A brand new day for Augustana

When Dr. Roger Epp was looking for his first academic job during the late 1980s, Augustana University College in Camrose looked like a dream come true.

Granted, the college was small and didn't have the research reputation of larger institutions. But members of the faculty were strong; they took their work seriously and valued teaching above all else. It was at once intellectually stimulating and intimate - a place where students and instructors felt comfortable exploring ideas together.

But the lean years of the 1990s, when everyone suffered cutbacks, were hard on Augustana. And in the last few years, the future was looking bleak for an institution that had been operating for almost a century.

"Part of it was financial and part of it was maybe a brokenness of spirit," says Epp, a political scientist and acting dean of Augustana. "A lot of good people were leaving and couldn't see a future here. It had become difficult to introduce new initiatives of the kind you need to keep things lively and interesting, and this had been an incredibly creative place to be when many of us first came here."

There is now a renewed sense of hope at Augustana, however, as they look forward to becoming a faculty of the University of Alberta July 1. Undergraduate students there will earn U of A arts and science degrees in a unique, rural setting - an alternative to studying on the main, urban campus.

The deal has yet to be written in stone, since it is entirely dependent on the provincial government stepping forward with the necessary funds to improve Augustana's teaching and research facilities. But Epp says he has no reason to believe that won't happen.

"The timing is right," he says. "At the same time you have the province talking about Campus Alberta, you also have the University of Alberta asking questions about creating a distinctive environment for undergraduate students of a kind they can't really deliver on (main) campus."

Epp admits, however, that not everyone at Augustana was crazy about the idea at first. While some faculty members, including Epp himself, are attracted to research and would love the opportunity and support to do more, others see themselves as teachers first and foremost. They had to wonder how being part of a research university would change what is expected of them.

"It's important for us as people teaching in an undergraduate setting to be generalist and interdisciplinary, to ask big questions about the fields of study we teach in. We have to find a way to build research agendas out of what we do, out of this culture and this location."

Then there is the Lutheran tradition. Augustana (originally Camrose Lutheran College) was founded in 1910 by the Alberta Norwegian Lutheran College Association and became a college of a national church in 1957. It was renamed in 1991 to reflect the Augustana declaration of faith published in 1530 in Augsburg, Germany.

Only about 15 per cent of the student population these days is Lutheran, says Epp, and the college could hardly be called 'religious'. But those roots are nonetheless an important part of Augustana's distinct culture.

So there is obviously still much to be worked out, as Augustana finds its place as a new faculty of the U of A. But as Epp points out, "the beauty of the faculty system is that there are all kinds of variations within it already." Take, for example, Faculté Saint-Jean or the Faculty of Extension, not to mention the School of Native Studies, all of which are strong precisely because they have their own unique character.

Augustana's Students' Union president, Mathew Hebert, says the students he represents view the merger "favourably overall" apart from a few concerns about what it will mean for sports teams and colours (now black and red).

"There is a little concern about loss of identity, since there is sometimes the perception that the University of Alberta is kind of cold and impersonal," Hebert says. "Students want to stay part of an institution that is intimate, retaining its smallness and distinctiveness. But in all the work I've seen so far (on the terms of the merger) that distinctiveness will remain part of Augustana."

From the perspective of U of A academic staff, cost is the main concern, says Dr. Gordon Swaters, president of the Association of Academic Staff: University of Alberta. While central administration has made it clear the merger cannot happen if the move threatens to draw on the university's operating funds, Swaters will be watching closely to make sure the university isn't sideswiped by the unforeseen.

"We accept on face value that this will provide a window on rural Alberta and so on," he says. "The general rubric under which we would have any concerns is that the costs associated with the merger have been actually forecast.and that there wouldn't be any surprise costs which could, for example, become a problem in contract negotiations."

He says there are also salary-and-benefit wrinkles for Augustana staff that still have to be ironed out, but "nothing insurmountable.We would like to see, for example, that faculty at either campus are not forced to work at the other campus against their will. These are the kind of delicate issues that will come up."

U of A Students' Union President Mat Brechtel says he regards the merger as good for everyone concerned. Studying on a small campus with lots of student-teacher interaction is "what a lot of people need in the first couple of years," he says. "One thing I'm happy about is that we get a different perspective."

"I feel pretty optimistic that we're moving into a university that prizes teaching," says Epp. "I think one measure of our success will be how we shape the university's culture as a whole."