Alumni & Friends
Bethel Focus
A Magazine of Bethel University
| Trees from Site to be Used at Zoo | Campaign Moves Ahead |
| Love for a School that God is Using |
| Bethel University Receives Major Grant | Responding to a Growing Crisis |
Construction Progresses on University Commons
Darleen and
President George
Brushaber
Former "First Lady" of
Bethel Nancy Lundquist and Jim Spickelmier, former campus pastor, now associate vice president for seminary development
Party attire donned for the Spring Banquet later that evening did not stop students from taking up shovels.
It was an idyllic evening beside Lake Valentine on Saturday, May 19, when Bethel trustees, donors, students and other guests sank the first spades into the earth on the site of what will be University Commons.
At 110,000 square feet, the student center—Bethel's first—is the largest project of Taking the Next Step, a six-year comprehensive resource campaign for Bethel University. The facility is scheduled for occupancy in February 2009, and will feature an expanded Dining Center and retail dining establishment; a larger Campus Store; a multipurpose social event venue; several large lounge areas; headquarters for student organizations; a centralized student life office; and meeting rooms and conversation spaces.
"University Commons will, we believe, become the hub and the pulse of community life at Bethel and will offer a continuing invitation to each of us to tend to our relationships, tend to our minds, and tend to our souls," said outgoing Vice President for Student Life Judy Moseman.
Site Excavation Occupies the Summer
As of the end of August, approximately 32,000 cubic yards of soil had been removed from the construction site. (A cubic yard is three feet by three feet by three feet.) Six thousand cubic yards of concrete will be used to build University Commons, which will be 110,000 square feet in size.
To view construction progress, go to www.bethel.edu/development/campaign and click on University Commons webcam under "Campaign News."
Left: About 200 people assembled for groundbreaking ceremonies on May 19.
Right: Student leaders took the controls of a backhoe and, guided by the construction crew, got a bigger piece of the hillside site.
Retiring Chemistry Professor Gives Matching Gift to Encourage Research
Event Reconnects Chemistry Alumni
Dale StephensBethel Professor of Chemistry Dale Stephens and his wife, Sharon, want to show their continuing support for chemistry at Bethel by donating a $100,000 matching gift to fund a summer research endowment. The gift was announced at the May 2007 Chemistry Connection, an event designed to bring chemistry alumni and friends together and also celebrate Stephens' retirement after nearly 40 years teaching at Bethel.
More than 140 friends of the chemistry department, including alumni from as far away as California and the East Coast, gathered for a day of events that included a brunch, student poster presentations, news and updates from the chemistry department, and a retirement dinner. With a very young faculty—six out of nine professors in the department are 35 or younger—the event gave many alumni the opportunity to connect with faculty they had not met before.
Chemistry Connection is the beginning of an effort on the part of the chemistry department to connect more intentionally with alumni and other friends of the department. A second Chemistry Connection is scheduled for May 10, 2008.
Stephens' gift is a part of the President's Sciences Initiative, a form of special program support under the Taking the Next Step comprehensive resource campaign.
Stephens has challenged alumni and friends to meet his $100,000 matching gift to fund summer research for chemistry and biochemistry students. More than 40 percent of the match has been contributed up to this point by two dedicated friends of Bethel's chemistry program.
The goal is for the chemistry department to have an endowment to fund the research of three faculty and six students every summer. "We want to provide an opportunity that hasn't been there before," says Stephens. "This is an opportunity for the alumni to provide a research possibility for current students that was not available when the alumni were here."
"All of our junior and senior students are involved in research during the school year, but in-depth summer research experiences are important differentiation points for students looking at graduate and medical school or at full-time employment directly after college," says Department Chair Ken Rohly. "While several chemistry faculty and students have been involved in on-campus summer research through external grants, an endowed program will ensure ongoing opportunities for the future."
And it's not just about the big dollars; even if alumni can only give $10 at a time, they're encouraged to do so. "We want all of the alumni to have ownership of this," says Stephens.
