Olivia Allery, news editor
The Dean of Arts and Sciences Ryan Haaland and the Dean of Professional Studies and Graduate Education Monica Devers, have recently announced their departures from Augsburg. While the exact date of their departures has not yet been determined, both have assured that they intend to finish out the Spring semester and remain in their positions into the summer months. In an interview with the Echo, Dean Devers stated, “We don’t have an end date yet, we’re gonna work with the provost over the next couple of months to figure out a transition plan.”
After serving Augsburg for seven years, Dean Devers has made the tough decision for an expansion of career opportunities. “I’d guess I’ll probably stay in higher education, in some capacity,” said Devers when asked about her plans after leaving Augsburg, “but I think there’s some other opportunities for me too with health care, my background is in healthcare just made me think of going back into a more healthcare position.”
Dean Haaland, finishing up his fifth year at Augsburg and being a physicist, says he plans to do more with research and development within that field. “I have a lot of things that I would like to try and explore, perhaps outside of higher education. I’m a scientist by training and I love Minnesota, I wanna stay in Minnesota and there are lots of opportunities in the industry rightnow,” he said, in an interview with the Echo. Both Haaland and Devers shared that the news was not easy to share with their departments, but were met with much support and some surprise from their department chairs and faculty. “I think some of the faculty were surprised,” said Devers, “because they didn’t know that the provost was this far along in her thinking with the five school model and so we had been working with her for the last month or so.”
Devers and Haaland explained that since 2019, Augsburg has been working in phases to divide the university’s departments into five separate schools of study. While the names have not been finalized yet, Augsburg will have schools with the five categories of arts, science and math, health, humanities and business. Haaland and Devers went on to explain that another reason for their departure was to make room for the new school directors that will be chosen in place of academic deans with the five school model.
“The provost will be asking for faculty who want to serve as directors for these schools,” said Devers when asked who will be taking over with their positions now open. “People can nominate themselves or have other people nominate them, and I believe that’ll be happening within the next 3-4 weeks.”
Despite their departure, Devers and Haaland will still carry fond memories and successes from Augsburg, and are excited for the University to move into the next phase of the five school model.
Olivia Allery, news editor
Despite their departure, Devers and Haaland will still carry fond memories and successes from Augsburg, and are excited for the University to move into the next phase of the five school model. Both noted that witnessing the tireless and great work of their staff and seeing the resiliency of staff and students through the COVID-19 pandemic, responding to student needs — for example, launching the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) department, Hmong language courses and being able to hire new faculty members to Augsburg are some of the things they have been proud to be a part of for Augsburg.