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Help Bethel College reach its $1.5 million goal

Remember Bethel College with a year-end gift to help reach the $1.5 million goal.

The goal makes up 12 percent of the operating budget, which includes student and faculty support. Give a gift to Bethel College. Note the college’s receipts will have a new look because of new data software.

We are grateful for your continued financial support and acknowledge the many ways you remember Bethel, said Pam Tieszen, vice president for Institutional Advancement.

In observance of the holidays, you’re invited to view the annual Christmas card and music by the a cappella group Woven. Bethel College wishes you happy holidays!

Five Places of Christmas on Dec. 6

Enjoy a day of Christmas past and present with the 5 Places of Christmas from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6. Beginning in 2003, five arts and culture organizations have joined together on this holiday open house.

The Bethel College Women’s Association will host Christmas Collections in the Luyken Fine Arts Center on the Bethel College campus. The annual bake sale will include the popular homemade candy by the pound, as well as holiday specialties, peppernuts and zwieback. Visitors will enjoy free coffee with the purchase of a fresh, homemade cinnamon roll. In addition to Bethel themed merchandise, the holiday gift shop will feature the new Threshing Stone necklace charm that debuted at Fall Festival.

Local residents’ love of collecting will be on display for the BCWA’s contribution to 5 Places of Christmas.

As part of the annual event, BCWA will present Christmas collections of all kinds.

A second 5 Places of Christmas location on the Bethel campus is Kauffman Museum, at the corner of Main and 27th streets in North Newton, with special features including an indoor scavenger hunt and a talk by museum director Annette LeZotte on Nuns and Nativity Cradles.

5 Places of Christmas locations are open 10 a.m.–4 p.m., and admission to all of them is free.

The Christmas collections, which include Christmas ornaments and other items, will be placed around the circle in Bethel College’s newly renovated and refurbished Luyken Fine Arts Center.

Judy Schrag, Newton, a member of the planning committee for the event, said more than 25 people will bring their collections.

There will be Christmas villages, blown-glass ornaments, snowmen, snow globes, German candle pyramids and star ornaments, among others.

The Five Places of Christmas also includes Carriage Factory Art Gallery, Harvey County Historical Museum and Warkentin House.

For a more complete article, visit http://www.bethelks.edu/news-events/news/post/5096/.

Students compete in regional computer programming contest

Bethel College sent five students in two teams to an annual programming competition, in which one team finished in the top third.

ACM (one of the flagship professional organizations in computer science) hosts the Intercollegiate Computer Programming Contest and IBM sponsors it. There were 16 satellite sites in the North Central North American region of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), with Bethel students going to the Perceptive Software site in Lenexa.

The region includes Iowa, Kansas, Manitoba, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, western Ontario, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

At the Nov. 8 competition, the team Bethel Greys solved two problems in 161 minutes, good for 88th place out of 273 teams competing.

Bethel Greys members were Brendan Bergen, senior from Moundridge, Dylan Jantz, senior from Newton, and Tim Regier, junior from Newton.

Yun Suk Kee, junior from Gwangju, South Korea, and Zach Preheim, sophomore from Peabody, made up the team Bethel Maroons.

Coach was Karl Friesen ’86, adjunct assistant professor of computer science.

In the programming contest, teams of up to three students have five hours and one computer to solve as many problems as they can from the problem set. Each solved problem is worth one point, with ties broken in favor of the team that required the least time to program their solution.

For more of this article, visit http://www.bethelks.edu/news-events/news/post/5100/.

Bethel seeks candidates for vice president for academic affairs

Bethel College has an opening for the vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty.

The application review begins in December with an anticipated July 1, 2015, start date.

The successful candidate will lead and manage all aspects of intellectual life, guiding the academic vision with attention to emerging trends within the industry while cultivating an institution-wide commitment to planning and assessment. He/she will strive for continuous improvement in teaching and scholarship; faculty, staff and student recruitment and retention; and institutional communication; and seek to develop relationships with sister colleges and other strategic partners.

For more information and how to apply, visit http://www.bethelks.edu/jobs/.

Additional openings at Bethel College

Alumni and friends of Bethel who are interested in employment at the college are encouraged to check www.bethelks.edu/jobs/ regularly for up-to-date listings.

Current additional opportunities include serving as the information and media services manager and being a mathematics professor.

Openings are listed as they occur. In addition to detailed descriptions, the listings may include the anticipated beginning date and links to qualifications, duties, responsibilities and departmental information, plus an email link to the person responsible for collecting inquiries or applications.

The installation was the process in the Regier Gallery exhibit

If you stopped by the Regier Gallery in Bethel College’s Luyken Fine Arts Center in November, you might’ve thought there was an installation in process.

Actually, the process was the installation.

Sculptor Christopher Gulick, Wichita, has some of his work on display there, but he also was the artist-in-residence, working in the gallery through Nov. 20.

Gulick set up a model version of his studio, including a workbench with supplies, such as metal rods, wire and sheet metal, a computer for internet access and music via Spotify, and some décor items from the real thing.

The exhibit is called In the Studio LIVE, Part 2, because although a lot of what Gulick does is interactive, this is only the second time he has set up in a gallery in this way (the first was in 2013 at Newman University’s Steckline Gallery in Wichita).

Though Gulick’s last day in the gallery was Nov. 20, the sculptures will be on display through Dec. 5.

For more of this article, visit http://www.bethelks.edu/news-events/news/post/5092/.

Pannabecker wins Distinguished Service Award

Rachel Pannabecker ’80, former director of the Kauffman Museum at Bethel College, was presented a Distinguished Service Award by the Kansas Museums Association, Nov. 7 at the KMA annual conference in Salina.

Pannabecker was recognized for her spirit of collaboration and her ongoing commitment to advancing the mission of museums during her 30-year career in the field.

Her broad interests in and acquaintance with ideas and people in the museum world statewide, nationally and internationally made her a consistent, stable resource and mentor to the staff at Kauffman Museum and colleagues across Kansas.

Kim Legleiter, director at the Stauth Memorial Museum in Montezuma, said, Rachel was very influential in the beginning of my career. She was indispensable as I learned about the logistics and aesthetics of exhibit installation.

Over the years, Rachel has continued to be a source of information on many museum topics, and an important mentor for me.

Under Pannabecker’s leadership, Kauffman Museum created numerous traveling exhibits, bringing high-quality exhibitions to other museums. Pannabecker also fostered collaborative relationships with other local and regional organizations such as Mid-America Arts Alliance and Flint Hills Design of North Newton.

For more of this article, visit http://www.bethelks.edu/news-events/news/post/5098/.

Advent tradition returns Dec. 7

Bethel welcomes the season of Advent with the 29th annual Lighting of the Green.

The community is invited to join Bethel faculty, staff and students at the center of campus at 8 p.m. Dec. 7.

Many Western Christian churches, including the Mennonite Church USA denomination with which Bethel is affiliated, observe this season of preparation for the celebration of the birth of Christ on Dec. 25.

For the Lighting of the Green, most electric lights on campus are turned off . Everyone gathers with unlit candles on the sidewalk around the Green. It takes about 250 people to form a complete circle.

The simple service consists of singing several Christmas carols, listening to the reading of Advent Scripture passages and lighting candles to form a wreath around the Green.

At the end of the service, everyone walks into the middle of the Green with their lights, to create a Christ candle as the lights come closer together, and to sing one or two more carols.

The service lasts about 20 minutes. Afterward, everyone is invited to the cafeteria for cookies and hot drinks.

All are welcome to join in the Lighting of the Green, an activity well-suited to families with children. For more information, call 316-284-5356 or e-mail pgoerzen@bethelks.edu.