Kaia Anderson, contributor

Over the last couple of years here at Augsburg University, there have been concerns over available minors, with entire minors being discontinued, courses for minors no longer being offered, and the university not informing students that an independent study will be required. This is a huge disservice to the students attending Augsburg when they sign up for minors and are only much later informed that the classes they took will now only count as electives—no certificate, no recognition of the extra work put in to achieve a minor. 

Several minors face this problem, including but not limited to the business analytics minor; gender, sexuality, and women’s studies; peace and global studies; youth studies; and worst of all, leadership studies. The leadership studies minor, despite being offered as part of the 2025-26 Augsburg minor catalog, is no longer an active minor as of this year. Business analytics, peace and global studies, and youth studies face the problem of having courses needed for the minor being discontinued. Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies courses, on the other hand, are being infrequently taught, meaning that it can be hard to gain all of the credits needed to successfully complete the minor. 

I am currently attempting to minor in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. However, by the end of this year I will only have taken two classes due to a lack of availability. In the spring 2026 semester, only three classes are being offered: two introduction classes and WST481: Queer/Woman of Color Feminism. This current semester only 5 classes were offered: three intro classes, WST235 (which I am currently taking), WST305: Introduction to Queer Studies, and an independent studies option. All five courses are being taught by Adriane Brown. After this year I will need two more electives, and Margins as Center: Feminist Theory; however, I have no clue when or if this class will ever be offered. My current guess—and that is all it is, a guess—is that this minor is currently being phased out, much like the leadership studies minor last year.  

Augsburg needs to be upfront with students about whether or not minor completion will be possible before their graduation. One of the worst things to happen to a student their final year at Augsburg is to find out that all of the work they put in no longer counts or that the last class they need is not being offered that semester. The minor checklist page also needs to be seriously updated. The leadership studies minor needs to be fully removed, and other minors need to be updated to reflect current classes. Take the youth studies minor, for example; four classes required to complete it are no longer being taught—instead, it just reads “no longer taught; see program director for alternatives.” Why not just find alternative classes to put on the page, or just remove those requirements altogether! Another problem with this minor is that while YST210 and YST320 are listed as available, I am unable to find any YST classes on the registration site. 

This is a major problem here at Augsburg University; students are paying an arm and a leg to receive their degree, and they deserve accurate information when it comes to class and minor availability. The university needs to be more upfront and up-to-date, or else it is just not doing its job.