A Half-Century of Learning, Laughter and Love: Augustana’s CLC Celebrates 50th Anniversary

The 136-year-old building on Augustana University's campus sits empty, but remnants of what was is very apparent. A large rainbow, once painted by art students, is still half visible on one of its walls. Disney characters adorn wooden boards once used as a safety feature for children peering out of its second floor windows. The names of children, as well as the names of Augustana students who have toured the building, appear below hooks that once held the bags and coats of little kids.

If the walls in Old Main could talk, they would tell you about the learning, laughter and love that took place inside - where the Augustana Day Care Center, now known as the Campus Learning Center (CLC) for Children, began 50 years ago.

Former Director of the Augustana Social Work Program and Associate Professor Emerita of Social Work Dr. Harriet Emily (Johnson) Scott '59, and her husband, Dr. Don Scott '61, former director of financial aid and later vice president of finance and planning, started the Day Care Center on Sept. 15, 1975.

"My husband received phone calls from adult students who had children, asking if they could bring them to class because their day care provider was not available. Don and I visited about asking the vice president of student affairs if we could use unused space on campus to develop a small center," explained Harriet. "When permission was granted for me to explore this possibility further, Old Main Hall became a first-class choice."

After answering an ad in the paper, Joan Weber became the first certified early childhood teacher, and Harriet served as the director for the next 15+ years - half of which she didn't garner a paycheck.

The Day Care Center initially occupied three rooms in Old Main and served students, faculty and staff of Augustana and children within the community, with a separate day care operating for a short time out of what was then Sioux Falls College. Work-study students in the education, nursing and Joint Social Work Programs served as additional staff members, which allowed the day care to maintain favorable student-teacher ratios. Lunch was brought from Augustana's Morrison Commons to both centers, who cared for children two years of age or older. At the time, the center charged parents a mere 50 cents an hour for care.

"I remember some coming into this building and saying, 'Isn't it too bad that the children have to be in such an old building,'" said Harriet. "I justified it a lot. 'No, no. The children can be here. They can paint, do anything they want - spill on the floor and nobody cares.'"

"It was so easy for me, for the work-study students with her (Harriet) at the helm," remembered Weber, who worked at the center for the first two years. "These were good memories for me. I mean, it was so stinkin' fun (working with the children and work-study students)."

Don and Harriet's daughter, Amy Scott-Stoltz '93, who was a fixture at the daycare, and Weber's daughter, Jill Weber Aanenson '93, would often visit while her mother was working.

"We were angels, of course," said Scott-Stoltz, a financial advisor, who double majored in psychology and philosophy at Augustana.

"I remember the tables; drawing on the walls was allowed, storytime. I remember the freedom - going downstairs to get treats out of the fridge. I remember the faces."

From then on, Scott-Stoltz and Weber Aanenson would forever be connected - attending the same elementary, middle and high schools together and then, of course, Augustana. To this day, they still find each other on social media and at reunions.

"The thing you remember is the people; you remember the faces - even a lot of the other people who we went to college with because their parents, of course, were employed here (at Augustana). It's just kind of neat to have that - that's full circle when you start together and you end up together on the finish line," said Weber Aanenson, who majored in engineering physics at Augustana, founded Scientific Consulting, Inc. and serves on the Augustana Board of Trustees (BOT).

According to an article, published by The Augustana Mirror in December 1983, the center temporarily moved to the basement of Charles Orin Solberg Hall due to safety concerns in Old Main. In December 1984, the center moved into a little white house on campus, located at 1225 W. 33rd Street. Shortly after is when Judy Knadel entered the picture.

"My daughter was eight years old, and I wanted her to go to Augustana," said Knadel, the current director of the CLC, who earned a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in psychology from Yankton College in 1972, as well as a teaching certificate and Master of Education in special education (M.Ed. in SPED) from Augustana in 1993.

"I was thinking ahead (in order to get discounted tuition for employees), and I knocked on the door at the Campus Learning Center when it was in the little white house every three months, for I don't know how long, until they had an opening."

Knadel began working at the CLC in 1988 when Roberta Anderson was the director. A couple years later, in the early 1990s, the CLC began operating out of two locations - the little white house with the playground and in the Sunday school rooms at Our Savior's Lutheran (OSL) Church across the street from Augustana's campus.

"Every Friday night, we had to hide everything in the cabinets and put it away so it would be clear for Sunday," recalled Knadel. "That was a chore, but changed when they (OSL) built the new addition."

At approximately the same time that Knadel took over as director in 2001, the CLC consolidated into one location at OSL, where it has been for more than three decades. Today, the CLC has nearly 35 children of toddler and preschool age, along with four teachers.

"I remember a lot of them (the children). And, the professors, of course, had their kids come here (to the CLC) who are going to Augustana now," said Knadel, whose grandchild attended the center as well. "We have a gigantic waiting list and it's because the parents really love it here."

Over the last 37 years, Knadel has seen and experienced a lot of changes in the field, including an increased amount of regulations and a decrease in the number of students working at the center.

"It's harder to get them (work-study students) now, much harder. A lot of them leave to get a better paying part-time job somewhere else, but whether you're in nursing, education or just want to be a good parent, it's great to come here and get experience," noted Knadel. "I tell them, 'You have to let the kids know that you really do care about them and they will care about the rules and do what you want them to because they know you care, too.'"

Knadel cares so much that she still can't imagine retiring.

"I can't imagine not going to work," said Knadel. "I love children. I just need kids in my life."

This past September, during Augustana's homecoming week, the CLC invited family and friends of the CLC to help celebrate its 50th anniversary. The celebration provided an opportunity for those who had a connection to the CLC to reminisce - whether their memories were made at Old Main, OSL or somewhere in between.