Bethel Focus                                                                                      A Magazine for Alumni & Friends of Bethel University

IN FOCUS

Just the same as never before.

Many of you who are Bethel alumni will remember that odd slogan emblazoned on banners and buttons back in 1985. It was our theme that year, expressing our determination to maintain the mission, core values, traditions, and ethos that have characterized Bethel for more than a century and a quarter. Bethel was and is and will be just the same as never before.

The slogan also sought to convey the excitement, energy, and expanding vision that have been Bethel hallmarks throughout its history. Bethel's leaders across all of its decades have "read the times" and perceived emerging opportunities to serve the needs of our constituencies with Christ-centered education. In 1871 Bethel began as a seminary to prepare clergy for ministry to Scandinavian immigrant communities, soon adding vocational and citizenship classes for the newcomers and then a secondary level academy. Next came a school for lay workers in the church and then a junior college. Following World War II, returning veterans, assisted by the GI Bill, sought full baccalaureate education and Bethel was transformed into a liberal arts college. But Bethel was just the same as never before.By the late 1960s Bethel's expanding programs, growing student body, and gathering faculty/scholars necessitated construction of a brand new campus in Arden Hills. We have been building that campus ever since, adding a new facility every 18 months on the average. On the drawing boards are another residence hall and a wonderful new student center on the shores of Lake Valentine and other projects to serve students better. But as the campus grows, it will be just the same as never before.

Meanwhile, the seminary has added many new graduate professional degrees, including the doctor of ministry, and opened a second campus in San Diego. More recently, it extended its programs to four major cities on the eastern seaboard and created an extensive "virtual seminary" to offer technology-mediated degrees.

From the mid 1970s Bethel College gained great strength academically, adding many new majors and departments. In the 1980s, Bethel established its "PACE" degree completion program for working adults. Soon we began to offer graduate courses; now nine master's degrees are available in several fields through our Center for Graduate and Continuing Studies (CGCS). This spring we launch Bethel College's first doctoral program, the Ed.D. in educational administration. Yet, even with all these changes, the first graduates to earn the baccalaureate from Bethel College in 1949 will still clearly recognize that it is just the same as never before.

Bethel has always been a growing, dynamic, changing institution, faithful to its mission and values, and eager to serve in new ways. That requires new structures and new patterns of governance to fulfill our mission in the most effective ways. Thus at its most recent meeting the Board of Trustees took steps to organize Bethel University internally along the lines of a university. At the board's direction we will continue to make changes necessary to optimize the support services of central administration and to give necessary initiative and autonomy to component schools of the "university."

Change is a fact of life for educational institutions as much as for individuals. Dynamic schools like Bethel are characterized by continuous self-examination and renewal. Purposeful change and planned improvements have been implemented since the school first opened its doors. But regardless of the times, our commitment to Bethel's historic principles and purposes has remained unshakable.

Just the same as never before. That's Bethel!

George K. Brushaber
President
Bethel University Bethel