Pictures and digital video from the Chemistry Connection are available on the department's site at http://cas.bethel.edu/dept/chemistry/.
More spacious dining areas will be part of University Commons.
Trees from University Commons Site to be Used at Zoo
Recycling has been a way of life at Bethel for a long time. This summer brought a new dimension to the effort as construction began on the new University Commons: recycling trees.
As they began clearing ground for Bethel's University Commons, Mortenson Construction found that 22 oak trees were the perfect fit for the Minnesota Zoo's new Russia's Grizzly Coast project.
"I'd been looking for this type of tree for a year," says Mortenson construction executive Dick Dotterweich, who is working on the new zoo exhibit, which will feature grizzly bears, sea otters, wild boar, and Amur leopards. Trees from Bethel will be placed in the grizzly, leopard, and wild boar portions of the exhibit. The exhibit is slated to open sometime in 2008.
"We were very excited to find that there was a place in need of these trees," says Bruce Kunkel, vice president for campus services. "It is great stewardship of these natural resources to be able to reuse them at the Minnesota Zoo."
Campaign Moves Ahead
Annual Fund: A Way Everyone Can Participate
Bethel University's comprehensive resource campaign, Taking the Next Step, is on pace to meet its $105 million goal. So far, generous friends have given a total of $83 million toward facilities, endowment, program support, and the Annual Fund—gifts that will improve the quality of a Bethel education today and ensure its future.
In the Taking the Next Step campaign so far, there have been 161 gifts of at least $50,000 and 25 of those have been $1 million or more.
The campaign concludes May 31, 2008. How can every friend of Bethel make a difference in its success? Gifts of all sizes are needed for the Annual Fund—and each one counts towards the campaign. Because it bridges the gap between tuition and actual operating costs, the Annual Fund has a direct and immediate impact on the daily lives of students and faculty.
To make a gift to Taking the Next Step, please use the enclosed envelope, or contact the Office of Development at 651.635.8050 or toll-free at 800.255.8706.
Love for a School that God is Using
Monsons Give and Lead in Campaign
David and Mary Jo Monson
photo by Scott Streble
Mary Jo and David Monson, whose five children all attended Bethel, were among guests experiencing a special sense of gratification at the May 19 groundbreaking for Bethel's new University Commons. David has been instrumental in the Taking the Next Step campaign as chair of the steering committee, just as he was in the campaign to build the Carl H. Lundquist Community Life Center and Benson Great Hall in the 1990s.
Mary Jo has a personal interest in University Commons as well. A steward of resources in her own right, she gave $500,000 toward the project, and matched that amount in a gift to Bethel's endowment. "Bethel is a school that God is using to change lives," says Mary Jo, who also works to help orphans in Ukraine and is active on the steering committee of Friends of the BGC History Center. "It is tremendous that all of these students are being educated and going out into the world, holding various positions and being effective. What could be better?"
One of the professions Mary Jo cares deeply about is nursing. She received her own R.N. degree at Mounds Midway, and when that school closed in 1983, it gave seed money to help start a Christian nursing program at Bethel. Mary Jo is now curator of the Mounds-Midway School of Nursing Museum, and is pleased that Mounds Midway alumni still fund nursing scholarships at Bethel. In May, trustees approved the dedication of a room in University Commons to Mary Jo and the historic connection between Mounds Midway and Bethel.
The Monsons have passed along a heritage of commitment to Bethel. David was a trustee from 1988 to 1998, and today their son Randy, in the family insurance business, serves on the Bethel Foundation Board of Governors. "We want to glorify God in our lives," Mary Jo explains. "Bethel is our ideal. It is a fantastic university."
