them.”
Swanson intends to continue pursuing academics in retirement with plans to teach one section of Religion 110 in the fall and tentative ideas for continued work with Augustana’s theatre department. His scholarship will also extend to various articles, book chapters and personal writing.
As a professor of religion, Swanson said he has not taken his role lightly, particularly for those who are hesitant about religious discussion.
“Every time I realize a student trusts me with helping them think through something that has terrified them, and that happens every year, I realize the honor of getting to do this job because students trust us,” Swanson said. “And it’s our responsibility to be worthy of that trust, so far as we’re able. That’s worth a human being’s time.”
Andrews, the program director of teacher education, will also continue some academic work next year, remotely teaching “Literacy in the Content Area” and performing certification assessments. This is her 34th academic year with Augustana.
“I think sometimes it’s easy to forget the caliber of students that come to Augustana and that we as faculty really do have students who come to class and do their work and participate,” Andrews said.
Andrews also gets to work directly with student teachers whom she had in class, which she said is a valuable experience.
“When I go out to see a student teacher and they know me, they’ve had me in class, I’ve had them, there’s just a whole different connection and way you can support that student,” Andrews said.
Andrews said she also feels this sense of community among her fellow faculty members. Not having grown up with sisters, Andrews said she hasn’t often experienced this type of familial connection with other women.
“I have a couple of colleagues who are like sisters to me now,” Andrews said. “I’m sure that we’ll all stay in touch as much as possible.”
When Miles compares her experience at other educational institutions to her 13 years with Augustana, she said she has also found a group of welcoming faculty.
As a student and student teacher herself, Miles spent time at a variety of schools—the University of Florida, the Florida Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University and the University of Chicago—and she found herself in some highly competitive circles. After the rigidness of some other environments, Miles said she was shocked by how she was welcomed by other Augustana faculty “from the very first day.”
“People would share their resources. I could ask them questions. I mean, it was just complete collaboration,” Miles said. “And I have in every way tried to do the same for people who came in [after me] to pay it forward.”
Miles, like her fellow retirees, said she also observed something different about Augustana students. When she was a student herself, she often saw her peers treat education “like a business deal,” a manner of conduct that she said she found “off-putting.”
But at Augustana, Miles said students organically brought themselves. That was when she knew Augustana was a “special place.”
“You know, they didn’t have to be told, ‘Stop behaving like a robot,’” Miles said with a laugh. “They were already helping each other and having interests and acting on them, not just for what they look like on their CV, but for how it changed their community and them. I mean, I just was like, ‘Well, wow. I wish I’d found some of this earlier.’”
After she sells her house, Miles said she plans to move back to Florida, her home state, when the school year concludes. She said she looks forward to being near family.
Together, these professors said their experiences have culminated in a campus worth spending decades dedicated to. Going forward, their advice for future Augustana students revolves around flexibility and attentiveness to the self as well as the world around them.
Miles said she encourages students to “notice the small things.”
“For as long as you can and for as often as you can revisit it, open those windows, open those doors and let some of those new ideas come in,” Miles said. “Take a breath. Sit with them a little bit.”
Andrews echoed the emphasis on intrapersonal growth and said that “sometimes students will already have everything planned out about how they think it’s going to go.”
As was the case for Andrews, however, life does not always go as planned, and she prompts students to embrace that fact.
“The times I feel I’ve grown the most, professionally or personally, is when I’ve been challenged into things I never saw myself doing,” Andrews said.
Also a fan of getting out of one’s comfort zone, Swanson said he tells students to have confidence in themselves.
“If you think it’s a question worth asking, you’re right,” Swanson said. “Ask the questions that you know you need to ask, even if they lead you places you had no idea you had any intention of going.”
