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Fall Festival to feature facilities, social work celebration

The spotlight will be on additions and major renovations in and around Bethel College’s Fine Arts Center (FAC) during this year’s Fall Festival, Oct. 16-19, with most events Oct. 18 on campus.

At 9 a.m. Oct. 18, there will be a rededication of the FAC, which will include unveiling the new name for the facility.

The short ceremony will take place on the plaza in front of the FAC (Krehbiel Auditorium inside, if rain) and will include formal recognition of the brand-new Robert W. Regier Art Gallery, in the same area as the former FAC Gallery, and the Molex Patio outside the gallery.

There are new finishes and furnishings throughout the common spaces in the building, displays highlighting Bethel’s rich history in theater, music and forensics, and a special area dedicated to emeritus fine arts faculty.

There also are several performances scheduled on the Prairie Sky Stage, the new outdoor stage on the northwest side of the FAC. (See story below.)

As always, Taste of Newton downtown is the first major event of Fall Festival, from 6-9 p.m. Oct. 16, featuring a wide variety of food from local restaurants, and church and civic groups, plus live entertainment.

For more of this article, visit http://www.bethelks.edu/news-events/news/post/5062/.

Prairie Sky Stage entertainment new to Fall Fest

New to Fall Festival this year is entertainment by students on the Prairie Sky Stage, which is outside on the northwest corner of the Fine Arts Center.

The schedule is:

  • 10–10:20 a.m. — Bethel College Poetry Reading. Siobhan Scarry, visiting professor of literary studies, will read from her new book of poetry, “Pilgrimly,” and students also will read their work.
  • 11–11:20 a.m. — blues performed by Leland Brown of Galveston, Texas, on vocals and James Goerzen of Goessel on guitar
  • 11:20–11:40 a.m. — Woven, Bethel’s women’s a cappella group
  • 11:40 a.m.–noon — Open Road, Bethel’s men’s a capella group

Women’s Association selling new items at Fall Fest this year

The Bethel College Women’s Association (BCWA) will host the Market on the Green at Bethel College Fall Fest on Saturday, Oct. 18.

The market will be open from 8:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and will be on the northwest side of the Green. For sale will be numerous homemade items, such as zwieback, noodles, poppy seed rolls, bulk poppyseed, peppernuts, bread, cookies, pies and more.

New this year are Bethel College totebags and a jewelry item of a Bethel College icon. Also available will be A BC ABC Book (a limerick book of Bethel life and lore), picnic baskets, T-shirts, stadium seats, Goerz House Lithuanian candle houses, cookbooks and the CD Nights of Wonder, which features music selections from previous BC Christmas Fests.

Come check out the delicious food items and start your Christmas shopping early!

BCWA also hosts the Schmeck House, where fresh New Year’s cookies and coffee are sold; it will be on the west edge of the Green. Then enjoy a bowl of beef borscht and a zwieback for lunch at the BCWA tent, just west of the Administration Building.

Disc golf course to be ready for viewing at Fall Fest

The Thresher National Disc Golf Course will be installed and ready for viewing during Fall Fest, which is Oct. 16–19.

The nine-hole disc golf course was developed within the residential area on the east side of campus, as well as north of Kidron-Martin Canal.

Eric Preheim, a junior from Georgia, spearheaded the project. He founded the Bethel College Disc Golf Club in fall 2003, and 40 students immediately joined.

Dart for Art during Fall Fest

A run is returning to Bethel College’s Fall Fest this year.

Run, walk, skip or leap for two miles on the north and east sides of campus to support arts education at the Bethel College Academy of Performing Arts (BCAPA). All income from this runner-, walker- and stroller-friendly race goes to support programing and scholarships at BCAPA.

Enjoy live musicians and dancers along the way. All participants receive a T-shirt, and prizes are available for those who place first, second and third in their category. The dart starts at the stadium, where participants will take two laps around the track, go south on the west side of Goering Hall and then head east past the tennis courts toward the Sand Creek Trail. Participants will continue east for a bit (on the paved part of the trail) and then south to 24th Street, before heading north back on the same path to the trail head, west past the tennis courts. The last stretch is going north on the west side of the tennis courts and finally back to the stadium.