Here is a look at progress on each component (approximate totals):
| Goal | Total today | |||
| Facilities | $55 million | $29 million | ||
| Endowment | $10 million | $7.7 million | ||
| Current Gifts and Grants | ||||
| Annual Fund | $15 million | $14.3 million | ||
| Special Projects | $10 million | $11.8 million | ||
| *Other/Undesignated | $2.2 million | |||
| Planned Gifts | $15 million | $18.1 million | ||
| Total | $105 million | $83.1 million |
* Other projects are not part of a specific goal
Bethel University Receives Major Grant to Prepare More and Better Pastors
by Sandy Clark
You're a bright Bethel student with leadership skills and a heart for serving God. You wonder sometimes whether He might be calling you to full-time pastoral ministry—but you've got more questions than answers: "What would leading a congregation be like? Are my gifts a good fit for the role? How can I best prepare for seminary?"
Thanks to a $689,000 grant from Wisconsin's Kern Family Foundation, Bethel undergraduates will now have an exceptional opportunity to address those questions as participants in a newly created "Kern Pre-Seminary Initiative."
Bethel was one of only three colleges selected nationally by the Foundation to design and pilot programs aimed at increasing the quantity and strengthening the quality of pastoral candidates in terms of their fitness for ministry. Azusa Pacific University in California and Ashland University in Ohio also submitted successful proposals.
Rich Sherry, Ph.D., dean of faculty growth and assessment, led an institutional task force of a dozen faculty and staff in the development of a program that will focus on building the fitness of students for ministry, strengthening the probability of their long-term ministry success, and contributing to their spiritual vitality, leadership skills, and critical thinking ability.
According to Sherry, the plan connects and integrates the resources of academics, campus ministry, and student life. It offers opportunities for personalized guidance and support through on-campus mentors as well as year-long apprenticeship experiences under the direction of local pastors. He notes "Faculty designed the Bethel initiative to encourage students in all undergraduate programs to listen to what the Holy Spirit might be saying about a call to the pastorate."
In the past decade Christian colleges have outstripped enrollment gains in any other sector of higher education since 1990. At the same time, seminary enrollment—a natural next step for students called to pastoral ministry—has generally declined. In contrast to the national trend, Bethel Seminary has shown substantial growth in preparing students at the Master of Divinity level.
The Pre-Seminary Initiative extends the Kern Family Foundation's important partnership with Bethel in strengthening the evangelical church of tomorrow. Since 2002, the Foundation has awarded annually at least five competitive, full-tuition scholarships to qualified Bethel Seminary Master of Divinity students through the Kern Scholars Initiative in an effort to support the preparation of exceptional pastoral candidates.
"There's a growing sense of excitement about the potential we have as a university to make a significant difference in the church of tomorrow," says Bethel President George K. Brushaber. Notes Board of Trustees Chair and National Association of Evangelicals President Leith Anderson, "The health and future of North American churches depends on the quality and effectiveness of the next generation of pastors. We must recruit and educate the very best."
Responding to a Growing Crisis
Rev. Fred Oaks, director of the Kern Family Foundation's Pastoral Ministry Program, talks about the Foundation's rationale for the Pre-Seminary Initiative.
Q. As you look at the seminary and church scene, where are your areas of concern?
In the last few years, the number of students enrolling in seminaries and preparing for the pastorate has not increased, despite significant increases in undergraduate enrollment in evangelical Christian colleges, a likely source for seminary enrollment. We are also concerned about the decline of character and integrity in our national life. We believe that healthy local churches led by capable, committed pastors impact character formation in unique and positive ways.
Q. What prompted the Kern family's generous investment in this initiative?
Like any worthwhile endeavor, pastoral ministry is difficult. It is also a wonderful source of joy and fulfillment in the lives of those whom God has called. We want young adults to have the training experiences and support they need to take the next steps in their Christian journey with confidence.
Q. How would you describe the Foundation's vision and hope for the program?
Pastoral ministry is a high calling demanding our best efforts and significant preparation. Our Pre-Seminary Initiative will make it possible for institutional partners like Bethel University to provide young adults with opportunities to explore God's call to pastoral ministry and respond in faith. We are very excited about the rich variety of methods and approaches our institutional partners will be taking.