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MURP
HYSQ
UARE
ISSUE 43 | 2018
VisualArt
&Literary
Magazine
MURPHY SQUARE
with special thanks to
cary waterman, faculty advisor emeritus
augsburg university student government
augsburg university english department
augsburg university art department
bookmobile
the echo
2
ISSUE 43
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Show more MURP HYSQ UARE ISSUE 43 | 2018 VisualArt &Literary Magazine MURPHY SQUARE with special thanks to cary waterman, faculty advisor emeritus augsburg university student government augsburg university english department augsburg university art department bookmobile the echo 2 ISSUE 43 editorial board ABIGAIL TETZLAFF, editor-in-chief GABRIEL BENSON, editor-in-chief MEGAN JOHNSON, layout editor DOUG GREEN, faculty advisor 3 MURPHY SQUARE art editors CASSIE DONG OLIVIA FITCH KRISTEN HOLMBERG SONJA MISCHKE MADELEINE OSWOOD 4 ISSUE 43 poetry editors JENNIFER KOCHAVER SONJA MISCHKE RYAN MOORE ASHLEY MURRAY EVE TAFT 5 MURPHY SQUARE prose editors NINA BERGLIN JULIA CHARRON DEREK HEUER SOPHIA KEEFE JENNIFER KOCHAVER RYAN MOORE 6 ISSUE 43 artwork ALLISON USELMAN dixon street CAMERON YANG capital hill balance STEPHANIE FREY celebration #12 STEPHANIE FREY celebration #17 GABRIEL BERGSTROM beach day AVA FOJTIK flower boy AVA FOJTIK illuminated AVA FOJTIK cat’s cradle AVA FOJTIK pit party ALLISON USELMAN elizabeth, 1972 MADELEINE OSWOOD untitled ASH M. KAUN a stable relationship CAMERON YANG prayer ALLISON USELMAN forest STEPHANIE FREY celebration #1 MADELEINE OSWOOD special agent dale cooper ABIGAIL TETZLAFF basilica MADELEINE OSWOOD untitled MADELEINE OSWOOD untitled STEPHANIE FREY celebration #5 CAM YANG she-wolf GABRIEL BERGSTROM flower girl flower girl MADELEINE OSWOOD untitled ABIGAIL TETZLAFF light rail GABRIEL BERGSTROM the spin 7 11 15 20 21 24 30 31 32 33 35 41 43 50 54 56 58 60 62 63 72 76 79 80 82 84 MURPHY SQUARE poetry 22 MATT PECKMAN constitution 23 RACHEL BROWN the country road that takes you home 25 D. E. GREEN a palpable hit 34 KELTON HOLSEN a closed library (an elegy to terry pratchett) 36 MARISA MOSQUEDA loneliness 42 MATT PECKHAM the icon 49 RACHEL BROWN old hands 51 HALLE CHAMBERS metal rings 53 SAM penitence 55 D. E. GREEN green and orange: a pantoum 57 ALICE LIDDELL CHESHIRE WOLFF firebird 59 L. B. DOGOOD 12 west 61 ASHLEY MURRAY miikawaadendan (think it beautiful) 73 L. B. DOGOOD 52 hz 74 ALICE LIDDELL CHESHIRE WOLFF roadkill 77 ALEXIS KIMSEY the eyes are the window to the soul 81 RACHEL BROWN galaxies 83 EVE TAFT sonas 8 ISSUE 43 prose AMANDA YATCKOSKE rules AMANDA YATCHOSKE fear ASH M. KAUN 3:21 KELTON HOLSEN died 2016 ALLISON USELMAN tomatoes SOPHIE KEEFE ode to leonardo JACQUELINE DOCKA rhapsody on laurel ALLISON USELMAN the wreck DEREK L. H. infinite GABRIEL BENSON the bridges 9 10 12 13 16 26 37 39 44 64 85 MURPHY SQUARE rules AMANDA YATCKOSKE I t i s no t t hat ha rd. I t is ju s t wo r ds. W e ta ug ht y o u t h is. Y ou j u st ne e d t o me m or ize t he w o rds. Re m em be r t h e so und AT. A t, b a t, c a t, s a t. B ut, w h er e I s AT o n th e al p h ab et ? I s n ’t t h at tw o s ou n ds? Wh a t ar e t he ru l e s? I b ef o re E e xc ept a f te r C e x c ep t f o r a ll o f t h e e x c ep t io n. Y ou m us t a lw a ys s top a t a s top li gh t. E x ce p t w hen t he l ig h t is gr e e n. H ow m an y w a y s i s t he re t o sp e ll l o ngA? A. R a in. E igh t. S ur v e y. At e. Ve in. P r a y. B r e a k. Y o u k n o w E ng li sh r ul e s? S u re. W h ich o n e s r ig h t? b. B r a in. c. P ra d. B re ig h n. e. P re y. f. Br ein. g. Pra y. h. B re an. i. All. So, shut it.nostra, per inceptos himenae a. B ra n e. 10 ISSUE 43 dixon street ALLISON USELMAN relief print 11 MURPHY SQUARE fear AMANDA YATCHOSKE Ordering fast food because the text keeps getting smaller. Getting lost because white letters don’t make since on green. The teacher saying, “Why don’t you read?” The what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you look when I say, “No.” Saying, “Yes,” and then my brain betrays me. The jolt of correcting impatience as I attempted to decipher. Knowing that it has four legs, a tail, plays fetch, and has sweat glands in its paws, but not that the word is dog. The double circles on the letter g. The letter bdqp. The explanation between right and left, “your left hand makes a L.” I put a L to my forehead, “Is this right?” The phrase, “Read this,” followed by two seconds of a blurry cellphone screen. Being asked to read what is on the projector in class. Beaing correkted on a spelling mistaik. The rased ibrow when I proove that it was English that was the mistaek, not me. Being given a book because I am a writer. The list of authors that I should know because I am a writer. “You are an author, so you started written at an early age.” “My best advice to give to you as a writer is read.” Teachers’ saying, “In the really world, they don’t give special accommodations.” Running into my elementary teacher who said, “There’s no such thing as dyslexia.” Being given five minutes to reading five pages. Only reading half a page. Everyone else is done at three minutes. Able to repeat our entire conversation back to you word for word, but still get an upturned nosed because I can’t remember the nonsense word that is your name. Asking a classmate to look at my writing. Their only response: “Spelling mistakes.” 12 ISSUE 43 3:21 p.m. ASH M. KAUN It’s four minutes past 3:02 p.m., and he still hasn’t rounded the corner. Jaime always has a sauntering stride that brings him swooping around the corner of Elton Street onto Jefferson around 3:02 p.m. every Tuesday on his way to this café. Jaime and his usual pair of red chucks are refusing to step onto the chalked concrete that details this very corner. Or maybe it’s not refusal. Maybe it’s just a delay. Something is probably holding him at home. His mother is making him take out the trash as we speak and that can be the explanation behind Jaime’s absence. Or, maybe it’s fear. I knew talking to him was a bad idea. I knew I would say something stupid. Last Friday, when he was tucked away in the back room of Molly’s Tea Bar, I felt the inclination in my heart. My chest urged me to stand up, take the nine steps toward his table, sit down, and open my mouth. The only problem was his eyes. Those eyes liked to wander over everything. They darted to the shop’s windows every time some stranger walked by, but only to assess the person for a second and then dart back to his book. His eyes never attempted to crawl all over my body like that. I’ve found that my focus almost never seemed to leave his body. I hit my leg on the way up from my booth, cursing under my breath. My leg muscles quivered slightly as I walked up to the table and sat down. Jaime’s face raised, and I could finally feel his almond eyes searching every pore of my exposed skin. His shoulders were hunched over, hiding most of his thick neck from my view. I would pay any amount of money to caress that gorgeous neck. The breath that moved his lungs in and out of his chest was calm, unlike the unsteady deep breaths of mine. “Hi. I know this is weird, but I just wanted to compliment your tattoo,” I said. He shifted, set his book down, and cleared his throat. “Thank you. It’s hardly anything, but thank you.” “It’s a cupcake, right? What’s it for?” “My grandmother used to bake the most delicious cupcakes and muffins and—” “A delicious tattoo for a delicious person.” Jaime had let out a breathy laugh, and asked where I went to school. When I told him I didn’t go to school, he offered to get me a tea. I mentioned my mother was expecting me at home. 13 MURPHY SQUARE I lied. My mother died when I was twelve years old. He took my number with, what I thought to be, hardly any intention to use it. Little did I know, 9:03 a.m. on Tuesday morning, I would feel a buzz on my asscheek with a deep voice ringing through my phone’s speaker asking to get coffee with me. And now, I’m waiting like the idiot I am. I know he isn’t staying at the gym this long. His routine is exactly 48 minutes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and it ends promptly around 2:35 p.m. each day. The time in between the gym and the library is probably for a shower and a quick slice of pizza or toast. It never takes him longer than twenty minutes before he walks out the front door, locks the iron gate, and makes his way past the Weltons’, the Hannigans’, and the Jensens’. It’s 3:08 p.m.. I look up from the newspaper in my hand and glance, again, at the rusted sign presenting the names Elton and Jefferson. Nothing. I return the newspaper to its natural fold and scoot the chair back with a push. The loud screech almost made me jump as much as looking up and seeing Jaime. He locks eyes with mine, and he smiles. His perfectly sized hand reaches into the air and waves at me. Blood surges into my cheeks. Jaime strolls across the tar and stops two feet from where I’m standing. I sit back down, and he proceeds to take the seat across from me. The bright sun could never compare to the amount of heat radiating from my body. I can’t tell if I’m nervous or excited. Probably excited. “So what’s the plan?” he asks . “Going back to my place to watch my favorite movie?” I say. “Is it a good movie?” “You need to have a rare and particular taste for this movie, but it’s short and painless. I promise.” “Alright. Sounds like a plan.” The corners of my mouth rise. His face mirrors mine. Jaime hooks his arm with my arm, and I lead him the opposite way from which he came. I check my watch. 3:11 p.m. It’s a ten-minute walk to my place. It’s difficult to settle the little child jumping around inside my brain. It’s taking every ounce of control I contain not to shove my hand into my bag at this exact moment and pull out the needle. That green serum is just begging to be injected somewhere. Maybe his beautiful neck. The zip ties will not be far behind, as they yearn for the tension of his muscles against their industrial strength. Jaime has no idea the taste I acquired long ago, and he could never appreciate the simply genius idea of adding one cup of blood to a batch of cupcakes. 14 ISSUE 43 capitol hill balance CAMERON YANG digital photograph 15 MURPHY SQUARE died 2016 KELTON HOLSEN Engman Prize winner In 2016, my grandparents’ dog died. He was an old dog, covered with warts, and they had to put him down due to his misery. Some time later, their other dog died, presumably of grief. In 2016, Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin died. He was getting his mail when his car rolled down his driveway and crushed him against his security fence. The coroners say he most likely died within a minute or so. In 2016, Josef Stalin had been dead for 64 years. During his reign, roughly 100 million people died, largely due to stupidity. Historians consider Stalin to be guilty of roughly one million murders. Stalin might or might not have said the following: “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” In 2016, I graduated from high school. In 2016, the singer, musician, and celebrity known as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince (full legal name: Prince Rogers Nelson), died in an elevator after overdosing on the opioid fentanyl. After his death, five books were written about him, his ashes were put on display in a custom glass urn in Paisley Park, and on the one-year anniversary of his death, a four-day tribute was put on in his honor. My former high school robotics captain shared an article on Facebook describing three women that were caught with luggage containing three million dollars’ worth of heroin and opium. He wrote: “Good. Don’t waste your life on a worthless drug.” Later in 2016, he committed suicide. One million, seven hundred thousand people died of tuberculosis. One million people died of HIV or AIDS. Four hundred and twenty-nine thousand died of malaria. Most of those people lived in Africa. Carrie Fisher died of sleep apnea, four days after a near-fatal heart attack that turned out to be fatal after all. One day later, her mother, Debbie Reynolds, died as well. Fisher later appeared in the movie Rogue One, much younger, through the magic of CGI. In 2016, most of us thought that Donald Trump’s campaign would die before the end of the primaries. Many of us thought Donald Trump’s campaign would die before the end of the election. In 2016, some of us thought democracy had died. 16 ISSUE 43 We might have been right. In 2016, I marched with a few hundred (or was it thousand) of my close friends, who I hardly knew, through the neighborhoods of CedarRiverside and Seward. A little bird told my parents that I had marched in the protest. The only thing they cared about was whether I had been on the highway (I hadn’t). In 2016, three thousand, eight hundred refugees drowned while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, fleeing war and human rights violations back home. Their odds were still likely better than in Syria, where the death toll from the civil war had reached three hundred and twenty thousand. In 2016, six hundred and fifty-two children died in Syria. Two hundred and fifty-two of them died near a school. In 2016, Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, died unexpectedly at his ranch. The absence of Antonin Scalia proved more politically powerful than the presence of Antonin Scalia, as politicians fought and lobbied over who would get to fill his empty chair. During that time, his empty chair cast many a vote. A popular slogan at the time among the ironic internet sort: “Antonin Scalia. Pro-life, died anyways.” By the end of 2016, most of us had noticed how many great people had died throughout the year. Antonin Scalia was not included in many of those conversations. Nine hundred and sixty three people were shot by police officers in the United States. Many of them were African-American. Many of them were mentally ill. In protest, activists marched on highways. Many of them were arrested. Many of them were criticized, threatened, and degraded for making people late to work. In 2016, several thousand (hundred?) of my close friends made people late to work. In 2016, David Bowie died. I don’t remember how. It was after his death that I got to know his music. This is because my dad put a David Bowie CD in the car. In 2016, I went to college. I started growing out my hair and becoming a socialist. I met a lot of people who had faith in the system. That died in 2016 too. In 2016, Fidel Castro died. It was said that he had outlived his greatest enemy: America. Fidel Castro’s country, Cuba, is still the subject of a US embargo. It also is the country that recently developed a vaccine for lung cancer. The Lung Cancer Foundation estimated that one hundred fifty-eight thousand and eighty people in the US would die of lung cancer in 2016. In 2016, six hundred thirty-three thousand, eight hundred forty-two people died of heart disease in the United States. The Mayo Clinic says that heart disease is often “caused by correctable problems, such as an unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, being overweight and smoking”. 17 MURPHY SQUARE In 2016, the fast food industry made $206.3 billion dollars. Alan Rickman, Harry Potter’s Snape, died of pancreatic cancer. He had kept it a secret from all but his closest friends. His good friend Sir Ian McKellan had this to say: “I so wish he’d played King Lear and a few other classical challenges but that’s to be greedy. He leaves a multitude of fans and friends, grateful and bereft.” In 2016, I got into an argument with my cousin on Facebook over a post that talked about how the gun and the Bible, which ostensibly started this country, were the things “liberals” wanted to take away. This was before I learned the other meaning of “liberal.” My tongue-in-cheek response that “guns don’t found countries, Founding Fathers found countries” turned into a useless slog of an argument. My aunt ended up intervening to ask us to debate on-topic. Over thirty-eight thousand people were fatally shot and killed in the United States. The Onion once again ran their headline: “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.” In 2016, thirty-nine people died because they jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge is the site of the most suicides by fall in the United States. One man, Ken Baldwin, had survived jumping off the bridge in 1985 and was still alive in 2016. He related his thought process on the way down in an interview: “I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable—except for having just jumped.” In 2016, nobody was killed by a clown. However, were you to ask people what the scariest thing happening was, many would tell you that it was the phenomenon of “scary clown” sightings across the country. In 2016, one such sighting happened at Augsburg. It was later determined that the figure in the “photographic evidence” was just a maintenance worker standing in a shadow. According to Business Insider, nine hundred and fifty-one people died of “contact with powered lawnmower.” One thousand, one hundred thirty nine people died of “fall[s] involving iceskates, skis, roller-skates or skateboards.” Ten thousand, two hundred and six died of “accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed.” Another ten thousand, three hundred eighty-six died of “fall[s] involving bed.” In 2016, the bedloft company left their screwdriver in my room after coming by with some extra screws for the bed’s assembly. My dad warned me to periodically make sure all the bolts were tight so the bed didn’t collapse under me while I slept. The bed also featured a metal guardrail to prevent a fall. Due to these two things, I did not join those ten thousand, three hundred eighty-six. In 2016, American astronaut John Glenn died of unknown causes at 95 years old. He was remembered for being the first American to orbit 18 ISSUE 43 the earth, as well as his work in the US Senate. In 2016, the world had seven billion, six hundred million people living in it. By December of 2016, fifty eight million, six hundred eighty thousand people had died, with about twentyone people dying every ten seconds. They died of violence, of disease, of hunger, of preventable causes, of cancer, of accidents, of old age, of nothing at all. About one hundred and forty million new people were born in 2016, ready to embark on a new life’s journey. Kurt Vonnegut had this to say to babies: “Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you’ve got a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies— ”God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” 19 MURPHY SQUARE celebration #12 STEPHANIE FREY found images and gouache paint 20 ISSUE 43 celebration #17 STEPHANIE FREY found images and gouache paint 21 MURPHY SQUARE A progressive discussion on equality, government, bodily functions, UFOs constitution MATT PECKMAN and who to call for a good time is enumerated Engman Prize winner and signed on bathroom stall walls by delegates opposing orders from management: a decree taped to the door typed Thank You For Not Vandalizing 22 ISSUE 43 I hope they wind their way to the silhouettes of mountains faded like clouds of blue smoke against easy skies. I hope the chartreuse pines older than time tower like brothers and shade your tired eyes. the country roads that take you home RACHEL BROWN Engman Prize winner For Gary Inspired by “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver I hope, for once, the traek is easy. You won’t need a pack this time, that 50 pounds on your shoulders to lug uphill the whole way. No, just the clothes on your back are good. I hope that the ancient rivers that have sung since before anyone ever listened, guide your steps across slick gray stones and you look down to see the scales of darting fish flashing like memories against a sun that never sinks. I hope a warm breeze passes by on your way carrying the thick scent of pine sap to lay heavy on your tongue, and I hope it tastes like home. And when you rest your aching feet at the summit I know the clouds will wrap around you the way the red fox wraps her tail around her tiny kits, the way an old friend gently squeezes your shoulder when he tells you how good it is to see you again, because it’s been so long. 23 MURPHY SQUARE beach day GABRIEL BERGSTROM 35mm film camera 24 ISSUE 43 Nicked it—the deer in early autumn darkness on a long drive home. Damage minor: Dented hood. Fear sprayed along the driver’s side of the white Focus. Your relief at my safety trumped the deer’s fate— no longer second fiddle to squirrels and red-throated blackbirds that swoop at the car between late-summer cornfields. That deer—the white rump in the light moving too slowly even as I brake, veer toward the ditch. The deer dies or I do. Kill or be killed. It hits me: This world we live—and die—in. I see it now: the fact of nature, our nature, visible—a Confederate monument in a town square, Mount Rushmore on sacred ground. It’s always been this way—sudden death looming on a highway in unaccustomed autumn dark, so near home and you. a palpable hit D. E. GREEN 25 MURPHY SQUARE tomatoes ALLISON USELMAN Harry Cosgrove used to throw tomatoes out of his 5th story apartment in The Village. He told me that he did it because The Gaslight always made him take home the uneaten tomatoes at the end of the night, and he didn’t like to just throw food in the garbage, but I never believed him. He always seemed to have altogether too much fun speedballing the tomatoes down to the sidewalk, especially late on Friday nights when the club wouldn’t let him play. He would call on Friday nights at least once a month, and my roommate would throw up her hands and groan and say, “Honestly, he has nothing better to do?” But I always kind of liked the tomatoes. Harry liked to spend his paychecks on gin and wine, so there was a good chance that throwing the tomatoes would turn into a game after a few hours. Last Friday he called around eleven and told me that the club had given him more tomatoes than he could handle on his own and asked me to come over. I took a single look at my roommate, who sat on the cramped balcony in her bathrobe and night cream, and told him that I would be over soon. She didn’t ask where I was going when I knocked on the glass to tell her goodbye, and she only rolled her eyes and shifted in her chair. The walk to Harry’s place was never all that bad in the summer. The air would be cool enough that you would have to wear a jacket, but never as icy or biting as it was in the winter. During those months I tried to take a taxi over, if only to save my toes rather than my wallet. But no matter what the season, no matter what the weather, a jacket was always necessary in that 5th story apartment in The Village. Harry’s place was constantly drafty and there was nothing that he could do about it, or so he claimed. Knowing Harry, though, I always assumed that he forgot to shut a window somewhere and just didn’t want to admit to it. He was forgetful sometimes, especially around the anniversary of his sister’s death. The night that he called me, we sat in the kitchen, both of us with a blanket around our shoulders trying to keep warm even though it was late May. I was on the kitchen counter, right next to the sink and the empty cardboard box with the red sun painted on the side that had once been filled with almost rotten tomatoes. Harry stood by the table, leaning back on the top, his palms flat against the water-stained wood. “I’ve been thinking a lot about Suzanne. It’s been three years since she died, you know.” His hair was growing long and was starting to curl. When he looked down at his sock feet, his 26 ISSUE 43 hair bunched up at the top of his head and flopped down in front of his face. His eyes seemed to not only have sunken farther down than usual on his face, but so had his cheek bones. Looking at them make me want to poke his face, if only to made sure that all the bones were still there. I slid off of the counter