Strides During 2005-2006:

College of Arts & Sciences

• A major revision of the general education program resulted in many advancements, including a requirement for entering students to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language and to participate in a cross-cultural experience.
• Academic departments were grouped into larger divisions: Arts and Humanities, Professional Programs, Natural and Behavioral Sciences, and General Education. This reorganization was in response to the faculty growing from 112 to 185 and the number of students from 1,870 to 2,800 since 1994.
• Fifteen exceptional new faculty were hired during the 2005-06 school year to begin teaching in fall 2006.
• Two academic programs, social work and nursing, successfully completed visits for re-accreditation of their programs.
• The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association, the regional accreditor for Bethel, approved Bethel’s plan for the assessment of general education.
  
• Under a Lilly Foundation grant, experienced faculty are partnering with second-year faculty to promote understanding and practice of the pietistic faith tradition of Bethel; to support effective teaching and learning; and to encourage the further integration of faith into scholarship, research, and life.
• Under a Teagle Foundation grant, Bethel collaborated with seven Christian colleges to develop research projects to measure students’ growth in biblical knowledge, moral reasoning, and critical thinking.
• Karen Drake became the third Bethel faculty member in three years to receive a grant from the Fulbright Scholars Program. She will teach and consult at Uganda Christian University (UCU) in 2006-2007, following work there as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in 2005-06.

•  An infant care program was added to the on-campus Child Development Center, where early childhood education majors gain student teaching experience while serving area families.
• Biology student Tyler Kutscheid won two first place awards for ecology research presented at the 2006 Minnesota Academy of Sciences/TriBeta district convention. Bethel students also garnered second and third place awards in competition against students from MSU Mankato, Moorhead State, Macalester, Hamline, St. Thomas, UW-River Falls, and Cornell College (IA).
• In their best season ever, the forensics team won the National Christian College Forensics Invitational overall championship trophy; advanced two individuals to elimination rounds in the National Parliamentary Debate Association tournament; and took three state championships.