Clarion 1989-05-12 Vol. 64 No. 14

              BETHEL COLLEGE, ST. PAUL, MN
VOL 64 NO. 14
MAY 12,1989
Spring O' Feast!
by Jason Miller
"Up and at 'em! Rise and shine! It's
SpringFest!" howled the Ramsey County
Sheriffs speaker system; before he left,
our own Glenn Heinsch joined in, yelling
at the top of his lungs for Bethel and all
of the surrounding cities to wake up and
attend.
The festivities began with a parade
which started at the Sports and Recreation Center and finished in Kresge
Courtyard. It held a covered wagon
drawn by horses and a truck with a
puppet show in its bed. A unicyclist and
clowns ran with the Bethel Marching
Band. The body of the parade featured
the king and queen of SpringFest, Princess Kay of the Milky Way, and YMCA
gymnasts.
At noon, the Bethel Connection took
the stage and entertained the crowd
with songs from their tour repertoire,
including
supercatifragilisticexpialidocious.
Throughout the day, visitors were
treated to the various stands and booths
set up by both Bethel groups and outsiders. Bethel cheerleaders conducted a
cake walk and awarded a cake to the
person with a lucky number.
Campus Ministries sponsored a car
wash in the dorm circle to help finance
students involved with ministry. Students aiming for summer missions held
a garage sale a year in the making. The
basketball team sold jerseys across from
the used book sale.
Games were abundant for children, and
included a dunk tank, miniature golf,
covered wagon rides, window painting,
Make it and Take it (a homemade souvenir booth), fishing contest, a pontoon
ride modeled after Huck Finn's, indoor
Olympics, face painting, Jacob's Ladder,
the moon walk and kid's carnival.
And food! Every kind was available: hot
dogs, brats, pop, popcorn, sno-cones,
cotton candy, fruit kabobs (supplied by
the Bethel Concert Band), mini donuts,
pizza, hoagies, mozzarelia sticks,
chicken nuggets...you get the picture.
It is next to impossible to mention all
that went on at this year's SpringFest;
the overall reaction was that the festival
was a lot better than last year's, even if
the weather wasn't.
Entertainment for the older crowd
included juggler Scott Burton, mud volleyball, tug-o-war, a country fashion
show, the Williams family singers and
A youngster tries her hand at window painting.
the Mounds View Jazz Band. Also performing were the Elim Gospel String
Band, the DuckTails (singing oldies with
a twist) and, at three p.m., theatre students performed a special edition of
Quilters: A New Musical which made its
run at the Bethel Theatre earlier this
school year.
The day ended with a concert in the
gym: Norway singer Solvei Larsen
brought her song to the SpringFest
crowd for only five dollars a head.
photo by Paul D. Johnson
It can be said that SpringFest was a success this year. The games, entertainment
and displays were top-notch and
brought many people from the Arden
Hills area and surrounding cities. Even
the cold couldn't keep them away. This
year, the only thing missing was the
helicopter.
More SpringFest
pictures, p. 11.
Johnson and Wood receive distinguished faculty awards
by Julie D. Cook
Faculty Excellence Awards for Distinguished Teaching and Distinguished
Service were announced Wednesday,
May 3. This year's recipients of the
awards were Professor Jim Johnson, the
Distinguished Teaching Award, and Professor Chet Wood, for the Distinguished
Service Award.
The Faculty Awards for Excellence were
developed four years ago by the Priorities Committee, a committee designed
to distinguish and deal with the priorities of the faculty.
Johnson, one of this year's award recipients, and the person to first chair the
Priorities Committee four years ago, said
the committee had decided that one
priority ought to be self-affirmation.
They decided to "...take a look at our
own group and the decide the best way
to confirm each other.... After a lot of
discussion, we decided that was needed
was to make an award for excellence."
The committee agreed that recognition
for service was also important. "So we
finally ended up with an agreement to
give an award in two areas," said Johnson. Two years previous to this year's
award, the two recipients of the award
for Distinguished Teaching was awarded
to Professor Bill Smalley and Professor
Mike Roe. The award for Distinguished
Service has been given to Professor Dick
Peterson and Professor Don Belton.
The purpose of the awards is to recognize the outstanding achievement in
these areas taken to be essential to
one's status as a faculty member at
Bethel College. The awards are not
intended to be a popularity contest. This
is to be a way in which the faculty and
administration honor two of the faculty
each year for showing in exemplary
manner those qualities we all aspire to
develop. This is the goal of the Faculty
Excellence Awards.
"By choosing to honor our faculty and
colleagues, we affirm the worth of our
own calling and celebrate the way in
which two of our number provide inspiring models of what faculty endeavor to
be," said the introduction of the guidelines for nominations sheet.
The Distinguished Teaching Award is
given to a full-time faculty member who
has demonstrated excellence as an
educator and mentor, and, substantially
exemplifies what Soren Kierkegaard
identified in Christ as the paradigm for a
teacher: "Teaching was his labor, and
caring for the learner his rest from
labor." This is the introduction to the
criteria for the Distinguished Teaching
Award.
"The Distinguished Service Award is
given to a full-time faculty member who
has demonstrated outstanding service-
service which is above and beyond the
normal commitments to family, church,
and profession expected of faculty at
Bethel College—which has resulted in
substantial benefit to a group or community on or off campus," says the
introduction for the Distinguished Service Award.
The recipients of the Award will be
recognized at convocations: The Distinguished Teaching Award recipient, at the
fall academic convocation; the Distinguished Service Award recipient at a
convocation devoted to the theme of
social justice.
Professor Thomas Becknell, who serves
as Chair of the Professional Develop
ment Committee, is enthusiastic about
the awards and feels they are necessary.
"Faculty at Bethel are unusually dedicated, and often very fine work goes
unrecognized for too long a time. I think
its important to affirm each other individually because it contributes to the
entire health and well being of the
community. We all like to be surrounded
by people who are doing good work.
We often don't know about that work
unless it is being recognized."
"Because it's faculty recognizing their
colleagues, it's peers affirming their
peers," said Professor Elanor Edmund.
In an announcement to a class about
Johnson's award, Professor Don Belton
said, "That's a pretty important award
because there's no politicalness to it...it
is in fact awarded on the basis of excellence and teaching!"
Professor Becknell said that academic
life is quite solitary. "Periodically
acknowledging that we are a group of
solitary people, but colleagues, is absolutely essential, I think."