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Bethel board approves strategic plan

The Bethel Board of Directors unanimously approved a strategic plan that has been in development since 2014 and is designed to carry the college through 2022.

“The board is appreciative of the hard work of the Strategic Planning Task Force and is excited about new initiatives on the horizon for the college,” Board Chair Heather Esau Zerger ’96 said.

Private colleges in particular are vulnerable in what Bethel President Perry D. White calls “treacherous times in higher education.”

He cited “a tremendous increase in federal regulations, the call to make education more affordable while demanding easily assessed and sometimes rather shallow outcomes and, in Bethel’s case, a state that may seek to remove tax-exempt status for educational institutions.

“This environment makes it necessary to do aggressive and innovative organizational planning, not only to survive but to thrive.”

Work on the Bethel strategic plan began in 2014 with the selection of Credo Higher Education, a consulting firm that specializes in small, church-affiliated institutions.

Credo staff facilitated the process of collecting the ideas of stakeholder groups (faculty, staff, students, administrative team, alumni, Newton-area leaders and board), helped assess the collected data based on national trends and will continue to guide and monitor, through a software program, the first 14 months of plan implementation.

For more of this article, visit the Bethel College website.

New board members appointed, come from western U.S.

Among other actions at its fall meetings Oct. 8–9, the Board of Directors approved the appointments of two new members. Both are Bethel alumni who bring previous experience working at the college.

Lori Schmidt-Harrison ’87, Pasadena, California, is filling an unexpired term representing the Alumni Association. Both she and Wynn Goering ’77, Albuquerque, begin their terms Jan. 1, 2016.

Schmidt-Harrison is owner and president of Lime Twig Group, started in 2000, a marketing firm specializing in the area of higher education in the western United States.

A Hesston native, Schmidt-Harrison graduated from Bethel with a B.A. in speech and drama. She served as an admissions counselor, assistant director of admissions and director of admissions at Bethel between 1987 and 1992…

Goering, a native of Moundridge, has worked since 1997 at the University of New Mexico, where he is currently chief executive officer at UNM West in Rio Rancho, the UNM system’s newest campus…

Goering graduated from Bethel with majors in English and music. He earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English language and literature at the University of Chicago, including a four-year Danforth Fellowship during that time…

For more of this article, visit the Bethel College website.

You can still sign up for the interterm trip to China

Bethel alumni and friends of the college can still sign up to join students and Chris Westover, director of instrumental music, on a trip to China in January 2016. It will be led by experienced tour guides Jim ’57 and Shirley (Suderman) ’57 Goering, North Newton.

The cross-cultural learning experience will focus on arts and music. Participants will visit Bejing, Xi’an, Shanghai and Suzhou, and will see the Central Academy of Drama, National Centre of the Performing Arts, Forbidden City, Tian’anmen Square, Great Wall, 798 Art Zone and Terra Cotta Warriors Museum.

The Goerings have visited China nearly every year since 1980, lived there from 1985–1989, have traveled widely throughout the country, spent 12 summers teaching English to Chinese middle school teachers and hosted 25 tours prior to this one.

The estimated cost, which includes airfare, transportation, lodging, lunches/dinners, fees and tickets, is $3,600 for Bethel students, faculty and staff, and $4,300 for non-students/community members.

For more information, contact Westover at 316-284-5264 or via e-mail.

Join the Whites for dinner at the MEDA convention Nov. 5

President Perry White and Dalene White invite Bethel alumni and friends to go out to dinner with them during the Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) annual convention at Richmond, Va. Those who live in the area, as well as convention participants, are welcome to join in.

The group will meet in the lobby of the Omni Richmond Hotel at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, and go from there, supporting the college by purchasing food and/or drinks on their own.

Fellowship with others and hear what’s happening at BC!