and walked over to the kitchen table. I had nothing to say, so I leaned back on to the table with Harry and kicked off my shoes, so we would match. He didn’t seem to notice that I was even there next to him, though; he just continued to look at his own feet, his blanket sagging off of his shoulders and pooling at his elbows like a shawl. I half expected him to look up and start talking to the empty space next to the sink and the abandoned cardboard box, not even noticing that I was no longer there. “Do you think she’s happy?” “I sure hope so.” I straightened his collar and brushed a piece of lint off of his sleeve. “Thank you.” He sounded tired. “That was bothering me, but I was afraid that if I tried to fix it I would fall over.” I glanced down at his hands and noticed that they were not just resting on the table, but rather gripping the edge of it. His knuckles had turned white, and his knees were shaking. “Do you want to sit down? You don’t look so good.” I hadn’t meant for it to sound like an insult, but at that moment I thought I saw the insides of his eyebrows curl up into a whimper. He was too sensitive sometimes. “I feel fine. I really do, I just wish I had more tomatoes, you know?” Yes, I told him. Yes, I think that everyone wishes they had more tomatoes, if only because that meant they had everything else. I don’t think he heard the last part of what I said. The confirmation that he was not the only one in search of more tomatoes was enough. Still, his hands gripped the edge of the table, and so I reached out and pried them off. I didn’t like the way that they looked, drained of all blood. “Come on, why don’t you sit down.” Harry moved his head up and down in a way that might have been mistaken for a nod by someone who didn’t know him well enough to know that that was just the way he breathed; his head wobbling back and forth as his lungs compressed and decompressed. Sometimes I wanted to tap the back of his head, just to see how long it would wobble back and forth. I even had a stopwatch that I could have used. Harry had given it to me, and was originally meant to be used as a way for me to monitor the length of his act when he played at The Gaslight. I usually forgot to start it, which didn’t really matter because by the end of the night Harry would be too busy fighting with the club’s owner, to get his fair share of the basket, to care about how long his gig had lasted. I walked over to the bookshelf, that never had any books on it, but that was instead the home of a fine Victrola record player, the only thing Harry valued more than his guitar. I lifted the needle up and moved it over the top of the 45 that was already in place on the turntable. The table started to spin, and 27 MURPHY SQUARE a song with a tinny sounding guitar filled the room. A woman began singing in French, her voice low and the words slurred. “Harry, you can’t listen to this type of music when you feel this terrible. It’ll just make it worse.” He only shrugged and made his way over to the couch. The cushions pulled him in as if they had been waiting for him a very long time. I hated to see him so low, but I knew that there was nothing I could say to make it better. The first year after Suzanne died, someone had made the mistake of telling him that her death was all part of God’s plan and everything would one day make sense to him. Harry had taken his drink and thrown it at the man, and since then he has been banned from ever drinking at The Gaslight. He’s only allowed to play there once a month now. So I knew that saying anything at all would equate to me telling Harry to take a flying leap out of his apartment window, along with his almost rotten tomatoes. I pulled the 45 off the turntable and slid it back into its sleeve. “Is there a window open somewhere?” I shuddered and pulled the blanket tighter around my shoulders. Harry wasn’t responsive, he only slightly moved his eyes to look up at me and search for the music that had stopped so suddenly. I thought about putting something else on, but after glancing through his melancholy record collection I thought better of it. There was no use feeding into his sullen mood. The only thing I could do then, was sit down on the couch next to him and wait for it to pass. Because it did. It always passed in the end, and the next weekend he would be playing at The Gaslight, telling jokes to the crowd between songs and basking in the floodlights. ... “I don’t know why I even bother to wear this thing.” Harry hooks his fingers around the knot of his tie and loosens it. “It’s not like anyone here cares how I look.” He moves his arm in a sweeping motion, gesturing to the café and the ragged groups of people sitting at the tables. I watch as Harry sits up and reaches for the pack of cigarettes on the coffee table. He shakes out a single cigarette and places it between his teeth. He sighs and pulls his hair back out of his face, exposing his forehead, which is covered in a thin layer of sweat. He shrugs and turns to face the dimly lit stage, the unlit cigarette wobbling in his mouth. The woman on the stage wears a chunky green sweater and a pair of blue jeans, and Harry taps his foot along to the beat of the song that she sings. All the tables near the stage are full, and the faces of the people sitting at them are washed in the glow of the floodlights. The woman leans into the microphone as she sings, her hands moving quickly up and down the frets of her guitar. “She’s pretty good, huh?” I shrug and throw a pack of matches over to Harry. He catches them midair. “She looks a little like Suzanne, don’t you think?” I immediately regret saying anything, but it’s too late now. “Yeah I guess she does.” Harry brushes off 28 ISSUE 43 my comment, and doesn’t look at me while he speaks. Instead he watches the woman on the stage sing. “If I’m gonna have to split the basket, it might as well be with someone who has some talent.” He puts the unlit cigarette back into his mouth, letting it perch between his teeth, resting on his bottom lip. He shifts in his seat, readjusting his jeans, and bobs his head along to the rhythmic strumming of the green sweater-clad woman. I imagine that there is a blanket on his shoulders again, sliding down to his elbows and almost falling off as he bobs to the music, but the air is too thick for blankets. There are no windows here. Harry’s eyes jump from customer to customer in the front of the club, and I can tell he is assessing the crowd, attempting to get a grip on what kind of music they want to hear tonight. My stomach rumbles audibly, and he turns back to me and laughs. “You want something to eat? Why don’t you eat while I play, and then we can see what Jean is doing later?” I ask him who Jean is, and he motions to the woman on the stage. I just nod, and I walk over to the bar. When I look back at Harry, I notice that he has finally lit his cigarette. “Chicken sandwich,” I say, telling the bartender my order, and turn to face the stage again. The woman in the green sweater dips her head down as the crowd claps, and the expression on her face is passive as she exits the stage and passes Harry, who is waiting at the steps. “You want everything on it? Tomatoes too?” I turn around to look at the man behind the bar. He is raising his eyebrows at me, and for some reason that I can’t explain, I don’t have an answer for him. I glance back at the stage that Harry now occupies. He is settling into his seat on the stool, hunched over his guitar. But unlike the woman in the sweater, I can see that below the curly hair that covers the top of his face like a mop, he is smiling. “No. No tomatoes.” The man behind the bar writes my response on a small blue pad of paper and nods. He walks away quietly, leaving me alone to listen to the soft guitar sounds coming from the stage, and my own beating heart. 29 MURPHY SQUARE flower boy AVA FOJTIK digital photograph 30 ISSUE 43 illuminated AVA FOJTIK digital photograph 31 MURPHY SQUARE 32 ISSUE 43 cat’s cradle AVA FOJTIK digital photograph pity party AVA FOJTIK digital photograph 33 MURPHY SQUARE the library is closed now, and dark looking through its endless aisles stretching nearly into infinity one can barely make out where a great ape, majestic, would swing between the shelves a closed library KELTON HOLSEN Engman Prize winner (an elegy for terry pratchett) once, this place was full of life, and people came and went and words came and went and the shelves really did stretch out to infinity but now i turn the corner and encounter for the first time a blank wall the books are sparser here, tamer less skittering metaphors, and the satire has less bite (when you get old they take away your teeth or you forget them) my hands brush the spines slowly, as the pages begin to unbind themselves, to settle upon the floor; a sea of lilac blossoms in the month of may. i tuck one behind my ear; how do they rise up. 34 ISSUE 43 elizabeth, 1972 ALLISON USELMAN charcoal and pencil 35 MURPHY SQUARE Loneliness Eats away at you until there is nothing left but Loneliness loneliness MARISA MOSQUEDA 36 ISSUE 43 ode to leonardo SOPHIE KEEFE There are some conversations that can only be held late at night. During car rides through streets that are so familiar you can navigate them with your eyes closed, the rise and fall of the landscape and bumps in the asphalt marking the strip mall with the Dollar Tree and Chinese take-out chain, or the winding parkway that loops around the lakes in a lazy curlicue. When a dark, velvety blanket covers the world and softens its edges. Something about the darkness makes the apprehensions that live somewhere deep within that twisted knot of uncertainty in the pit of your stomach a bit easier to bring out through your skin and into the open air. Or, at least into the confined air of a moving vehicle. When my brother is home from college for the summer, we go on these car rides a lot. Everyone else in the house has settled down to sleep, and for some reason our restlessness seems synchronized. He’ll walk into my room, or I’ll wander into his and within minutes the two of us are padding across the back deck towards the garage, a cool breeze gently diluting the day’s humidity. Maybe these conversations also need to be had with someone whose familiarity surpasses the surface level knowledge of a childhood neighborhood. An individual who knows your strengths and secrets and holds them to be as sacred as their own. Sometimes, I feel bad for people who don’t have a twin. The entire time I’ve been on this earth (granted that time has been relatively short), there’s existed someone whose been figuring out life at exactly the same pace. Someone to compare notes with, so to speak. That isn’t to say the two of us are alike. Beyond our profiles and shape of our noses, we’re about as different as two people can be. He knows every word to the musical Wicked’s soundtrack not by choice, but because when we were ten I sang it around the house every day for a year. When we were in sixth grade, he forced me to play the board game Risk with him, and halfway through I stormed out in tears, frustrated that the tactics were too complicated for me to understand, but he mastered immediately. In another dimension, if we hadn’t shared a womb, who knows if we even would have been friends? That’s something I think about a lot; the universe granting me a companion, tied by blood. Indirectly, he’s always teaching me something about what it means to be human. A reminder that even when it feels like life is a series of benchmarks that we all check off 37 MURPHY SQUARE until we eventually die; the spaces between those benchmarks are filled with complexities. Triumphs and mistakes, rash decisions and arguments, family picnics, meals, jokes, lovers, tears, and joys that are all unique to you; tailored by your personality, your likes and dislikes, your heritage, your home. I share most of the essentials with Leo. The smaller stuff is perfectly, and beautifully his. I’m just the lucky one who gets to go on the late-night car rides. 38 ISSUE 43 rhapsody on laurel JACQUELINE DOCKA Engman Prize winner Laurel. Lauraceae. Laurus nobilis. Symbols of victory. A symbol of status. Who’s the victor here? Apollo’s pursuit, transfigured to a tree. Trapped within an organic being, living on Laurel while pursuing baccalaureate. Lived near a church once. Never thought she’d mind the bells. They say the building used to house the nuns and priests. Condemned now. She drives past and parks in the garage. Bong, bong, bong. The bells sound in the background ringing clearly. She thinks of the time she spent there and how unhappy they were. Hearing people screaming in the street. The thrum of the city. A string pulled taut. Twang, someone being shot. Ring ring ring goes the phone. A tinny voice says, what’s your emergency. She’s afraid there’s someone dying in their street. No cops come. She bought them pepper spray the day after the first night. Wondered if it would be enough, hoped it would be enough. The bells, the constantly ringingbooonnngg, booonnngg, booonnngg. Amazing she could hear them over the traffic of the city. She could be miles from home and still hear the clanging. Fear, fear, constant fear. Waking up in the middle of the night, heart pounding, wondering if someone’s gotten into the apartment. Grabbing a metal nightstand ready to bludgeon someone. No one there. Lay back down. Try to sleep. Someone wrote Hell in spray paint outside the building. Trying to tell the world what this building was—as if the residents weren’t aware. A home for nuns and priests. Where only the condemned live now. Home is where the heart is. Heart of the city. Sacred heart, binded heart, wounded heart. Blood, too much, blood. Don’t know if they survived that night. Show me someone who says they got no baggage, I’ll show you somebody who’s got no story, nothing gory means no glory, but baby please don’t bore me. Time creates distance. She still wakes up feeling itchy. Thought it was a weird rash. Allergic to something? They come out of the walls at night. Big fat things feast on your blood. Caught them, put them in a jar to show inspectors. They explain, she could have gotten them anywhere. She wonders are they in his pocket? 39 MURPHY SQUARE They coped. Started a Death Count for all the mice they killed—53. Shower turns off in the middle. Covered with soap and no water. Kayla rinsing her hair with the cold water from the fridge. Happier now? Than then? Moments of happiness even then. Photos taken. Snap, click, shutter. Kayla standing in front of the window holding Honey. Her favorite photo of them. Hearing bands play at the Block Party coming through their windows. Cuddling together on the couch with every blanket they owned because the heater randomly turned off. No working stove for nine months, so much ramen, whistling locomotive radiators when they did work. No, focusing on the good there. So close to school, so close to work, so close to everything. Their only option. Perfect time to escape. She didn’t sleep anyways. Kayla into movies and shows. Her into books. All the reading she did in that house. Lying awake reading. Hyper-vigilance. Might as well be productive. Coming home to their door kicked in. Had to go inside, every sense telling her to run. No one there, they’d left. Cops only took two hours to show. At least they showed. Trusted man helped nail the door back together. Oh girl, this boat is sinking, there’s no sea left for me, and how the sky gets heavy, when you are underneath it! Oh. I want to sail away from here. And god, He came down, and said nothing. As much as they could they lived at the library, at school, at work. Spent as little time in their home as possible. Running up and down those breathless stairs. Them walking down Hennepin. Whoooooshhh. A burst of wind. There goes the 4, 6, 12, on and on and on. They made it to air conditioned/ heated safety. Much nicer here. So quiet, no screams, bathrooms that work. Someone at the window of her car. Booonnngg, booonnngg, taptaptap, booonnngg, booonnngg. -Are you okay? -I’m fine, yes, fine. Thank you she says. Back to the present, still staring at the building. Everything is boarded up. Wonder if undesirables still board there behind the boards. Looking at the top floor, less boards, a sheet flutters behind a window. A roof better shelter than the street. In the end, they had to leave so much behind. Pieces of their lives thrown away like trash. Her grandmother’s rocking chair. Everything else in bags for two years. Effugium, paululum effugiunt, fugit. 40 ISSUE 43 untitled MADELEINE OSWOOD pencil 41 MURPHY SQUARE I consider myself an environmentalist So when the black bear knocked I motioned him in to the couch tossed him a beer In a Transatlantic accent the leaded TV spoke charged young names I asked him his thoughts on mass incarceration. He glugged his beer An outside child screamed over sidewalk chalk I asked the bear how to fix the school system He growled facing D.C. My stomach stormed campaign rallies I stood Have you come to figurehead a proletariat upheaval of the bourgeois class, who are profiteering off the land of bear and human family alike? The bear tilted to its side, pressing his head into the couch arm. I shouted What do you mean! …in all this The bear shrugged the icon MATT PECKMAN Engman Prize winner 42 ISSUE 43 a stable relationship ASH M. KAUN digital photograph 43 MURPHY SQUARE the wreck ALLISON USELMAN Mick woke up drenched in sweat. His eyes were squeezed shut, and he was afraid. Afraid that when he opened them it would hurt, and afraid of what he would see. He lay there for a moment in his bed before he reached up and covered the top half of his face with his hands. He then slowly opened his eyes. He was wrong to be afraid; it didn’t hurt and there was nothing to see. He rolled to his side and looked to see his wife, Margo, sleeping. She was facing away from his and he could not see her face. Her left arm was draped casually over the side of the bed, and all of a sudden Mick was overcome with the urge to pull her arm back, to tuck it against her and hide it under the covers. He leaned back against his pillow and refrained, too afraid that he would wake her. Instead he reached his hand delicately toward her face. He brushed her cheek with his thumb, hardly touching her skin at all, and felt how smooth and dry it was. As he leaned back and touched his hands to his own face, he noticed the dampness of his skin. His hands shook as he removed them, scared of the heat coming out of his own body. I must have dreamt something, he thought, something awful. He got out of bed and moved to the bathroom where he gingerly shut the door and turned on the light only after it was closed. The bulb above his head buzzed, struggling to light up the small room. It would take a few minutes, but soon it would be bright as the sun, and it would hurt to look at. Mick pulled the faucet handle up halfway, and dipped his hands under the cool running water. He washed his face and dried it, laying the towel on the countertop. He was just about to leave with hopes of returning to bed when he caught his own eye in the mirror. For a moment he was unrecognizable. His eyes were so cold. His hair was growing long, longer than usual, and already curls were beginning to form. His face looked worn and rough, like it had been out in the sun a long time, but it was his mouth that looked the strangest. His lips were parted and he could see into his mouth, if only slightly. His teeth sat just behind his lips, white and small. He had always had straight teeth, not one out of place, but there were three tiny gaps between his front teeth that were only visible when he laughed a real honest laugh. Most people didn’t notice, but Margo did. She would 44 ISSUE 43 sit with her legs crossed and her finger on his lip, rubbing it back and forth ever so gently. And then she would sigh. She would study his mouth and sigh. He never could tell what the sigh meant, only that she did it and probably didn’t even notice. He ran his hand over his mouth, as if wiping away a nonexistent stray piece of food. The light bulb in the bathroom was burning, harsh against the encompassing night outside, just before he shut it off and walked back to the bedroom. He couldn’t bring himself to lay down on the bed again, the silk sheets were slippery and he hated them. He hated the way he always felt as if he were going to slip out of bed and fall to the floor, leaving him with no choice but to remain there until morning when Margo arose for work. So there he stood, hands at his sides in the doorway. He took a look around the room, scanning; the green comforter on the floor; the water glasses cluttering his nightstand; the blue gray haze that seemed to cover the room all the time, even in daylight. His eyes fell onto Margo sleeping, her arm was still draped over the side of the bed. Mick shivered once before he turned on his heels and walked out to the kitchen. Outside the sky was still dark and the only light that shone was from the neighbor’s garage door. He could always see the light through the front window, and it bothered him. The curtains weren’t thick enough to hide the light completely, and they instead turned it into a dull yellow glow. It made him nervous the way that the light shone all night long, with no real purpose. Sometimes he looked at it and was filled with the deepest sense of loneliness, a feeling he would never admit to anyone. Oh, I don’t know, he imagined himself saying when asked about it, it’s just, who would think to leave that light on all night? Who are they leaving it on for? He walked past the light and sat down at the table in the kitchen. He blinked, and for that fraction of a second when his eyes were closed, he remembered. He didn’t let himself think of it often, but sometimes on nights when he couldn’t sleep, he would allow the memory to come to him. If only in hopes that sleep might come. It was almost a year ago, the end of summer, and everything was hot. The air, the ground, the inside of your throat. The air was thick and hot and humid, and all too common for the end of August. It was hard to breathe sometimes. He remembered that he could barely get himself to breathe in the thick, thick air. It happened when he was driving home along the highway, and he was all alone. For what seemed like an eternity, there was a stretch of road completely desolate, save for Mick’s own car. Everything was melting into everything else, and the heat wavered like ponds of water in front of him on the road. It was hard for him to see clearly, and he remembered rubbing at his eyes in hopes of focusing them, but it was no use. The heat was just too much, 45 MURPHY SQUARE and so he gave in and let them wander from one melted tree to another as he drove. He remembered the feeling of heaviness that filled his limbs as he crossed through the back roads of the town. It took most of his energy to straighten out the wheel as it shifted and moved with the bumps of the road. Margo never liked for him to drive when he was tired, but she never offered to drive him to or from work. He would have refused if she had anyway, the desolate road calmed him. Sometimes he liked to believe he was the only human being left on the planet, and that there was nowhere to go and nothing to do. It did not matter if he came home immediately after punching out at work, or if he meandered around the country side, looking at old farm houses and pastures of cows that never seemed to move. He felt finite, and it sobered him to think of how disconnected he was to the rest of the universe. It was only the thought of Margo that could force him to turn right at the corner of Fair Oaks and Maple, drive the truck all the way home, and park it in the driveway. But along with the heavy weight of reality, he remembered feeling the instant moment of lightness when he saw the man lying on the side of the road. He couldn’t tell how old he was; he couldn’t even see his face. But he could see his