Clarion 1998-12-09 Vol. 74 No. 07

              Issues:
pages 10 & 11
An in-depth look at Y2K and how it
could affect Bethel and society as a
whole.
Sports:
page 14
Variety:
page 6
Junior Kevin Adam scores a hat
trick against St. Mary's.
A look at Bethel alumni who have
returned to teach at Bethel.
~~~
Wednesday, December 9,1998
NEWSPAPER OF BETHEL COLLEGE
Volume 74 • Number 7
Closed classes:
first-years frustrated
By John Groh
StaffWriter
Staring at the list of open
courses by the Registrar's office,
first-year student Ben Leonard
began to lose hope that he would
find classes to fit his schedule and
allow him to graduate in four
years..
"There are a lot of students
here this year so [classes] are going to close faster and be a little
more crowded." said Registrar,
Chet Duck. "Registration actually
went quite smooth for us, but we
arc aware that there were a lot of
students who were closed out of
classes."
During ihe lasl days of registration, large groups of first-year
students were told that the classes
ihey had hoped to take were full.
These students criticized the col
lege saying there weren't enough
classes for them to take. The administration says many students
came to the registration table
without alternate plans.
"The process is the same as
it has been for years,"' said Duck.
"[This year] they didn't seem to
know to be prepared to deal with
that when il came down lo it;
worse than ever before." Duck
also said this year, first-year students seemed lo be fairly, inflexible regarding what they were going to take in the spring semester.
Studenls disagree.
"We didn't have any other
options." said first-year student
Marissa McLaren. After going
through the registration line six
times, McLaren got enough
classes to fill her schedule. While
continued on page 2
Clarion/Photo by Judah Gibson
This year's Festival of Christmas focused on the different aspects of God by exploring the many names
for God through music and scripture. Over 7,000 people attended four performances. More than 300
student musicians were involved in this year's production.
Professor earns grant for multi-racial church research
By Erica Ekbom
StaffWriter
Associate professor of Anthropology and Sociology,
Michael Emerson, received a
$500,000 grant for multi-racial
church research. Emerson and his
staff will publish their findings
after their study is completed.
' The study will be funded by
a grant from the Lily Endowment
Inc., and will attempt to "find out
what goes on in a multi-racial
congregation in hope to unify the
church," said Emerson.
Emerson expects this grant
to benefit Bethel.
"It will provide employment opportunities for many
Bethel students," he said. "Information needs to be gathered and
interviews need to be conducted."
According lo Emerson, this
research is important because it
is original. No research has been
conducted on this topic even
though racial diversity in American churches continues to grow.
Emerson believes multi-racial
congregations can teach us how
to build unity in our society while
reducing discrimination and inequality.
The study will compare
unified churches to mixed race
churches. The national grant will
consist of a telephone survey, a
survey of congregations and a
field study. The field study in
cludes a two-week stop in four
randomly selected metro areas.
Emerson and his staff will consider the history of different
churches and interview congregation members. "We hope to understand better how God works in
the social realm," said Emerson.
Many people, like Instructor of Biblical and Theological
Studies, Linnca Winquist, recognize thai Sunday morning is one
of the most segregated times
American society even though
"the gospel impels us
to...integrate."
"We hope to discover if it
is what God desires or if il is what
people desire because il's the easiest thing," Emerson said.
The study will take approximately two years. Publishing the results will lake one additional year. A web page w ill also
be created to display Ihe collected
data.
PACE in San Diego may slow to a halt
Board of Directors to look at closing program
By James C. Pittman
StaffWriter
The seven-year-old Program in Adult College Education
(PACE) program at Bethel's San
Diego campus may soon close its
doors, affecting 56 adult students.
The final decision will be made
in January by the Bethel Board of
Directors based on low admissions figures and insufficient
space.
PACE began at Ihe West
seminary campus in 1991 offer
ing one major in Organizational
Studies for working adult students.
Provost Jay Barnes stated
that enrollment was always less
than expected, despite his efforts
since 1995 to increase awareness
of the programs in the San Diego
area. "We didn't have the enrollment, we didn't do as much marketing out there as we needed to
do [and] we didn't have as much
admissions staff support as we
probably needed to do." Promotion proved difficult, Barnes
"Some were pretty angry
the way the decisions
were made... in a non-
Christian way. Not in the
way that they're being
taught to work within an
organization, really
listening to each other's
voices."
-Mariel Voth, PACE
Director in San Diego
noted, as Bethel is a popular name
in Minnesota but not in San Diego.
Expansion of Seminary
West will eliminate the space currently being utilized by the PACE
program, leaving ihe Board of Directors to decide whether to acquire additional space or abolish
.the program. "The final nail isn't
in the coffin yet." said Barnes.
If we have the cost of developing our own rental facilities or something, that adds to our
overhead," Barnes stated. "It's not
■
to say that we didn't have good
people teaching in it; it's not to
say that the students who came
through weren't served well, because we think they were," said
Barnes.
Facing Fall 1998 with low
enrollment figures for PACE, the
Board of Directors met in June to
discuss possible resuscitation of
the program. Adding a Master's
program or a business PACE program were also discussed. As
continued on page 2