National praise keeps pouring on Duluth's College of St. Scholastica

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If your school is on the cover of Sports Illustrated, chances are you just won a national sports championship. If it winds up in a news magazine, however, brace yourself; your school is probably embroiled in controversy.

If your school is on the cover of Sports Illustrated, chances are you just won a national sports championship. If it winds up in a news magazine, however, brace yourself; your school is probably embroiled in controversy.

But not always, especially not when that news magazine is U.S. News & World Report, and certainly not when it’s the U.S. News & World Report’s always-

anticipated annual “Best Colleges” issue.

The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth has been spotlighted by the magazine at least 12 times since 1996, often alongside the University of Minnesota Duluth. The impressive trail of tributes continued this month when a St. Scholastica major, the oldest of its kind in the nation, was among nine listed as “hot” right now by the national publication.

The health information management major has existed at St. Scholastica in one form or another since 1934. The program has evolved with the times and with a commitment to remain on the cutting edge of technology. Its instructors are now considered national leaders in the field.

“They’re unsung heroes,” the college’s Bob Ashenmacher told the News Tribune Opinion page, referring to health information management instructors Kathleen LaTour and Shirley Eichenwald Maki, both of whom are retiring at the end of this academic year.

“St. Scholastica’s (Health Informatics and Information Management) Department is one of those quiet riches that are mostly invisible but that, year after year and decade after decade, make up the true wealth of our community,” Ashenmacher said. “For nearly 80 years this department has been turning out professionals who keep us safer, who make American health care effective and who today are leading the effort to make it more efficient through the electronic health record.”

Duluth’s institutions of higher education have received national attention the past couple of years for athletic achievements on ice, on the gridiron and elsewhere. While taking nothing away from the national championships, all the Northland can be proud of this latest reminder from U.S. News & World Report that excellence in Duluth extends to academics, too. Duluth News Tribune

I'm prejudiced. My Mom's sister, Sister Ann Edward, O.S.B., was a president of St. Scholastica ['the Villa"] back in the 60's. The then Medical Records major attracted students from around the world. It was one of the first such majors in the country.