body and his car and he could see that there was no one around for miles and miles. He felt as if he were made of air, as if he had become nothing. He didn’t exist in that moment; in that summer heat he wasn’t real. There he sat, in his car, clutching the steering wheel. He held it so tightly that eventually his nails cut into his palms. He blinked once at the pain and felt heavy again. He had not wanted to get out of the car, even after he pulled over to the side of the road. He did not want to open that car door and let in the air of death and injury and pain. He did open the door though, and walked across the road. Under his feet, he could hear shards of glass crunching under all his weight, under the pressure of his work boots. The boy lying in the ditch was still, his limbs all calmly in their places. He would have looked like he was sleeping except for his right arm. It was stretched out so that it was touching the edge of the pavement, his fingers grasping at asphalt, and it was because of the innocence of his position on the ground that Mick decided he could not be more than seventeen years old. His head was turned away from the main road, resting in the grass and dirt of the highway ditch. The corn fields behind him seemed to stretch off into infinity, as if to say, this is where you are and this is what has happened. The boy’s clothing was dirty and frayed at the knees, a piece of material from his shirt was torn away, nowhere to be seen. Shards of glass from a car’s front window lay scattered in the grass; they anointed the surrounding area with light, refracted floating beams. Mick had felt a small shard jab into his knee 46 ISSUE 43 as he knelt down. He remembered coming home that night and the shard coming loose from where it had become lodged on the knee of his pants, and Margo picking it up off the floor asking, “What is this?” He had snatched it away from her and pocketed it, shaking his head and casting his eyes downward. He told her he didn’t know, and that it was probably from one of the cars down at the garage, “You know how much of a mess that place is.” Suddenly he was overcome with a wave of panic as he realized he was the only one there. He scanned the deserted stretch of highway, desperate to see another living soul, but all he saw was the battered shell of what once was a car and the blindingly reflective glass scattered in the grass. No one else was there to see what he was seeing and he felt completely alone. He would have stayed frozen in his panic if not for the boy turning his head slightly and uttering the words “Mister, would you help me?” His cheeks were still slightly padded with baby fat and his eyes were soft. Round and naive. Even his shoes looked like the shoes of a youth, the laces thick and easy to tie. The afternoon sun washed gold over the scene, and it made the boy beautiful. It hurt to look at him, and Mick had to turn away. He did not want to look at the young boy’s glowing face; it hurt his eyes to look at him lying in the grass with such a gruesome backdrop of a scene behind him. Mick stood up and walked back to his truck, he felt as if his knees were made of jelly and his feet of lead. Each step was a struggle between balance and movement. He fumbled his hands around underneath the steering wheel for a minute as he struggled to find the ignition. When he finally got it started, the truck sputtered as he keeled away from the highway shoulder. If he had looked behind him, or even glanced in the rear view mirror, he would have seen the cloud of dust that had formed, like a bomb, behind him. He drove back into town in a trance to call for an ambulance from a pay phone. He remembered how cold the phone was against his skin, and how the cord repeatedly hit his arm as he hit the switchhook over and over, not sure if he had hit it ten times or not. When he thought back to this moment he couldn’t even recall the sound of his own voice when he asked for the operator, though he must have said something as he remembered the voice of a woman speaking to him through the receiver, asking him where she should send the ambulance. Once he had finished with the phone he steadied himself on the booth’s walls. The receiver hung down off of the hook, its cord almost reaching clear down to the floor, and Mick just watched as it bobbed there. When he stood up straight and left the booth, he glanced back at where he had leaned against it. There was a mark of condensation on the glass, and as he lifted up his hands to look at them, he noticed for the first time how sweaty they were. Trying not to think about it, he walked back to the truck and drove back the way he had come. Mick was 47 MURPHY SQUARE there when the ambulance came and took the boy away. He came upon the scene as he was on his way home again. He slowed down and pulled to the side of the road, just a few feet away from where he had parked only a half hour ago. He saw the boy close his eyes as they pushed him into the back of the vehicle. He imagined that being the last time that he closed his eyes, and imagined that he was the last person to look at them, the soft naive eyes of a child. Mick had no way of knowing what happened to the boy afterward, but he did know that the whole time he was driving he was thinking about the boy’s fingers. There they had been, just splayed against the road. The nails slightly dirty, the tips clawing at the pavement. He imagined what would happen if someone had driven by and run them over, crushing them, leaving nothing but a red stain. across the carpeting, from the curtain hanging on the window. When he reached the bedroom door he stood there leaning against the frame. Margo was sound asleep, and everything was still. He could make out the shape of her legs underneath the blanket; they were curled like a baby’s, and her arm was tucked up to her chin, squishing her cheek a bit. Her other arm was still carelessly flung over the side of the bed. Mick’s heart jumped a little at the sight of it, and he was sure he would wake her with his jumpy heart. She didn’t stir a bit as he slid back into his spot on the bed, his pillow slightly damp under his head. She didn’t even stir as he reached and pulled her arm back towards her body, and tucked it in with the covers. Now, he sat up from his hunched position on the kitchen chair. His legs had red marks from where his elbows rested, and he felt a pain in his neck as he straightened himself. But he also felt relief. The tense, shaky feeling he had awoken with was now gone, almost no trace left behind. He stood up and shuffled back through the living room, passing the front window and the light that never seemed to quit burning. The street looked lonely in the darkened night, the street lamp was not lit, and the only light continued to come from the garage across the street. Mick averted his eyes as he passed by the window, but on the floor he could still see beams of light, refracted 48 ISSUE 43 The potted green plant on the steps that lead to my front door had sunk into itself slumped as if a grieved old woman having seen too much. old hands RACHEL BROWN Engman Prize winner Its leaves squeezed together into blotchy purple fists collapsed fell scratched softly against the dry concrete. 49 MURPHY SQUARE prayer CAMERON YANG digital photograph 50 ISSUE 43 The metal rings wrapped around their clenched hands And they gave each other a promise of eternity. They stared at one another, playing chicken as to who would look away first, A passion too potent to be done justice with language alone Sparking and exploding almost unstably in their eyes, Like a fork in the microwave. metal rings HALLE CHAMBERS Engman Prize honorable mention A flipper’s house, soon to be their home, Fragrantly fresh with the fumes from cleaning chemicals. A flower plot out front with the potential to be a prizewinner. Crickets and cicadas serenading them with a late summer love song. The porch light flickering along with its celestial siblings As the bridegroom bore his newlywed better half through the doorframe. They started their lives together as couples their age do: With lazy kisses across the kitchen island at Sunday morning breakfast, And shaking bedsprings and screaming on late Friday nights, And the air noise congested with the never-ending, “I Love You”s But as all such sugar sweet things do, It melted with heat and time. 51 MURPHY SQUARE They started their fights together as couples their age do: With passive aggressive subtleties across the kitchen island at Sunday morning breakfast, And shaking walls and screaming on late Friday nights, And the air tense and silent with the never spoken, “I Hate You”s But as all such souring bitter things do, It only fermented further with time. They tramped through the neglected front yard foliage, its aroma Easily overpowered by the spoiled stench spewing from the now deserted dwelling. The celestial spotlights couldn’t be seen Past the scarlet and cerulean strobe lights. The droning ditch crickets and summer cicadas Were drowned out by the blaring sirens And the shrieking From the swearing ex-sweethearts, Who only went silent when they were crammed into the cruiser, Squashed into the sticky back bench seats, Each separated from the other offender and the officers By a solid, yet see-through safety screen. She wanted to go to therapy, But he didn’t. He wanted to divorce, But she didn’t. They thought a baby would fix the rift, But it didn’t. The cops came one night, called on a noise complaint To the house, not a home at all, in shambles. Baby screeching in the bassinet, Starving in a soiled diaper. Parents screeching in the bedroom, Too preoccupied with themselves to notice. They stared at one another, playing chicken as to who would look away first, A passion too potent to be done justice with language alone Sparking and exploding almost unstably in their eyes, Like a fork in the microwave. And they hated each other for a promise of eternity, The metal rings wrapped around their clenched hands. It ended in a newspaper tragedy: Baby taken by foster care To find its first stable home. Parents arrested for disturbing the peace and child neglect, Neither caring enough to think past the loathing burning like acid through their brains, Still cussing and fussing all the way to the squad car. 52 ISSUE 43 penitence SAM Lust I lie on the floor and pound my head Against all the shame I find in my bed Greed I got a little bit, then a little bit more Nothing will stop this material whore Pride Pride can be a hard pill to swallow If not you’ll be left empty and hollow Envy What you have will soon be mine Killing with kindness takes a little time Gluttony You can see it is evident All you want is decadent 53 Wrath Bright red boiling blood Intensely like a familiar flood Sloth I am entitled, I’ll show you how Just not right now MURPHY SQUARE forest ALLISON USELMAN copper plate etching 54 ISSUE 43 In the green light of this summer afternoon the orange demon seems so far away. The breeze raises and ruffles the leaves. There’s the distant beep of a truck backing up. green and orange: a pantoum D. E. GREEN The orange demon seems so far away, though I know he’s lurking in the living room. The distant beeping of a truck backing up— it makes me wish that accidents would happen to the evil lurking in our minds and living rooms, occupying all our screens and our consciousness. It makes me wish that accidents would happen to the one crafting all the plans to do us in. Forget the myriad screens and false consciousness. Feel the breeze raising and ruffling the leaves. Forget the orange demon crafting plans to do us in. Absorb the green light of this summer afternoon. 55 MURPHY SQUARE celebration #1 STEPHANIE FREY found images and gouache paint 56 ISSUE 43 You are ember-hot, reflecting wishes and A pictured anomaly, protecting visions and A single moment, mental kisses and You’re set on course, the steering wheel is locked and I’m flagging you down by the ditch’s water and There’s something pretty about the laughter and Your wings are red and slowly fading and I know that hope is overrated and A memory is not a painting and When shooting stars burn in the sky It paints a picture of us both And if there’s anything I know It’s that this is not the end firebird ALICE LIDDELL CHESHIRE WOLFF 57 MURPHY SQUARE special agent dale cooper MADELEINE OSWOOD digital painting 58 ISSUE 43 stretched out for days, you’re a yellow brick road a mirage-like shimmer, for dreamers bestowed on towards the upwards and outwards unknown drawn to your allure we always will go 12 west L. B. DOGOOD with you, i’m always a few steps behind, full of adventure, with nothing but time turning your corners, we’ll start to unwind and where we end up is always inside we’ve been in swamps (water pumped over feet) we’ve found small bones (broken down and petite) we’ve tripped galactic (fear of cosmic defeat) and we’ve explored houses (then, rapid retreat) we’ve climbed up bridges (the worst path, the best) we’ve discovered artifacts (deep in my chest) we’ve scaled mountains (high up where birds nest) and we’ve walked on water (messiah’s old test) and then in the end when we’re left with our tale, some photos, a heartbeat and dirt under nail i’ll still speak these words because you never fail for you, 12 west, are a life changing trail 59 MURPHY SQUARE basilica ABIGAIL TETZLAFF 35mm film camera 60 ISSUE 43 miikawaadendan (think it beautiful) ASHLEY MURRAY Engman Prize honorable mention Deep green, mitig is swaying around niin Inwewin I want gikendan. bizindan. Nisidotan. Understand who is speaking. A voice, baswewe off canyon walls. Vibrating the air around me. engulfed in the jiibay (a tree)/(me) (a language)/(know it)/(listen to it) (understand it) (it echoes) (spirit/ghost) Know what they know. Feel what they feel. Speak how they speak Miikawaadendan (Think it Beautiful) 61 MURPHY SQUARE untitled MADELEINE OSWOOD pencil 62 ISSUE 43 untitled MADELEINE OSWOOD pencil 63 MURPHY SQUARE infinite DEREK L.H. Tomorrow is my last day. I wish I could fall asleep, but my heart can’t stop pounding. However, my analytics tell me that this is a common phenomenon for people undergoing the digitization procedure…Eesh. It’s hard to believe that I’m already getting used to saying stuff that way. Digitization, or the Infinity procedure as some people refer to it, has become more common over the last ten years or so. A few years before the Infinity procedure existed, there was a discovery that there wasn’t an afterlife. No heaven, no hell, no God, just nothing. I wasn’t raised religious, so I wasn’t personally impacted that much, but this was a huge deal to a lot of people at the time. Most religious people were in total denial, and many disregarded the science behind the discovery merely on the grounds of their religious beliefs. So, since there wasn’t an afterlife, humanity decided to make its own. That’s when the Infinity procedures became a thing. People became digitized before their deaths — they became AIs that both represented the life they lived as a person, as well as functioning as an AI to serve society in a way that they couldn’t as a human. I’ve done some research on what it’s like to become an AI, and it seems lovely. It’s painless, and you instantly become more knowledgeable about so much. You gain access to way more information than a human could cram into their brain. Becoming an AI seems like becoming perfection to me. I can’t wait to become one. Originally, they only digitized people that had terminal illnesses. Cancer and stuff like that. After a few years, though, they had made it so that more and more medical conditions could allow a person to become digitized. And then mandatory digitization replaced the death penalty the year after. And then just about any adult could sign up to undergo the procedure. It makes sense if you think about it. After you transition into an AI, sure, your human body’s dead, but you’re still a member of society — just in a different way. Well, it makes enough sense to me, and that’s all that really matters. I’ve been staring at the ceiling of my bedroom for a while now, hoping to the non-existent heavens that my heart will slow and I can actually fucking think about something else. I’ve just been lying atop my bed, snuggling in the warm, hand-knit blankets I made when I was a kid, staring at space for I don’t know how long. Well. Actually, I do. Twenty- 64 ISSUE 43 nine minutes and seven point two seconds, but who’s counting, really? I turn my head to the table across from my bed. My phone lit up, as it usually does once it’s fully charged. There’s some other notifications on it. While I was able to assess what it was before even getting up, I think the old me, however much of the human me was left, still wanted to check it. Besides, it’s not like I’ll have many more chances to check a personal device like this, so a fallacy in my logic via emotional override is excusable in this instance. Gah. There I go again. I quickly walk over to my phone. The notifications on it read: “Charge complete.” “Missed Call: Mom (20), Dad (11), Andrea (6)… “23 New Messages: Andrea, Dad, Mom, Lea…” Perhaps in a momentary splurge of unnecessary emotionality, I unlocked the phone and looked at the newest message. It was from Andrea, reading “Why the fuck are you doing this?? Call me, Mom, or someone NOW, Ellie! You know you shouldn’t do this.” What emotional language. It’s quite elementary in its efficiency and effectivity in persuasion. Andrea was never an eloquent individual, so perhaps I should use lower parameters for expectations on persuasion for her, specifically. However, this message is simply ineffective and clearly should have undergone significant revision. …And there I go, once more. My head’s starting to ache. I should sit down. Anyway. These changes in my thought and speech patterns used to only happen one or two times a day if I got lucky, and now it just happens without me thinking about it. But yeah, Andrea was never good at voicing how she felt. In many ways, she was the model older sister when growing up. Got good grades, was crazy pretty, athletic, had tons of friends, lived a satisfactory, if unremarkable, life. I certainly looked up to her when I was a kid, but everyone in my family knew she was poor at being logical about things. She always let emotions be the deciding factor on just about every decision she made, big or small. I was still in high school when she dropped out of college. She was living in an apartment with her boyfriend at the time. They were both cheating on each other. When they both found out the other was cheating, they got into a big fight. She didn’t get hit or anything like that, as far as I know. Though, they ended up saying hurtful things to each other. Again, as far as I know. Andrea didn’t really know what to do with herself afterward. This was her first breakup, so I guess she didn’t really know how to cope. Well, yeah. Clearly, she didn’t. She started drinking, had one-night stands pretty regularly for a while and experimented with taking different kinds of drugs. Which kinds, I don’t know. And really, I don’t care. Yeah, I understand some may consider it to be a blasphemous position for a younger sister to take, but…I just thought it was dumb. She did anything that could help make her feel better. Eventually, she dropped out of college, moved 65 MURPHY SQUARE back in with my parents, and went into rehab a few weeks after. Even though that was all a few years ago, she’s still considered emotionally unstable. Having so much of your life get fucked up because of how you feel sounds…so tragic to me. So many people go about their lives, trying to make themselves feel good through whatever means, even if it ends up hurting other people. I don’t know, something about that really sickens me. My sister and people like her sicken me. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve decided to get digitized. I don’t want to be a slave of emotion. I don’t want to be like my sister. Emotions are just an obstacle for people, as far as I can tell. Ever since I had started taking Infinticilia two months ago,—that’s the drug that preps my brain for becoming an AI—this became only clearer. I had noticed more and more that many people were objectively poor at communicating how they felt to others. My family was specifically belowaverage at it. Their phone calls and messages to me over the last two months have all been poorly constructed, only using rather melodramatic and/or anecdotal rationales in arguments as to why I should terminate both my use of Infinticilia and my Infinity procedure. Perhaps more intelligently constructed and presented rationales could have influenced my decision. But alas, it is too late for them now. They had their chance to persuade me to stay alive as a person, and they failed to do so. After sitting for a while, I grabbed my phone and set it back onto the table. My headache had only gotten worse. Fuck. I had gotten used to the migraines, the most common side-effect of the Infinticilia, over the last few months, but I haven’t gotten any in a few weeks now. I certainly didn’t want to deal with a migraine tomorrow. Best to deal with it tonight. I walked into the bathroom across the hall. Perhaps walking was an ill-calculated decision. I quickly took one of the few supplements left for this kind of instance. It will make me somewhat revert back to my more human self to alleviate the migraine. After a while, I should go back to being fully prepared to make the transition tomorrow morning. I could feel my thoughts beginning to revert back to those that were common for my previous self. I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to get some fresh air. I quickly slid open the door in my kitchen, out onto the porch of my apartment. It was certainly a November night in Also. The brisk, cool wind stroked my warm skin as I stepped outside. Also is a small town in upstate New York that I moved to about a year ago now. The town has a population of only a few hundred people. Living in Also was the closest I ever got to enjoying where I was in life. I grew up in Buffalo, where my parents and Andrea still live, and I hated every second of living there. When you see hundreds of people on a daily basis, you’re bound to come across people that you can’t fucking stand. I guess I was always that kid. The one who didn’t want to be part of anything. The one that quietly judged everyone else. 66 ISSUE 43 I’ve always assumed that people think of me as an uninteresting person. I have no tragic backstory that would make anyone sympathize with me. Nothing very significant has happened in my twenty-six years of life that would make people get attached to me, and that’s fine. Not everyone is meant to be interesting, and I just happen to be one of those people. Life has just always sort of happened around me. I was never bullied or harassed or anything. Just ignored. And in this day and age, no one really cares if you’re ignored. And again, that’s fine. To me, it just…got tiring after a while. I remember the night I decided to undergo the Infinity procedure. It was three months ago. I was stopping by my parents’ house to grab some mail that was still getting delivered to their house for whatever reason, and they invited me to dinner. I really didn’t want to stay, but Dad made lasagna, and I’d have felt bad if I turned down his cooking. He’d have taken it personally if I had. He is a music instructor, and the only real interesting parts of his life were his anecdotes about the students of his private lesson classes. Well, at least they would be interesting if he ever shut up about them. “So I was giving a lesson this afternoon with a student I’ve had for a few years now, right” he started, “And he starts telling me about how he’s not going to take lessons anymore because he plans on doing that digitization thing. How sad is that? I can’t believe so many people throw away their life like that. I always thought he was better than