Capital Law School Dean Named President of Augustana College

Capital University Law School Dean Steven C. Bahls has been named president of Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. Bahls will assume the presidency of Augustana College on July 1, 2003.

Bahls has served as dean of Capital's Law School since 1994. During his tenure, Capital's Law School conducted a successful $12 million campaign to purchase and renovate its permanent home at 303 E. Broad St., formerly the site of the Columbus Mutual Life Insurance Company. During that time, the Law School has added numerous new programs, including the National Center for Adoption Law and Policy, which has helped to focus national attention on the adoption process.

"I am honored and humbled to be selected to become Augustana's next president," Bahls said. "Augustana has a long and distinguished tradition of education in the liberal arts and sciences, and I look forward to building upon that heritage. At the same time, I am grateful to my friends and colleagues at Capital University, who helped to make this past decade the brightest among the Law School's 100 years of legal education."

Bahls will succeed Augustana's outgoing president, Dr. Thomas Tredway, who is retiring this spring after 28 years as president, and 39 years with the college. Tredway steps down as one of the longest-serving college presidents in the nation. Augustana College is a private liberal arts college with an enrollment of 2,150 students. Augustana and Capital are both affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The chair of Augustana's Board of Trustees, Brenda Czajka Barnes, said Bahls was named after a national search to find Tredway's successor.

"We are very excited that Dean Bahls will become the next president of Augustana College. He is a man of tremendous talent and accomplishment, and we all are confident that he will provide great leadership for Augustana," Barnes said. Barnes said the search committee interviewed several prominent educators and recommended Bahls after determining that he has the "combination of qualities essential for the presidency at Augustana: superior intellectual achievement, demonstrated leadership and administrative abilities, and a strong commitment of faith. The search committee and the Board are unanimous in our judgment that Dean Bahls is the right person to lead Augustana to a new level of distinction."

Capital University President Ted Fredrickson praised Bahls for his accomplishments during his tenure as dean of the Law School.

"Capital's Law School has made tremendous strides over the past decade under Dean Bahls' leadership," Fredrickson said. "Steve's appointment as Augustana's president speaks highly of the caliber of academic leaders we have here at Capital. He should be proud of what he accomplished for the Law School and for the university during his tenure, and we wish him all the best as president at our sister school in the ELCA."

Fredrickson said a national search will be conducted to find a new law dean.
Prior to coming to Capital, Bahls was a faculty member and associate dean at the University of Montana School of Law. Bahls has written numerous articles for law reviews, trade magazines and national magazines; he also has authored practice manuals, law reform proposals, statutory annotations and classroom materials. Bahls is a director of the Ohio State Bar Foundation and president of the American Agricultural Law Association. In 1995, he was appointed co-chair of the Ohio Special Commission on the Education of Lawyers. He is a member of the Ohio, Wisconsin, Montana and American Bar Associations, the Association of American Law Schools and the American Law Institute.

Bahls and his wife, Jane, live in Bexley. They have three children: Daniel, 21; Timothy, 19; and Angela, 12.

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