Most don't think of the U.S. as a monetary union, but early on in its history, it was. A new Bloomberg online op-ed by Augustana's Dr. Robert Wright explores how the "dollar zone" survived its first few decades without a major crisis and provided the young republic stability as it began to congeal culturally, economically, politically and militarily.

Third-grade teacher Heather Hemeyer, class of 2008, isn’t just teaching math, reading and spelling at St. Joseph’s Indian School in Chamberlain, S.D. She’s teaching children the skills they need to build a better tomorrow. She's also furthering her own education with Augustana’s Master of Arts in Education Online Degree Program.

Augustana graduates find themselves working in positions all over the globe and recent grad Dirk Tedmon is no exception. Following an internship in the White House, Tedmon, a Communications and Government/International Affairs major, was recently named an analyst for the Office of Presidential Correspondence.

Calling freshmen, sophomores or juniors who are champions of peace and advocates for global issues: proposals for the '12 Nobel Peace Prize Forum Scholars Program are due Monday, Feb. 6.

Dr. Susan S. Hasseler has been named senior vice president for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College. She most recently served at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa. Her appointment marks the first time in Augustana's 151-year history that a woman will serve as Dean.

Read the Daily Republic's feature on "The Village on the Bluff,’ the first book on Mitchell’s Prehistoric Indian Village authored by Ron Robinson, professor emeritus of English and Journalism, and Dr. Adrien Hannus, professor of anthropology and director of Augustana's Archeology Laboratory.

More than 500 students from 62 teams across South Dakota competed in the third annual South Dakota FIRST® LEGO® League Championship on Saturday, Feb. 25, in the Elmen Center. The event featured a special video tribute to Dr. Dan Swets, Kevin Anderson and Joshua Lambrecht, League leaders who were killed in a plane crash late last year.

According to a new report by the South Dakota Board of Regents, the state is now considered to be a net importer of college freshmen. Augustana junior Coral Hanson and President Rob Oliver talked with KSFY-TV about the trend and about why Augustana is an attractive option for so many students from outside the state.

"Determination of the Quark Content of Scalar Mesons Using Hydrodynamical Flow in Heavy Ion Collisions," a paper by Matt Wussow, a senior physics and mathematics major from Eden Prairie, Minn., and Augustana's Dr. Nathan Grau, was recently published in Physical Review C, the nuclear physics journal of the American Physical Society.

"An understanding of the past is crucially important to facing the present and future," says Dr. Adrien Hannus, professor of anthropology and director of Augustana's Archeology Lab. On Sunday, more than 100 students and community members had a chance to do just that as they examined and learned about early stone tools called lithic bifaces and heard from Michael Fosha, assistant state archaeologist.