that, too.” We were all sitting around the dinner table, eating slightly undercooked lasagna as he said this. I stopped eating for a moment. “Isn’t that a bit harsh?” I asked. “I mean, did he tell you about why he was doing it?” Dad exhaled loudly, glaring at me before he said anything. “Uh, well, no, he didn’t. It’s just the concept of someone turning themselves into an AI that’s so sad to me. I mean, people just end their lives to do it, and—” “Technically, your life doesn’t really end when you get digitized,” I said. “Your life just becomes different. Instead of being a person only capable of finite things, being an AI gives you the ability to do an infinite number of things. Isn’t that right?” “Well, I don’t know what happens to people after they undergo the procedure. I know they supposedly become sources of information and get programmed into databases and all that. But what if that’s bullshit? What if that’s just a lie?” “What if it’s just the surface? What if there’s so much more to being an AI?” Mom butted into the conversation. At least, she tried to. “Ellie, James, can we please save this discussion for later—” “Ellie, it, uh, sounds to me like you’re defending people who become AI…” “Well…it’s starting to make more sense to me is all…” The tinkling of silverware hitting dinner 67 MURPHY SQUARE plates was the only sound for a moment. “Well, if you ask me, the people that get digitized are just quitters. People that are too scared to deal with reality.” Mom started to ask, “James, don’t you think—” “Think what?” He yelled. “That I’m being too harsh or some shit? Why doesn’t anyone here try to understand where I’m coming from?” “I-I-I-I’m sorry, James,” Mom anxiously stuttered. “Uh, anyone want more lasagna?” No one answered. The tinkles of silverware turned into clanks. I had grown tired of the topic of digitization that night. The rest of dinner was quiet and awkward. As I drove back to my apartment later that night, I found myself so frustrated. Dad was doing that thing I hate where he keeps interrupting Mom from getting her word in. And he always thinks his opinion is more valid than others, and gets all defensive when people disagree with him. Dad is too rigid, and Mom is too delicate. She has always been too polite for her own good. She tries so hard to be so respectful to everyone’s feelings that she keeps a lot of things to herself. It was moments like then that made me glad that I had moved out of that house long ago. Mom, Dad, and Andrea were all people that managed their feelings in a way that always frustrated me. They always brought their emotions into conversations where they weren’t needed. I eventually just got sick of it all. That’s the thing: emotions—they just cripple you. They cripple and destroy you like hot coffee seeping through paper. Emotions impact how you decide on things, or how you interact with others, or even who you interact with. They take control of you and become you. That night, I realized that I no longer wanted to live a life where emotions hijacked everything. I just wanted to be free of it all. And that was when I realized that the only way to be free of emotions once and for all was to undergo the Infinity procedure. Looking up at the night sky reminds me of how small this life was. People are so tiny if you think about it. After I enter my new life as an AI, maybe I’ll serve a bigger role. Or maybe I won’t. All I know is that I’m ready to begin my new life as an AI tomorrow. The late autumn wind made my skin hollow, so I walked back inside my apartment, sliding the door shut. The migraine had mostly faded at this point. I could feel the supplement starting to wear off. My appointment was in the morning, and I was still anxious about it. Even to the end, I guess I’m still no exception to being controlled by emotions sometimes. Despite the anxiety and nervousness, I tried to get some sleep. I opened my eyes, and looked at the alarm beside my bed. 8:00 A.M. Satisfactory. I stood up and quickly calculated what I needed to do before heading out. It would be unnecessary to prepare myself aesthetically, given the circumstances. Therefore, I deduced a quick checklist of necessary requirements 68 ISSUE 43 before retiring from my apartment. This checklist mainly consisted of preparing the apartment to be in near-mint condition. Naturally, I had set up many things in relation to the procedure in advance. Among them included writing a will to allocate all my existing assets after I become digitized. The agent that I corresponded with to prepare for the procedure assisted me with the logistics of digitization. Everything was set. All that awaited was heading out to the hospital to check in and undergo the procedure. However, as I began preparing to leave, I heard knocks at the front door. I opened it. It was Mom, Dad, and Andrea. Their eyes glimmered of desperation. They appeared to be teeming with toxic emotion, typical as ever of them. They exemplified signs of looking distressed due to the wrinkles on their faces. Andrea stepped forward, tears coming from her eyes. “I can’t believe you’re doing this! What the hell is wrong with you?” Dad also stepped towards me. “Ellie, you can’t do this. I…I can’t let you go.” I scoffed. “Your concern is understandable given the circumstances, but I’m afraid that your attempt at preserving my human self will end unsatisfactorily for you. My decision is set in stone. It’s been two months. If you were capable of coercing me out of undergoing the Infinity procedure, you would already have succeeded in doing so.” Silence for a moment. Andrea still had tears in her eyes. “Who…who are you? Whoever you are, you’re not my sister anymore.” Andrea’s use of melodramatic language was as ineffective as ever. “Andrea, Mom, Dad…I’m becoming digitized. This life is no longer optimal for me. It really never has been optimal.” Mom, who had been notably quiet and reserved, finally spoke up. “Is that you saying that? Or the drugs that they put you on?” “It’s likely both, Mom,” I said. “This is what I want. I’ll still live. Just…in a different way than you. It’s always been like that, if you think about it.” Their eyes of emotion remained lucid. They appeared frustrated, disappointed, maybe even in denial. But their refusal of my resolve was practically insulting. Andrea looked down to her small feet. “Can we at least…go with you?” ... The Digitization Department was surprisingly small at the hospital I went to. At least, it surprised me the first time I went. Digitization was becoming more and more common every year. Most hospitals and even some clinics offer Infinity procedures. Regardless, everything was set and ready to begin at 10:30 A.M. It was clear that my family didn’t want to be there. Their emotional eyes remained ever-present on their faces. We were all sitting in a waiting room 69 MURPHY SQUARE designated for people undergoing the Infinity procedure. There were two other families in there with us. I couldn’t hear their words, but the tones of their voices were also full of emotion. It’s quite inadequate that the experience of having emotions isn’t a unique one. Ultimately, how anyone feels right now has been felt by someone somewhere sometime before. I’ve heard of people finding beauty in that— that it’s amazing how we can find other people that have felt the same as we have. But beauty is just an emotional construct. Beauty doesn’t actually exist. People just convince themselves that it does. It’s just another example of emotions blinding people. However, while thinking upon this subject, my mind briefly reverted to memories between Andrea and myself. Growing up, Andrea would often talk to me about societal perceptions of beauty. She was always fascinated by that kind of stuff—history, how people relate to each other, all that junk. She talked about it with me for hours so many times when we were growing up. She loved talking about anything that had to do with how people treated each other throughout history. Dad would never shy at jumping into the conversations between Andrea and I, always adding theories, facts, and statistics that may or may not have been relevant to what we were talking about. Mom would always listen in on our conversations and ask questions, always fascinated by what we were discussing. I’m really going to miss them. ... I mean. Um. It’s 10:30. I should go. Dr. Carlisle, the doctor that I had talked before about the Infinity procedure walked into the waiting room. “Elizabeth Hensley…are you ready?” I stand up and nod. Dr. Carlisle continued. “I’m sorry, we can’t have family go into the Digitization Room. I’ll…give you a second to make your goodbyes. Come on in once you’re ready.” She stood by the door. I turned around to face my family. They all looked at me quietly. Unlike before, their eyes weren’t filled with emotion. They were… empty. Hopeless. I didn’t really know what to say to them. I turned towards the door, facing away from them. “Um…thanks for coming. It…means a lot.” Without looking back, I walked towards the door. ... There it is. The Infinity: the machine that digitizes people into AI. It looked like an MRI scanner. The room was entirely white and lifeless. No one except myself and Dr. Carlisle were in the room. The next few moments were a blur. I got into the Infinity. This is what the last two months have been leading up to. It almost didn’t feel real. Like I was dreaming. Like all of this was fantasy. But I laid there, on the machine that would digitize my body, birthing me into my new life as an AI. Soon enough, the machine began moving into the Infinity very slowly. Maybe only a few 70 ISSUE 43 centimeters per second. But this was it. I had seen everything and everyone I would ever see outside of this room for the last time. It…didn’t really hit me until then. The memories I had with everyone…with my family… All of those memories were moments from evaporating. They would be gone forever. Or maybe I’d still remember them after I became an AI, or…I don’t know. I…I just don’t know. I wanted so hard to be free of emotion. It’s why I wanted to go through with this. And yet, I find myself leaving this world feeling unlike how I’ve ever felt before. I was filled with emotion. Filled with fear. Most of my body was now inside the Infinity. Seconds of life as I knew it were left. Was this a mistake? Was this a good idea after all? Am I doing this for the right reasons? What are the right reasons? What are the wrong reasons? What have I done? What have I done? What have I done? The last of my body entered into the Infinity, at last. Tears began trickling down my face. For the first time in I don’t know how long, I cried. I cried. The machine made a loud noise and my legs began to feel weightless. Everything began to feel weightless. The last sound I would make as a human was a laugh. A laugh at the thought of me leaving my human life just as I entered it: crying, powerless, and teeming with emotion. 71 MURPHY SQUARE celebration #5 STEPHANIE FREY found images and gouache paint 72 ISSUE 43 words like radiation ringing out, observed by those not worth speaking to; 52 hz L. B. DOGOOD i wish you could hear me smooth like the ocean ridges of mollusks and sand for your skin for your skin, they’ll never understand why we rot away into filaments they call it fur and a mystery but only we know that we’re fibrous creatures made of sinew and bones but you can’t even hear me even you, ones with bodies bigger than earth lives longer than time sing too low sing too low for a connection, i hear you calling out and i can’t understand why my words don’t reach you, ‘is there anybody like me? is there anybody like me? is there anybody like me?’ 73 MURPHY SQUARE When I’m driving on the highway, the destination doesn’t matter, I’m usually in the passenger seat because piloting tons of crashing metal makes my throat close up, so I can look out the window as we drive and watch the road going by, and roadkill ALICE LIDDELL CHESHIRE WOLFF Sometimes I see the dead animals, birds or raccoons or squirrels or sometimes deer, and sometimes their bodies are intact and they’re lying off to the side and I think why don’t they just get back up? They look perfectly fine to me, but their eyes are being eaten by ants and it’s only from a distance that they look more alive than I feel, but other times They’re crushed and smeared into the pavement by endless tires, fur and feathers and life turned into a bright red stain, a gore bouquet that seems scattered everywhere, and I wonder how all that meat fit inside their fragile little bodies, running and jumping and sniffing their way through life until they’re pulverized by people on their way to work, and It makes my stomach churn but I always look as the car drives past and if I were walking I might stop and study the remains for any clues, wondering who they were and why this happened, wondering what it felt like, can they still feel, their nervous system still ticking out information across their bodies, spread like jam on concrete, or maybe their spirits still linger, breathing in the exhaust fumes as they howl silently as a warning to stay away, and They enter my dreams, messiahs covered with flies, 74 ISSUE 43 fearless crows poking stigmata into their stomachs, looking at me with lustful eyes and directing me into the forest, where there are no cars and humans are just a memory and the evergreens loom all around like a silent jury surrounded by tears and The wave drowns animals and trees alike, until all is washed away and the ground is meat, and the meat is concrete, and the remnants of the living are baked into a gray shell that stretches on for miles and miles and miles and I’m back in the car, we’ve arrived, and I look over my shoulder as I step out onto the stone floor of the city, wondering where my body ends and the roadside bodies begin. I walk down a path and mice scuttle out of the woods with legs like spinning wheels, crawling up my boots and under my shirt, surrounding me with the mass of their bodies like a second skin before pulling back, a wave of life breaking against me and churning out whispers into the forest, letting the world know that I do not belong here, and the woods Part before me, and looking through the tree line I see animals gathered on the shore of a lake, a parade of silent stares, eyes glinting in the bloody horizon glare, rabbits emptied from their warrens and raccoons crawled back from city suburbs, opossums with nail teeth and fawns without mothers, a bear grown stick thin and desperate from too many winters, its bones strained to the breaking point as it opens its mouth to show a gummed expanse of night, and as it stretches out a rasping tongue into the rippling air I see the lake rise up in a tidal wave, becoming the sky as it crests, drowning the world with shadow, and in the fading light I see it is not water, it is an ocean of meat that plunges down, crushing and mauling the forest and I can feel my body as it is pulled apart, popped like an old balloon, and as my guts slide down and mix with the soil my soul remains, and I am aware, I watch as 75 MURPHY SQUARE she-wolf CAMERON YANG digital photograph 76 ISSUE 43 You have his eyes. All your life you have never been yourself, never been your own. You are your father’s eyes in your mother’s face, and your name is a cinderblock they chained around your ankles and called a gift. The day you are told what he did, you will not react at all. You will sit in your chair and listen to your sister, a supportive stone statue, and when it hits you seven months later, when it sinks in and becomes real, you will be useless for four days. You will stand in the bathroom before class and look in the mirror and wonder if they can see it in your eyes. Your father’s eyes. You wonder if it’s obvious you have the eyes of a killer. You’ve known for months but it wasn’t real until right now, Looking in this mirror and thinking about how nothing is quite the same once you know your father is a killer. The finding out is easier than the knowing. The finding out is ice water down your back. A shock. The knowing is heavy, and once you pick it up, you always have to carry it with you everywhere. You will never be able to put it down. Know this because you have to, but know something else as well. Carrying this with you is going to feel like there is a coffin the eyes are the window to the soul ALEXIS KIMSEY 77 MURPHY SQUARE strapped to your back, like there is a scarlet letter pinned to your chest with a blade sharpened by inheritance, like you never understood sin until your sister tied your father’s around your neck and you’re never going to want to tell anyone. You’ll look at your friends and feel it almost bursting out of your mouth, How are you today, My father is a killer, I’m a murderer’s daughter, it’s so heavy, it’s pulling me down, take it away, please, please, G-d, someone, help me. You’ll almost say it over and over but you won’t want to. You won’t want to tell them, not now not ever they can never know. When you tell them anyway, it will feel like pulling a piece of that coffin down from your aching shoulders and nailing it between theirs. When you do this, remember that they told you that you could. Remember how they handed you the hammer. Remember when you turned around and offered them your spine, the spaces where they’ve taken parts of your coffin from you making room for the pieces of theirs that they’re too tired to carry alone. Remember that we all have coffins. That we are all a cemetery, but we do not have to let that bury us. 78 ISSUE 43 flower girl flower girl GABRIEL BERGSTROM 35mm film photograph 79 MURPHY SQUARE untitled MADELEINE OSWOOD digital painting 80 ISSUE 43 I stepped in a puddle today after a rain that had lasted for probably 4 days and 4 nights. I felt it the water sucking my toes and soaking my white socks brown swallowing me slowly like a snake stretching wide his jaw with that little extra bone he has so he can fit a city rat twice the size of his head down his slick pink throat. I thought about him about a snake big enough to eat yappy yorkie dogs and deer fawns until the water lapped at my armpits and licked my eyelids closed and the world dissolved in wet-like blues and greens. Galaxies swirled like ribbons silky between my finger crevices as if rainforest and ocean curled up and melted together the way two spilled cans of paint sometimes do. galaxies RACHEL BROWN Engman Prize winner 81 MURPHY SQUARE light rail ABIGAIL TETZLAFF digital photograph 82 ISSUE 43 happiness is the light between the trees in autumn travelling miles upon miles through space to make mosaics on the forest floor and caress faces one last time before winter sonas EVE TAFT touching all things, light ignores broken bones wends its way through thunderstorms finds ships on the tousled sea insensitive, it dries tears early and blinds happiness is the light between the trees in autumn golden warm, more steadfast than summer more compassionate than winter happiness steals in through branches gently, gently, gently 83 MURPHY SQUARE the spin GABRIEL BERGSTROM 35mm film photograph 84 ISSUE 43 the bridges GABRIEL BENSON I’ve been driving for two hours, making my regular trek from one home to the other. My back is sweaty as it often gets on these long drives. In an attempt to aid this, I sit slightly forward and turn the air conditioner on full blast. This effect leaves my fingers icy, but the sun still beats down on my thighs, my own personal greenhouse. By now, I really need to pee, and the empty coffee cup from this morning is beginning to look more and more tempting as a release for my bladder. The ride from Willmar to Minneapolis on Highway 12 has only a few landmarks peppered in that I find to be worth noting on the drive. Once I left one home, I knew I was destined to nomadism for the following two hours. Like a turtle, I would own only what I carried with me in the silver Pontiac Bonneville. My suitcase, backpack, and a box of books all pile in the backseat. In Montrose, Minnesota, I pass the small side-of-the-road memorial to my old dear friend killed on his motorcycle in 2014, killed by a car that hit him head-on. It’s a knee-high cross, a picture of him placed in the center. It never gets easier to look at this cross, but it does get harder to see. It can be hidden in the winter by snow, and it was once carried away by a well-meaning plow. But I know there are no spirits here. On these roves from Home A to Home B, Minnesota Public Radio is my companion. Today, it’s an in-depth story on the music history of Simon & Garfunkel, a duo I know little about—a couple songs, something about herbs and the fair, perhaps. The piece itself is intermittently sprinkled with their songs and interviews with musicians and other members of the industry. As I enter Minneapolis, the skyline on the horizon, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” comes on. It’s familiar to me, like a song from an old movie. When you’re down and out / When you’re on the street / When evening falls so hard / I will comfort you. As usual, I follow the traffic into the underground I-94 tunnel. What was once bright sunlight is transformed, and I am plunged into darkness, the white rays replaced by the ambered lightbulbs that line up above me. When entering, the tunnel seems endless, stretching ahead indefinitely before me. 85 MURPHY SQUARE Now, there is a strict ritual for these tunnels, and I have been practicing since I was a child, just like my mother taught me. light. Are the cars in front of me, behind me, beside me, fixed in the same trance? they shine When darkness comes / And pain is all around As I run down the grocery list of my wishes, my lungs start to ache. The sunlight begins to peek in front of the many cars ahead of me. The last wish in my head is always the same, vague, but it is perhaps the most important. Please have all of this be okay, I pray. The floodlights of the day’s sun rush back into the vehicle. I exhale, my lungs receiving sweet air, my hand falls back down onto the steering wheel, and the radio plays as usual. The song is almost done. I will ease your mind. As my eyes adjust to the new light, I suck my breath in, the air that stops coming into my lungs matches the now crackling radio waves that barely filter through the speakers. One hand on the steering wheel, the other hand flopped up to lay my palm flat against the carpeted roof of the car. Several yards into the tunnel, the radio has been reduced to static, only a word or two from any number of radio stations is translatable. It’s in these moments—dark tunnel, amber light, breath held, hand on roof—that I truly pray. I grew up believing that these tunnels held a mystical property, that it was here where wishes could be granted, prayers answered. With air tight in my lungs, these messages to someone are thought loudly in my mind, for if they were spoken, my pact of not breathing would be broken, creating the possibility of these requests not being listened to, not being transmitted to whomever receives them. And it does, almost always. I smile at the stretch of city before me, and I feel a sense of relief. Whether or not this all ends up okay, it’s out of my hands now. But inside, I think it will be. Sail on I pray, thanking the tunnel for my safe drive. For the sun. For things going well. I pray, asking the tunnel for good health for myself and those I love. Row by row, I pass amber light after amber 86 MURP HYSQ UARE ISSUE 43 | 2018
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- Augsburg Now Fall-Winter 2017: Auggies Make an Impact
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- Alumni Magazine Collection
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An alumna’s cutting-edge research
Augsburg University Day
Women of influence
Nobel Peace Prize Forum
AUGGIES MAKE
AN IMPACT
FALL–WINTER 2017 | VOL. 80, NO. 1
INSIDE
AUGSBURG NOW
Vice President of Marketing
and Communication
Rebecca John ’13 MBA
rjohn@augsburg.edu
Director of Marketing...
