"where students may obtain a liberal education in the arts and sciences"
Identity
The Augustana Faculty of the University of Alberta provides an outstanding undergraduate liberal arts and sciences education. Settlers founded the campus in 1911 on Treaty 6 land at asiniskaw sipisis (Stoney Creek), a traditional meeting ground for many Indigenous peoples. Today, as a Faculty of the University of Alberta, Augustana welcomes students from all walks of life to participate in a learning experience that blends theory with practice and encourages active engagement with each other and our environments. We prepare and educate students for life.
Mission
We are committed to providing a unique undergraduate education through a project-based core and a variety of multidisciplinary majors and professional programs. Our programs are delivered by a diverse community of scholars who challenge and support students to engage creatively and critically in their studies for the public good. We aspire to cultivate problem solvers who ask difficult and important questions and pose innovative solutions for the classroom, for our communities, and for the world.
“providing for their young people an education that would fit them for living, not merely to make a living”
History
The Augustana Campus was established in 1910 by Norwegian settlers on Treaty 6 land at asiniskaw sipisis (Stoney Creek) under the name Camrose Lutheran College (CLC). Classes began in Heather Brae Hotel in fall of 1911 while a campus building was constructed. In 1912, classes were moved into Founders' Hall, which still stands on the campus today.
The college’s founders imagined CLC as a place that would help them preserve their Norwegian culture and Lutheran beliefs, and they also described the college as a place where students may obtain a liberal education in the arts and sciences. In the 1930s, the emphasis on providing a liberal education further shaped the college’s mission and identity, with president Chester Ronning insisting on the importance of educating “the whole person” while attending to relationships and community.
CLC began offering university courses in collaboration with the University of Alberta in 1959, and attained full degree-granting status in 1985. Four years later, the campus became known as Camrose Lutheran University College before being renamed Augustana University College in 1991.
In 2004, Augustana merged with the University of Alberta to become the Augustana Faculty. As a faculty of the University of Alberta, Augustana continues to build on its reputation for high-quality teaching in a residence-based setting, providing a distinctive small-campus experience within one of Canada's leading universities.
More campus history is detailed in our 2020 Circle alumni magazine.