Early registration cost (form received or postmarked no later than Saturday, Oct. 4) is $18 for adults and $12 for children ages 13 and younger. Cost to register at Mojo’s Coffee Bar 5–7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17, or 8:30–9:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 18, is $22 for adults and $15 for children. Packets can be picked up from 5–7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17, at Mojo’s Coffee Bar or 8:30–9:30 a.m. Saturday at the event.

For a registration form, stop by Thresher Bookstore in Schultz Student Center on campus, open 8 a.m.–5 p.m. weekdays. For a form or more information, email bcapa@bethelks.edu or phone 316-283-4902. If you’re unable to join the race, but you want to donate, send donations to Bethel College Academy of Performing Arts, 400 S. Main St., Suite 110, Newton, KS 67114.

This is not a certified race but a family-friendly fun run for all to enjoy.

Global climate change exhibit open at Kauffman Museum

A new special exhibit at Kauffman Museum explores the impact of global climate change and highlights research on renewable energy sources in the state of Kansas.

Climate and Energy Central: Doing Science in Kansas is open through Jan. 18, 2015.

Two lectures are being conducted in conjunction with the exhibit. Thad Miller ’01 of Lincoln, Nebraska-based LI-COR Biosciences will speak on Measuring the Carbon Cycle 101 at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 18 (as part of Fall Festival). John Harrington, professor of geography at Kansas State University, will present Global Climate Change: What it Might Mean for Kansas at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9.

Both lectures will be at Kauffman Museum, and are free and open to the public.

For more information, visit http://www.bethelks.edu/news-events/news/post/5060/.

Student illustrates children’s book about Big Brutus

Jessie Pohl, Bethel College senior art major from Moundridge, has a second book to her credit.

Pohl is the illustrator of Big Brutus, the Kansas Coal Shovel, a new children’s book by Brenda Eck of Goddard, in collaboration with her cousin, Marilyn Kuhlman of Maize.

Rowe Publishing of Stockton published Big Brutus and the book is available on its website, www.rowepub.com, as well as through amazon.com.

Pohl’s first illustrating project was a book of her father, Dan Pohl’s, poetry, Autochthonous: Found in Place, published last spring. The two are working on Dan Pohl’s second poetry collection.

That wasn’t how Eck and Kuhlman found her, however.

We had been looking for an illustrator, Kuhlman said. It was hard. We tried a couple of people we knew, but they were too busy, and it didn’t work out. We interviewed a commercial artist, but it just wasn’t right.

We decided to start calling colleges.

Kuhlman had attended Bethel a number of years ago for her teaching recertification, so she knew the campus and found Bethel to be a nice school. I was impressed with the young people here.

For more of this article, visit http://www.bethelks.edu/news-events/news/post/5057/.

College seeks to build financial strength

Alumni and friends are asked to consider how they might participate in Bethel’s strategic priorities as the Advancement/Development/Alumni Team strives toward the $1.5 million Bethel Fund goal for fiscal year 2014–15.

One of Bethel’s strategic priorities is building the college’s financial strength to secure its future viability. Bethel is looking for new ways to engage donors, alumni and friends, and we want your feedback. Please email ptieszen@bethelks.edu with suggestions.

Go to the Bethel website page Friends and Donors at www.bethelks.edu to give a gift, or use the business reply envelope in the Annual Report to mail in a donation.

Bethel welcomes comments before HLC visit

Bethel College is seeking comments from the public about the college in preparation for its periodic evaluation by its regional accrediting agency. The college will host a visit Nov. 10–11 with a team representing the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association. Bethel College has been accredited by the commission since 1938. The team will review the institution’s ongoing ability to meet the commission’s criteria for accreditation.

The public is invited to submit comments regarding the college to: Third Party Comment on Bethel College, The Higher Learning Commission, 230 South LaSalle Street, Suite 7-500, Chicago, IL 60604-1411.

The public also may submit comments on the commission’s Web site at www.ncahlc.org. Comments must address substantive matters related to the quality of the institution or its academic programs. Comments must be in writing.

All comments must be received by Oct. 10.

Admissions department to attend college fairs

The Admissions Department will be at the following college planning conferences and other events in October. Please bring any students interested in attending Bethel College to these events.