Show more An alumna’s cutting-edge research Augsburg University Day Women of influence Nobel Peace Prize Forum AUGGIES MAKE AN IMPACT FALL–WINTER 2017 | VOL. 80, NO. 1 INSIDE AUGSBURG NOW Vice President of Marketing and Communication Rebecca John ’13 MBA rjohn@augsburg.edu Director of Marketing Stephen Jendraszak jendra@augsburg.edu Assistant Director of Marketing Management NOTES FROM PRESIDENT PRIBBENOW On celebration Augsburg’s ninth president, Bill Frame, was fond of pointing out our “militant modesty,” the tendency to avoid touting our accomplishments for fear that we might be accused of boasting. Whether occasioned by our Lutheran faith tradition or Scandinavian roots (or some combination thereof), this modesty meant that often our good work as an institution was hidden under a bushel. Now, as someone steeped both in Lutheran and Scandinavian ways, I may have occasionally fallen victim to that same modesty, but perhaps I am being rehabilitated because there is just so much to celebrate at Augsburg these days! We can no longer hide our light, as this issue of Augsburg Now most clearly illustrates. Whether it is our name change to Augsburg University, officially celebrated in early September; the 29th annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum in mid-September, attracting international attention for this remarkable gathering of Nobel laureates and other peacemakers; the progress on the Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion, our signature academic building to open for classes in early January 2018; or one of the myriad other signs of good work—like the renewal of our McNair Scholars program, preparing first generation and students of color for graduate and professional school—I just can’t deny the need to celebrate! So, here’s my point. I’m all for humility and modesty in pursuing the mission-based work we are called to do for our students and our community. The gifts we share as a community—our values and commitments, our faculty and staff, our alumni and partners, and our inspiring students—these truly are gifts to be stewarded responsibly, not exploited. But it is not boasting when we celebrate how those gifts come together and are deployed to achieve our distinctive calling in the world: to be small to our students and big for the world, to educate students as informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. In fact, I might argue that not celebrating what has been achieved means that we miss the opportunity to proclaim what God has done in our midst and how others are invited to join us in the work we are called to do. We live in a world marked by a sense of scarcity; Augsburg models what it means to model the way of abundance. We choose abundance, and we celebrate all that God has made possible at Augsburg University—surely a beacon of light and hope in the world. Faithfully yours, Laura Swanson Lindahl ’15 MBA swansonl@augsburg.edu Senior Creative Associate, Design Denielle Stepka ’11 johnsod@augsburg.edu Web Manager Joe Mann mannj@augsburg.edu Communication and Social Media Specialist Briana Alamilla ’17 alamilla@augsburg.edu Advancement Communications Specialist Asha Sorenson sorenso3@augsburg.edu Contributing Writers Kate H. Elliott Jessica Mueller All photos by Courtney Perry unless otherwise indicated. augsburg.edu Augsburg Now is published by Augsburg University 2211 Riverside Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55454 Opinions expressed in Augsburg Now do not necessarily reflect official University policy. ISSN 1058-1545 Send address corrections to: alumniupdate@augsburg.edu PAUL C. PRIBBENOW, PRESIDENT Send comments to: now@augsburg.edu AUGSBURG NOW Fall–Winter 2017 The Norman and Evangeline Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion is located near the corner of 21st Avenue South and South 7th Street on Augsburg’s Minneapolis campus—a site strategically selected to further connect the University to the community. 02 Around the quad 19 Women of influence 08 Annual report to donors 22 Auggies connect 10 Augsburg University Day 26 Class notes 12 The fatherhood bonus and the motherhood penalty 32 In memoriam 16 Nobel Peace Prize Forum On the cover The Augsburg University quad featured vibrant autumn colors this October. Photo by Kevin Healy. Inset photo by John Solem, University of Massachusetts Amherst. that Augsburg University’s quad now boasts a splash of color. At more than 82 feet wide, the vinyl graphic installed on Science Hall’s eastern-facing facade is nearly impossible to miss. The design pairs an excerpt from Augsburg’s strategic vision statement with vibrant hues chosen to reflect the accent colors on the exterior of the new Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion, which stands northwest of Science Hall and is blocked from view in the quad. One of the priorities outlined in Augsburg’s 2016 campus master plan is to extend the quad from the west edge of campus, through the existing campus core, and on to Murphy Square. This vision requires the demolition of Science Hall, which will be possible only after departments and program offices now housed in the facility relocate following the completion of the Hagfors Center. The timeline for this work is not yet determined, so, in the near term, those strolling through the heart of campus or navigating nearby streets will see Science Hall stand as an illustration of Augsburg’s vision to be “small to our students and big for the world.” 160 Y E A R S A G O Fifteen years before Augsburg moved in next door, Edward Murphy donated land for the first city park in Minneapolis— what is now Murphy Square. For years prior, the parcel had been used as a cow pasture. 1937 1857 LOOKING BACK: DECADES OF AUGSBURG HISTORY BEFORE AFTER ARCHIVE PHOTOS 8 0 Y E A RS A GO Augsburg elected an erudite and scholarly teacher, Bernhard Christensen ’22, ’25, to be president. He led the institution for nearly 25 years, during which time Augsburg made vigorous efforts to expand and enhance academic offerings. 1967 IT WOULD BE OVERLY MODEST to claim 5 0 Y E A RS A GO Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel played for more than 3,000 people in Si Melby Hall on Nov. 10, 1967. According to an Augsburg Echo review, the lengthiest applause was reserved for the song, “To Emily, Wherever I Might Find Her.” The same year saw the openings of Urness Hall and the Christensen Center, with the Marshall Room at the time serving as a faculty lounge to the resentment of the Echo’s editorial board. PHOTO BY MARK CHAMBERLAIN CURB APPEAL AROUND THE QUAD Where faith and public life meet 30 Y E A RS A GO Augsburg began offering its first graduate degree program, the Master of Arts in Leadership. Augsburg now offers nine post baccalaureate programs and set an enrollment record this fall with 1,035 master’s students. 2007 40 Y E A R S AG O Construction began on what is now the Charles S. Anderson Music Hall, which would open a year later, bringing the entire music department under one roof for the first time in 100 years. AN AUGGIE THROWBACK PHOTO BY REBECCA SLATER 1987 1977 The Rev. Mike Rusert [center] and members of Intertwine NE meet on a Sunday morning to plan a December 10 launch event designed as an inclusive experience for young adults interested in being part of an intentional spiritual community. PHOTOS BY DON STONER It is no secret that the gap between young adults and Christian congregations is widening. The good news, though, is that young people are not rejecting faith or religion; many are living out their faith through political activism, the arts, environmental stewardship, and interfaith engagement—places where public life and faith intersect. Bridging this gap will require congregations to adapt and innovate. To support this adaptive work, Augsburg’s Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation has launched a five-year project, called the Riverside Innovation Hub, with $1.5 million in funding from Lilly Endowment, Inc. In its first year, the Riverside Innovation Hub will work with an interdisciplinary research team of Augsburg faculty to study 12 local congregations that are effectively engaging young adults in their communities. Using the lessons learned from that research, the program will recruit and train a cohort of youth to serve as coaches, working alongside approximately 15 partner congregations committed to new ministry with young adults. “Partner congregations can then apply for two-year innovation grants to implement their programs in 2019 to 2021,” said Kristina Frugé, program manager for the Riverside Innovation Hub. At the end of that experience, all program participants will share their key learnings. Augsburg will publish the results and share the outcomes and insights through conferences and workshops. “Vocation is at the center of this project,” Frugé said. “For congregations, it’s about discerning their call in relationship with their young adult neighbors. For young adults, it’s about a connection with a Christian community who can accompany them in exploring how faith and public life intersect in ways that matter most to them.” Melissa Lee ’04, Augsburg’s head softball coach, threw out a ceremonial first pitch before an August Minnesota Twins game at Target Field as part of the team’s annual Lutheran Night festivities. Lee joined former St. Olaf pitcher the Rev. Charlie Ruud, with the pair dressed in costume as historical husband and wife duo Martin Luther and Katharina (von Bora) Luther in celebration of the 500th anniversary of the 1517 Protestant Reformation. Ruud previously served as a Campus Ministry intern at Augsburg. 1 0 Y E A RS A GO In 2007, Oren Gateway Center opened, connecting Riverside Avenue with the James G. Lindell Library, which opened a decade earlier. OGC will lose the distinction of being Augsburg’s newest building when the Norman and Evangeline Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion is completed in late 2017. FALL - WINTER 2017 3 A N O T H ER F IV E YEARS OF SERVING SCHOLARS Every year, more than two dozen undergraduate students participate in Augsburg’s McNair Scholars Program, an intensive 21 months of graduate school preparation that opens doors to some of the most competitive institutions in the U.S. What’s more, these McNair Scholars are from populations who statistically are less likely to have the opportunity to pursue advanced research and doctoral degrees—firstgeneration college students with financial need and/or students from racial and ethnic populations who are underrepresented in Each year, Augsburg selects two graduate education. McNair Scholars to represent Now, with a five-year renewal of its grant, the University at the Minnesota Private College Scholars Showcase Augsburg’s McNair Scholars, a federal TRIO at the Minnesota State Capitol. program funded by the U.S. Department of Education, will be able to continue supporting these students’ pursuit of advanced degrees through at least 2022. The McNair Scholars Program was created by the U.S. Congress in honor of Ronald E. McNair, one of the first African American astronauts in the U.S. space program. Augsburg’s program provides graduate school preparation workshops, travel to a national research conference, hands-on scholarly research projects with faculty mentors, and more. Since 2007, according to “Tina” Maria Tavera, director of the McNair Scholars Program, Augsburg McNair Scholars alumni have completed or are currently pursuing more than 30 master’s degrees, 19 doctoral degrees, two medical school degrees, and two doctor of pharmacy degrees. With nearly $1.2 million of future funding, Augsburg is excited to see further program success. Augsburg awarded $475,000 to infuse sustainability in university life Augsburg University has new opportunities to live out its commitment to sustainability on campus, in the community, and among institutional partners thanks to nearly half a million dollars in new grant funding from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, a Minnesota-based foundation that believes colleges and universities can serve as models of operational sustainability for society at large. Using the grant award, Augsburg will facilitate student internships and other experiences at sustainability-focused organizations, strengthen and expand course offerings in Environmental Studies, fund student and faculty research, integrate In 2015, the Margaret sustainability and wellness A. Cargill Foundation contributed $1 million to across the academic the campaign to build the curriculum, and more. Hagfors Center for Science, “The next breakthrough Business, and Religion. in sustainability could come from a student majoring in communications, philosophy, or education,” said Allyson Green, Augsburg chief sustainability officer. “For all of us to live on this planet sustainably and equitably, we need all perspectives, experiences, types of knowledge, and skill sets to be part of the work.” Did you know? AN OC C A S IO N TO C E LE B R AT E Augsburg event series honors Reformation anniversary Augsburg held a series of events this fall marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. To kick off the series, Augsburg was honored to host ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton for two events: the Christensen Symposium, which focused on interfaith friendships, and a panel discussion with representatives of #DecolonizeLutheranism, a grassroots movement challenging long-held patterns of white power and privilege in the ELCA and stereotypes of what it means to be Lutheran. The series continued in October, in observance of Heritage Day, when Mary Lowe, associate professor of religion, invited community members to consider Martin Luther’s perspectives on bodies and creation. Lowe explained how—even today—Luther’s theology relates to complex issues. Lowe discussed themes related to climate change, gender and sexuality, abuse, and deforestation. In November, award-winning musical group The Rose Ensemble presented “Welcome the People: The Musical Legacy of the Reformation.” The ensemble creates musical performances and educational programs that connect audiences to compelling stories of human history, culture, and spirituality from around the world. The celebration ends with this year’s Advent Vespers, the theme of which is inspired by Luther’s hymn, “From Heaven Above.” Visit augsburg.edu/now to learn more about Augsburg’s Reformation event series and Advent Vespers. 4 AUGSBURG NOW AROUND THE QUAD MAKING HISTORY VISIBLE In the basement of Wilson Library at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, a team of researchers is working to map the history of racial segregation in Minneapolis. The group is unearthing racial restrictions buried in Minneapolis property deeds to create the first comprehensive visualization of historical racial covenants for a U.S. city. The project, called Mapping Prejudice, started with Augsburg’s Historyapolis Project, which seeks to illuminate the history of Minneapolis and has traced the roots of the city’s present-day racial disparities through historical research. To date, Mapping Prejudice researchers have found around 5,000 property deeds containing language that historically restricted ownership of residential properties by race. Enforcing these restrictions has been illegal in Minnesota for more than 60 years, but the records provide insight into the racial segregation that persists in Minneapolis neighborhoods. “Minneapolis is known for its parks, high-quality schools, and progressive politics,” said Kirsten Delegard, director of the Historyapolis Project and Augsburg scholar-in-residence. “Yet we have the highest racial disparities in the country.” Delegard said racial covenants were once pervasive in many U.S. cities and were instrumental in remaking the racial landscape of Minneapolis, which had not always been segregated. As many as 10,000 or more Minneapolis property deeds may contain such racially restrictive language. One of those properties is the Augsburg House, a residence on West River Road in Minneapolis that the University purchased in 1998. “When I saw the information that the Mapping Prejudice team had compiled for south Minneapolis, I suspected that Augsburg House originally had a racially restricted deed,” said Augsburg University President Paul Pribbenow. “Nearly every new development in south Minneapolis in the early 20th century carried those types of restrictions.” The property’s 1926 deed didn’t initially show up in the project’s electronic search process because the document was handwritten, but Delegard was able to locate the deed manually. The University has sought legal counsel regarding options for clarifying that Augsburg does not support discriminatory restrictions on the property. “At the same time, we want to ensure we maintain the historical record represented by the deed,” Pribbenow said, “so that we never lose track of the disgraceful manners in which covenants were used to segregate our communities and to inflict real harm on so many.” The Mapping Prejudice project is a massive undertaking, so the group strives to engage volunteers in the work. Many Augsburg students have become involved, including two history students who did semester-long internships last year helping build a digital map display and an entire history The Mapping Prejudice team includes Kevin Erhman-Solberg ’14 [left], a University of Minnesota graduate student in geographic information science; Penny Peterson [center], a veteran property records researcher; Kirsten Delegard [right], director of the Historyapolis Project and Augsburg scholar-in-residence; and Ryan Mattke [not pictured], a map and geospatial information librarian from the University of Minnesota. class that is working with the project throughout the fall semester this year. Several sociology classes got involved this past spring and summer, helping develop the program’s volunteer outreach strategy. Students from Pribbenow’s honors seminar also helped transcribe deeds this past spring, and a cohort of Augsburg first-year students engaged in the work as part of City Service Day at the beginning of the 2017 academic year. “We absolutely could not have developed the project without this kind of participation from both students and faculty,” said Delegard, who is continuing to seek funding that will allow the project to get even more students involved in all aspects of the work. Go to augsburg.edu/now to link to an interactive map illustrating the spread of racially restrictive deeds across Minneapolis during the first half of the 20th century and to learn more about getting involved in Mapping Prejudice research. FALL - WINTER 2017 5 AWARDS 2017 Top 25 LGBTQ-friendly Colleges & Universities: Augsburg was named to Campus Pride’s list of the top 25 LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities in 2017. Campus Pride is the leading national organization for creating safer, more LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities. Top 50 nationally for contribution to the public good: Augsburg was the No. 2 institution in Minnesota named by Washington Monthly in its 2017 Master’s Universities rankings. The list rates schools based upon their contribution to the public good in three categories: social mobility, research, and service. Top 25 schools for service-learning: Augsburg has been named one of U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 Top 25 Colleges and Universities for Service Learning. The sole Minnesota school on this list, Augsburg requires volunteering in the community as an instructional strategy. Schools garnering recognition were nominated by fellow institutions, college and university presidents or deans, and chief academic officers. At its September meeting, the Augsburg Corporation elected four additional members to the Board of Regents and re-elected three currently serving members. In addition, in accordance with the bylaws for Augsburg University, two bishops were appointed as ex-officio board members this fall. Augsburg University welcomes these new regents and thanks them for their service. • Eric J. Jolly, president and chief executive officer of Minnesota Philanthropy Partners. Jolly previously served on the Augsburg Board of Regents from 2008-2015. • Cynthia G. Jones ’81, senior level advisor for nuclear safety and analysis at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Jones previously served on the Augsburg Board from 2010-2012. • Dean Kennedy ’75, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Texakoma Oil & Gas Corporation. Kennedy previously served on the Augsburg Board from 2005-2013. • Karolynn Lestrud ’68, retired photography and publishing industry professional; former board member in historic preservation and performing arts organizations; and active volunteer in arts, education, and theater. COURTESY PHOTO Elected to a new four-year term in 2017: Eric J. Jolly COURTESY PHOTO Recognition for being student-centered: For the second year in a row, The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education ranked Augsburg No. 2 in Minnesota for student engagement in the learning process in their ranking of U.S. colleges and universities. The student engagement score is based largely on results of a student survey that addresses how challenging classes are, whether they foster critical thinking and prompt students to make connections to the real world, and how much interaction the students have with faculty and other students. WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS Cynthia G. Jones ’81 COURTESY PHOTO Best Regional Universities: U.S. News & World Report again named Augsburg among the best universities in the Midwest. Rankings are based on factors including average firstyear retention rates, graduation rates, class sizes, student-to-faculty ratios, acceptance rates, and more. BOARD OF REGENTS Elected to a second four-year term: • Wayne Jorgenson ’71, senior vice president of wealth management at UBS Financial Services Inc. • Dennis Meyer ’78, chief marketing and business development officer at Robins Kaplan LLP • Pam Moksnes ’79, vice president for gift planning services, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, through the Lutheran Church Extension Fund Elected to a third four-year term: • Ann Ashton-Piper, president of the IT consulting firm The Bridgie Group Appointed as ex-officio members of the Board of Regents for a three-year term: • The Rev. Patricia J. Lull, bishop of the Saint Paul Area Synod • The Rev. Steven H. Delzer, bishop of the Southeastern Minnesota Synod Dean Kennedy ’75 PHOTO BY CAROLINE YANG Augsburg University is consistently recognized for excellence. This year’s accolades include: Karolynn Lestrud ’68 S T C FA AROUND THE QUAD ON THE SPOT Communications expert describes history and peril of “fake news” WHILE THE TERM “FAKE NEWS” IS RELATIVELY NEW, the phenomenon, of course, is not. People throughout time have been motivated to share false information in ways that give it the appearance of legitimacy or to discredit accurate information in order to serve their own interests. Newer, digital media channels have made the tools to do so readily available and more effective, according to Jenny Hanson, assistant professor of communication studies, film, and new media. What’s more, social media sites tend to present users with information that confirms existing biases. In her classes, Hanson teaches students the media literacy skills necessary to be critical consumers of the news. Q: A: What is the history of “fake news” in media? Fake news has been around for centuries; it’s probably as old as humans’ ability to communicate. People seem to have a natural desire to tell tall tales. After all, spectacles draw crowds and outlandish stories trend. Fake news took off with the invention of the printing press in 1439, in part because stories were difficult to verify and mass distribution meant news could travel relatively quickly. A journalistic code of conduct toward objectivity and the practice of fact-checking did not yet exist. Stories about strange beasts, hideous crimes, and falsified scientific discoveries sold papers, and for advertising-supported publications, that was the goal. As journalism evolved and as newspapers came to rely on subscription models, impartiality and accuracy became guiding principles. In the 1980s, standards changed when cable TV made the 24/7 news cycle a reality. Next, the internet created alternate—and rapid— means of news distribution and increased access to content-creation tools among the general population. Today, new reasons for using fake news are emerging: to distract, to challenge existing knowledge, and to raise doubt about the validity of information, all in order to favor particular interests. In this way, calling something “fake news” and creating fake news both can be used to advance political, social, or personal interests