16th-century martyr drama at museum Nov. 15

A new readers theater drama, “I Have Not Forsaken the Word of God,” will be featured at Kauffman Museum’s Sunday-Afternoon-at-the-Museum at 3 p.m. Nov. 15. The presentation is based on the confession of Jacques d’Auchy, whose betrayal and inquisition are recounted in the “Martyrs Mirror.”

The Mirror of the Martyrs Trust commissioned Carrie and Gerald Mast of Bluffton (Ohio) University to write the script to celebrate the purchase of the long-lost etching plate depicting d’Auchy in prison, created by Jan Luyken for the 1685 edition of the “Martyrs Mirror.”

The program is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Rachel Pannabecker via e-mail.

Worship and the Arts Symposium slated for Nov. 21

“Worship and Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us” is the theme for the Worship and the Arts Symposium scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 21, on the Bethel campus.

During the day, keynote speakers Christine Pohl, associate provost and professor of social ethics at Asbury Theological Seminary, and Michael Driscoll, associate professor of liturgical studies and co-director of the master in sacred music program at the University of Notre Dame — along with local resource people — will lead plenary and breakout sessions exploring the intersections of worship and community and the practices that hold people of faith together.

The symposium also features a special exhibition in the Regier Art Gallery on “Beyond the Martys’ Mirror: The Prints of Jan Luyken,” co-curated by Rachel Epp Buller, associate professor of visual art and design, and Bethel senior Alexandra Shoup.

The evening worship service, “In Community We Sing,” will feature Pohl and Driscoll, the Bethel Concert Choir, singers from area churches and congregational singing. The service is free and open to the public. An offering of non-perishable food and funds will be accepted for Harvest of Love.

Cost for the day-long event is $35 per individual for all or part of the symposium. A rate of $20 each applies when three or more individuals from the same congregation register as a group. The price includes Saturday lunch and supper (register no later than Nov. 16 to have the meals included).

The symposium is made possible by the Reimer-Boese Worship and the Arts Endowment. For more information, visit the Bethel College website.

Guest composer at third annual honors band clinic Nov. 23

The Bethel Wind Ensemble will present a concert at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 23, in Memorial Hall, as the culmination of the college’s third annual Honors Band Clinic featuring guest composer David Maslanka, Missoula, Montana. The wind ensemble will perform his “Tears,” “Letter to Martin” and “Give Us This Day” in addition to Leonard Bernstein’s “Prelude, Fugue and Riffs.”

Maslanka has written works for choir, wind ensemble, chamber music group and symphony orchestra. He has published nearly 100 pieces, including nine symphonies (seven of them for concert band), nine concerti, and a full Mass. He is best known for his works for wind ensemble.

Maslanka’s musical style is rhythmically intense and complex, but also highly tonal and melodically-oriented. His pieces have been performed around the world.

The concert is free and open to the public.

Dec. 1 is this year’s worldwide Giving Tuesday. Bethel College encourages you to make your year-end gift early, on the Bethel College website.

According to the #GivingTuesday website, “#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration. Observed on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.

“Since its inaugural year in 2012, #GivingTuesday has become a movement that celebrates and supports giving and philanthropy with events throughout the year and a growing catalog of resources.”

Avoid the holiday rush and hassle. Donate to Bethel Dec. 1!

Future Fall Fests

Since 1971, Bethel College has held an annual Fall Festival — its own special version of homecoming — to celebrate education, diverse cultural traditions, special foods, faith, fine arts, sports, crafts, community and friendship.

Since fall 1987, the special weekend has begun with Taste of Newton downtown on a Thursday evening, continued with special events at the college on Friday, peaked with the Fall Fest fair and activities across campus on Saturday, and ended with worship and the final performance of a Fall Fest stage production on Sunday.

Upcoming dates for Saturday’s annual Fall Festival fair on campus are:

  • Oct. 1, 2016
  • Oct. 14, 2017
  • Oct. 6, 2018
  • Oct. 5, 2019
  • Oct. 10, 2020

with Taste of Newton downtown the Thursday before.

The dates are determined by the first home football game in October, as scheduled by the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (available online).