1–3:30 p.m. Oct. 2
Chapman High School
9:30–10:30 a.m. Oct. 2
Marysville High School
9–10:30 a.m. Oct. 6
Winfield High School
1:15–2:30 p.m. Oct. 6
Butler Community College in El Dorado
6–8 p.m. Oct. 6
Futures Fair, Koch Arena in Wichita
9–10:30 p.m. Oct. 8
Newton High School
1:30–3 p.m. Oct. 8
McPherson High School
1–3 p.m. Oct. 9
Topeka College and Career Fair, Expo Center
9–10:30 a.m. Oct. 13
Manhattan High School
6:30–8 p.m. Oct. 13
KC Metro College Expo, Overland Park Convention Center
2:30–3:30 p.m. Oct. 14
Junction City High School
6:30–8 p.m. Oct. 14
Lawrence College Planning Conference, Free State High School
9–11 a.m. Oct. 15
Ottawa High School
1–2:30 p.m. Oct. 15
Osawatomie High School
6:30–8:30 p.m. Oct. 15
Shawnee Mission East High School
9:30–10:30 a.m. Oct. 16
Highland Community College
5:30–7 p.m. Oct. 16
Kansas City Kansas Public Schools College Night, KCKPS Central Office
9:15–10:55 a.m. Oct. 20
Hutchinson High School
1:30–2:30 p.m. Oct. 20
Great Bend High School
9:50–11:10 a.m. Oct. 21
Russell High School
2–3:05 p.m. Oct. 21
Hays High School
9:15–10:30 a.m. Oct. 22
Smith Center High School
2:30–3:30 p.m. Oct. 22
Norton Community High School
9–10:15 a.m. Oct. 23
Colby Community College
9:30–11 a.m. Oct. 27
Labette Community College
1–2:30 p.m. Oct. 27
Pittsburg High School
9–10:30 a.m. Oct. 28
Independence Community College
1–2 p.m. Oct. 29
Allen Community College
6:30–8 p.m. Oct. 29
Leavenworth High School
9–11 a.m. Oct. 30
Emporia High School

Boyd family donates eight prints to Bethel

The late Wichita teacher and printmaker John Boyd’s work has been displayed in Bethel College’s art gallery several times, and now some of that work has a permanent home at Bethel.

Lorraine Boyd and her daughters, Alice and Sara, have donated eight of John Boyd’s prints, part of the exhibit Five Decades of Fun—The Artwork of John David Boyd that closed recently after a month in Bethel’s Regier Art Gallery in the Fine Arts Center (FAC).

The former FAC Gallery was renamed this summer in honor of Bethel Professor Emeritus of Art Bob Regier ’52, North Newton. The Boyd exhibit was the first in the newly and extensively renovated space—fittingly so, as Boyd and Regier were good friends.

John [Boyd], who passed away two years ago, was a printmaking professor at WSU for many years and had a profound influence on his students and on printmakers near and far, said Rachel Epp Buller ’96, Bethel assistant professor of art, gallery coordinator and herself a printmaker. At the closing reception for the exhibit Sept. 18, we learned that John’s family wished to donate half of the works on display to the college.

Most of the rest of the pieces in the exhibit were already in private collections.

For more of this article, visit http://www.bethelks.edu/news-events/news/post/5061/.

Jackson to speak at museum dinner Nov. 1

Kauffman Museum’s annual Living Endowment Dinner will be from 6:30–9:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1.

The featured speaker is Wes Jackson, president, The Land Institute, Salina, who will discuss Ecological Intensification with New Hardware. Jackson has been involved with science in Kansas since the 1950s when he studied biology at Kansas Wesleyan University. Subsequent degrees in botany and genetics led him to university teaching positions in Kansas and California, but eventually he returned to central Kansas where he founded The Land Institute in 1976.

Jackson is the author of many books and papers, the recipient of numerous awards, and was named by Smithsonian as one of 35 Who Made a Difference. The work of The Land Institute in sustainable agricultural has been featured extensively in the popular media, including National Geographic, Time and the MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour.

Tickets are $125 per person. Please RSVP no later than Oct. 27 to Kauffman Museum, Bethel College, 300 E. 27th St., North Newton, KS 67117. For more information, call the museum at (316) 283-1612.