in a way that functions more like propaganda. Calling something fake triggers a reaction in us to question and doubt, thereby decreasing our confidence in the information and opening us up to different possibilities. Q: A: What are the potential real-world implications? There are immense implications when news is inaccurate. Journalists understand that if they misreport, misquote, or just plain get the story wrong, there are often legal implications, damage to the outlet’s reputation, and harm to those wronged. When fake news is used as propaganda, it threatens the very legitimacy of news itself, inviting us to believe what is most aligned with our own ideologies rather than what actually is. The damage can be widespread, creating lasting impacts that go on to shape industry, policies, procedures, culture, artifacts of history, and society. Q: What can individuals do to protect themselves from falsities and to process news and information critically? A: There are many actions people can take to become savvy information consumers. The advice we tell students includes getting your news from a variety of sources, seeking connections on social media who have viewpoints differing from your own, and reading beyond the headline and before sharing information. In a critical reading, check the author’s credentials, watch out for emotional appeals or outrageous claims, look to see that sources are named and are experts in their fields, review the article date for context, and consider your own bias. Understand the source and their interests, and be sure websites are the official sites and not ones intended to mimic another’s appearance. Go to augsburg.edu/now to learn more about the line between falsehood and satire. FALL - WINTER 2017 7 2016-17 AUGSBURG UNIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT When you give to Augsburg, you aren’t just supporting a private university—you’re paving the way for students to make a living, make a life, and make a community. The impact of your generosity can be seen in the lives of thousands of students who are now embracing financial security, finding their vocation, and following their calling. TO DONORS ENDOWMENT MARKET VALUE $40.5 $38.3 May 31, 2017—$43,878,362 $32.4 $28.2 $39.4 $34.6 $33.3 $31.5 $43.9 REVENUE BY SOURCE $29.8 75% 8% 7% $24.5 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 As of May 31, 2017, Augsburg University’s endowment had annual realized and unrealized gains of 12.19 percent. The five-year average annual return on the endowment is 8.21 percent, and the 10-year average annual return is 4.34 percent. The University is committed to maintaining the value of the principal to provide support to Augsburg in perpetuity. Your philanthropy is creating an Augsburg that will be SUSTAINABLE, 7% 3% EXPENSES BY CATEGORY 38% 33% 20% 4% 3% 2% 1% Salaries and Benefits Financial Aid Operating Expenses Debt Services Utilities and Insurance Student Compensation Capital Improvement FAITHFUL,and RELEVANT long into the future. Thanks to you and other committed friends, Augsburg is preparing students of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds to serve and lead in our communities, schools, places of worship, and businesses. During fiscal year 2016-17, more than 9,300 individual donors gave $17,216,961 through cash gifts, pledges, and planned gifts. Augsburg Fund supporters provided the University with more than $1.1 million in unrestricted, discretionary funds to improve the student experience. Tuition Room and Board Private Gifts and Grants Other Sources Federal Grants MAKE A LIVING When juggling the rigors of family life, owning three businesses, and coaching high school sports, starting a graduate program might not hit the top priority list for many people. But for Joe Tadros ’98, ’17 MBA, the benefits of pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree to further his career and build greater financial security for his family were worth the effort. “My graduate experience was an eye opener. It reminded me where I came from, and where I wanted to be in the future,” said Tadros. “My classmates had unique abilities and talents, and I learned so much from them.” Joe Tadros ’98, ’17 MBA Shika Addo Memorial Scholarship Tadros now serves as a guest lecturer for Augsburg finance classes, sharing life lessons with undergraduates. With his degree, and your gifts, he looks to the future with confidence, knowing that his kids will be well provided for and that his impact will extend beyond his career. MAKE A LIFE As a shy, small-town kid, Kevin Tran ’18 would never have believed it had someone told him that as a college student he would become a board member for three student organizations, travel abroad with the choir, work as an intern for US Bank, and volunteer in the community in his free time. Tran began to really come out of his shell by living his life through the Auggie experience. “When I came [to Augsburg], I didn’t know what to expect. In high school, I was just really all about my work. Augsburg exposed me to who I am supposed to be ... I became more independent, more knowledgeable, more vocal, and more myself.” Kevin Tran ’18 Leland and Louise Sundet Scholarship Because of you, Tran has found his calling and is planning to pursue his dream by working in marketing for the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. MAKE A COMMUNITY Singing, studying, social work, public policy, and reconstructing the criminal justice system. These are among the top priorities for Augsburg student Alexa Anderson ’19. Anderson may be a proud member of the Honors Program and Augsburg vocal ensembles, but the deeper she dives into her studies as a social work major, the more motivated she has become to change her community through restorative justice. Alexa Anderson ’19 Mabeth Saure Gyllstrom Scholarship Dorothy Lijsing Kleven President’s Scholarship in Choral Music “Augsburg has completely changed me as a person, specifically regarding how I view my role as a member of a community,” she said. “Before coming here, I didn’t understand how important being an active member of a community was. Through my classes, volunteering, internships, and living in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, I now believe that in order for a community to succeed, its members must act and live in a way that encourages understanding, acceptance, and unity.” A NEW DAY, A NEW KIND OF UNIVERSITY BY JESSICA MUELLER AUGSBURG UNIVERSITY DAY was a moment of celebration—a time to honor and appreciate the abiding principles on which Augsburg was founded and an opportunity to consider Augsburg’s commitment to shaping the world for generations to come. Augsburg marked the transition from college to university through a commemorative day full of fun and fellowship. And, although Augsburg College officially became Augsburg University on September 1, the campus threw its proverbial hat in the air a few days later—on September 5, the day Augsburg formally welcomed its most diverse incoming class in school history. OPENING CONVOCATION On September 5, Augsburg’s Class of 2021 rose early to participate in the grand finale of their welcome week: Opening Convocation. New students marched across campus, past rows of cheering faculty and staff, and toward Hoversten Chapel with pride (and maybe a few sheepish grins), to engage in a historic beginning for them and for their school: the commissioning of Augsburg University’s inaugural first-year class. This year’s event featured elements linked with Augsburg’s commitments to faith, diversity, and vocation: Lutheran hymns, interfaith blessings, and international flags representing the countries from which Augsburg students come. President Paul Pribbenow encouraged new Auggies to do justly, love mercy, walk humbly ... and follow him on Twitter. And that was just the beginning. A MOMENT TO REMEMBER Following Opening Convocation, the Class of 2021 processed from the chapel to the quad where they were met by stilt walkers, local musicians, Haitian and Somali dancers, and the smells of dishes as varied and diverse as the neighborhoods surrounding Augsburg’s metropolitan campus. More than 800 students, faculty, staff, and friends of the University convened to feast on sambusas, Mexican tacos, cotton candy, brats and sauerkraut, and, in some cases, all of the above. 10 AUGSBURG NOW Students had nearly two hours to take in their surroundings, grab food, pose at the Auggie photo booth, and assemble hygiene kits for the Augsburg Health Commons, which serves unsheltered persons throughout Minneapolis. Many even had time to read a proclamation, signed by Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, naming September 5, 2017, Augsburg University Day. A UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY In the afternoon, more than 500 students, faculty, and staff gathered in small groups and dispersed throughout Minneapolis to listen to, learn from, and volunteer with local partners and nonprofits with ties to Augsburg. In total, the Class of 2021 donated nearly $35,000 in service work at more than 20 Twin Cities locations. The entire string of events—from the convocation, to the celebration, to the service-learning opportunities—demonstrated that Augsburg’s name change was much more than updated monument signs (though they do look nice), letterhead, and websites. The name change was a collaborative effort to share Augsburg’s story—the narrative of a place that’s deeply embedded in its community, that richly lives out its traditions, and that points to a bolder vision of what a student-centered, urban university can be … small to its students, and big for the world. FALL - WINTER 2017 11 The fatherhood BONUS a n d th e PENALTY motherhood BY KATE H. ELLIOTT G r o un d b r e a k i n g r e s e a rch by alum na M i c he l l e B u d i g ’ 9 3 s h eds light on wage ga p b e t we e n f a t h e rs and m others Michelle Budig’s story is deeply woven into her pioneering research to expose gender inequality and examine family policies in the workforce. The product of an outspoken dental receptionist and a pious electrician— who staked the yard with opposing political signs—Budig learned from a young age to question, wonder, and voice her beliefs. In preschool, for example, she insisted her class change the lyrics of “Yankee Doodle Dandy” to remove “and with the girls be handy.” But despite her early and strong advocacy for girls’ rights, Budig still believed that as an adult she would have to choose between motherhood and a meaningful career. Indeed, at 22, she married her Augsburg sweetheart, nurse practitioner Peter Landstrom ’91, but then waited almost 20 years—until 12 AUGSBURG NOW after she secured tenure as a sociology professor—to adopt their daughter, Lucy. Her beliefs about how things should be were tempered by her understanding of how things actually are. It may be no surprise, then, that Budig focused her scholarly research on the impact of parenting across gender—specifically the wage inequities between fathers and mothers across the pay scale. Her latest findings, currently making rounds in The New York Times and the like, assert that although the gender pay gap is decreasing (women now make about 76 cents for every man’s dollar), wage inequalities among parents who work are increasing. Overall, fathers incur an average wage increase of more than 6 percent with each child, while women experience, on average, a 4 percent decrease in salary per child. Fatherhood, ultimately, is considered a “valued characteristic, signaling perhaps a greater work commitment, stability, and deservingness,” said Budig, Sociology Department chair at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Mothers, on the other hand, are often perceived as “exhausted and distracted at work,” rendering them less productive. Beyond perception, other significant contributors to the discrepancy include that women often take time off to care for children and bypass higher wages for mom-friendly roles. “Kids are seen as a privilege, not a right, so if you want to have them, you must pay the price,” Budig said, referencing a view some hold. PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN SOLEM, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST TY Michelle Budig ’93 is an award-winning professor and author whose research interests focus on gender, employment, labor markets, earnings, stratification, and family. FALL - WINTER 2017 13 But it’s not as simple as “dads make more, moms make less,” Budig said. Using sophisticated statistical techniques on a large sample of U.S. workers, Budig found that parenting exacerbates earnings inequalities within genders depending on income. The “fatherhood bonus,” as she calls it, is highest for the most advantaged men—married, white, college graduates with professional jobs. Unmarried, black men in non-professional occupations, for instance, receive minimal—if any—bonus. The motherhood penalty is smallest among women who earn above the 90th percentile of female workers, with women at the very top of the income distribution experiencing no wage penalty. Low-to-average earning women incur the greatest motherhood penalty, Budig found. “I always thought that women who made the most would have the most to lose, but that is certainly not the case, and it makes complete sense when you consider factors and stressors influencing populations at the top and bottom of the pay scale,” Budig said. “Fathers and mothers earning lower wages often rely on fragile networks of free child care, and when a grandmother or friend is sick or doesn’t show, those parents can’t make it to work. Conversely, parents who can afford it, secure reliable, consistent child care operated by licensed professionals.” Additionally, lower-earning men and women statistically are more likely to have children, Budig said, which leads to higher penalties for those families. Accessible child care among policies to close the gap Budig suggests two policy shifts to reduce the gap: publicly funded, high-quality child care for babies and toddlers and nontransferable paid leave for both mothers and fathers. The “nontransferable” part is critical, Budig reiterated, as “evidence suggests that if fathers can transfer leave to a female partner, they will.” “Access for all to high-quality, reliable, licensed child care options would certainly even the playing field for both parents and children,” Budig said. “Think of all the stress it would alleviate from low-income families relying on less dependable child care. Businesses would likely be more productive with a more resilient, consistent workforce. And children growing up in low-income situations would benefit from the same instruction and care as wealthier families, giving those young ones a stronger start.” This approach is not new. Many Scandinavian countries, which support publicly funded child care and offer incentivized paternal leave, report smaller It' s not as simple as “dads make more, moms make less.” Wider wage gaps among lower-earning individuals are exacerbated by the fact that people tend to marry within socioeconomic situations, Budig adds, so low-earning couples take greater hits, while highly paid duos keep climbing. 14 AUGSBURG NOW or no parental pay gaps. In contrast, countries with entrenched gender roles, like Germany, where new mothers are expected to take a year or more off work, report the highest motherhood penalties. “Workplace policies matter,” Budig Budig’s 19-page curriculum vitae details the more than $725,000 in grants she’s received, including some from the National Science Foundation, and lists her articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review. She regularly contributes to national and international media outlets, including The New York Times, Money Magazine, and the Washington Post. said. “Most of my life, I had to choose between being a mother and having a meaningful career, and unless progressive policies are adopted, the parental and economic gaps will persist.” The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranked the United States last in a study the intergovernmental organization conducted about the national paid maternity leave policies of its member countries. The average amount of paid leave time for mothers among its 35-member countries was a little more than one year, as of 2016. Budig notes there is progress on the state level, citing California’s paid family leave, which allows family members to take time off to care for a loved one or to bond with a new child entering their life (either by birth, adoption, or foster care). Without a comprehensive federal approach, however, Budig warns of the implications of inconsistencies across states. “It’s encouraging to see states and companies take action, but it leads to inequities among states and industries, which may only add to our country’s increasing divide,” said Budig, who has testified before Congress and the United Nations about the implications of her research. “More universal support will reduce wage gaps, promote greater equality, and better prepare our children to be productive members of society.” The culture is shifting as men embrace female roles But beyond evolutions in policy, Budig sees hope in the young people she interacts with as a professor and mentor. They expect both parties—and want both partners—to be involved in maintaining the household. Single-paycheck families are difficult to sustain, and popular books and blogs are encouraging mothers to shed the mom guilt, cast aside the superwoman expectations, and go order a pizza for dinner. “Believe me, I get it. Even with the most supportive husband, who as a nurse, experiences his own gender stereotypes, I still slip into unrealistic expectations,” said Budig, who earned a master’s and doctorate in sociology from the University of Arizona. “Our marriage is a constant conversation, and splitting up the chores by room works for us.” A 2016 PayScale Gender Pay Gap Report found that men still out-earn women in every state in the union, but Vermont is the closest to equality, with women earning 84.8 percent of what men earn overall, as opposed to Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and Wyoming where women earn from 71 to 73 percent of their male counterparts’ income. The national average is 76 percent, per the report, which does not factor in years of experience, education, or job title. When such national statistics were first calculated in the 1970s, it was about 60 percent. Mentors pushed her to live with a ‘heart for service’ Budig lost both her parents nearly two years ago. She often wishes she could talk with her mom about her latest research, knowing her mom would get a kick out of hearing about innovative solutions to promote equality and increase access for women. “My mom was wildly supportive of my work, but I’ll never forget the first time she read a major study I published about the wage gap. I was driving, and she was in the back seat. She looked up and said, ‘Michelle, everyone knows women earn less than men. That’s what you’ve been working on?’ Gee, thanks, mom,” Budig said. “I think she would have appreciated this last batch of research and what I’m focused on next, which involves female entrepreneurs and a study about the motherhood penalty in Israel.” Although there is no replacing a driveand-talk with mom, Budig is not short on inspiring female mentors. At Augsburg, where she majored in English and sociology, Budig sought out educators to support her journey. Sociology Professor Diane Pike has taught Auggies for more than three decades, and Budig certainly stands out. “Michelle had a seriousness and sophistication about intellectual ideas and work that was exemplary, and being a first-generation student, she never lost sight of the privilege it is to pursue higher education. She set the bar high for herself, and we’ve been following her career ever since,” said Pike, who specializes in organizational analysis, sociological theory, and research methods. “There is nothing better than seeing one of your students succeed at such a level. Michelle’s a big deal in sociology, speaking at top conferences and advocating for important change. She has a rare ability to convey complex data and theories to general audiences, and we are very proud of her.” Budig’s Auggie roots run deep, and both she and Landstrom commit themselves to its mission through caregiving and advocating for change. Augsburg gave them a way of looking at the world and approaching life that will never leave them, Budig said. “The greatest takeaway from Augsburg is our desire—the responsibility, really— to give back and live with a heart for service to others. Every day, we try to live out that change in our personal and professional lives.” FALL - WINTER 2017 15 N I E U G O DIAL SOCIETIES D E D I V I D 20 17 N ob e l Pe a ce P rize Forum li s o p nea n i M — [Above] Representatives of the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet are joined on stage by Peace Scholars and other participants at the closing ceremony of the Forum. [Left] During a break, the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize laureates posed for photos in front of a three-story mural featuring their images along with dozens of other past laureates. N obel Peace Prize laureates, world leaders, and renowned peacemakers came together this fall as Augsburg University hosted the 29th annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum—Minneapolis. As an international peace congress, the Forum united honored guests, students, and community members in considering the globally significant, multidimensional nature of peace by examining topics that ranged from disarmament and human rights to economic development and environmental sustainability. This year’s Forum kicked off with several hundred attendees filling Augsburg’s Si Melby Gymnasium to listen to the incredible, true story of the 2015 Nobel Laureates—leaders who inspired a sharply divided nation to find common ground and, ultimately, form one of the world’s newest democracies. During a conversation presented in both English and Arabic, representatives of the Tunisian National Dialogue 16 AUGSBURG NOW Quartet described an arduous and inspiring peacemaking model in which members of business, labor, human rights, and law disciplines crafted a sustaining democratic constitution through peaceful dialogue. Recognized collectively with the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for their contribution to building a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia following the Jasmine Revolution of 2011, the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet is made up of leaders from four key organizations in the north African nation’s civil society. In the tense early moments of the Arab Spring uprisings, the Quartet exercised its role as a mediator and demonstrated the power of civil communication in sensitive political circumstances. Perhaps no other Forum experience better illustrated the event’s overarching theme: Dialogue in Divided Societies. Nobel Peace Prize Forum art festival Augsburg University has served as the Nobel Peace Prize Forum’s official host since 2012, but in recent years, the event itself has taken place at several conference venues across the Twin Cities. Bringing the Forum back to Augsburg this fall gave global peacebuilders the opportunity to experience the unique, urban beauty of the University’s location and to engage with a large-scale outdoor art exhibition on display across campus. In the spirit of fostering dialogue during the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, artists from across the United States collaborated on installations that highlighted the layered and often overlapping complexity of finding solutions to global issues. The art exhibition was curated by Christopher Houltberg, assistant professor of art and director of Augsburg’s Design & Agency program, a student-run design studio experience that teaches design thinking and problem-solving in graphic design. One of the most talked-about installations at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum was a Hex House constructed in Murphy Square. Designed by Architects for Society, a nonprofit seeking to enhance the built environment for disadvantaged communities, the Hex House is a prototype for dignified, low-cost, flexible housing that’s easy to deploy in emergency situations. Given that the Forum dates fell just after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma brought havoc and destruction to the Caribbean, Texas, and Florida, the Hex House was a timely opportunity to see how smart design can address critical community needs. Building peace in the greater Twin Cities, around the world Throughout the four days of the 2017 program, attendees participated in dozens of breakout sessions led by globally recognized leaders in the fields of international development and peacemaking. Participants had the opportunity to meet and hear from national and world leaders—including Norwegian Ambassador to the United States Kåre Aas, Tunisian Ambassador to the United States H.E. Fayçal Gouia, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison. Other often-recognized presenters at the event included former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who is seeking to end gun violence, and Barbara Bush, who founded the Global Health Corps organization to mobilize young leaders to support health equity. The Nobel Peace Prize Forum also prompted attendees to consider local peace-building needs, convening conversations focused on present-day issues in the Twin Cities. Students, community members, and facilitators worked through difficult discussions on respecting and honoring sacred spaces, bridging political differences through civil dialogue, and addressing cross-generational injustice. These mediated conversations went beyond campus to places that brought the topics to life. For example, part of the dialogue on preserving Native American sites took place in suburban Eagan at Pilot Knob, an area that was an indigenous gathering place and sacred burial ground for centuries. “It’s entirely fitting that these important conversations are happening at Augsburg University as part of the Nobel Peace Prize Forum,” said the Forum’s Program Director Joe Underhill, reflecting on the entire event. “A university is a place where civic dialogue on difficult topics is not only allowed, but highly encouraged,” said Underhill, an associate professor of political science at Augsburg. “It is only through that kind of dialogue that we are going to move toward any mutual understanding on these issues.” [Far left] Augsburg Design & Agency students created numerous large-scale art installations to convey the theme, Dialogue in Divided Societies. [Near left] The Hex House, a low-cost, emergency housing prototype, showcased how smart design can create humane solutions during crises. FALL - WINTER 2017 17 JOIN US FOR THE 30TH [Above] Chief Arvol Looking Horse and Methodist Bishop Bruce Ough visit the Red Rock, a boulder that is located at a United Methodist Church in Newport, Minnesota, and considered sacred by the Dakota people. The 2017 Forum included site visits addressing local peace-building topics. September 19–22, 2018 Augsburg University [Left] Interactive art installations allowed Forum attendees to participate in creating displays that reflected their own perspectives on peacemaking. PRESENTED BY LEAD SPONSORS ® SPONSORS MEDIA SPONSORS 45 0 100 3 18 AUGSBURG NOW #93C33A 0 70 85 0 #F76 WOMENOF INFLUENCE BY KATE H. ELLIOTT Augsburg outscores national average of female coaches, supports inclusive culture across Athletics department “Only priests and participants’ fathers can be anywhere near the pool,” three St. Catherine’s nuns echoed in protest as Augsburg’s 1963 swim instructor, Malcolm “Mac” Gimse, led then-20-year-old Joyce Pfaff ’65 and three other physical education majors onto the pool deck. Gimse reluctantly exited the building, but as the Auggies lined up at water’s edge, “GO AUGSBURG” boomed from the stands. Pfaff looked up, and there was her instructor, wearing a big smile and a clerical collar. Call it obstinate or call it resolute, but Pfaff adopted that tenacity—and it helped her climb over, chisel away, and bust down a decade’s worth of walls in women’s athletics and coaching prior to the passage of Title IX, a federal law that allows women access to any federally funded educational program or activity. So, it comes as no surprise that Augsburg’s first women’s athletic director is “beyond proud” that a recent report ties Augsburg with Macalester College as the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s schools with the most female head coaches. Head Women’s and Men’s Cross Country Coach Meghan Peyton ’14 MAL leads a team practice. FALL - WINTER 2017 19 PHOTO BY CYNDI NIGHTENGALE, CYNBADMEDIA This distinction, out of the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Women and Girls in Sport, is particularly encouraging as national studies point to dramatic decreases in women coaching women’s sports. When Title IX was passed in 1972, women coached 90 percent of women’s collegiate athletic teams. Today, only about 40 percent of those teams are led by female coaches, according to the NCAA. Augsburg hits national average out of the park Pfaff coached at a time before women’s athletics were afforded official equipment or facilities. In fact, Pfaff helped build Augsburg’s first softball field. Today, she remains confident in Augsburg’s ability to advance equality. According to the Tucker Center, Augsburg leapt from having slightly more than 36 percent female head coaches in 2014 to nearly 73 percent in 2017. “Think of how far we’ve come,” Pfaff said. “Augsburg’s first volleyball coach, Mary Timm ’81, could ‘afford’ to coach for us because she had a full-time job as a day care supervisor, and she used vacation time to travel with the team. Today, Augsburg has more women’s teams (11) than 20 AUGSBURG NOW men’s (10), and the Athletic Department works hard to create an equitable, forward-thinking, and inclusive culture.” Augsburg Athletic Director Jeff Swenson ’79 and Associate Athletic Director Kelly Anderson Diercks appreciate the Tucker Center’s acknowledgement of Augsburg’s dedication to women’s athletics. University leaders are ever-vigilant in their efforts to support all coaches, staff, and student-athletes in achieving a well-balanced life. “Coaching demands all of you and more, with 365-day recruiting on top of practices, planning, and leading studentathletes in competition and out in their everyday lives,” said Swenson, who has worked at Augsburg for more than 36 years. “We are committed to work-life integration. The best coaches are fulfilled, healthy, and productive members at home and in the community— an approach to life we want to mirror for our student-athletes.” Anderson Diercks recruits coaches and advises studentathletes interested in transitioning from court to clipboard. She is keenly aware of the factors contributing to the diminishing number of female coaches across the U.S. and emphasizes that even if you’re in a position of success, there’s still room for improvement. It’s vital for all students to see women as role models in all professions, including athletics. —Kelly Anderson Diercks, associate athletic director “College athletic departments need to do a better job of recruiting and retaining women coaches through mentoring, professional development, and supportive cultures,” she said. “And it is critically important that this conversation is not just about women coaching women. It should be about women in coaching, which includes women coaching boys and men. It’s vital for all students to see women as role models in all professions, including athletics.” Popularity of women’s athletics contributes to decline in coaching equity The NCAA’s findings suggest that a major factor contributing to the decline of women coaching women is, ironically, tied to the boom of women’s athletics. With increased popularity came expanded staffs and higher salaries, attracting men—particularly longtime assistant coaches—to lead women’s teams. And while 60 percent of women’s teams are coached by men, according to the study, women guide only about 3 percent of men’s teams. Roughly 80 percent of collegiate athletic directors are men. Is a solution to ignore gender? “Absolutely not,” Anderson Diercks said. “Like any dimension of diversity, to ignore or deny a part of someone’s identity does not allow them to show up as their fullest and best self, and then we all miss out. There is richness in diversity, and women are an important part of that diversity, especially in the athletic arena.” A coaching job is demanding, with long hours, travel, and high expectations, but those pressures can be overcome, Swenson said. The more universities exemplify work-life balance, the more family-oriented student-athletes, regardless of gender, will be drawn to the profession, he added. Negative perceptions still cast a shadow Stigmas, misconceptions, and high stakes also contribute to the decline in women seeking and maintaining leadership roles in university athletics, according to the NCAA. Interviews with female coaches across the U.S. drew out comments about increasing demands, assumptions about female coaches’ sexuality, and perceived gender bias. Augsburg Women’s Hockey Head Coach Michelle McAteer said if she could squash an assumption curbing female coaches, it would be the belief that “all women are catty and emotional.” “Since women hold fewer leadership positions in all realms— from athletics and business to politics—we are put under a microscope and our actions are generalized,” she said. “Women in leadership need to become the norm and not the exception in order to combat these myths so we can get onto the business of empowering those we lead (and winning games).” And she would know. McAteer, who led the Augsburg women’s hockey team to its highest MIAC finish since the ’90s, played for female coaches throughout her high school and college years. These models of “strength, resolve, and compassion” gave her confidence and an awareness of her role now, as a coach, to model those values for the next generation, she said. “It’s a responsibility I care deeply about.” For Pfaff, this and other reflections from today’s women coaches signal that the legacy she and others fought to instill is [L to R]: Women’s Lacrosse Head Coach Kathryn Knippenberg and Graduate Fellow Taylor Tvedt ’19 MAL greet a prospective student. holding strong. Sure, there always is yet another contest to win, she said, but what’s the fun in not having a fight? The best part, for Pfaff, is knowing that Augsburg is on the right side of the field—maybe even the infield she helped grade for Augsburg’s first softball diamond. FALL - WINTER 2017 21 AUGGIES CONNECT AUGSBURG WOMEN ENGAGED: COURTESY PHOTO Dear alumni and friends, It’s an exciting time for Augsburg University, and the Alumni Board aims to infuse positive energy from Augsburg’s big events this fall in our year-long agenda. The board’s objective is to advance Augsburg’s mission by making the most of the time, talents, and treasure found in our alumni group. Each year, the Alumni Board plans events where Auggies can network, collaborate, and serve together. The 2017 Summer Series was an example of this work. Auggies attended a Minnesota United soccer game, took part in Auggie Night at Canterbury Park, and listened to Augsburg community members give presentations on a range of topics at the 7 People 7 Passions 7 Minutes event at Sisyphus Brewing. Alumni Board members also hosted Happy Hour Squared at Brave New Workshop, which featured a twist on a traditional social hour— attendees enjoyed beverages while making 1,500 sandwiches for unsheltered people in the Twin Cities. It is fun watching the talents of fellow Auggies come to life at our social events, and our upcoming calendar is available online: augsburg.edu/alumnievents. Using your time and talents to make connections with current students is simply one of the best ways to stay connected with Augsburg, so stay tuned for details about the upcoming 2018 Auggie Networking Experience on February 6. Auggies also can join the Alumni Board’s effort to sponsor a tree in the Urban Arboretum planned for Augsburg’s Minneapolis campus. The trees selected for the first phase of this plan will surround the Norman and Evangeline Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion and include species native to Minnesota. All gift levels are welcome. As the Alumni Board continues to advance the mission of the University through events and networking, we invite you to join us. We work hard, and we make sure we don’t forget to have fun, as well. MOVING IN A NEW DIRECTION The Augsburg Women Engaged Philanthropy Council has grown in the past year. Augsburg alumnae formed AWE in 2009 to unite women with shared interests and passions through events, mentorship, and philanthropy. Today, AWE inspires women to connect, learn, and give. AWE highlights: Connect—Members gathered at Homecoming for a painting party to prepare pieces of a mural titled “Emergence” that will be installed in the Norman and Evangeline Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion. Learn—AWE hosted a discussion following the 2016 Center for Wellness and Counseling Convocation and a pre-concert reception at the annual Woman Voice: Voice of Hope choral performance. Give—Members raised more than $100,000 for the “Emergence” mural and are engaged in planning to raise an additional $1 million for scholarships. AWE’s participation has nearly doubled during the past year and includes Augsburg women from all generations, degree programs, and career fields. COURTESY PHOTO FROM THE ALUMNI BOARD PRESIDENT Go Auggies! NICK RATHMANN ’03, ALUMNI BOARD PRESIDENT AWE Philanthropy Council members [L to R]: Debby (Fredrickson) Crowley ’76, Danielle Stellner ’07, Joni Marti ’05 MAL, Lori Moline ’82, Martha Truax ’16 MAL, Shelby (Gimse) Andress ’56, Lisa Zeller ’81, ’89 MAL, Cheryl Jensen ’86, Donna McLean, and Kris (Peterson) Pearson ’78. Not pictured: Rachel (Olson) Engebretson ’98, Dr. Lisa Latham ’83, Diana Pierce ’16 MAL, and Cindy (Winberg) Sisson ’83. Visit augsburg.edu/now to learn more about joining AWE. 22 AUGSBURG NOW AUGGIES CONNECT Celebrate STEPUP ® PROGRAM MARKS 20 YEARS OF SUCCESS COURTESY PHOTO A Heidi Bausch ’07 ugsburg University’s StepUP Program is in its 20th year of empowering students in recovery to achieve academic success. StepUP held its annual gala October 28. The gala was an evening of inspiration and fellowship in which emcee Don Shelby, an Emmy-award-winning broadcast journalist and person in recovery, welcomed nearly 500 Auggies, families, friends, and advocates for recovery. Each year, the StepUP Gala is organized by a committee of volunteers with support from Augsburg staff. The 2017 committee co-chairs were Gina Gage and Cindy Piper. Two of the evening’s highlights were the keynote address by alumna Heidi Bausch ’07 and the presentation of the Toby Piper Labelle Award to the James and Sally Dowdle and Pat and Jeanne Dwyer families. Bausch is celebrating the 10th anniversary of her graduation from Augsburg, where she studied psychology and philosophy, was an active member in the StepUP community, and worked for the Center for Wellness and Counseling. Today Bausch lives out a passion for serving the recovery community. She is pursuing a doctorate in counseling psychology at the University of St. Thomas. Her clinical practice included an internship at The Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s residential program for young people and work at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview inpatient unit for youth facing chemical and mental health difficulties. Bausch also works with the Minnesota Psychology Association to promote legislation aimed at improving behavioral health care quality. This year, Bausch partnered with her StepUP Program roommate, Samantha Yerks ’06, to launch Singularity Behavioral Systems & Technology, a business that develops clinical software products for the mental health field. Go to augsburg.edu/stepup to learn more about the StepUP Program and its fundraising gala. FALL - WINTER 2017 23 introduces high school students to health science careers When University alumni and community members step up to help make an Augsburg program succeed, everybody wins. Since 2008, Augsburg University has hosted Metro Scrubs summer camps that offer high school students a glimpse into health science careers. Through workshops and hands-on activities, students gain insight into career paths that range from veterinary medicine and public health to physical therapy and nursing. The success of the weeklong program— formerly known as Urban Scrubs— hinges on faculty involvement and volunteer engagement through which working professionals teach workshops and mini-courses. This year, an Augsburg alumna and the parent of two Auggie alumni stepped in to offer their expertise—and to learn a thing or two from their pupils. Jenny Kelley ’85 pursued a nursing degree after completing her Augsburg education and now serves as a nurse and asthma educator at the Hennepin County Medical Center in COURTESY PHOTO METRO SCRUBS PROGRAM Nearly six dozen students participated in Augsburg’s Metro Scrubs Camp this summer. One of nine such programs for Minnesota high school students, Metro Scrubs is a collaborative effort of Augsburg University, HealthForce Minnesota, Fairview Health Services, and St. Catherine University. Minneapolis. Kelley initiated a Metro Scrubs class by asking students to inhale and exhale through a narrow cocktail straw, an exercise that highlighted how difficult it is for someone with asthma to breathe. Kelley noticed that her students were from a diverse array of backgrounds, but previous knowledge of asthma was something that unified the group. “I felt I was having an impact on students from many different cultures and different communities,” Kelley said. “Yet, everyone knows somebody with asthma, so this education is helpful in ensuring people use their inhalers the right way.” One out of 12 people in the U.S. is diagnosed with asthma. For Kelley, leading a Metro Scrubs course was a way to teach young people about the medical condition and to spur interest in careers that could help tackle this pressing health care need. For Dr. Robert “Bob” Florence, a primary care internist at Allina in Vadnais Heights, Minnesota, teaching Metro Scrubs students was an opportunity to reconnect with the basics. Florence knows Augsburg well through his children, Jeffrey Florence ’02 and Beth Florence ’08, and he noted that teaching high school students was a reminder about the importance of clear doctor-patient communication. “I show the students what it’s like to do an office call with a patient, explaining the types of interactions I have with patients, along with the best and worst ways to handle certain scenarios,” Florence said. “I began teaching the class because the students hadn’t been exposed to primary care in the other Metro Scrubs sessions, and I wanted to teach them what they could and should expect.” While it can be difficult to fit extra opportunities into a physician’s hectic schedule, Florence said leading Metro Scrubs classes has been worthwhile. “It has helped me to be a better physician and taught students interested in medical careers valuable lessons,” he said. Visit augsburg.edu/now to learn more about volunteer and sponsorship opportunities with Metro Scrubs Camp. 24 AUGSBURG NOW AUGGIES CONNECT GIFT EXPANDS MARINE AQUARIUM FACILITY for study of biological diversity When the Norman and Evangeline Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion opens for classes in January 2018, the new building will feature a state-of-the-art marine aquarium facility thanks to the generosity of donor Fritz Grimm, who made a substantial gift to fund the project. Twenty years ago, Associate Professor of Biology William “Bill” Capman created a large multi-tank coral reef aquarium system on campus to inspire interest in biological diversity, to serve as a teaching and research tool, and to provide living specimens for lab demonstrations. In the years since, the aquaria have been integral to Capman’s teaching, making interaction with marine life a unique aspect of Augsburg’s biology laboratory experience, exposing students to biodiversity they would not see elsewhere, and promoting careful stewardship of the world’s ecosystems. Capman has been passionate about aquatic life since his childhood. He and Grimm, as fellow members of the Twin Cities Marine Aquarium Society, have known each other for years. Grimm is the former proprietor of a store selling items for keeping coral, fish, and other sea life, and has assisted Capman in past efforts to care for Augsburg’s aquaria. For Grimm, sponsoring Augsburg’s marine environments is a way to support quality work already underway and build on it for the future. Grimm’s gift is enabling Augsburg to significantly expand its marine facilities to include a 350 gallon coral reef aquarium and six additional 60-90 gallon tanks housing additional diverse organisms, along with a research lab for studying coral biology and captive breeding of coral reef fish. “We rely on places like this to inspire people,” Grimm said of Augsburg’s marine aquarium expansion. “How should people know they need to care about seahorses and coral without ever seeing them?” Grimm is concerned by the known degradation of natural environments, pointing to the fact that a significant portion of the world’s coral are becoming more susceptible to disease and are dying due to increases in water temperature and pollution. “If anyone is going to inspire the future generation to do something about it, it will be Bill,” Grimm said. During a presentation to the Minnesota Aquarium Society, Bill Capman demonstrates how he creates artificial reef structures for new aquaria. COURTESY PHOTOS FALL - WINTER 2017 25 ALUMNI CLASS NOTES 1950 Carl Vaagenes ’50, a retired pastor, helped to translate the mission articles of Georg Sverdrup. Vaagenes was inspired to translate Sverdrup’s sermons for future generations and did this as a member of The Georg Sverdrup Society. In 1898, Georg Sverdrup and Sven Oftedal, co-founders of Augsburg Seminary and College, published their sermons at the founding of the Lutheran Free Church but without their names. In “Aand og Liv” (“Spirit and Life”), they reveal their mind and heart for the church and for Augsburg. 1952 Millie Nelson ’52 received a Spirit of Augsburg Award at Homecoming in recognition for her dedication to Augsburg University. Before retiring, Nelson worked at Augsburg for decades. In her role as Christensen Center manager, she guided student assistants who described her as professional, competent, knowledgeable, and kind. These former students acknowledged that Nelson embodied the spirit of Augsburg. 1957 Stan Baker ’57 received the Ella Stephens Barrett Award for excellence in professional leadership and counseling from the North Carolina Counseling Association during its annual conference in February in Durham, North Carolina. 1964 Garrett “Gary” Waldner ’64 and his wife, Nancy, celebrated their 50th anniversary in October. They have three sons and four grandchildren. Waldner is active in the real estate appraisal field, specializing in litigation valuations. 1966 After graduating from Augsburg, Ron Blake ’66 went on to Luther Seminary and has pastored several churches before retiring in 2009 as a pastor with dual membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ. Blake and his wife remain active members of Trinity Lutheran Church in Lynnwood, Washington. They have two children and four grandsons. 1968 Bruce Benson ’68 received a Distinguished Alumni Award at Homecoming. Benson served as campus pastor at St. Olaf College for 30 years and has been a board member at church camps in Minnesota, Montana, and Ohio. He graduated cum laude from Augsburg with a Bachelor of Arts in English, earned his Master of Divinity degree from Luther Seminary in 1972, and further earned a degree in Sacred Theology from Yale Divinity School in 1980. Benson hosts a radio program called, “Sing for Joy,” which is broadcast on 140 radio stations in the United States, carried by cable networks, and broadcast in 40 countries in and near Africa. 1970 Mark Francis ’70 received a Distinguished Alumni Award at Homecoming and was recognized for his leadership in the Arizona school system. After graduating from Augsburg with a music degree, Francis founded the Arizona School for the Arts in 1995. ASA became one of the top charter schools in the state. Today, Francis is a deputy associate superintendent within the Arizona Department of Education. He is an active member of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, which he has served in a number of capacities, including as congregational president, treasurer, and music leader. In June, Ray Hanson ’70 retired and moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, one day later. He completed his career with Goldbelt Raven, where he provided scientific and technical assistance to the chemical forensics program at the Department of Homeland Security. 1972 In May, Rob Engelson ’72 received the Distinguished Service Award from Ashford University at its commencement ceremony in San Diego. The award acknowledged 21 years as a faculty member and five years as a member of the Faculty Senate. AUGGIE SNAPSHOTS ’01 ’05 ’76 26 AUGSBURG NOW ALUMNI CLASS NOTES 1973 Terry Lindstrom ’73 received a Distinguished Alumni Award at Homecoming. After graduating from Augsburg with degrees in chemistry and biology, Lindstrom received his doctorate in biochemistry with a pharmacology minor in 1977. He went on to complete postdoctoral research at Michigan State University from 1978 to 1979. During his career, Lindstrom led research teams that obtained patents for prescription medications Evista and Cymbalta. In addition to Lindstrom’s many scientific achievements, he and his wife, Janet Lindstrom, have provided 16 full Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity summer scholarships for Augsburg students during the past five years. 1974 Thomas Koplitz ’74 has been elected to the Minnesota Baseball Hall of Fame and was inducted at a September ceremony held in St. Cloud, Minnesota. 1977 Augsburg honored Inez Bergquist ’77 with a Distinguished Alumni Award at Homecoming. As the current president of Waltman Associates, Bergquist has more than 35 years experience in fundraising and is an expert in the area of nonprofit management. She served on the Augsburg University Alumni Board for eight years and on the Augsburg Parent Council for four years. Bergquist authored several books on families of wealth including the “Book of Minnesota Family Trees.” She also is a Wells Foundation board member. 1978 Phyllis Bartel ’78 published “Scooter ‘n’ Oaks: A Cat Adoption Story” in October 2016. As Bartel’s premier work, this fictionalized tale teaches children about the pet adoption process with compassion and gentle humor and shares similar themes with human adoption. 1979 Dave Boots ’79, who was inducted into Augsburg’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004, was named to the University of South Dakota Vermillion’s Henry Heider Coyote Sports Hall of Fame in October after retiring in 2013 with the 14th most wins in Division II men’s basketball history. He led the Coyotes to 23 consecutive winning seasons from 1989-2011, 10 NCAA Division II tournaments, six NCC titles, and back-to-back Elite Eight appearances in 1993 and 1994. At the Division I level, Boots also won a Great West Championship in 2010. Boots began his coaching career at Anoka Ramsey Community College and spent six years coaching at Augsburg before arriving in Vermillion. Sally (Hough) Daniels Herron ’79 is the new parish and communications administrator for Valley of Peace Lutheran Church in Golden Valley, Minnesota. SUBMIT A CLASS NOTE Leah Abdella ’76 retired in 2016 from a 40-year teaching career in the field of special education. At Augsburg, Abdella earned a double major in music and music therapy as one of the first three music therapy majors. Abdella stays fulfilled in retirement through volunteer work and flute performance at assisted living residences, nursing homes, and churches. She also stays active in ballet classes and yoga. She is a former member of the Andahazy Ballet Company. ’76 Katie (Koch) Code ’01, director of alumni and constituent relations at Augsburg University, married Chris Code in April during an intimate ceremony at the Guthrie Theater—where the couple met while both on staff. The wedding was officiated by Code’s father, the Rev. Jack ’01 ’14 Former hockey and football player Paul Holmquist ’79 was inducted into the Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame. Holmquist was a key member of Augsburg teams that dominated in the late 1970s, earning the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national title in 1979 and qualifying for NAIA national tournament play all of Holmquist’s four seasons. The teams he competed with also won Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles in 1978 and 1979. He was named a team MVP in the 1978-79 season, the same time period in which he earned All-MIAC Honorable Mention honors. 1980 Paul Kilgore ’80 wrote a novel, “The Broken Key,” that is available through online and retail outlets. 1985 Brian Ammann ’85 has been running the Minnesota School of Basketball in Apple Valley and Golden Valley for 12 years. He is the former head basketball coach at Augsburg. 1987 Lee Ann (Burson) Hohenstein ’87 left a 20-year career in mortgage banking to follow her dream and become a staff writer for the Mille Lacs Messenger. She also opened Restoration Books and Gifts in Crosby, Minnesota. Tell us about the news in your life—your new job, move, marriage, and milestones. Visit augsburg.edu/now to submit your announcements. Koch, and was witnessed by sibling Jason Koch ’93 and sister-in-law Heather Johnston ’92. Allison (Cornell) Broughton ’05 and Matt Broughton ’06 welcomed new baby Nicholas James in June. Nicholas joins big brother Calvin, age 4. ’05 This August, Samantha Cantrall ’14 and Austin Smith ’14 were married in Ellsworth, Wisconsin, by Augsburg Professor of Computer Science Larry Crockett. The couple met in Augsburg’s Urness Hall in 2010, and both graduated from the Honors Program in 2014. They have taken Samantha’s mother’s last name as their wedded name and will be known as Samantha and Austin Wolf. ’14 FALL - WINTER 2017 27 ALUMNI CLASS NOTES 1991 Kristin Dragseth Wiersma ’91 had an outstanding volleyball career at Augsburg, an accomplishment that earned her induction into the Athletic Hall of Fame. Wiersma played three seasons of volleyball, earning All-MIAC and Academic All-MIAC honors in 1990, and All-MIAC Honorable Mention honors in 1989. She remains in the top 10 players in school history in three career statistical categories: kills per-set, attack percentage, and digs per-set. A team co-captain in 1990, Wiersma also served as an assistant coach at Augsburg in 1991. 1992 Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Juli Gustafson ’92 played two years of softball at Augsburg earning All-MIAC honors as a shortstop in both 1991 and 1992, while also earning National Fastpitch Coaching Association All-West Region honors in 1991. Her .395 career batting average is the third-best in school history. She also ranks third in career slugging percentage and sixth in career doubles. Gustafson was a member of Auggie teams that went 47-22 in her two seasons. Though he only competed in one season of wrestling at Augsburg, Bret Sharp ’92 made the most of it. He went 43-2-1 with 15 pins and 95 takedowns, won the MIAC title at heavyweight, and finished third at the NCAA Division III national tournament in the 1991-92 season, where he helped to clinch a second-place national team finish for the Auggies. Sharp was inducted into the Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame. He competed his first three seasons at Drake University in Iowa. 1993 Dr. Jason Koch ’93 was appointed president of Southdale Pediatrics, where he has worked for the past 16 years. Wrestling star Gary Thompson ’93 was inducted into the Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame. A four-year competitor in wrestling, Thompson completed his Auggie career with a 91-40-1 record, finishing fourth at the 1993 NCAA Division III national championships and earning All-American honors. He was a MIAC champion, a National Wrestling Coaches Association Scholar AllAmerican, and a two-time Academic All-MIAC honors student-athlete. Thompson was a member of Augsburg squads that won the NCAA national championship in 1993 and finished second and third in other years. 1994 Chris Terrell ’94 was promoted to vice president of finance for Medtronic’s Cardiac and Vascular Group Global Operations. Terrell joined Medtronic in 2003 and most recently served as a senior director of operations in finance, where he drove finance strategies for nine manufacturing locations. 1995 Dual sport athlete Marty Alger ’95 was inducted into the Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame. In football, Alger set an Augsburg program record for career rushing yardage, which stood until 2014. In 1992, he became the first Auggie ever to rush for 1,000-plus yards in a season. He earned All-MIAC honors in football in both 1992 and 1993. As an Auggie wrestler, he qualified for the 1993 NCAA Division III national tournament after winning the MIAC title at 190 pounds. 1997 Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Eric Rolland ’97 was a leader on some of the most successful men’s golf teams in school history. He led squads that won the MIAC championship in 1995 and recorded second-place finishes in 1994 and 1996, while competing in three straight NCAA Division III national tournaments. Rolland AUGGIE SNAPSHOTS Denielle (Johnson) Stepka ’11 and Timothy Stepka were married July 15 in Prior Lake, Minnesota. Their ceremony was officiated by Josh Corrigan ’11, and their wedding party included Augsburg alumni Katie (Christensen) Beadell ’11, Korri (Yule) Corrigan ’11, Tim Lund ’12, Amy Jo Opsal ’12, and Tyler Phillips ’12. ’11 28 AUGSBURG NOW In July, Enrico Barrozo ’14 and Mara (Breczinski) Barrozo ’14 were married at Augsburg University’s Hoversten Chapel. The ceremony was officiated by the Rev. Mike Matson ’06. The newlyweds live in Gainesville, Florida, where Enrico is pursuing a Ph.D. in genetics and genomics at the University of Florida, and Mara teaches middle school science. ’14 Rebecca (Welle) Winters ’05 and Paul Winters ’07 welcomed a daughter, Maisy Beverly, in May. She joins siblings Max, who is six years old, and Millie, who is three years old. ’05 Matt Tonsager ’09, co-owner of Gullton Wood, and Melissa (Moberg) Tonsager ’10 welcomed a daughter, Adalind Kay Tonsager, in April. ’09 earned All-America honors in 1995, AllDistrict honors in 1997, and All-MIAC honors in 1995 and 1996. Since 2014, he has served as Augsburg’s men’s and women’s golf head coach. 1999 Elizabeth (Petrik) Brown ’99 had an outstanding goaltending career on the Augsburg women’s soccer team, an accomplishment that earned her induction into the Athletic Hall of Fame. Brown started all but one game of her collegiate career, finishing with 34 career victories, including a then-school-record 13 in 1995. She stands second in school history in career shutouts, fourth in career wins, and eighth in career win-loss percentage. Her 1.69 career goals-against-average is 10th-best in school history. Cheri Johnson ’99 wrote two book series released this fall for young readers. “Origins: Urban Legends” and “Origins: Whodunnit” are high-interest, low-readinglevel books that target upper-elementary and middle-school students. The books will be distributed by Lerner. Johnson also is working on a performance project in Minneapolis called “Crocus Hill Ghost Story” with the music ensemble Zeitgeist; her sister, Julie Johnson ’98; and actor, director, and filmmaker D.J. Mendel. “Crocus Hill Ghost Story” tells a tale set in an evil house in St. Paul. ’11 ’14 ’05 ’09 ’00 Devoney Looser ’89 published a new ’89 book, “The Making of Jane Austen,” which was named in Publishers Weekly’s list of Best Summer Books of 2017 (nonfiction). This May, Lewis Nelson ’00 graduated from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business with a Master of Business Administration degree. Nelson left a 15-year military and government career and is seeking the next challenge. Nelson resides in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his three children. ’00 ’89 29 ALUMNI CLASS NOTES 2000 The Rev. Sara (Quigley) Brown ’00 has accepted a term-call as the associate interim pastor at Saving Grace Lutheran, Lutheran Congregations in Missions for Christ, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She will serve and work alongside its faithful congregation and pastor, the Rev. David Irgens, during a time of great transition and growth. Brown will serve Saving Grace Lutheran for one year until the congregation places a call for a permanent associate pastor. 2001 James Shropshire ’01, former assistant director of public safety at Augsburg, is the new director of campus safety at Grinnell College. At Augsburg, Shropshire also served as a Title IX adjudicator and investigator. Besides revising diversity training, Shropshire’s agenda for campus safety at Grinnell will include updating the department’s software, computers, and other equipment. 2002 Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Chrissy (Baune) Bloemendal ’02 was a 16-time AllMIAC selection in cross country (three times) and track and field (13 times). The team’s No. 1 runner her final three seasons in cross country, Bloemendal finished sixth in the MIAC championships in 2001 and 13th in 2000. In track and field, she won the MIAC title and qualified for the NCAA Division III outdoor national championships in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 2002, finishing ninth nationally. AUGGIE SNAPSHOTS 30 AUGSBURG NOW ’15 Two years ago Heather Cmiel ’02 left 13 years of communications agency life behind to go corporate. She now serves as global marketing communications strategist within 3M Healthcare. Cmiel spends her free time as president of Minnesota Public Relations Society of America. She also leads a contemporary worship band. 2003 Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin ’03 is the founder and director of the Rural Enterprise Center, a program of Main Street Project, a nonprofit organization focused on rural development. Haslett-Marroquin also serves on the boards of the Northfield Area Foundation, the Northfield Area United Way, and Fifth Bridge, a nonprofit organization promoting volunteerism. 2005 Ryan Bosshart ’05 is a vice president of services at phData, a global leader in big data consulting and managed services. Most recently, Bosshart was a principal sales engineer at Cloudera. 2006 Michelle Dirtzu ’06 is a new marketing manager at Pacific Trellis Fruit/Dulcinea Farms based in Los Angeles, California. Dirtzu has 10 years of experience in the grocery-retail-produce business. Previously, she was a marketing director for North Shore Living Herbs, in marketing with Flagstone Foods, and in brand management with Supervalu. Dirtzu earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Opus School of Business at the University of St. Thomas in 2014. Brenda Valentine ’06 welcomed her son, Jackson James Valentine Rice, in April. 2007 A managing partner of business planning at the American Public Media Group, Danielle Stellner ’07 received a First Decade Award at Homecoming. After graduating from Augsburg, Stellner went on to earn a Master of Business Administration degree from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota in 2016. She was recruited for the board of Isuroon and Secretary, and she is the active co-chair of the AWE Philanthropy Council at Augsburg. In addition, Stellner serves the Friendship Academy of the Arts as a board member and expansion committee member. 2008 Tony Landecker ’08 serves as a portfolio manager in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Minneapolis-St. Paul field office and is responsible for assisting with the management of local housing stock. Landecker was named the Minnesota Civil Servant of the Year by HUD’s Federal Executive Board for helping others find the comfort of a home in the aftermath of a disaster. In 2016, he left his home and family to spend time helping Baton Rouge flood victims, leading a team that found permanent housing for 130 families initially placed in temporary shelters. Rachel Shaheen ’15 and Christopher Kopp ’15 were married in July. The bride and groom were joined by fellow Augsburg alumni [L to R]: Becky Shaheen ’11, Patrick DuSchane ’13, Laura Schmidt ’11, Jakob Anderson ’12, Erika Osterbur ’11, Aren Olson ’11, Lily Moloney ’15, Mary Stickelmeyer ’74, Emily Knudson ’15, Kate Gray ’15, Tyler Dorn ’15, and Alisha Esselstein ’15. ’15 ALUMNI CLASS NOTES Curtiss Schreiber ’08 is now an associate at the law firm Donohue Brown Mathewson & Smyth LLC in Chicago. 2011 Jennifer Weber ’11 received a Spirit of Augsburg Award at Homecoming for her dedication to Minneapolis’ CedarRiverside community and in recognition for the projects she has initiated in the Twin Cities area. Before graduating from Augsburg with a triple major in emotional/ behavioral disabilities, learning disabilities, and American Indian studies, Weber created an American Indian resource library for the Anoka-Hennepin Indian Education Program. Weber has been involved in many community projects and is a crisis prevention and interventions trainer at the Charter School Special Ed Network. She is also a certified school coach, teacher, and member of the Cedar Riverside Community School Board. 2012 Katie Radford ’12, ’18 MBA started a new position at Fairview Health Services as a training consultant. She helps facilitate individual and team development sessions for professional growth. 2014 Maren Daniels ’14 teaches elementary visual art at Hiawatha Academy Morris Park in Minneapolis. 2015 Awale Osman ’15 serves as a community innovation associate at the Bush Foundation. He has experienced much change: coming to the U.S. from war-torn Somalia and Kenyan refugee camps to learning English as a third language and graduating with high academic honors. His work as a change agent has included expanding after-school opportunities for Somali youth; impressing upon Congress the value of federal TRIO programming; and activating safe spaces for women, people of color, and queer students. 2016 Victoria Linstrom ’16, Andrew Kleidon-Linstom ’16, Bridgette Henry ’16, and student Mitch Ross ’18 formed the Open Door Theater where Linstrom serves as the executive director, Kleidon-Linstom is the artistic director, Henry is the company manager/dramaturg in residence, and Ross is the marketing director. Muna Mohamed ’16 received a scholarship at the University of Minnesota to pursue a Master of Science degree in behavioral aspects of physical activity. At the university, Mohamed conducts research on East African mother-daughter physical activity. 2017 Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton appointed Eron Godi ’17 to the Young Women’s Cabinet, part of the Young Women’s Initiative of Minnesota that aims to improve opportunity for women ages 12 to 24 by bringing together nonprofits, businesses, government, philanthropic organizations, and young women to create plans for building equity. Godi was one of 25 women selected statewide for a cabinet position. Emily Gregg ’17, former Augsburg women’s soccer defender, was named one of 174 nationwide recipients of a $7,500 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship honoring her achievements as both a scholar and an athlete. A biology major with a 3.72 GPA, Gregg is the first Auggie to receive an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship since 2014. Gregg will attend graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She hopes to someday work as a wildlife/large animal veterinarian. Anna Renner ’17 has been accepted to the Clarkson University Master of Physician Assistant Studies program in Potsdam, New York. Dua Saleh ’17 had one of her songs played on “The Current” radio station. She performs music and poetry at Twin Cities venues. Riley Siddorn ’17 was among nearly 450 summer interns at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Interns seek out new ways to explore their career fields and engage NASA’s international scientific community in Goddard projects. Siddorn, who majored in physics, held an internship in ionospheric physics. The internships covered a wide spectrum in science-related areas, from planetary science to sounding rockets to Earth science. GRADUATE PROGRAMS Doris Rubenstein ’93 MAL won the silver Independent Book Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Award for her book, “The Journey of a Dollar,” at the association’s 29th annual award ceremony in Portland, Oregon. Kathleen Clark ’10 MAN, ’14 DNP; Joyce Miller ’02, ’04 MAN, ’11 DNP; Katherine Baumgartner ’04 MAN, ’11 DNP; and Cheryl Leuning, former Nursing Department chair, co-authored an article, “The Citizen Nurse: An Educational Innovation for Change,” which was published in the Journal of Nursing Education. Jamie Heitzinger ’11 MPA earned a Certificate of Added Qualifications by completing specialty training from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants. She works at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu. Ryan Stopera ’11 MSW/MBA is a social worker and social entrepreneur. He serves as a program analyst for the Graves Foundation and teaches in Augsburg’s Social Work Department. Stopera enjoys building community through art, cycling, and rock climbing in his spare time. Allison DeGroot ’15 MAL is the new head women’s soccer coach at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. The women’s soccer program competes at the highest level in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference, and DeGroot is looking forward to working with players to help the program reach its potential. DeGroot was an assistant coach at Augsburg from 2012 until 2016. Angela Mejdrich ’15 MAE is the new director of administration at Spirit of the Lake Community School in Duluth, Minnesota. She provides lead support and oversight of several administrative and business matters. Mejdrich has more than 20 years of teaching and administration experience, most recently as vice principal of St. Michael’s Lakeside School. Thomas Hirsch ’16 MPA is a new physician assistant at the Essentia Health–Hermantown Clinic in Minnesota. FALL - WINTER 2017 31 PHOTO BY CAROLINE YANG IN MEMORIAM Alfred W. Walck ’40, Urbandale, Iowa, age 96, on April 27. Addell L. (Halverson) Dahlen ’43, Minneapolis, age 96, on June 2. Carl G. Gilbertson ’43, Battle Lake, Minnesota, age 96, on April 14. Arlene L. (Dunham) Sandberg ’43, Madelia, Minnesota, age 95, on May 12. Muriel R. (Ruud) Frosch ’45, Winona, Minnesota, age 94, on July 26. Lorene M. (McGinnis) Hansen ’49, Clear Lake, Iowa, age 92, on July 7. Lorraine (Telander) Hendershot ’49, Mora, Minnesota, age 89, on March 29. Phyllis (Erickson) Quanbeck ’49, Salem, Oregon, age 89, on June 28. Donald P. Sateren ’49, Long Beach, California, age 96, on June 18. Russell G. Solheim ’49, Racine, Wisconsin, age 96, on July 8. Marilyn L. (Larson) Forslund ’50, Moline, Illinois, age 94, on May 26. Roger C. Mackey ’57, Saint Paul, Minnesota, age 83, on July 20. David C. Siedlar ’71, Huaian City, Jiangsu, China, age 68, on March 19. Norman O. Landvik ’50, Port Angeles, Washington, age 89, on April 6. Warren L. Anderson ’59, Grand Marais, Minnesota, age 84, on March 16. Bradley W. Shoff ’77, Akeley, Minnesota, age 62, on June 18. Arnold R. Aasen ’51, Fridley, Minnesota, age 88, on July 23. Carrol A. Bakken ’59, Rushford, Minnesota, age 82, on March 18. John A. Faeth ’89, Stillwater, Minnesota, age 51, on April 3. Elden O. Landvik ’51, Duluth, Minnesota, age 92, on July 3. James D. Slarks ’51, Saint Peter, Minnesota, age 92, on June 27. LeVon M. (Paulson) Dinter ’52, Edina, Minnesota, age 86, on March 18. Mildred C. Hetager ’52, Minneapolis, age 103, on June 30. Donald W. Siegel ’53, Minneapolis, age 89, on April 6. Peter L. Hauser ’62, Lakeville, Minnesota, age 76, on July 10. Michael L. Kropp ’95, Albert Lea, Minnesota, age 49, on April 2. Gerald W. Mortenson ’62, Stone Lake, Wisconsin, age 79, on March 31. Charity Thunder ’99, Black River Falls, Wisconsin, age 71, on July 1. Paul S. Monson ’63, Coon Rapids, Minnesota, age 76, on July 12. Jacob R. Collins ’03, Austin, Minnesota, age 36, on August 25. Gary W. Paulson ’63, Willmar, Minnesota, age 75, on June 10. Christopher G. Frame ’09, Minneapolis, age 33, on March 20. Richard E. Kuehne ’64, Walker, Minnesota, age 76, on August 7. Elnora C. (Hanson) Beireis ’54, Parkers Prairie, Minnesota, age 84, on July 27. Ronald A. Hanson ’65, Grand Rapids, Minnesota, age 74, on July 17. Mary Ann E. (Fox) Domholdt ’56, Mentor, Ohio, age 83, on April 5. Terence W. Rindal ’66, Crystal Lake, Illinois, age 82, on August 12. Mark D. Lukitsch ’20, Cottage Grove, Minnesota, age 19, on August 5. The “In memoriam” listings in this publication include notifications received before September 15. 32 AUGSBURG NOW JOIN US FOR THE GRAND OPENING OF THE NORMAN AND EVANGELINE HAGFORS CENTER FOR SCIENCE, BUSINESS, AND RELIGION SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 2018 4–5 p.m. | Alumni and Community Open House Hagfors Center, Augsburg University 700 21st Avenue South Minneapolis, Minnesota 55454 RSVP by January 8 at augsburg.edu/alumni/events. Send questions to Hannah Walsh ’14, advancement assistant, at walsh@augsburg.edu or call 612-330-1098. FALL - WINTER 2017 33 2211 Riverside Avenue Minneapolis, MN 55454 Thousands of Auggies. One Augsburg. Augsburg’s 2017 Homecoming celebration was held October 12–14, a festive weekend when alumni, students, and community members took part in more than 35 events, including reunions for the classes of 1967, 1977, 1992, and 2007. In all, more than 600 alumni from different generations visited campus to show their Auggie pride and mark the first Homecoming as Augsburg University. Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Twin Cities, MN Permit No. 2031
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